I Will Always Love You {Linstead}

Hour After Hour

Erin was shocked. She sat in her bed and was paralyzed, feeling a tear running down her cheek, followed by more tears that made their way down her cheeks. She had to process all the information she had just received. After sitting on her bed for five minutes, paralyzed and crying, she wiped her tears away and picked herself up. She went to her closet, took a suitcase and without thinking, stuffed everything she thought she needed into the suitcase. When she was done she took a deep breath and tried to calm down. She went out of her bedroom and into her daughter's room. Erin slowly opened the door and whispered to her daughter 

" Hey, my sweetheart, wake up" 

"Mommy,  it's the middle of the night, isn't it?" a sleepy, soft voice replied. 

"We're going on a little trip, so please get up and pack a few things, I can help you with that, too" 

"okay mommy" 

The little girl got up and started packing a few things with Erin when she asked "Mommy, where are we going?" 

" eh..we're going to Cleveland" 

"Why?" 

"Because...I got some important stuff to do there and we're gonna go meet some people. Ok Malia?" Malia. Her beautiful, two-year-old daughter. Erin brushed a strand of her brown, silky, wavy hair from her face. Her hair was from her mother, but her freckles and bright blue eyes were clearly from her father. Malia smiled at Erin.Even her smile reminds Erin of him, her great love, Jay Halstead.

"Okay." , Malia answered.

When they were done packing, they got ready to leave. Erin closed the door and called an Uber. After a 15-minute drive, they arrived at the airport and went to their gate.The boarding started and later they took off. During the flight Erin remembered a conversation she and Jay had many years ago.

J- "Erin, Erin. I'm gonna tell you what I would tell you a year from now, two years from now, twenty years for now......Do your thing babe!"

E- "You're amazing."

J- " Oh yeah!"

A tear slowly began to run down Erin's left cheek, but she quickly wept it away with the back of her hand.

--------------------Szene change-----------------

After landing, they went straight to the baggage pickup and took their suitcases. Erin called an Uber who took them directly to the Cleveland Clinic. When they got there, she helped her daughter out of the car, took the luggage and they went to the hospital as fast as they could. When they went through the main entrance, Erin suddenly stopped. She started shaking. Once she calmed down she took her daughter's and went to the reception. 

Erin said "Um... Hello. I-I'm Erin Lindsay, I got a call earlier... because..." The nurse cut her off. 

"Oh good, I'm Paula I called you. If you would please follow me." 

They walked down an aisle, and Paula said " You can put your bags here, and do you want your daughter to come with you, or should we take her to day care?" 

"She can come with me" The nurse nodded. 

"Mommy, what are we doing here? I don't like hospitals.", Malia asked. 

"We're visiting someone who's hurt and really important to me. I know you don't like hospitals, sorry sweetheart." Erin turned back to the nurse. 

" So how is he? What happened? Where is he?" 

"He's still in O.R., we don't know what happened to him, but we found two gunshot wounds and multiple internal hemorrhages, That's all we know." Erin went silent and didn't know what to say. At the end of the aisle, Paula said, "this is the waiting area,please wait here. I'll come by regularly and give you an update on Mr Halstead's condition." 

"Thank you" Erin sat down on one of the grey seats, Malia climbed on her lap and they waited.As they waited, Malia fell asleep in Erin's arms while Erin stroked circles on her back with her hand. Hours passed by and more and more memories of the times with Jay came back to Erin and she started crying silently. Suddenly the door to the waiting room opened and a doctor came in. 

"Family of Jay Halstead?" 

"Uh... yes,I-I'm his emergency contact...eh...h-how is he?" Erin gets up and continues to hold Malia in her arms.

" He had a gunshot wound to his left collarbone, the bullet lodged, severely damaging an artery, it was very hard to get it out, and he went into cardiac arrest once, but we were able to bring him back successfully. The second gunshot wound was in his upper left arm, it was a through and through and we don't think the bullet caused any other injuries in his arm. We also suspect a severe concussion." 

"Oh, my God, this can't be true, I-I can't believe it. W-will he be okay?" 

" We think he'll be fine,but since we don't know what happened to him,we can't say for sure. He's in his room now, we're waiting for him to wake up. Do you want to see him? 

"oh..uh..yes please." Erin wasn't sure what to do or what to tell him when he wakes up. The doctor and Erin who held Malia still in her arms, made their way to Jay's room. They walked down a long corridor until they arrived at room 537. The Doctor interpreted Erin that she can go inside. Erin went in slowly inside and when she saw Jay lying in his bed, his face covered with scratches, intubated and hooked up to tons of machines, she lost her breath. Shaking she walked on and carefully put Malia on a chair opposite the hospital bed, the little girl moved briefly but continued sleeping peacefully. Erin walked up to Jay's bed and looked at him. His freckles were hard to see because scratches covered them and his skin was deadly pale.

 "Oh my God Jay. What happened to you?" Erin said in a whiny voice.

 Jay was still not awake. Tears started rolling down her cheeks again. She carefully took his hand in hers and sat in the chair that was right next to his bed.

Hey guys ;) Thank you for reading. Please let me know if you liked it or not. I hope you enjoyed it:)