Crash and Burn

chapter 2

"Your son suffered a prolonged grand mal seizure and was in a medically induced coma."

"Was?"

"We put him in a 'drug' induced coma to control the pressure dynamics of the brain, but we have removed the medication, yet he isn't waking up"

"So, what are you saying?"

"Either your son is taking a little longer to wake up, or he might never wake up."

Luke could hear his dad's gasp. He could see his mom stubble back into his father. He could feel Amber's tears. He could sense Tyler's shaking body. There was never a time in his life he wanted to wake up more.

'Wake up! Wake up! Wake up!' He yelled at himself. 'Please. Please wake up.'

***

Over the next few weeks his feeling didn't change. Everything was still shut, and darkness surrounded him, but he could feel himself slipping. He had no idea where to. He had a lot of visitors, but he didn't know. All he could feel was the constant grabbing of his hand, and someones hand cupping his face or running their finger through his hair.

Thomas stood by his son's bedside, glaring at the wires that kept his son alive. He wanted nothing more than having those wires out and his son awake and happy. He slowly lifted his face and ran his fingers through Luke's hair.

"Lucas... Buddy. If you can hear me, if you can feel my hand at all, please squeeze my hand. Okay?" Thomas whispered gently putting his hand into Luke's limb grasp.

He waited and waited for nothing to happen, not even a twitch. Thomas couldn't even be bothered to hold back his tears, fearing the absolute worst for his son.

A knock on the door has Thomas whipping his head to the door as he hastily wipes away his tears.

"Oh, hey Bethany I didn't even see you. How are you?"

"Um as good as I can be right now."

"I'll leave you two alone then." Thomas said, leaving his seat next to Luke and walking up to Bethany

"Hey, don't be discouraged, okay?" Thomas asked, patting Bethany's shoulder in support.

"Okay" She nodded.

She shakily made her way next to Luke's bed. She didn't even want to breathe too deep in fear that she would blow him away. His build unusually fragile, sullen and pale, not at all like the upbeat, strong Luke she knew. She immediately pushed away those thoughts. Of course he wasn't the Luke she knew, the Luke she knew was in a coma. This Luke was just for decoration.

Bethany slowly sat down in the seat, leaning over to lay her head on Luke's chest, avoiding the multiple wires attached to him. Tears slipping down her face fell onto Luke's hospital gown, but she didn't even acknowledge it as she gazed up at his face, hoping for him to miraculously open his beautiful blue green eyes.

Bethany bit back a sob as she traced the plentiful scars on his face and collarbone. She didn't know what to say. How could her best friend of 15 years be so unrecognizable.

"Please come back to me Lulu. We were supposed to go to college together, me, you and Ethan. Run away to the park on our graduation day and take pictures that we could show our kids and brag about how rebellious we were. We were supposed to grow old together, remember. You can't leave me. Not now, not when we're this far in. Please?" Bethany whimpered into his chest.