The White Strike and The Winter Soldier

Alone

James was feeling the most positive he had felt in a long time, and he was genuinely looking forward to the evening. He found himself checking the clock too often, time was passing slowly. He decided that the best way to keep himself busy and his impatience at bay was to tidy around his living space before working out. Barnes then took a shower and picked up where he left off in his book that had fallen under the sofa. 

Bailey's day off was not as relaxing. She woke to the sound of sirens as two police cars and an ambulance raced past her open bedroom window. She always slept with the window ajar, even though her grandma and Patsy told her not to do so in her neighbourhood. 

She was up an hour before her alarm was set and decided to make use of her time. Bailey pulled out her yoga mat from under the bed and brushed off the dust. She didn't put enough time aside to commit to yoga, even though it helped center herself; connecting her body and mind. Bailey found herself being drawn back into yoga and meditation when she felt out of tune with her emotions, and unfortunately this was the case at the moment. She would never let people see it, but she was stressed and burning the candle at both ends.

Her plan for most of the day was to catch up on those mundane chores she was always too tired to complete when she got home from work. She was on her last few clean plates and bowls, the washing basket was piled high, and the bin needed taking out. 

Bailey had managed to do a couple of loads of laundry and took the bin out before she received a call from the hospital. 

"Hi, is that Ms Johnson?" A woman's voice asked.

"Speaking." 

"Hello Ms Johnson, I am calling to inform you that your grandmother has requested a decision to be made about her care, I would recommend you coming down to the hospital to talk to her about it."

Bailey's stomach flipped, she knew what this meant. "Is she lucid?" she asked.

"We believe so." 

"Thank you, I'll be down right away." 

It was a good job she was having takeout tonight as those pots aren't getting washed, she thought.

__

Bailey arrived to the ward and rushed to Grandma Josie's room. Inside stood two doctors and a nurse, one of the doctors held a clipboard and pencil with a rubber on the end, just in case she were to change her mind.

"Bailey my love," Josie greeted.

She rushed to her bedside, "What's going on Grandma?" 

Bailey looked up to her grandmother's doctors. 

The same woman that called spoke first, "Josephine has requested that a Do Not Resuscitate form be completed and signed off."

Bailey sighed and closed her eyes as she processed this, she knew this was it. She felt a sense of cold, beginning in the tips of her fingers and toes to spreading across the rest of her body. But it wasn't coldness really, it was loneliness. Bailey knew the end was near and she would soon be the only one of her family left.  

Josie took her granddaughter's gloved hand, "I'm making this decision now whilst I can."

Bailey let go of her hand and slipped off her gloves, she closed her eyes to shield them from the doctors. She held her hand again to sense that it was true, Grandma Josie was lucid. There were no dark spots or jumbled thoughts in her mind.

Josie continued, "I can't keep going on like this and I can't hold you back anymore."

Bailey put her gloves back on, "Grandma," she said shocked, "You have never and will never hold me back."