Cool Mom

75: Visitors

All five doctors, the best of their kind that Jeremy specially called in, agreed that Daniel needs to be given at least twelve hours to respond to his trauma before they can make any diagnosis or start a long course treatment.

Jeremy forced me to go home to Hazel, promising to keep me updated if anything changes during the night. Hazel had already been asleep by the time I got home so I had showered and tried to sleep but the empty bed made me cry and fearing that the stress would hurt the baby, I had padded down the hallway to Hazel's bedroom and curled up next to her. This helped me sleep, fitfully, but sleep nonetheless.

The minute Hazel was on school ground, I drove back to the hospital and that's where I have been all morning.

I watch the doctors move around on the other side of the glass, taking reading off machines and adjusting medications.

"Hey!" I hear someone call out.

I look to the doors to see that it's Mia.

"Mia." I simply say and stand up to accept her embrace.

"I'm so sorry that this is happening." She says as I take comfort in her touch. Having to comfort myself all of yesterday was very hard.

"Thank you for coming but how did you find out?" I ask her as we pull away.

"Your husband's assistant, Jeremy, right? The one who helped with Hamish's case." She asks.

"Yes. Jeremy." I nod.

"Well, he called and told me of how Daniel hurt himself and you are all alone dealing with it and that you're not well yourself. He wanted me to check up on you." She explains which tells me that Jeremy just wanted me to have someone. He didn't tell her anything other than what was necessary.

"Thank you for coming." I thank her again.

"No need for that. It's the least I owe you after all that you and Daniel did for me with Hamish and Hazel's a wonderful girl, she's always helping Ben whenever he gets stuck with something." She smiles at me.

"She does?" I ask, surprised.

Mia nods, "You didn't know?"

I shake my head, "Hazel always mentions Ben but never that she's helping him with his work."

"She's a humble little girl." Mia says making my heart feel warm for the first time since yesterday. "I brought breakfast." She holds up McDonald's coffees and hash browns.

We sit down at the seats in the room and share the food.

"How are you feeling now? Any better?" Mia asks.

I think it over for a second for saying, "Actually I'm not sick exactly."

"What do you mean?" She frowns.

"I'm pregnant." I sigh and tell her, lifting the weight of the secret off my brain.

"Oh." Is all she is able to say as she assesses my position in my mind and says exactly what I am expecting her to, "Did you rest?"

"Yes. I went home last night." I nod, taking a sip of my coffee.

"This must be so hard for you." She whispers, looking sad.

I just shrug and finish eating my breakfast as Mia asks, "How far along are you?"

"I'm nearing the end of my fourth month." I reply.

"Wow! I did not even notice!" She gapes at me.

"We've kind of been keeping it under wraps." I tell her.

"Oh! I won't say a word to anyone." She promises me.

"Thank you." I nod as she stands up to leave. I clamber to my feet too.

"I can pick up Hazel from school if you want me to." She offers.

"I don't want to trouble you. Hazel gets off an hour later than the rest of the school." I say.

She waves a hand, "No worries! Ben is on the relay swim team. He stays back too. It won't be any trouble."

"I'd really appreciate it." I thank her as I instruct her to just drop Hazel off at the house.

A few minutes after Mia leaves, one of the doctors walks out of the room to talk to me.

"Mrs. Aaron." He says to get my attention.

"Yes?" I ask.

"May I have a word?" He asks.

"Please." I say, motioning towards the seats where I'm sitting. He hands me the file that he was holding as he sits down.

"The team of doctors that your husband's assistant put together are some of the best in the country. The files contains their diagnosis and thoughts on how to progress."

"Okay." I say, tenderly opening the file to look at the first page which lists Daniel's biodata.

"His condition is extremely critical. His body was already unconscious when he hit his head on the floor, hence, he was unable to make any effort to protect his head. While his brain is unharmed, his head was hurt and he lost quite some blood in the time that he was transported to the hospital. His body is in a self-induced comma. He does not need life support because his body is perfectly heathy in terms of his sugar levels but now it is also up to it to decide whether it will allow him to wake up or not."

"What do you mean?" I whisper, tears stinging my eyes as I force myself to be brave.

The doctor replies, "There's nothing more we can do for Mr. Aaron except make sure his nutrition levels do not drop and that we monitor his sugar levels, regularly. He of course has to stay at the hospital because he will be regularly given drips of glucose. It's just a waiting game now."

My body is numb and I feel my head involuntarily nodding. The doctor takes the hint and walks away, leaving me alone as tears stream down my cheeks.

"Emma?"

The voice has me running to the doors as I throw myself into Martha's arms. Daniel's mother wraps her arms around me as I cry into her shoulder. When I pull away I wish I had composed myself because she too looks like she's seen a ghost. Her face reflects the pain she must be feeling in her heart for her son.

"How is he?" Arthur, Daniel's father asks.

It takes a good ten minutes to explain to them all that the doctor told me. Daniel's mother starts sobbing in the middle and I can only imagine the intensity of her pain. When Hazel gets sick, I worry myself sick. And this is something that Martha doesn't even know whether her son will ever recover from.

My head hurts. My heart hurts. Every bone in my body, every muscle in my body seems like its screaming in agony.

It causes me so much pain to put Emma through this :(

-T