Redemption (22 page)

Rebecca typed in
Sunnybrook and was immediately re-directed to the company’s website. 
Sunnybrook intensive drug rehab and detoxification hospital was a place for
recovering drug addicts.  In moments, she was in the car, a post-it note with
an address for the Sunnybrook center clutched in her hand and her bag spilling
across the passenger seat.   

She kept an eye
on the horizon as she drove, pushing the speed limit, and praying for clear
traffic and no speed traps.  Sunnybrook center was a good forty-five minutes
away, and the sun was sinking rapidly.  Was the day up at midnight?  Maybe, in
a more literal sense, it was up the minute daylight was over.  Or, she reminded
herself, maybe she had just lost her mind and none of this was real.

Her little
four-cylinder protested as she pushed it to go faster once she reached the
highway.  She muttered under her breath, cursing, praying, and worrying her bottom
lip between her teeth.  Rebecca was so busy watching the sun disappear that she
almost missed her exit.  She threw on her signal and merged without warning,
earning an irritated honk from the car behind her.  She didn’t have time to
turn around and come back.

When she arrived
at the facility, she reached for her bag.  The cat yowled, and darted out the
door the moment she opened it.  Probably for the best, she thought as she watched
its slinky shadow disappear around the side of the building.  There would
probably be security in a place like this, and a crazy lady toting a cat in her
bag was probably a red flag.

Sunnybrook
didn’t look like one of those really high-end places, but it looked tight all
the same.  She was met at the door by a greeter, and escorted to the front desk
and unceremoniously searched.  As the guard upended her purse onto a stark
white countertop and began sifting through her belongings, she addressed the person
behind the desk. 

“I need to see
someone named Isaac,” she drummed her fingers impatiently. 

The bored
nursing assistant looked up from her computer.  “Last name?” 

For one
terrifying moment, Rebecca drew a blank.  “Brennan,” she blurted, recalling it
at the last moment. 

The nurse gave
her a penetrating look.  “Are you family?”

Rebecca
hesitated.  The best way to get in to see him was probably to say yes.  But
what if they wanted proof? 

“Kind of,” she
said.  “I’m…”  She slipped her hands into her jeans pocket nervously.  Her
fingers met her wedding ring and she smiled, unobtrusively working it onto her
finger.  “I’m his fiancé.”  She held out her hand to show off the ring.

The nurse took a
deep breath as if bracing herself.  “Did someone call you, sweetheart?  I’m
glad they finally found some family.”

That threw her
off.  “Call me?  Um…”  She was getting a bad feeling about the way the nurse
was looking at her, her expression holding not so much suspicion as pity.

A loud beeping
echoed down the hallway to the left of the reception desk, and blue light began
to flash above one of the doors.  The nurse sprang to her feet to grab a box
from under the desk as a man in a long white coat came dashing out of a room
just down the hall.  His expression wasn’t panicked.  It was that expression
that you wear when you are beyond panic.  When things are so bad that you don’t
have time to panic.

Blue lights
continued to flood the shiny hallway outside the room and a couple more
personnel came running.  Rebecca’s heart clenched.  The last faint glow of
daylight had faded from the night outside the glass entry doors.  The world
seemed to contract as the chaos swirled around her.  She turned and followed
the nurse who was now handing the box to the doctor, Rebecca’s presence totally
forgotten. 

The nurse almost
ran into Rebecca when she turned around.  “You can’t come down here.”

Rebecca flung
herself under the startled woman’s outstretched arms and pelted down the
hallway toward the room where someone had just coded.  She slid to a halt just
outside the room, the security guard grabbing her upper arms in a vise-like
grip.  His face was grim, and he didn’t speak, just held on steadily while she
struggled.

“
Isaac!
” 
She shouted to be heard above the din.  “Is Isaac in there?” 

The nurse was
there at her other side, muttering things, placation that Rebecca refused to
accept.  She could only think of one thing.  She had been too late.  She hadn’t
believed.  She’s showered and sat drinking orange juice while Isaac was dying. 
She’d failed him.

Then the
flashing lights went out.  The chaos in the room seemed to settle, to hang on
breathless silence.  For one glorious moment, Rebecca knew this meant that he
was alive.  Then the doctor opened the door.  He spoke to the people behind
him, not seeing Rebecca in the hallway.

“I didn’t
realize he was a DNR,” he turned to hand the kit to the nurse holding Rebecca, “we
won’t need…”  his eyes fell on her and Rebecca ripped her arm out of the
guard’s grip.

“What does that
mean-DNR?  Isaac!”  She struggled to see past the doctor.  He held up his hands
in a staying gesture. 

“I’m sorry,
Miss.  Are you a relative?”  He placed a hand on her shoulder, trying to calm
her.  “Mr. Brennan has a do not resuscitate order in his chart.”

She drew back. 
“No,” she moaned, tears sliding down her cheeks.  This couldn’t be happening. 
Not again.  Something fluttered in her chest, struggling against the tide of
sadness that threatened to overwhelm her.

“I want to see
him!  Please,” she stared into the doctor’s tired brown eyes.  “Please!”

He sighed and
stepped aside.  There were two more staff in the room, and they moved out as
she walked in.

Hey lay
motionless on a hospital bed.  There were monitors and I.V.s hooked to him, and
she realized that the equipment wasn’t new.  The doctor had followed her
soundlessly.  He spoke in a hushed tone. 

“I’m sorry.  We
tried to notify the family that his vitals weren’t looking good these past
couple of days- but we couldn’t locate any contact information anywhere, either
here or at the local hospital.  Honey, he’s been in this coma for weeks.  Even
if he had woken up…”

He let the words
hang unsaid.  She knew what he meant.  He thought Isaac was better off dead,
that he would be brain damaged if he had survived.  But she couldn’t believe
that of the mind that had created a dream world with the depth and magic of
his.

The doctor
squeezed her shoulder and left the room.  That fluttering sensation was still
there, as if something was beating frantically at her chest, trapped and trying
to get out.

She put a hand
over her heart and went to sit beside Isaac’s bed.  His waxen face was thin and
gaunt, like the hooded man in his dream, but she could see him in there- the
Isaac she’d known.  He looked like he was sleeping. 

She took his
hand.  It was still warm, the illusion of life still clinging to him. 

“I brought you
your heart,” she whispered, tears still falling unchecked, leaving little spots
of moisture on the white sheet.  “I’m sorry I was so late,” her voice cracked. 
“I’m so sorry.  But I have it right here.” 

She lifted his
limp hand and placed it on her chest, where the heart was.  Without thinking,
she leaned forward and pressed her lips to his.  The heart within her flared to
life, and she was bathed in everything it possessed.  Hope, faith, and love
flooded her and she felt it- that glowing orb- leave her body.  She sat back,
shocked, as the fingers at her breast twitched, grasping her shirt, clinging to
her for dear life.

Isaac gasped,
his chest expanding violently.  Rebecca watched in amazement as he breathed. 
It was erratic at first- shallow and ragged- but then grew steady and paced. 
She clutched his hand, prying it off her shirt, and his fingers wrapped around
hers with surprising strength.

His eyes were
closed, but his beautiful, pale lips, turned up in a soft, angelic smile. 
Rebecca reached out and pushed the call button on the bedrail with a shaky
finger.  She recognized the nurse’s voice from earlier.

 “I’ll be right
down honey.”  Her tone was full of compassion.

Rebecca released
the button and squeezed Isaac’s hand.  “Don’t you dare think about trying that
again,” she said quietly. 

The nurse came
into the room, her face schooled into a comforting expression.  Rebecca glanced
over her shoulder.  “It’s okay,” she said in a ridiculously calm voice.  “He’s
alive.  He just needed me to bring him his heart.”

Then confusion
and chaos descended again, but Rebecca didn’t care.  She refused to let go of
the slender, emaciated hand that clutched hers as if it was the only thing holding
him to this world.

~~~~~

The pretty young
woman sat on Isaac’s bed and took his hand.  “I don’t remember too much from
when we were little.”  She cast a glance at her siblings.  “I think we’ve all
kind of blocked most of that out so we could move on.”

Her gaze
returned to her older brother.  “Most of my memories from back then are of
you.  You probably don’t remember this- you saved us all so many times.  Dad
was in one of his rages, breaking crap and carrying on about how he was stuck
with all these kids.  I remember him smashing grandma’s old china serving tray-
the one with the little blue flowers?  I was hiding under the table, and I
remember staring at a broken piece of china, wishing I was wherever those
little blue flowers grew.  Dad didn’t know I was hiding there.  No one knew
where I was.”

She gave his
hand a squeeze.  “But you knew.  You crouched down and pulled me out.  I
remember burying my face in your shoulder.  You carried me out and took us all
to grandma’s house until dad calmed down.  But you wouldn’t stay with us.  You
just smiled and said you had some stuff to do.”

She shook her
dark head.  “You’d already been gone all night, but you were off to do
something else.  Jessie was pulling at your pant leg, and all the other kids
were begging you to stay.  You just grabbed us all and hugged us, real hard,
then said to be good.  I remember thinking you smelled like perfume.”

There were tears
standing in her eyes.  “I was just a little kid.  I didn’t realize until I was
a little older that it was strange how my brother always smelled like a woman.”

Isaac flushed
and refused to meet her eyes, but she wasn’t deterred.  “You think you’ve
hidden everything from us, but we know.  Idiot.  We know how much you
sacrificed to save us.  And then you just go off in a corner somewhere to die
like a dog?”

Isaac looked
around the room, as if he was hoping for someone to save him from his sister. 
But they were ganging up on him.  The older girl put her hands on her hips and
glared at him.  “What?  Do you think you love us more than we love you?  You
think we wouldn’t help you if you’d let us?  If you’d just tell us where you
were?”

The middle girl
nodded.  “Jerk.  We’ve been looking for you for months.  How would you feel if
one of us just up and disappeared?”

The sister on
the bed lurched forward and wrapped her arms around Isaac’s waist, burying her
face in his chest as she finally gave in to tears.  Rebecca took this as her
cue to leave.  This wasn’t any place for an outsider.

As she eased the
door shut behind her, a smooth male voice spoke close by.  “They must be at the
crying part by now,” he said good-naturedly.  “I guess I’ll give it a few more
minutes.”

Rebecca stared
at the boy.  He was young, late teens, maybe twenty.  He was shorter, and his
eyes were green, but otherwise he was a younger version of Isaac. 

“Jessie?”  She
guessed. 

He nodded. 
“Yeah.  You must be Rebecca?  You’re the chick that helped him?”

Rebecca pushed
away from the door and ran a hand through her hair.  There was no way she could
explain to anyone just what had happened between Isaac and herself, but he’d
made it clear that she was the one who had forced him to call his family and
let them know where he was.  For whatever reason, just that little fact made
them treat her like his savior.

“Well, I didn’t
do much…”  She shrugged awkwardly and tried not to stare at him too hard.  He
was just so darned cute, with his holey jeans and piercings.  His layer of teen
angst was just that- a layer.  Rebecca could tell right away there was a core
of sweetness there, and she knew it was probably Isaac’s doing.

“Hey,” he said,
echoing her shrug, “we were all real worried about him.”  He looked down at the
floor and shoved his hands in his pockets.  “I missed the bossy old man.”  He
lifted his gaze and met her eyes with a kind of defiant air.  “Isaac says
you’re the reason he’s alive. Thanks.”

Rebecca just
couldn’t help it.  She reached out and pulled him into a fierce hug.  The poor
kid took it well, wrapping his skinny arms around her and patting her on the
back a few times before he disentangled himself. 

“Well,” he said,
blushing from his neck to the tips of his ears, “uh, I guess I’ll go in now. 
They’ve probably got most of the crying done now.” 

He paused with
his hand on the doorknob.  “You…you’re not going anywhere are you?”