Chapter 18

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I didn't even notice when we had finally pulled into the parking lot of the hospital. I was too busy focusing on Austin. I was trying to decipher the look on his face, but I couldn't. 

"Hey," I grabbed his shoulder and made him look at me. "Everything's going to be alright."

He gave me a small nod and pulled himself out of the car as I did the same. Hurriedly we made our way into the hospital and walked to the front desk. 

The detective spoke for us. "Hello, We'd like to know where we could find Ms. Michele Mahone?"

After looking her up on the computer, the secretary replied, "I'm sorry Ms. Mahone is unavailable at the moment. She's having some troubles and is being held in intensive care."

She turned away and resumed her paperwork, but Austin pushed through to the front desk. "I don't think you understand," he spoke in a fake tone. "That's my mother in there and I just got a call that she needed me. So if you could kindly tell us where to find her, that'd be great."

The secretary just looked back at Austin, apparently not knowing what to do. I spoke up, "Um, we were under the impression that this was kind of an emergency, so..."

That seemed to get her moving, "Right of course, let me check on that for you." She wheeled her chair over to the phone and made a call. 

After a few minutes of waiting and trying to listen in to the call, but failing, she hung up and turned back to us. "A nurse will be here in a moment to escort you all to her room."

Austin let out a heavy sigh of relief, "Thank you."

No sooner had the words left his mouth than I caught a glimpse of a nurse rushing down the hallway towards us. "Are you Austin?"

"Yeah."

"Ok, follow me."

"We're coming too," I said, forcefully.

The nurse looked like she was about to tell me I coudn't, but decided against it, "That's fine," she said, exasperated.

We all rushed down the hallway and turned to the right down another long hallway. We came to an elevator and climbed in. The nurse hit the button for the fourth floor and the elevator lurched upwards. The ride up was filled with uncomfortable and anxious silence. Again I peered over at Austin wishing I could talk to him alone and comfort him, but I knew that would have to wait.

The elevator dinged and we stepped out into another stale white hallway. The nurse led us down the hall and stopped in front of a door on the left. "She's in here, but please wait out here for a moment," the nurse said.

Austin let himself fall into one of the chairs waiting in the hallway and I followed suit. I didn't know what to say to him. I couldn't comfort him. I didn't know any more than he did and I couldn't give him blind promises. Maybe everything wouldn't be okay. I couldn't tell him that it would. The only thing I could do was be there for him. He was sitting with his head in his hands and I reached out and let my hand rest on his forearm. He responded and let my hand fall into his. We held on to each other until the nurse made a reappearance followed another familiar face. 

"Dave," I said. "What's going on?" 

Dave let out a heavy breath and told the nurse she should go back and take care of Michele, that he could take this. "Well, I'm not really sure what happened, but I was sitting in there with her, talking to her, she was kind of asleep, but something must've happened. I don't know, the machines started beeping. Then she started shaking, she had a seizure. I think they've got her stable now, but it might not last. They've told me she needs a blood transfusion."

I looked to Austin but he wasn't saying anything. "Okay, so are they going to do the transfusion?" I asked.

Dave's face fell, "They don't have any of her blood type available."

Again, I looked at Austin, but his face was hardened. I couldn't believe he wasn't saying anything, or offering up his own blood to save his mother. Nothing. 

I hesitated. "Um, Dave, could I talk to Austin alone for a minute?" I asked with a bit of edge to my voice.

He looked surprised, but agreed nonetheless.

I turned my whole body to face him. "Um, Austin? What are you doing?" I asked accusingly. "Why aren't you saying anything?"

He lifted his head to face me. "What do you want me to say Sophie?" He snapped.

"Oh I don't know," I said sarcastically. "Maybe show an inkling of concern at the fact that your mother could be dying."

He turned to face me completely. "Do you know what she did to me, what she put me through? And you expect me to offer up my blood to save a woman who obviously didn't give a damn about me? I don't think so."

I couldn't believe what I was hearing. "Really? You are so selfish! She's dying! Do you understand what that means? You're so mad that you would let her die and not even give her a chance to make up for what she did? Yeah, she screwed up, but you're gonna let her die because of a drunk mistake? I can't believe this, I thought you were better than that." 

And with that, I stormed off. I couldn't bear to look at him.

*Austin's POV*

I watched her storm away with a feeling of helplessness. What is wrong with me? What's happened to me? Why am I thinking like this? Of course I should try and help her. I let my head slam into my hands and angrily ran my fingers through my hair. She's so pissed at me. What have I done? 

Just then Dave emerged from the room frantically. "Austin, do you know what your blood type is?"

I tried to think. "I'm pretty sure it's AB."

Dave sighed with relief. "Good. She needs you. Now."

"What? Now?"

"Yes! Please come on!" 

Suddenly the adrenaline kicked in and the real consequences of what I was thinking sunk in. Why on earth would I let anger control me like that? That's ridiculous. I felt terrible. But I couldn't think about that. I had to give my blood to my mother. 

I jumped up out of my chair and followed Dave into the room. I wasn't prepared for the ghostly frail woman laying in the bed before me. She looked nothing like this only 24 hours earlier. How could this have happened? 

"Austin, please, over here," the doctor led me to a chair next to my mother's bed. "You're going to feel a prick." I felt nothing, I was too numb. Suddenly, the flow of blood was constant in the tube connecting my veins to my mother's. For the first time in my life, I felt connected to her. I felt like she was mine, and I was her's, no matter what happened in the past. This is my mother, and nothing could ever change that.

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Thank you guys for almost 3k reads! That's crazy! 

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