The Haze

스물 일곱

27

Fifty Days Before

...

Luna knew on an intellectual level, that it was only a matter of time before things got worse for Grace. She also knew, that she had to be prepared for when they did. But she hadn't realised, that it would be so soon.

"Damage to the optic nerve nuclei on both hemispheres, has severely damaged your wife's vision, there's nothing we can do to restore it. I'm sorry."

Not until Grace was readmitted, for blindness.

Luna stood with Mr Adams in the ward's waiting room, the place dim and quiet in the early hours of the morning. The man seemed perplexed, and Luna was expecting a lecture or some verbal abuse, hence she was stood further away than she usually would when speaking to someone. 

She hadn't expected him to react in the way that he had, "she had been complaining of blurry vision..." Luna watched in shock as he broke off his sentence and began crying.

It dawned on her then that her patients vision had deteriorated gradually. Anger began to rise in her stomach, not only because the man in front of her hadn't listened to his wife's complaints but also because she as a doctor, had failed to notice it.

She exhaled to calm herself before the husband spoke again, his voice broken and heavy, "if I had listened... if you'd known earlier," he paused to wipe his eyes in a moment of embarrassment, "... would you have been able to stop it?"

Luna's eyes were threatening to close from exhaustion, her 10 hour shift beginning to take it's toll. She felt the anger quickly dissipate when she saw the brokenness in his eyes.

Luna paused before answering, and settled with saying the safest thing, "it's hard to say."

She left him alone in the waiting room, his sobs still being heard by her as she entered her patients room.

Grace was sat in the bed, eyes open and focused on the wall. Luna felt a great deal of grief for the woman she had come to know.

As she approached the side of the bed, her trainers hardly making a noise on the linoleum floor, her patient shifted upwards to greet her, "hello dear."

Her voice hardly came out as a whisper.

Luna took her hand as she sat down by her, "Grace why didn't you tell me?"

She paused before answering, "... it was probably going to happen eventually dear. Best to get it over with quickly." 

Because of the sadness and grief that Luna had felt on that night, she failed to realise, that the woman in front of her, was close to giving up.

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Severely unedited chapter!

I'm on holiday atm and wanted to get something out to hold the fort until I get back.