All This Time // H.S. // A.U.

Chapter Thirty-Three

HARRY

I think in the past four days, I had relived that moment over and over. The uttter chaos and panic, the charged tension and energy radiating from everyone, the way Riley struggled against me, trying desperately to get to her mom.

Her scream.

It haunted me. Never had I heard anything like it, and the moment it left her body I had felt it burrow into my psyche. Everything in me wanted to protect her, save her from this pain, but there was nothing I could do but just be there. So I stayed. I almost never left her side, only when one of us had to use the restroom, or I went to get us some food or coffee. Most of the time we didn't even talk. Silence had become our best friend.

That first day was spent waiting. They had taken Carol away for tests the moment they felt she was stable enough to move. Hours and hours passed while they figured out exactly what had happened. I had texted Amanda at one point so that she was aware of what happened. She brought dinner that night, but neither of us ate that much. Stomaching anything after what we just went through was impossible.

We didn't leave the hospital that night. We weren't allowed back in her room while she was under observation, so we made ourselves as comfortable as possible in a waiting room. Riley didn't sleep a wink, and I had only slept for maybe an hour. When we woke up, Carol was still out of it, so we stayed by her bed.

Her doctor had come in with a cardio specialist to talk to Riley about what had happened. Apparently, she had suffered from a heart attack in her sleep. The surgery had strained her heart, and the chemo treatments had already weakened her whole body, so while the doctors were trying to stop it her heart had given out. They tried to assure us that it wasn't completely out of the ordinary, telling us some plan of treatment that was way over my head.

Carol had slept that whole day, something the nurse had said was a good thing. She needed sleep to heal, and all her vitals were right on track. They watched her more carefully this time around, but everyone seemed in high spirits every time they came back with good test results or whatever. None of it really made sense to me. All I knew was that her chest was moving up and down, so her heart was still beating.

Finally, once the sun had gone down, about twenty minutes before visiting hours were over, she opened her eyes. Riley had jumped out of her chair and went straight to her mom's side while I flagged down a nurse. Tears were in Riley's eyes, but she refused to let them fall in her mom's presence. The nurse had allowed us an extra hour, an hour spent with Carol speaking in slow quiet sentences. I was surprised she even had the energy to talk, but impossibly she seemed in better spirits than before.

She made me promise to get Riley home and in bed that night, so I took an unhappy Riley - clearly annoyed that she was being ganged up on by the two of us - home and forced her into a shower. I got more food delivered, and while she didn't eat a lot she still got something in her system.

After I had cleaned up, Riley's eyes following every move I made, I walked her to her bedroom. She didn't fight me, instead hugging me. Her arms wrapped around my middle out of nowhere and squeezed. I was so stunned that I didn't react until she had loosened her hold on me and started to back away. Before she got the chance, though, I regained my senses, and pulled her right back. I think we spent a solid five minutes just standing there in each other's arms.

After that, she went inside, and I trudged my way back to her couch. Within a few hours, she had woken me up out of my light sleep, and asked to sleep with me on the couch. Nodding lazily, I pulled her practically on top of my body, and sighed in contentment when she tucked her face into the crook of my neck. In seconds, we fell asleep, the comfort of our warm bodies lulling us into a deep sleep.