Scene 17

INT. HOSPITAL EMERGENCY ROOM - NIGHT

(Marie sits at the end of the first row of plastic chairs. Her head is bent over, and she stares intently at the floor.)

(A man moans softly as he presses a bloody gauze pad against his forehead. A woman cradles a listless infant in her arms.)

Nurse: Landon Smith?

Landon: Yes

Nurse: Your wife is out of surgery now. You're welcome to head back and see her.

Landon: May my daughter come? No the doctor would like to speak with you privately.

A crowded hospital emergency waiting room. Clean but cheerless.

Sick and injured people sit in plastic chairs lined up in rows. A TV mounted near the ceiling BLARES a sitcom. No one is watching.

A man moans softly as he presses a bloody gauze pad against his forehead. A woman cradles a listless infant in her arms.

Marie: sits at the end of the first row of plastic chairs. Her head is bent over, and she stares intently at the floor.

(She raises her head slowly, brushes her long, silky hair away from her face.)

We see fear in her eyes as they focus on a clock that hangs above the front desk. She twists a tissue between her fingers and is unaware that bits of it are falling on the floor.

Shawn: Murdering a tissue won't change things.

Marie: I didn't notice I was

(Marie gets up and throws away her tissue, and then sits down in a chair across from Shawn.)

Shawn: Your mom will be fine. She just needs a little help, and I'm sure she'll be fine.

Marie: Are you trying to convince me, or yourself?

Shawn: Why do you say that?

Marie: Look I don't know what all went on between you and mom, but you obviously are still not over whatever went on between you.

Shawn: Of course I'm over her. I'm getting married in a few months.

Marie: Romantically maybe, but you still love her.

Shawn: More then you will ever understand Marie.

Marie: Why she broke your heart and hid me from you for sixteen years?

Shawn: I've learned some important lessons over the years, and the one that's helped me out the most is. "Don't feel sad over someone who gave up on you, feel sorry for them because they gave up on someone who would never give up on them." I just feel sorry for your mom, because she chose to give up an amazing life with me.

Marie: I'm sorry I didn't grow up knowing you.

Shawn: So am I.

(Shawn and Marie Hug.)

Marie: So you think mom will be okay.

Shawn: I guess she'll be fine.

Marie: I need you to be honest with me.

Shawn: Honestly Marie I don't know, and that terrifies me.

(Landon walks through the Hospital doors into the waiting room.)

Marie: Is mom okay?

Landon: they stitched up her leg and gave her a blood transfusion so she should be fine, but the doctors found something.

Marie: What?

Landon: Well you know the seizure she had last week?

Marie: Yes the doctor said that it was probably just a side effect of one of her medications.

Landon: Well when the doctor was checking to make sure her cut wouldn't leave any nerve damage he scanned her whole body and…

Marie: And What!

Landon: They found a brain tumor he said it appeared to be slow growing, and that she's probably had it for years.

Marie: No, this can't be happening!

(Marie runs out of the room through the door Landon entered through.)