Breakeven

Chapter 5

The next morning I managed to get all the kids up and ready for school without them suspecting that anything was wrong.

"Make it a great day" I yelled to Adam, Jessica and Alleysha as they got out of the car at the school gates.

Once they were safely in school I went to pick Danny up from his mums hotel. He had told her some story about us having to go to a meeting about the tour so that she would have Keira for the day and he had took her over this morning. I pulled up outside the hotel and Danny jumped in the car.

"Did the kids get to school OK?" he asked.

"Yeah, they're fine, what about your mum?" I asked.

"Doesn't suspect a thing." he replied.

I hated all of these lies, but I knew that it wasn't our secret to tell. We headed to the hospital to see Glen before they take him down for his operation.

With the 6 of us together at the hospital, we laughed and joked together, nobody wanting to speak about why we were all here and to be honest, if Glen wasn't lying in a hospital bed you would never have known anything was wrong. That was until the surgeon came in to talk over the risks of today's operation and the stark reality of why we were here hit me full force.

As Glen signed the surgery consent forms, we were all brought down to earth with a bang. This was happening, and it was happening now. Although the surgeons seemed confident about the operation, we had all just heard the risks involved, and it wasn't good.

We only had a few minutes after the surgeon left. Sophie wrapped her arms around Glen, "I love you" she said as she choked back the tears.

"Don't do that" Glen snapped as he pulled out of their hug "Don't you dare say goodbye."

I bit down on my lip, urging myself not to cry. Danny wrapped his hand around mine and gently squeezed it.

Mark placed his hand on Glen's shoulder, "Good luck mate, we'll be here when you come back" he said simply.

Glen nodded and stretched his hand out to grab Sophie's, he pulled her back towards him. "I'm sorry" he said as tears welled in both of their eyes, "I love you too."

As Glen hugged Sophie, the porters came into the room to take Glen down to the operating theatre. We all stood back and watched dumbfounded as the bed was wheeled away down the corridor and I realised I may never see Glen again.

Sophie broke down immediately after Glen was moved. Danny went and wrapped his arms around her, pulling her into his chest and allowing her tears to soak his t-shirt. He stroked her hair gently as he tried to console her.

Now all we could do was wait, the operation would take at least 8 hours and during that time we would be completely helpless.

The wait was an anxious one, we sat in the hospital cafe drinking numerous cups of coffee and trying to make conversation about anything except the one thing that was on our minds. I didn't know enough about the operation to understand if there was a 'crucial point', all I knew is that Glen would be taken straight to ICU when the operation was over so we had to head up there at 6pm.

Danny called his mum at lunchtime with another cock and bull story about us being held up and asked her to pick the kids up from school and take them home. She was happy to do this for us but, from the faces Danny was pulling while he was on the phone, I have my doubts that she really believed the reasoning for it.

After what seemed like forever, we made our way up to ICU. We were early so we knew that Glen wouldn't be on the ward yet but we thought that a change of scenery might make the last part of the wait more bearable. How wrong we were!!!

We were taken to a waiting room that was for the ICU and I watched the other people in the room, some of them seemed like they had been coming here for months as they made themselves at home in the waiting room and I heard a conversation that lead me to believe that their loved one was in a coma, and had been for some time. Others were breaking down in tears and trying to console each other as they had come from seeing their loved ones for the first time since whatever tragedy had brought them to be here. The hospital had really tried to make this room homely, but I have to say it is probably the most depressing room I have ever sat in.

It was a little after 6 when a nurse came walking into the room and called Sophie's name. She struggled to her feet and I could see that she was sick with worry. Danny stood up and wrapped his arm around Sophie, helping her towards the nurse. They spoke for a short while before Sophie and Danny returned to join Mark, Rina and I who were anxiously awaiting news.

"He's just got onto the ward now." Danny told us. "They're getting him comfortable and then we can go and see him. The nurse said they only allow 3 people at the bedside but Ive talked her round and she's going to let us all in for 10 minutes but then we have to stick to the 2 at a time rule."

I smirked to myself, it was just like Danny to use his charms to get whatever he wanted but on this occasion, it was worth it.

The nurse returned and nodded over to Danny, indicating that we could go onto the ward now. We all stood up and followed her. The beeping of the life support machines was hugely distracting as I walked down the ward and I couldn't help myself from looking at the patients in the beds, wondering what had brought them to be here. I exchanged sympathetic looks with their visitors at the side of the beds as I passed and braced myself for what would be waiting when we reached Glen's bedside.

We stopped at the end of the ward and sat up in the corner bed was Glen. He looked like nothing was wrong with him as he smiled when he saw us all.

"Now come on in" the nurse said " I'll just pull the curtain round to give you some privacy"

I'm not sure about giving us privacy, I think she was just wanting to hide the fact that we are clearly breaking their visiting rules.

"You look well" Sophie said, showing her relief when she saw Glen. Aside from the machines that he was connected to that were monitoring him constantly, he didn't look ill and he certainly didn't look like he had just spent 8 hours in an operating theatre. Glen smiled back at Sophie but he was clearly still feeling the effects of the anaesthetic as his eyes seemed heavy.

I hugged Glen, grateful that he had made it through the operation. Then Mark and Danny started asking him everything about the op and even started to inspect his head where the surgeons had to shave it to carry out the operation, they joked with him just like they always did and it totally took away the anxiety of the day.

We spoke briefly to Glen's consultant who confirmed that he was doing better than they had expected and told us that he would be moved from ICU tomorrow and probably discharged within a couple of days. I could barely comprehend what I was hearing, Glen was going to be OK.

The nurse returned with a cup of tea for Glen and took his order for dinner before turning to us and saying "10 minutes is up, I'm afraid 3 of you need to go".

We decided to leave Glen and Sophie for the night, promising to visit again and reassuring Sophie that she could call us anytime if she needed anything. As I hugged Sophie she whispered, "Thanks for today, I couldn't have got through this without you." I really didn't feel like I had done anything but maybe just being here showed Sophie that she wasn't alone.