B1:C1 So Cold

The call came in around 3:23 AM, I had gotten home around 9 o'clock and she had already went out for pre-club drinks with the girls. Tired from a long day of work, I had settled for leftovers from the Chinese restaurant from yesterday and crashed in our bed. What was the last thing I said to her? I can't even remember.
My cellphone was ringing, the tone piercing throughout the silent apartment and I was shrugging off the grogginess. What time was it? It's 3:23, I thought as I picked up my phone and mumbled a confused hello into the receiver. What they said next, I can't even remember if it was a man or a woman, had my blood run cold, they mentioned a car accident, drunk, and in critical condition, and asked me to come down to Queen's Medical, the prominent hospital in Hawai'i. I hung up. It was 3:25. In two minutes, my whole life felt as it fell apart, and I rushed to get get my keys and wallet, and ran out the door.

God damn it, I thought, could this elevator be any slower? True, I was on the 15th floor, but still, it was taking incredibly long to get to the garage. Every second that ticked away, felt as if my soul was fading away, my body covered in a cold sweat, and my hands shaking in fear, something I had never felt before. What was the last thing I had said to her? What had she said to me? I reached the garage and sprinted as fast I could to my car, and speedily reversed out of the stall and into the dark streets on Honolulu. The hospital was 10 minutes away and as I made my way thru the darkness, I happened to hit every red light. Cursing out loud, I hit the OFF on my radio, playing that annoying Ke$sha song yet again, and parked in front of the hospital, running inside, and asking where critical care was.
The nurse there, was frightened, and probably thought I was crazy, but I didn't care, I needed to see her, to see her before... Before the worst might happen. She calmly told me instructions on how to get there, and I burst into a run, turning and turning, until I found the elevators and stairs. Opting for the stairs I took leaps and a time, until I made it to the 5th floor, slamming open the door, and taking off down the hall, where I met another nurse at a desk. I quickly blurted I was looking for Briggs, Stephanie, she was in a car accident, I don't know when, she's in critical care, I need to see her. And all I got was a "calm down sir, I'm looking right now." I can't calm down, I need to see her, I need to let her know everything's gonna be okay. "She's in room 517, this way sir." I blurted a thank you, although I'm sure she didn't seem to care, and led me briskly down the hall.

517. Room 517 is where she was laying down in the darkness. She was strapped to a respirator, and all this other equipment I didn't know. I asked the nurse to get me a doctor, or someone who could answer my questions, and she left me silently, with a "I'll be right back." Silence enveloped me, as I looked upon her, she was in the black dress that I always liked, covered with a hospital blanket from her breasts down, her dark brown hair curled elegantly, though now, her curls were beginning to give way, her hair always did that, I thought and smiled. I took steps closer, and it was as if my weight doubled with each step, a knot in my stomach kept twisting, and it was getting harder to breathe. Her eyes were closed, but I could still see her make-up on her face, the one that I got her for our one year anniversary from M.A.C., she loved it so much, God, she looked so beautiful. A couple more steps, and I looked at her, and I couldn't hold it in any longer, tears started to roll down my face, the warmth helping to ease this coldness I felt inside. On her right arm was her tag, Briggs, Stephanie, 23, F, it said, and I gasped, the shallowness of my breaths began to take a hold of me, and there was a pain that I couldn't describe haunting my soul in that room. That damn room 517. Three more steps. Two more steps. One step. I was by her side in the darkness, and I reached my right hand out to gently rub hers, she was so cold, or was it just me? I'm not sure how long I spent in that room with her alone, but it felt like an eternity of hell that I hated. In that damn room, she was lying helplessly, and I was standing helplessly, with no idea what had happened and what will happen.

I heard the distant footsteps of two people walking quickly to the room, it was the nurse that I sent away earlier, and a doctor, I assumed Stephanie's, but I wasn't sure. He was an Asian man, of short stature, but the weathered look of experience was written all over his face. How many traumas had he seen in his career at the hospital, in his life? Had he ever been called in the morning at 3:23 to devastating news I thought, not that it mattered, I just wanted to know some answers.

"Hello doctor," I croaked, surprised at the lack of strength in my voice. "My name is Jake Lucas, and I'm Steph's boyfriend. I got a call earlier, and I just wanna know, what the hell happened?"

"Jake, I'm sorry about all of this. I'm Doctor Chida, and Stephanie Briggs was in an accident tonight. She came into the ER with multiple broken bones, and a heavily lacerated liver and near-destroyed kidneys with her friends, though they suffered no serious damage..."

"I don't care about them, tell me about Steph!!" I growled, and in truth, I didn't care for her friends, they were always stupid and vain, always looking for the next damn rush. And to think, they didn't even have a scratch when Steph was lying here like this.

"Right right, I'm sorry," he muttered. "Anyway, Stephanie had consumed a lot of alcohol tonight, and when we found out about her kidneys, we put her on dialysis to keep her alive, but the problem is that she needs a new kidney and liver. Does she drink a lot?"

"Yeah, kinda" I said, "she likes to party, why, what's wrong with that?"

"Her excessive drinking heavily damaged her liver, and without a liver transplant, she'll die before the sun rises. I'm sorry Mr. Lucas, but there is no way we can get her a new liver."

"What do you mean? WHAT DO YOU MEAN? This is a hospital! You're supposed to save lives here! Why can't you save her? What do you mean you don't have a liver for her? You've gotta be kidding me right? This is all a damn joke!"

"Mr. Lucas," interjected the nurse, "there are other people here, and they are recovering, please try and keep your voice down."

"The hell I will! Not until this bastard tells me why he can't save Steph!" I barked.

Dr. Chida looked at me solemnly, and very quietly looked me in the eye and said "Mr. Lucas. I'm sorry, but, we've done all we can. Because she came here and we performed all the surgery we could on her liver, and despite out attempts for her to regain consciousness, as well as the search for a viable liver transplant, there is nothing we can do. If it was just her kidneys, we could've kept her on dialysis until there was a match, or someone with her blood-type was willing to donate one of their kidneys, but the fact is that there are no more options to save her life. I'm sorry Mr. Lucas."

I felt the tears well up inside, I was not a soft or emotional man, but, hearing this, that Steph was confined to a death sentence, prominent in three or four hours, I couldn't hold it back. Everything just seemed to blur around me. The nurse, Jackie, pulled over a chair so I could sit by her side, while Dr. Chida shook his head in apology. As he started to leave, I asked him, if there was anything I could do. With the saddest look in his dark brown eyes that peered thru the darkness, he shook his head again, and filled the room with a heavy somber. Jackie left too, I don't know how long she stayed, but she let me know I could stay there as long as I wanted.

And I would, I wasn't going to leave her side. I wasn't going to leave the love of my life to die alone, but there was something I didn't know. Would she wake up before she passed? I wanted to say goodbye to her, and I wanted her to hear it. I wanted to tell her everything that I felt for her, and how I wanted to spend the rest of my life with her. Remembering something, I took out my wallet, and hidden away in there, was a secret that I had kept from her. Delicately from one of the slits in the leather, I pulled out an engagement ring, one that I had bought over a year ago, but I was saving for the right time to give it to her. I started to cry again, and gradually sobbed, as I held her cold hand in my left and the ring in my right.

It was nearly sunrise, 4:56 AM, and I hadn't moved. Instead, I looked at her graceful eyes, when Jackie came in, doing her rounds. She came, and patted me on the shoulder before fixing up her blanket, and checking Steph's vitals.

"Jackie..." I said.

"Yes?"

"Do you think she'll wake up before she goes?"

"I don't know Mr. Lucas," she said apologetically. "In cases like these, the surgery needs anesthesia, and it takes a while for the patient to wake up, there's no telling for sure though," she added as my face began to crunch in pain. "Don't worry sugar, I'm sure you'll get to say goodbye."

"Mmm."

"Stephanie!?" I cried, jolting up to my seat and running over to her face. "Steph, baby, are you ok?"

"Jake? Is that... Is that you? Where am I? It hurts Jake." she sobbed, her face contorting in hurt, and I felt my heart get heavy watching her cry. "Where am I? What happened?"

"Baby, it's gonna be ok. You were in a car accident baby, and you got really hurt."

"Jake. Oh my God Jake, I love you. I love you Jake," Stephanie sobbed as the tears rolled down her face, and she grabbed my hands. "It's so sore Jake, and it's so cold."