The woman passed out again almost immediately.
After, it was a flurry of excitement as Sara finally got somebody's attention and help to get the woman onto the platform. Then, Sara ran back to her booth to call 911. She hopped in the back of the ambulance when it arrived, and rode over to the hospital, all the way holding the woman's hand.
It's closer to 9:30 when they reach the emergency room. Sara watches helplessly as she is pulled away by doctors and nurses. Sara tries to follow, but as she reaches the clear doors the woman was just brought through, a man in a white coat stops her.
"Family only," he says, hand in the air and just a little too close to her face.
"I just —"
"Are you family?" he asks, too stern for someone who looks so easily punchable.
Sara pauses, knowing that the true answer is the incorrect one. The doctor takes this as a sign of defeat and points her toward the waiting area. In the chaos of the emergency room, she watches the doctor walk away, following her, and the lie doesn't come to Sara until the doctor is just out of earshot.
"I'm her fiancee!" She calls.
Sara doesn't notice the nurse with the kind eyes watching from behind the counter.
.
After an hour in the waiting room, a nurse with brown hair and a thick blonde streak approaches Sara. Curled up in a less than comfortable position, Sara jumps at the chance to follow the nurse and find her.
She talks softly to Sara about how the woman is doing and leads her through those same clear doors. This time, she walks right through and follows the nurse until Sara sees her, alone and attached to multiple machines in a room with a windowed wall.
As Sara sits beside the beautiful woman, the nurse says, "Let her hear your voice."
The nurse leaves them alone.
"Hi," Sara says softly, "Everything is going to be ok. Everything is going to be fine."
A doctor enters the room.
"Hello, I'm Dr. Snow," she says, standing at the foot of the woman's bed. "And you are?"
Before Sara can decide to lie or tell the truth, a booming voice sounds through the hospital.
"Don't tell me about passes! Where the hell is she?"
Both startled by the gravelly, demanding voice, Sara and Dr. Snow look through the windowed wall and at the approaching group of people.
"Mick, relax," a younger man says with a sign of slight irritation.
The group reaches the room, and an accented voice says, "Oh, she's so pale."
There's an assortment of exclamations and worries until Dr. Snow interrupts.
"Who are you?"
"We're her family," the original voice booms. It belongs to a large man with a shaved head and an angry stare. "How is she?"
"She'll be alright, right?" the accented voice asks. This one belongs to a small but strong-looking woman holding onto the larger man's arm. Around her neck is a strange gold necklace.
"What happened?" The larger man asks Dr. Snow. "What's going on?"
"She's in a coma," Dr. Snow says softly.
"But tomorrow's Christmas!" A new voice exclaims. Sara notices a rather boy-scout-looking man standing behind the others with an older gentleman and the younger man.
"I understand this is hard." Dr. Snow rests a hand on the woman's shoulder. "But her vital signs are strong and her brainwaves are good. I really do believe she's going to get through this."
Sara watches the boy scout mouth brain waves to the older gentleman.
The older gentleman ignores him and asks Dr. Snow, "Are you a specialist?"
The woman cuts in, "How did this happen?"
Sara, having already jumped from her chair to hide behind Dr. Snow, says, "She was pushed from the platform at the train station."
The entire group goes silent, including Dr. Snow, as they all notice her presence and turn her way. It's a see of confused faces, some angry and some terrified, and they're all looking at Sara. The nurse from earlier joins them, looking around at the group, trying to figure out what the commotion is about.
"Who's she?" the large man asks.
"She's the fiancee," the nurse responds immediately.
Sara's heart stops.
"Her fiancee?" The woman asks, still holding onto the larger man.
"Her fiancee," the nurse repeats with an enthusiastic nod.
Sara sputters, but no words leave her mouth.
"Lisa's fiancee?" the young man asks.
"Lisa's engaged?" The boy scout cuts in.
Lisa, Sara thinks to herself, finally getting to put a name to the face.
The entire group starts arguing over each other, the nurse, and Sara as they try to figure out what's going on. Sara, having now backed away from the group, tries to cut in.
"No, no, you don't understand, I'm not —"
But nobody is listening.
"Maybe she was busy?" the boy scouts tries.
"Too busy to tell her own family?" The large man booms toward the passed-out woman in front of him.
"Don't yell at her, Mick," the woman on his arm says lightly.
"I'm not yelling at her, Amaya!"
Sara covers her face with her hands, but hears some struggled breathing and removes them. The older gentleman is being lowered into a chair as Dr. Snow asks what's wrong.
"He's got a heart problem," the boy scout says, with a weird positive undertone to his speech that makes it seem like it's really not a problem. "He's had three attacks already."
"They weren't attacks," the older man argues as the young man helps him relax. "They were episodes."
Sara, feeling even guiltier now, starts to back out of the room, but is stopped by the angry, rule-following doctor from earlier. His stupid lab coat billows behind him as he rushes his way to probably get her into trouble.
"Doctor," he says, voice too whiny for anyone's comfort. "What is she doing in here?"
"Hey," the nurse cuts in. Sara almost flinches at the change in her demeanor. "She saved the patient's life."
"You saved her life?" Amaya asks, eyes wide, a near-smile growing on her face.
"Well, yeah, but…" Sara leans against the wall behind her as her cheeks grow hot.
"I thought she was pushed off a train platform," Mick booms.
"She jumped onto the tracks," the nurse tells him, smiling as if she's proud of Sara.
"You jumped on the tracks?" The older gentleman calls from his chair.
"Doctor," the whiny man starts, "It's supposed to be family only."
Mick takes a step away from Amaya and lays his large hand on the whiny man's chest.
"She is family," he grumbles.
"She's the fiancee," Dr. Snow says with a roll of her eyes.
Sara's just happy she isn't the only one who hates this idiot.
"Look," Sara steps away the group once more, "I'm sorry, but you don't understand —"
"She's been distant for some time now," Amaya steps around Mick, arms extended toward Sara, "so we didn't know." Amaya grabs Sara's hands, tears brimming. "We always just wanted her to find someone kind; we're so glad she found you."
She pulls Sara in for a tight hug, and before Sara knows it, the rest of the family is either joining in or standing close, patting Sara on the back or just being present in the moment. It makes Sara more uncomfortable than anything else; it's been years since she had someone hold her life this, and even then, Sara was never a huge fan of hugs.
Sara knows they can't be the nuclear family she sees in magazines or on TV. They're both too close and too far in age. Sara likes the idea that they're a makeshift family full of people like her; it gives her hope. Maybe she won't be alone forever. Maybe, some day, her house could be a home again.
.
As soon as possible, Sara escapes the room, dragging the nurse with her.
"Why did you say that?"
"Say what?" the nurse asks.
"I'm not her fiancee."
"Why did you tell me that you were?"
"I'm not engaged; I've barely spoken to the woman."
"What!?" the nurse takes a step back. "But downstairs you literally yelled that you were her fiancee."
"No, no," Sara sighs. "I was just trying to get in and see her. I was trying to check on her."
"Oh my god," the nurse throws her hands up in the air before dropping them with a whack.
"What am I going to do?" Sara asks.
"I don't know."
"They held me so tight, you know? I couldn't tell them."
"I know," the nurse lays a hand on her shoulder.
Sara notices a nametag that reads Kendra.
"Excuse me," a voice behind her says. Sara recognizes the boy scout's weirdly positive tone and slaps a hand over her mouth. "Is there a pharmacy in this hospital?"
"What do you need?" Kendra asks, immediately jumping into her job as if Sara didn't reveal a truly heinous lie three seconds ago.
"Martin; he wants nitroglycerin."
"For his heart problem?" Kendra specifies.
"Problem?" the boy scout chuckles. "Problems."
He turns to Sara, and she notices that she barely comes up to his shoulder. He looks down at her with a kind smile. He has literal puppy dog eyes if Sara has ever seen any, and there's something in his positive demeanor that reminds her of Laurel. Laurel wasn't so outwardly positive, and she knew how to mask her optimism when the situation needed. But out of the two sisters, Laurel was always the one who could find a silver lining.
"You know something?" the boy scout asks. "I think you saved his life. In fact, I think you saved the whole family."
Sara stands still, a statue in the bustling ICU, and watches as Kendra takes the boy scout to the pharmacy. A million thoughts run through her head: how to tell the truth, how to keep lying, how to disappear to one of the many countries she's been meaning to see, anyway. The noise around her is a mere buzz compared to the static in her brain.
She resigns herself to her fate as she watches the makeshift family find their way to the waiting area.
.
In the waiting area, Sara finds herself sitting alone across from Lisa's family. Mick is anxiously pacing while Amaya mumbles soothing words to him whenever he is near. Martin, the older gentleman, sits between the ever-smiling Ray and their younger friend Jefferson, who prefers to be called Jax, though Martin seems to only call him Jefferson.
Sara's eyes move quickly between each family member as they watch her expectantly. She doesn't know what they're waiting for, but Sara is certainly not going to give it to them. Whenever she needs a moment to breath, she fiddles with the fraying cuff of her sweater's left sleeve.
Eventually, Ray leans closer to her, smile still plasters, pearly white teeth on display, and says, "Tell us how you met Lisa!"
"I don't think she wants to talk about that now," Amaya interrupts from above.
"Why not? I think we could all use a nice story."
Martin cuts in, "How do you know it was nice?"
"Of course it was nice! Why wouldn't it be nice?"
Sara can feel her breath speeding up, but she tries to push it through slowly. She weighs the pros and cons of making up some romantic scenario, but she might not have to with the way this family talks over each other.
"What about that guy?" Martin sits up straight. "The one she met in the bar."
Mick stops his pacing, slowing to a stop just next to Amaya.
"Cisco Ramon," he barks.
"Mick," Amaya warns.
"All I know is, he talked too much and had too much hair."
Sara doesn't know how she didn't think of this. Of course someone as beautiful as Lisa would have a person to go home to, to go on dates with, to kiss under mistletoes and drink hot cocoa with while naked beneath the sheets after a heated —
"Well, she has Sara, now," Amaya says gently.
"Did you steal her from Cisco?" Jax asks, raising his eyebrows.
"I bet it was love at first sight!" Ray cuts in, then turns to her. "Right?"
"Ray, let her tell it," Martin chides.
"She is telling it!" Ray leans in closer. "I bet she picked you up on her motorcycle."
Amaya laughs, then takes a seat next her.
"What was it about him that first struck you?" she asks.
"It was her smile," Sara says immediately, surprising herself. She doesn't tell the family how wicked and enticing that smile was.
"They're caps!" Mick grunts.
Ray shushes him, and Micks eyes narrow. Sara thinks he's weighing the pros and cons of suckerpunching ray, but simply goes back to pacing. She looks around at all the expectance faces once more, stuttering over half-truths and maybe-lies as this beautiful family surrounds her with light.
"Well, we saw each other, and, um, she smiled. And…" Sara shakes her head of the memory. "And I know that my life would never be the same."