Chapter 17
Nearly four hours after Will's arrival at the hospital, a rather tired-looking doctor entered the waiting room.
"Family of William Turner?"
Bill glanced around the room at Elizabeth, Jack, and Ana. "Yes."
The doctor looked around as well, somewhat disbelieving. "All of you?"
"Yes," Jack said firmly.
"All right, fair enough," the man said. "My name is Dr. Hoo – "
If she hadn't been so worried, Elizabeth would have laughed. "Are you serious?" she asked, speaking for the first time in an hour.
The doctor nodded, smiling slightly. "Quite. And don't worry, I get that all the time. But my name is indeed Dr. Hoo, and I've been treating William since his arrival."
"Word of advice, mate," Jack interrupted. "Don' ever let 'im 'ear yeh call 'im William. 'is name is Will."
Hoo nodded agreeably. "All right, I've been treating Will since his arrival." He paused briefly, looking around at them all. "The surgery went much better than expected. However, we do have some concerns about the amount of blood loss he experienced. Rapid blood loss in too great an amount can cause a kind of shock that often proves difficult to overcome, even if the blood loss itself is survivable."
"So what does that mean for Will?" Bill asked quietly.
Hoo shook his head. "We can't be sure just yet. We gave him blood transfusions. Now all we can do is monitor his condition to make sure his body recovers from the initial shock."
"Can we see him?" Elizabeth asked.
"They're moving him to a recovery room just down the hall now; room 213, I believe. Once he's situated, I'll see what I can do. Likely they'll let just one or two of you back at a time, so decide who will go – "
He stopped suddenly as there was a frantic flurry of sound and motion from the nurse's station just down the hall. A nurse appeared in the doorway behind him, and he stepped outside to talk to her. Elizabeth and Bill, who were closest to the door, heard what she said.
"It's room 213, doctor!"
Elizabeth's eyes widened, and she grabbed Bill's arm with a grip so strong it would have hurt if he had been aware of anything more than the sound of his own heart pounding in his ears.
As Dr. Hoo followed the nurse, Elizabeth, Bill, Jack, and Ana piled out of the room and into the hallway, peering at the nurse's station, trying to make out what was happening. One of the monitors in the bank above the bank above the desks was displaying a row of frantic, arrhythmic peaks. Then, as they watched, the spikes suddenly vanished, leaving nothing but a flat, unbroken line.
"Can – can anyone see what room that's monitoring?" Ana asked in a small voice.
"Yeah," Elizabeth whispered, gripping Bill's arm even harder. "It's 213."
It had taken her a long moment to process what she was seeing. A flatline. A flatline means the heart's stopped. There's no pulse… no life… Oh God, his heart's stopped. She shivered violently. This isn't happening. It can't be happening. It can't be Will in that room…
This wasn't supposed to happen. Things weren't supposed to be this way. I was going to marry that boy. He said he wanted to get married, he wanted a family. We were going to get married and have children, and they were going to look just like him, all big brown eyes and curly hair…
He's going to be okay. He has to be. He had so survive this so I can marry him. I can't spend my life with anyone but him. He's everything to me. I love him.
Not my son. It was all he could think at first, the words running through his mind over and over. Not my son. Not my son.
He's barely more than a kid. He has to marry Elizabeth and have kids of his own and grow up with his family.
He's only twenty-five. He's strong. He can make it through this. Please, God, let him make it through this. Don't take my boy. Not my little boy. Not my son.
Jack stared, unblinking, at the line on the monitor, the words he had spoken earlier in the evening echoing through his mind: 'e's prob'ly th' best friend any man could ever 'ave. So yeah, we're brothers. Or near enough, anyways.
He shook his head very slightly. Ferget 'near enough.' 'e's my brother, plain an' simple. Will Turner is my little brother.
He felt the ring in his pocket. 'e's my brother, an' I'm s'posed t' be th' best man at 'is wedding, 'cause if th' damn fool's gonna go an' get married, then I'm sure as 'ell gonna be there.
Besides, 'e can't die now, 'cause everyone knows I'm gonna die of kidney failure long before 'e goes. An' little brothers aren' allowed t' die first!