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"She's in here. Just so you know, she's connected to a lot of machines. She has a tube down her throat that's helping her breathe. I just want to warn you that she may not look like herself right now," Dr. Gallagher finished.
"Okay, thank you," Stef replied quietly.
Dr. Gallagher opened the door for Stef. She reluctantly walked into the room. There she was. Callie was right in front of her. She looked so small right now.
"You can sit with her as long as you'd like. One of the nurses will come and get you when your wife arrives. We'll continue to monitor her progress, but as I said before, unfortunately the scans show very minimal brain activity. I'm very sorry."
With that Dr. Gallagher walked out of the room leaving Stef standing right in front of Callie's bed. She didn't know what to do. She felt like she couldn't move. Like she was frozen in her place, staring at her daughter's chest rise and fall with the help of the pump.
After what seemed like hours, Stef grabbed the chair from the corner of the room and brought it right next to the bed. She sighed as she sat down and grabbed her hand with her left hand. With her right hand she caressed the side of her cheek, removing a fly away piece of hair from her face.
"I'm right here, baby. Momma is going to be here soon. We're going to figure this out love. You just have to stay strong baby. You're a fighter. I knew that the second that I met you. Right now you need to fight more than ever baby. You have to fight this, Callie."
Stef watched Callie. She looked like she was sleeping. Stef wanted nothing more than to be able to wake her up. But Callie wouldn't wake up, no matter what she did. Callie might never wake up again. She might never open those beautiful brown eyes on her own. And even if she did wake up, chances were that Callie would have permanent disabilities. There was no way that Callie would get out of this without some type of impairment.
A thought came to Stef's head that made her want to vomit. Callie will never be Callie again. This morning was the last time that I got to talk to my daughter. It was the last time that I got to hug her and actually get a hug back. Callie's gone. Her body is here, but she's gone. How could this have happened? How could she be gone? We just adopted her! How can she be taken away from us like this!? How could be lose her like this!? I wish Robert would have just gotten custody! Maybe this wouldn't have happened. Maybe he would have been able to protect her better than I was able to. Maybe she would still be alive.
Stef shakes her head out of her thoughts. "Stop! Callie isn't dead!"
Stef grabbed hold of Callie's hand with both of her hands. She kissed her hand and looked at her with tears in her eyes. "You're not dead Callie! You're still here! You're fighting! If you can fight, so can I! You're not alone in this. We're here for you baby. We're not giving up, so you can't either."
We can't lose you Callie. We can't! We'll never be the same again. If you die, I don't know if we can survive it. I don't know I can survive it.
Tyler and Brandon…
Tyler looked over at Brandon and saw that he was anxiously looking around, probably looking for his mom to come back.
"Hey, I'm sure your mom is going to be back really soon," Tyler tried to make Brandon feel better. "She's probably with Callie. You know, to make sure she's okay."
"She is okay!" Brandon exclaimed as he turned to look at Tyler. "I mean she has to be okay. She's Callie. She's the toughest person I know, aside from our mom."
"Yeah, I can tell. Callie was amazing out there. All she cared about was helping you and everyone on that bus. It was incredible."
"It was stupid!" Brandon exclaimed angrily.
Tyler looked at Brandon in surprise. He didn't understand how Brandon could be mad at Callie right now. "What do you mean it was stupid? Callie was trying to save everyone out there."
"Callie should have been worrying about herself! She should have made sure that she was okay instead of worrying about me and everyone else! She was worried about some strangers for God's sakes!"
"How can you be mad at her right now?" Tyler asked solemnly.
Brandon stayed quiet. "How could she be so careless," Brandon cried. "How could she think that we were more important than her?" Brandon was crying hysterically. He and Callie had a history together. It wasn't just a romantic relationship between him and Callie. She had become his best friend. He trusted her with anything. She was the person he went to whenever he had a problem, whenever he was feeling down, whenever he needed a shoulder to cry on. He loved her so much. He couldn't imagine living life without her.
"She didn't know that anything was wrong with her, Brandon," Tyler replied. "She didn't know that she was hurt. She thought she was fine. I know I don't know Callie very well, but I can tell that she's smart. If she had known something was seriously wrong with her she would have taken care of herself."
"That's the thing; she probably wouldn't have! That's the thing about Callie. She's selfless. She always puts others before herself. It's one of the things I love about her. But, right now it's also one of the things that I can't stand!"
"Brandon, she's going to be okay," Tyler assured Brandon confidently.
"You don't know that," Brandon responded as he looked down at his hands sadly. "She could die. She could die and it'll be my fault."
"Brandon, it's not your fault!"
"She was worried about me. That's why she was pushing herself so hard. She wanted to get help because she was worried about me."
"Because she's a good sister! You would have done the same thing for her, right?"
"Of course," Brandon quickly replied.
"Look, Brandon, ultimately there was something wrong with Callie. Even if she wasn't trying to help everyone else, she still would have needed help herself. You can't blame yourself here. No one is to blame. It was an accident."
An accident. Brandon thought about that for a moment. The accident. We don't even know how or why the accident even happened. There is someone to blame for what's wrong with Callie right now. It's whoever caused this accident.
Just to reiterate, this is not a Brallie (sorry Brallie shippers). Brandon is extremely upset about Callie, but it's supposed to be coming from a brother/best friend, not a lover.
Okay, I NEED feedback. I'm having a vote. I got an idea from a reader that suggested killing Callie off, but donating her organs. I personally will find it very hard writing this out since I really don't want to kill Callie off, but I want to know what you guys want to see. So, there are 3 options:
Option 1—Callie lives; she has to recover and relearn how to pretty much do everything which will be a long struggle for her
Option 2—Callie dies; her organs get donated and I would go into the family recovering from losing her
Option 3—Callie lives and has to recover (Option 1), but I write an alternate version where Callie does die (Option 2) and post it as a separate alternate version fanfiction. Again this is going to be extremely hard for me since I hate the idea of Callie dying at the end of this, but I'll do what I have to if it's something you guys want to read.
Please vote and let me know what you think… I really need your guys help
Thanks for reading :)