Chapter 44 Reflections
September – Age 20 – Fall Sohpmore year
FLASHBACK
"Hey Mom, what's up?" Finn greeted as he answered his phone.
"Honey, where are you?" Carol asked, clearly upset by the tone of her voice.
"I'm home," he replied warily, a million different situations running wildly through his head. "What's wrong?" Santana came over to sit by him on the couch.
"Oh sweetheart, I'm at the hospital," Carol began, he could practically hear the tears falling down her face. "Burt had a heart attack." Finn dropped the phone out of shock. He couldn't move. Santana picked up the phone, not sure how to handle what she wasn't sure was actually going on.
"Carol, what's going on? Finn dropped the phone," Santana asked, quite frantic in her own right.
"Burt had a heart attack at work today," Carol said. Santana felt all her breath leave and tears came to her eyes. "He just keeled over after an oil change. Bill called 911 as soon as it happened, and the ambulance was headed back to the station when they got the call, so they were able to get there quicker."
"How bad is it?" Santana's mind was racing with all the possibilities of what the effects could be. Her class lectures were flying by her minds' eye.
"He's in a recovery room, the echo showed some damage but non-life threatening," she explained. "Protein levels indicate a mild heart attack. He was very lucky."
"Thank God" she sighed. "Does Kurt know?"
"He and Dave are flying in tonight," Carol replied.
"We're going to be there tonight. I'm going to e-mail our professors and going to pack for a long weekend," Santana said firmly.
"I'll go put the light on for you guys," Carol replied. "I have to go home to pack an overnight bag."
"We'll see you in a few hours."
END FLASHBACK
That had been two weeks ago. Finn and Santana had stayed in Lima that weekend. Burt woke up Friday morning and was moved to a regular room. Finn cried himself to sleep every night. Santana wasn't doing much better. Burt had been her parental rock since her parents pretty much dropped her. But Burt was able to convince them to go back to classes for Monday. Kurt and Dave were sent on their way as well. They had really drawn comfort from each other. Charlotte waned to sleep in Nana's bed to keep her company, so all four teenagers piled on to the California king mattress down in Kurt's basement room. Santana and Kurt snuggled into each other with Dave and Finn spooning from the outside. It was a harsh reality check for the four teenagers since they hadn't really known anyone who could have died like this. Kurt was hit particularly hard because his mother had already died when he was only six years old, from cancer. He wasn't prepared to lose his only blood parent yet.
Burt was now recovering at home. He wasn't allowed to go back to work for a month, and even then he wasn't allowed to do big projects for at least 6 months. He really wasn't super thrilled about not working, but he knew it was necessary to get better. He was trying to be a good patient for Carol, but he was still stubborn and that wasn't really going to change any time soon. Carol had a difficult time being a wife as well as a nurse at home, so much so that she threatened to get a home health aide to come and invade his privacy if he didn't let her help him out. He conceded because he wasn't about to let a stranger come up in his business.
Finn was on the verge of a breakdown before he saw a school therapist. Ms. Pillsbury was the one who made him make an appointment. He was spiraling and Santana wasn't much better. It was much needed thing. Finn and Santana both had appointments with the therapist, and had one session a week together. Charlotte started for a few hours at the day care. Finn really wasn't ready but he knew she would have to go to school one day, so this few hours was a nice start. He needed to deal with his step father leaving him like his father did, even though Finn never really knew Christopher. He was very use to having a father figure back in his life that this was a very real shock that life was fragile and that could be gone at any minute.
The therapy was just what they needed, as individuals and couples. Santana got all the feelings about her parent's abandonment and her new family and Burt's health scare. And although she loved it, being essentially Charlotte's mother was draining. Finn was able to vent about the Quinn business and Burt and even jumping into living with Santana. Their catharsis had begun. They had their separate sessions two different days a week, and every other week they had a joint session where they learned effective communication skills, and how to handle situations like this again if it came up. Their therapist, Helen Hileaha, was a wonderful woman who was empathetic and gave them their own homework to work on in between sessions. They really had to think through their feelings and truly be able to communicate these with each other. Their healing was on the way, and they were gaining a whole new set of skills.