My Sister's Keeper

13

I realized something this past weekend. It wasn't an aha moment when everything just snapped into place. Life doesn't work like that. People won't magically forget everything that has happened to them. They aren't magically transformed into a person that they're happy with. But, the realization is good. It puts everything in perspective. Your life isn't over. Everything is going to be okay. The pain slowly dulls, the scars fade, the tears lessen. Your thoughts don't bring pain anymore. Forgiveness is a powerful thing. Maybe you don't forget, but you forgive. You reach your arms up in surrender. You'll always love them. You wouldn't be human if you didn't. And, no matter what happens, your true friends, your family, will always support you in all of it. They'll remind you of the realization when it slips you. They keep you standing. They keep you fighting.

Cassie was beyond excited. She was finishing the rest of her Med Academy application. She was almost positive that she had gotten in, seeing as she was a photographic memory genius with a perfect school record and Grey as a last name. Any surgeon who saw her name would almost immediately accept her, even if she wasn't also a genius.

She stared at the board during her chemistry class. This was so incredibly boring. Usually, she would pay attention to the teacher and answer all of his questions so he wouldn't feel bad about the rest of the class not understanding, but today trying on something so pointless seemed, well, pointless.

Cassie smiled the rest of the day. She couldn't wait to go home and celebrate with the family. It wasn't like she had friends to celebrate with. Although, there was a high possibility that the three adults and the three younger children would not be home for a while. Cassie would probably have the house to herself.

Cassie let herself into the house and threw her backpack on the chair. She let herself flop onto the couch. Turning on the tv, she settled on reruns of Bewitched. She wasn't really in the mood to do any homework. She needed a break.

Jolted awake by the sound of her phone ringing, Cassie rubbed her eyes and reached for her phone on the coffee table. It was almost eight o'clock. She had been asleep for four hours. And no one was home yet. She knew they were surgeons, that things came up, emergency surgeries, patients that needed to be monitored. But someone had to bring the kids home unless they were with anyone else in the surgeon family.

Something had happened. She knew it in her gut.

"Hey, Maggie. What's up?"

"Can you drive to the hospital? I know we were a bit iffy on letting you drive, but..."

Cassie cut her off. "No. It's fine. Where are the kids?"

"They're here with me and Alex."

"What happened?

"Listen. Take my car. Come over here."

Cassie clenched her fist. Something was wrong. And whatever it was, they weren't going to tell her over the phone.

The kids were with Maggie and Alex, which meant that something happened to Amelia and Meredith. Maybe they had gotten into a fight so big that one had killed the other. Maybe there was another mass casualty. A shooting. A bomb. A plane crash.

Cassie grabbed the keys and ran out, locking the door behind her. It didn't even occur to her that this was the first time she had driven a car since she had gotten into the plane crash when she first came to Seattle. Meredith, Amelia, and Maggie had asked her if she was ready to retry driving with them in the car first, but she had been too terrified. Someone had crashed into her side of the car. She had had injuries. But for Meredith or Amelia, she would drive.

It took her twenty minutes to get to the hospital. Once she got there, she took the liberty of parking in Maggie's parking spot (head of cardio perks) and basically sprinted through the glass doors of the hospital. She looked around. She needed one of the surgeons that knew her. There were like twenty of them, so it should be fine. It would be fine!