Chapter One
"Come on, come on…" Nora Baker desperately muttered, willing the elevator to move faster. She breathed deeply as the doors opened, as she practically ran to the doctor waiting at the nurses' station. "Dr Harrison!"
"Nora, I'm sorry." The older man said, shaking his bowed head. The young woman looked almost confused, but she knew exactly what he had meant.
"What? No! NO!" Nora's breathing became rapid as she sprinted away, up a corridor that she did not recognise. She ran past doctors, nurses and patients through several doorways and stopped in the middle of another long corridor. The blonde leaned back against a sterile white wall, sliding down it and drawing her knees as close to her chest as possible. It was a long time before she lifted her head out of her hands and wiped her tears away, blinking as Dr Harrison approached her and sat on the linoleum floor two feet away from her. They sat in silence for a while, as many people passed, wondering why a fifty year old greying doctor was sombrely sat on a hospital floor with a distraught looking young woman.
Nora had known Dr Harrison for little over two years. He was the father of Emily, one of her closest friends, and had treated her brothers, Jake and Mike, and her sister, Sarah, for injuries many times since they moved to Evanston almost a year ago. Her parents knew Dr Harrison-or Jack, as he requested to be known to them- fairly well, beginning their meetings when Mike had tried to bungee jump out of the window less than a month after they had moved into their house. Jack insisted that the Bakers were his 'best customers', noting that he had never seen three accident prone children as often as he saw Sarah, Jake and Mike.
"It's alright, Nora." The man said simply, knowing that it was going to be a long road, and wishing it did not have to happen, hoping that it was a dream of his, or perhaps a nightmare.
"What am I going to say? What am I going to tell them?" Nora cried, laying her head back against the wall. "I can't do this!"
"You're going to tell them the truth. That it's going to be okay, and that you're going to get through it together."
"What if I can't? How am I supposed to handle this?!"
"With the kind of courage and compassion that your parents instilled in you. That's the kind of person they need right now. You are capable of handling this situation, terrible and agonising it is. It's okay to be sad and it's okay to feel like you can't handle it. But it's not okay to let this change who you are. I know you, Nora, I have every faith that you can get through this." Dr Harrison put his hand on Nora's shoulder, taking a deep breath. "I don't know why things like this happen. They happen every day. But what I do know is that people in your situation come out stronger. This should not have happened, but it's going to be okay. Trust me."
Nora said nothing, but nodded.
"Thank you, Dr Harrison." She said, standing up and walking back down the corridor, where she knew the world was still going. There were several things that Nora knew she must take care of, and she knew that the feelings inside of her, and the fractured pieces of her soul must wait, as she desperately tried to make it okay for those around her, before she could pick up the fragments of her heart and comprehend what had just happened for herself.
It's going to be okay, Nora thought, trying to convince herself in vain. The woman closed her eyes, letting the darkness overtake the awful sights of the hospital around her as she lay her forehead against the wall. She finally acknowledged the warm tears that had again started to run down her cheeks, and forced herself to stop crying. Be strong for them, Nora, they need you. Just breath.
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