Three Days To Live.

d a y t h r e e

"Hey baby." Bradley cooed as he entered the ICU to meet his daughter. He thought it wouldn't be that tough.

He couldn't ever be so wrong.

"Hi daddy." Her voice crooked. Her face was swollen. And that was because of the medicines they were giving her.
She was always a little pale and always was thin and sunken. Bradley always wanted her to be all plump and jumpy. She was a four year old little girl who had that had that personality in her.

She did become plumper. And he wanted that. But not this way. Not by sending serums in her with needles and pipes. Not by dying.

"Come sit. You look tired. Did you eat anything?" She asked him. She always had to play his woman's role. And she did it unknowingly. And he was going to lose that.

"No sweetie. I'm not hungry." He sighed as he sat down next to her on a frigid steel stool. He placed a small kiss on her forehead. He couldn't kiss her cheek. Or peck her lips. Cause there was a mask. On her face. Giving her life.

"Thanks for asking though." He smiled softly and stroked her hair.

"You seem sad Daddy... were you crying?" She asked as she pulled his face closer with her piped hands, examining his salty stained cheeks. Her small swollen face frowning with concern.

"No... I just spoke to your doctor." He huffed and kissed her hand, taking each of them in his.

"What did he say?" She asked.

He couldn't. He couldn't do it alone. If his love was with him, he would have cried in her chest and then both of them would have told Hallie. But he just couldn't. He didn't accept it yet. He couldn't see his baby go. He couldn't tell her.

                      But he had to.

"You have stomach cancer sweetie. Your tummy is a little upset." He said after taking a deep breath.

Bradley stared at the grey floor beneath him. It was making him feel dizzy. He dare not look at his daughter. That would have been the end of him. Tears threatened to escape his tired eyes. But he couldn't cry in from of her. He was her father. Her superhero. So he blinked them away.

Hallie spoke softly, her high pitched voice soothing him yet breaking him apart at the same time. That is the power of a dying daughter.

"But daddy, I'll be okay right? I mean my stomach has been upset before. And you just gave me some hot chocolate and you rubbed my tummy. It's happened before...I'll get better right?"

That's the question he feared the most.

"Right daddy?" She repeated herself. She knew the answer. She knew her father couldn't get it out. She understood him better than he understood himself. But the truth about life is... we all are afraid of dying.

"You will be free sweetheart.." he sniffled. "In three days." He gave a soft smile.

"Okay." She said softly. Her voice slowly losing hope.

"Yeah." Bradley mumbled holding Hallie's small hands in his warm big ones and kissing them softly.

Silence filled the room. The air smelt of medicines and sickness. His daughter's hair was once a shine blonde. And now it's tied up and dry. It was dying too..

Hallie had her mother's eyes. She had her fathers irresistible smile though. Yet she liked so much like her mother, that it used to scare Bradley. He was still as amazed and as shocked as he was when he first saw Hallie. She still had so much beauty in her.

"Daddy?" She asked, her husky voice speaking through the mask.

"Yeah baby girl?" Bradley asked coming back from his trance.

"Will you answer whatever I ask you?" She asked, expectantly. All she ever got in her entire life was a no when she asked so.

Because Bradley wasn't strong enough to answer questions about her mother.

"Can you tell me about mommy?"

                   But he had to.

      Cause his daughter was dying.

And she deserved to know about her mother.

But Bradley never expected to tell her so soon...

"Her name was Mia. Your mother's name was Mia."

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     Heart count 75 Beats per Minute.