Until the Very End

Chapter 11

It was mid-morning the next day, and Meryl was starting to get worried about Don. Thankfully, the babies slept through the night which meant she and Don also slept through the night. However, he didn't even stir when the babies woke up that morning; and Meryl didn't have the heart to wake him up. After she learned the night before that he just didn't feel like himself, she thought he had run himself ragged trying to get the house and surprise ready for her, and she didn't want him to come down with anything so she let him sleep. She thought that surely when she fed the babies in bed that he would wake up, but nothing. She then took the babies downstairs so they wouldn't wake him up. She even made coffee thinking the smell of that would lure him awake, but he was still sleeping away. Once she laid the babies down in the den downstairs for their naps and making sure everything was locked and the alarm was on, Meryl decided to go upstairs and change out of her pajamas, but mainly she wanted to check on her husband.

***

Meryl wasn't prepared for what she saw when she walked into their bedroom-her husband gasping for air and his lips were blue. "DON! BABY!" Meryl ran over to him as his body was convulsing and it seemed like he was trying to cough. His eyes weren't even open. Meryl rubbed his chest which just made him cough harder. She didn't know what to do, but it sounded like he was going to choke to death. She climbed up next to him in bed and turned him so she could prop him up by sitting behind him. The tears were coming in a steady stream down her face, but she tried not to think about how scared she was at that moment; all she could think about was trying to save her husband. She rubbed his chest while talking in his ear. "I'm here, baby, just cough. I think you have some kind of shit in your lungs. Just cough, baby." Meryl didn't know if he actually heard her and did what she told him to, or if his body was just reacting on its own, but he coughed and coughed as his body continued to shake. "That's it, baby, I'm right here with you. Just cough and get that shit out." Meryl was not only concerned that he still wasn't coherent, but at what he was coughing up. It was thick and black. "Oh, my God, it's like tar...just like after 9/11."

***

Don drifted off to sleep as Meryl sat holding his hand in the chair beside his hospital bed, she fell asleep holding his hand while she sat in the chair with her head on his bed. Meryl was scared awake when she heard Don coughing and gasping for breath. She was at his side in an instant, holding his head in her hands as she was trying to find out what was wrong with her husband. "Sweetheart? What is it? What's wrong, baby?"

Don was wheezing, coughing and gasping. "Can't...breathe."

"HELP! HELP NOW!" Meryl screamed as she ran to the door then was right back at his side. She couldn't help but notice how red his face is. "Help is coming. Just try to breathe, baby."

Don continued to cough and cough. "HURTS."

"I know, baby." Meryl cried, hating seeing him like that. Then he started coughing up black, thick, mucus. "FUCK! HELP! HELP!"

Nurses came running into the room. "Mr., Mrs. Gummer."

"He woke up wheezing, coughing and not being able to breathe. Now he's coughing up all this black shit." Meryl cried as she continued to rub Don's back.

Third heard the commotion, as he had come back to see if they needed anything after taking Maeve and the kids back to their apartment, and ran in. "What happened?"

"Mrs. Gummer, we need room to work." The nurse said as they laid Don back.

Don was still gasping. "MERYL! DON'T. LEAVE."

"I'm right here, sweetheart, right here; I'm not going anywhere, baby." Meryl cried as Third held her.

Third held his sister tightly as he rubbed soothing circles on her back. "He'll be okay; we just need to let them work."