A Second Chance [COMPLETED]

Chapter 42 - "I got ten minutes with Hunter."

Lennon looked up at Kade. He sat across from her on the floor, the image of him a kaleidoscope behind her tears. She wasn't sure how they had ended up on the floor. As their eyes met, she became aware of where she was and who she was with. Dropping her eyes, she pushed herself up into a straighter sitting position and hurriedly wiped away her tears. She took a few deep breaths and tried to get a hold on the memories of Hunter.

"Hunter was in a car crash," she finally said, her voice making waves through the silence.

She kept her eyes down, playing with the hem of her dress as the terrifying memories came back to her.

"A car lost a tire on the freeway and caused the cars around it to react and swerve. A big SUV merged right into Hunter. It pushed him into the car on his other side," Lennon said, repeating the words a police officer had used, his face still firmly etched into her mind.

Lennon felt the same vacant chill that had swallowed her back then begin to creep up her arms.

"The EMTs were able to get Hunter to the hospital and into surgery, but he had too much internal bleeding. There was nothing they could do."

Her voice shook and no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't stop it.

"They were able to stabilize him. When he came out of surgery we got a chance to say goodbye. I already didn't like hospitals because of my mom. The smell of alcohol in the cleaners trying to mask the smell of death. Walking in the front doors was like walking into hell."

She shuddered involuntarily as she remembered the squeaking linoleum floors and fluorescent lights that made everyone look on the verge of death.

"They let Charlotte and Deacon in first to see him," Lennon said. "I can't tell you how long I had to wait because it felt like days. Trapped in a seat out in the hall, a few yards away from Hunter and unable to reach him."

A nurse had tried to lead her back to the waiting area but she had refused. The small distance between her and Hunter already painful enough. There must have been something in her eyes because the nurse hadn't fought her, but instead brought her a chair.

"I don't think I've ever felt so close to insanity as I did that day. Waiting outside the room where the person I loved was dying and being unable to see him. By the time Charlotte and Deacon reappeared, it felt like I had aged years."

She hadn't been able to look them in the eyes. She hadn't wanted to see their fear and grief.

"I tried to put on a strong front. I didn't want Hunter's last moments filled with worry. Looking back now, it seems like an empty and impossible thought, but impending death doesn't breed logic."

Silence fell over Lennon and Kade. Lennon hadn't pulled these memories from their box for a while. Faint echoes of Hunter still danced throughout her life. The line of a song or an old story inviting his ghost in for a short visit. But she hadn't called up the bad memories in a long time.

Lennon let her focus fall back on Kade. He wore a concerned look which softened when their eyes met.

"I got ten minutes with Hunter," she said.

Her mind pulled up images of the hospital room. The cold, metal machines. The beeps that seemed to scream the seconds that were slipping through their fingers. Hunter.

"How are you suppose to fit into ten minutes what you thought you would have a lifetime to say?" she asked.

Her resolve to stay strong for Hunter had cracked at the sight of his battered features, the face that had become as familiar as her own, swollen, cut and bruised. She had been scared he wouldn't even seem like her Hunter until she had looked into his eyes. Even in the pain, light hadn't left his eyes.