Jesse's Girl 2: The Final Chapter

Chapter Seven

Quick note; in a previous chapter when Chloe's injuries were listed I stated that she had a broken spine. I have decided to change that because I know what that's like and it would be too much on top of the shattered femur, she would need way too long to properly recover in order to so much as sit up with a broken back. That won't bare well with the story line so instead she's got a severely broken arm as well as a snapped femur, both casted and the arm in a sling. And she'll have a neck brace for a bit from both whiplash and a bit of a sprain. Now, what you came here for!

Darkness. That was all she could see. She slowly moved forward, her hands out in front of her feeling the way to ensure a clear path. The air was a bitter cold, but she didn't notice. Her heart rate was rising rapidly, as was her body temperature, fear had consumed her. She kept pressing forward, hoping to find something, anything more the darkness that blinded her. Just when she thought it hopeless she caught a glimpse. It looked like a door with a ray of light shining through a small window. She ran for it, the slap of her bare feet on the ground below ricocheting through the emptiness, and threw it open. The darkness was swallowed by a light so bright that it nearly burned her eyes. She was in a familiar room now, the air was still cold but the emptiness was filled with one single bed in the middle of the floor, the silence swapped for the sound of rhythmic beeping. She didn't move for a while, her eyes locked on the sole object. She could guess as to what awaited her and she did not want to approach it but, as if they had a mind of their own, her legs began to carry her forward. She felt the warm sting on her cheeks at the sight of her mangled child lying motionless in the bed, machines of all sorts connected to the tiny body with a variety of wires and tubes. She opened her mouth but was unable to create any sound. In lieu of speaking she reached out to caress a tiny cheek but just before she made contact everything became a blurry ball before her eyes. Her head darted in every direction, searching for some sense in the mess. Beeping faded to quiet mumbling, her surroundings snapped back into focus and she stumbled back at the transformation. Where a bed was previously was now a tiny coffin and what was once a hospital room was now the unhappy visuals of a funeral home. Slowly she retook her earlier position, keeping her eyes focused on the wall behind the casket. Her breathing was quick as she attempted to regulate her racing heart then dragged her gaze down until--

She jerked up with a loud gasp, her skin soaked in a cold sweat. She patted around frantically then tugged sharply when her hands found was they had been searching for. Light filled her surroundings and a long sigh of relief escaped her lungs at the familiar bedroom. None of it was real. It was all just a dream. A nightmare really, but fictitious nonetheless. She checked her phone for assurance then dropped backed onto her pillows. She's alive. She told herself as she lay staring at the ceiling, leisurely recollecting her frayed nerves. It's been a little over a month since that earth shattering day, that's about when the nightmares started. At first they were few and far between, but as the days added up with no change to her daughter's condition they began recurring more and more often. Each one was worse than the last but they all ended the same way. The longer her daughter lay there with no signs of ever waking the more real the nightmares become.

A small movement next to her pulled her from her thoughts. Her head fell to the side and she peered at the tiny body in the space beside her. She had spent weeks in the hospital alternating between her wife and her daughter, not wanting to leave either girl's side. Her daughter's condition remained steady while her wife's began to improve it wasn't until then that she finally let herself feel the exhaustion. Though she didn't necessarily want to leave the hospital she began to spend more nights at home. She still had a healthy child to care for and it wasn't healthy for him to be nonstop cooped up in a place like that. That mixed with being passed back and forth between family members, Beck began to act inconsolable. He knew he wasn't able to see his sister and mom for a while but he couldn't understand why his mommy wasn't around as much as she should be either. Despite wanting so bad to be there for Chloe and Anne, she took Beck home. She couldn't do anything more for the girls, but she could Beck and it was about time she was there for him, too. She wasn't able to soothe herself back to sleep, she rarely could in these instances, so she just lay there silently watching her son as he slept peacefully through the night. The morning sun slowly peeked in through the windows and it was time to repeat the same day that she had been living for nearly two months.