What He Wouldn't Give (Unedited Version)

Chapter One: A Year Ago...

A Year Ago...

 As they were headed back to Stacy's room a nurse caught them. "Mrs. Carter has been moved into surgery at the moment Mr. Carter and son." She informed them bringing them back to the waiting room. Eli sat down pulling out his phone doing something to pass the time until something happened. On the other hand Luke walked down to the cafeteria and found the nurse who was taking care of Stacy and sat down across from her.

"Good afternoon Mr. Carter," the nurse looked up from her sandwich, "what brings you to me?" Looking at her nametag, 'Miss Harker', "I was actually wondering if you knew anything about my wife's medical condition?" The calmness in his voice covered his irritation and anger. Miss Harker began with telling him what she could, "Early this morning Stacy began to go into cardiac arrest, we got her out of it then she was prepared for surgery because she apparently had a tumor in her brain, and all I know is that they are trying to remove it. I will update you on her status after surgery." He nodded, "Thank you Miss Harker," and with that he left to head back to the waiting room and sat quietly next to Eli.

The noise of the receptionist fingers quickly filled the waiting room and Luke couldn't handle it. "Eli, I'm going to run out for a second, are you okay here?" When he got a nod from Eli he got up and walked out to his truck having no clue where he would possibly go. Deciding on a place he put the truck into reverse and went on his way. Eli got tired of the game he was playing and walked down to the cafeteria to get a change of scenery, yet it wasn't that much of a change. White walls, that hospital stench, and the noise of machines and silence seemed to be everywhere he went, he would be so happy when he could go home, including the place where people were eating.

Slowly, but surely the time went by and his father wasn't back yet.

Eli was actually getting hungry, however, he had no money. Sitting in the cafeteria was mocking him and he got up to leave when someone found him and brought him into one of the doctor's office telling him go sit and a doctor would be in soon to talk. Eli sat patiently wondering what was going on when someone else's words cut off his thoughts.

"Young Mr. Carter I presume." A guy with graying hair directed at Eli. Eli nodded, "My father should be back he had to run out earlier." The doctor sat down at his desk pulling out a file, "Your mother was Stacy Mai Carter, age forty-five, lives with you and your father," he paused and Eli nodded, "she was admitted to the hospital after violently collapsing to the floor yesterday." Eli got this feeling that this conversation was quickly turning into something bad.

Luke had gone to the store and picked up a thirty pack of beer and went home and he began to drink. After his fifth he stopped and then passed out forgetting about Eli at the hospital. Only to wake a few hours later to his phone ringing, he got up to answer it and it went to the voice mail. "Hey dad, it's Eli. I don't know if you're home or not. Please call back or come to the hospital the doctor has some news for you. Bye dad." And the dial tone continued until the message ended.

Throwing the empty cans in the recyclables and getting a shower and returning to the hospital to find Eli waiting for him. They walked silently back to the doctor's office. "Mr. Carter, I have some news for you and I waited to tell your son when you got here. Your wife, his mother past away before surgery even began. The tumor we had found in her brain was cancerous and the cancer had spread, killing her slowly." Then Mr. Carter's voice cut in, "STOP!" cutting the doctor off.

Eli's face portrayed no emotions, nothing at all, sitting in disbelief. "She can't be," was all that he could say. Luke was angry, this certainly couldn't be happening, he was waiting for someone to tell him that this was a prank gone wrong. Yet, the only thing that spoke loud and clear was silence. "I'm sorry, yet we do need to know if you want us to perform an autopsy or just keep her body in the morgue for now." The doctor casually asked.