Chapter Eleven

It was two hours since Joey blurted out Brookes condition to everyone in the corridor, minutes after she had blurted it out Dr Ryan had informed Joey that they needed to operate on Brooke's brain immediately, after explaining to Joey how they would open Brookes skull up by making two incisions one at the beginning of her spine and the other at the back of her head near the wound, after Dr Ryan had explained to Joey that they would have to shave a minimal amount of Brookes hair, after he took her to see Brooke before they took her to surgery.

As she entered Joey felt her eyes beginning to well up as she caught sight of Brooke, as she got closer she noticed just how bad she was, Brooke had a tube coming from her mouth that lead to a machine that was helping her to breathe, there was a wire coming from underneath her clothing leading to a machine which was monitoring her heart beat and her pulse, looking up at Brookes face she nearly fell backwards when she saw that the bandage on Brookes head was red with fresh blood, it was then that when she looked down she noticed Brooke was no longer in her tracksuit but instead she was in a hospital gown which hadn't been put on properly parts of the gown hanging over the side of the bed, Upon seeing this Joey placed the gown on Brookes body properly so that it was covering all of her body.

She had been standing with Brooke for about five minutes when the Doctor tapped Joey on the shoulder telling her that they were going to take Brooke down to theatre to operate, as the Dr and nurses prepared Brooke for the short transfer by placing her on portable equipment and removing all the jeweler Brooke was wearing, when they had finished Dr Ryan nodded to Joey so she knew they were ready to take her down and also that it was time to leave the room so they could so just that. At seeing the nod Joey leant in to Brooke's ear and whispered 'You have to pull through please, you have to' her voice crackling slightly as she tried to suppress the emotions she was feeling, with that she turned around as she did she saw one of the nurses had Brookes items she walked and asked the nurse for an item of Brookes jeweler the nurse gave the item to Joey but reminded her that she would need to return it to Brooke if she woke up again with that Joey left the room and rejoined Frankee and Mel in the corridor, not noticing Charlie standing at the emergency desk talking to a nurse. She looked at Frankee who was hugging Mel who was crying into her shoulder, all three of the women looked over when they heard a door slam shut they all looked around to see Brooke being pushed through a set of doors, Mel began to cry even more than before Frankee sat down pulling Mel with her, she then motioned for Joey to sit down next to her which she did melting into the chair she felt what was free of Frankee's arm rest on her shoulder she simply closed her eyes and ignored everyone around her.

After an hour of listening to Mel switch back and forth from crying and trying to convince her and everyone that the doctors where wrong about Brookes condition. Joey couldn't take anymore so she decided to go outside for some fresh air, she walked about for a bit when she found a bench within view of A&E she sat looking at anything but the entrance, though no matter what she did she couldn't get the image of Brooke laying on the floor covered in blood along with the image of Brooke in the hospital, she tilted her head back and closed her eyes trying to think 'happy thoughts' anything to stop Brooke popping into her mind. She got the item the nurse had gave her out of her pocket it was a guitar pick that had been placed on a necklace with a dog tag, she gripped it tight in her right hand trying to relax though all she wanted to do now she was alone and somewhere quiet was talk to Brooke but realizing that she couldn't made her wanna cry, She flinched when she felt the bench move indicating that somewhere had sat down next her, she slowly opened her eyes fully expecting to see Frankee or Mel sitting next to her but to her surprise it was Charlie.

"Hey how are you holding up?" Charlie caringly asked after a couple seconds silence

"I'm not the one being operated on" Joey snapped back without thinking, after she said it she closed her eyes and took a deep breath in "I'm sorry that was uncalled for"

"Its fine, your cousin is in there being cu...operated on of course you're gonna be upset" Charlie replied placing her hand lightly on Joey's arm, she pulled it back not wanting Joey to get the wrong idea about her.

They remained silent for a few minutes when Joey spoke, "Thank you" she said genuinely

"For what exactly?"

"For saving Brooke's life"

"I didn't do anything, honestly"

"Charlie, none of us had a clue what to do, if it wasn't for you they wouldn't be operating on her they'd be confirming her death" She said a tear falling down her cheek she immediately wiped it away

"You never answered my question Jo? How are you holding up?" Charlie asked with concern filling up her body

"I suppose I'm okay" she answered shrugging her shoulders

"You suppose?"

"I should be all over the place like Mel, but all I want to do is talk to my cousin but I can't...it's like my brain keeps forgetting to that she's hurt" Joey explained gripping the guitar pick even more, something that didn't go unnoticed by Charlie

"Is that Brookes?" She asked motioning to the pick

"Yeah, it's her lucky guitar pick"

"How is it lucky?"

"She says that since I gave this to her she gets all the good guitar solos"

"Oh so she's superstitious then"

"No it's a long story"

"Well why don't you tell me it then"

"I'm sorry what?" Joey asked thinking she may have been hearing things"

"Tell me about it; it'll help the time pass for you"

"Okay if you're sure"

"I'm sure go on, get started"

"Well it basically started when I arrived in England after my three month haul..." and with that Joey began to tell the story, unaware that Frankee was watching her and Charlie inside the Hospital emergency room.