Don't Let Me Go

Chapter 14

"What?! The hospital?!" Lucas said, voice breaking. "Lucas, I know that this is a lot and I know you are scared and worried about Max. But in order for us to make sure she is going to be ok; we need to take her to the hospital." Joyce said as calmly as possible. Max smiled weakly at Lucas and nodded. Lucas had tears streaming down his face. He could only nod his head in response. 

Murray had come downstairs at that point. "Wait Joyce what? Why are we going to the hospital?" Murray said frantically. "Max is sick. She has a very high fever, 106, and she needs to go now." Joyce said, voice firm. 

They all slowly helped Max out to the car. Lucas sat in the back with her and held a bucket up in case she threw up again. "You're gonna be ok Max. You're a fighter Max. You survived Vecna. You can do this. Everything is gonna be ok." Lucas said tearfully. Max didn't say anything. Lucas started crying more. "Hey kid she is gonna be ok. You said so yourself." Murray said while looking through the rearview mirror.

When they got to the hospital, they took Max in and told them what had been going on. They put Max in a wheelchair and started taking her back. Lucas started following them until one of the nurses pushed him away. "You can't come back, kid. You have to wait until we are done running our tests." the nurse said. Max turned and looked at him. "I'll be ok. It's ok. I love you." Max said weakly. "I love you too." Lucas said.

Lucas watched as they took Max away from him. He cried and cried and cried. Joyce filled out paperwork and Murray tried to comfort Lucas. "Kid it's gonna be ok. She probably just has a stomach bug or something. Don't overthink it." he said. Lucas didn't respond. He just sat there.

He couldn't stop thinking about Max. They were doing god knows what to her right now and he couldn't be there with her. What if she was scared? What if they were hurting her? Lucas stood up and started pacing back and forth. After a little while he went up the desk. 

"Is Max Mayfield in a room yet? Can I see her yet?" he asked, trying to keep his voice steady. "Let me check for you, dear." the receptionist said. She could sense the urgency and the anxiousness in his voice. "Ok so they are almost done running test. She is in a room, but they are setting her up. What that means is they are putting a heart monitor on her and then they will probably give her an IV since she lost a lot of fluids." the lady explained trying to comfort him. "Ok so how much longer till we can see her?" he asked trying not to sound annoyed.

The receptionist just smiled at him. "Only a few more minutes. I will call you up here as soon as they update her status ok, hon? Let me get you a visitors' badge so you can get back there faster." she said. Lucas just nodded. "Ok sweetie, what is your name?" the receptionist asked. "Lucas Sinclair." he said. "And what is your relationship to Max?" she asked. "I'm her boyfriend." he said. The receptionist just smiled. She wrote down something else. Then she gave him a sticker with his name and relationship to Max on it, and then a wristband with her room number. 

"Ok hon you're all set. That wristband has her room number on it. The first number is the floor and then the rest are the actual room number. Only a few more minutes." the lady explained. "Thank you." Lucas said, feeling a little better. He went back and started pacing again. Those few minutes felt like a lifetime. Lucas just wanted to be there with Max and hold her hand.

"Lucas? You can head on back now. Just go down this hall and then there is an elevator right there on your right." the lady said. Lucas bolted for the elevator, leaving Murray and Joyce behind. 

Lucas swore that the elevator was going slow just to make him mad. "Come on you stupid piece of shit." he grumbled. He looked on his wristband. Floor 6. Lucas threw his head back and groaned. "I hate this so much." 

After what felt like forever, he finally got to the 6th floor. He was going to run down the hallway to Max's room but decided against it when he saw how crowded it was up there. So, he calmly walked there, weaving through families and doctors. When he finally got to her room, he took a deep breath and then walked in. 

There was no one in the room except for Max. She had an IV in her left arm and an oxygen tube sitting right below her nose, helping her to breathe better. "Oh my god Max are you ok?" he asked, finally allowing himself to let a few tears out. "Yeah, I'm ok, Stalker." she said as she smiled weakly.

Lucas went and pulled a chair up to her bedside so he could be next to her. "What did they do?" he asked. "They took my blood, did an x-ray of my abdomen, and swabbed my nose. Then they brought me in here and they stuck me with a needle for my IV and then put this canula on me to help me breathe better because I was having a little trouble breathing." she said.

Lucas just put his face down on the hospital bed and tried to not cry. The sheets were scratchy and cold and smelled like bleach. Max put her hand on his arm and rubbed it with her thumb. "Hey, Lucas, I'm ok. I promise. It didn't hurt that much. The worst part was the IV but even that only hurt a little bit." she said, lying. 

It had been so painful. Her stomach was cramping, and she could barely lay still for her x-ray. She kept curling up into the fetal position until they got people to hold her arms and legs out. Then when they drew her blood, it hurt so bad. She didn't really know why, but it did. She hated her nose being swabbed. They had to shove the little stick so far up her nose, it felt like they were about to touch her brain. And it burned. The IV was probably the least painful part of it all if she was being honest.

Lucas sat up and grabbed her hand and kissed it. "Ok Max. As long as you are ok." he said. Max reached up and wiped a few of his tears away. "I am. I promise. You're here now, so of course I'm ok." Max said. That made Lucas smile. They just sat there looking at each other. 

Then, there was a knock at the door. It was Murray and Joyce. "Oh Max, honey, are you ok?" Joyce asked. "Yeah. I'm ok." she said.