Chapter 16: Drifting

Skye's POV:

Her heart monitor had stopped for a few seconds, and Luna had pressed a panic button. Doctors came in from every direction, shoving past me with nothing on their minds but saving Jill.

"We need to get her a cardiopulmonary resuscitation! Use the external defibrillator stat!"

My father was a doctor. The external defibrillator was only used to control fatal arrhythmias. I balled my hands into fists. If Jill died because of sudden arrhythmia death syndrome like 300,000 other people this year, because I wasn't there for her…

"Come on Jill," I whisper.

"Administer the tissue plasminogen!" the doctor yells.

She has blood clots in the coronary arteries. It wasn't looking good.

"I'm going to have to ask you to leave the room," someone says. I ignore them.

Luna and Gill leave, and I still stand in the room listening. I turn away to not see them inject her or pump the electricity through her veins, but I'm staying.

"Sir, I'm going to have to-,"

"I know," I say harshly. "But I can't leave her like this! She…I just…please…don't…"

"It's regulation, we can't-," the guy starts, but the doctor starts yelling at him to get moving or she'll have brain damage.

They hook her up to an IV and so many monitors.

I close my eyes and pray for her to get through it. If she dies, I don't know what happens. But it can't be good, for anyone, including me.

Because it just so happens that I do care for Jill Suzumiya, more than anyone thinks for sure.

A couple of hours later everyone lets out a long sigh of relief. I'm about to rejoice but they keep checking her, and her eyes remain closed, her composure still distant. The heart monitor is beeping steadily, but…but…

The doctor comes by me. "Oxygen is pumping back in her brain and heart. But…I have some bad news. Jill Suzumiya has gone comatose."

My knuckles go white. "How long…that's a stupid question isn't it? Does she have brain damage from the crash?"

"No, the comatose state was induced from the heart attack. From the crash she has a fractured leg, and we had to break her bone to allow it to grow back properly. Her arm was injured as well, though not as severely. She had some blood clots that we took care of, but as soon as she's let out we'll have to have her come back once a week," the doctor explains.

I nod. "Is there any way to gauge how long she'll be in the coma?" I ask him.

"We haven't been able to get her to open her eyes, make sounds, or movements. According to the Glasgow Coma scale she's got 3 points, and in a deep coma. As you may know these things are very different each time. She didn't take much brain damage, so you might look up for that, but due to the recent heart attack, it's difficult to say. I'm sorry," he says, patting my back.

"Can I stay here?" I ask him.

He nods.

I sit on the chair and take her fragile hand in mine. There's no response though.

"She can hear me right?" I ask the doctor. He nods, and then leaves the room to give us privacy.

"Hey Jill," I choke out, rubbing her hand in little circles. "You know," I cough, "you've gotten me really scared. I…I'm scared for you. I want you to wake up, so I can see you roll your eyes at me. I'm so sorry. And…I feel like I got you into this whole mess. I don't know what to say anymore, but…I care about you okay? So…don't….don't worry about it. Just…just concentrate on getting better okay? That way we can go to more movies. I think there's a film festival going on in a couple days. Plus school's going to start. So you've got to wake up. It's Skye by the way. Just in case you didn't…know."

"Of course she knows," a voice says. I spin around to see Claire, leaning against the door frame, "a girl always knows, especially when she's fallen for the guy too."