xv. something med school didn't cover

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chapter fifteen ━ sanctuaryseason six, episode twenty three

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chapter fifteen sanctuary
season six, episode twenty three

❝ out of all the things i thought
might happen today, this would be
incredibly low on the list. ❞



When Aliya was four years old, her pet goldfish died.

Trent had found her in her bedroom with the tank on her lap, her small hands tightened around the edges of the glass as she stared into where the goldfish was, upside down along side the cave she had bought with her pocket money a few weeks prior.

She explained to her older brother that the fish was simply sleeping, and she wanted to keep it company. Trent didn't have the heart to tell her that her beloved fish and first ever pet was dead.

Sure, there was Sprinkles the cat, but that cat hated the four year old girl.

An hour later her mother flushed it down the toilet, explaining rather angrily in a very condescending manner that she couldn't have a dead fish in her bedroom.

Three years later, Aliya's great grandmother died, where the 'speech' about death followed shortly after.

The one valuable life lesson she received from her parents was their take on death. By valuable, she meant she learned what not to tell her own kids or other children when she found herself in the situation of having to explain death to a tiny human.

Travis Levine at first described death as a long nap, confusing Aliya and everyone at the funeral when she attempted to wake her great grandmother up.

Molly had then taken the reins, pulled Aliya to the side by her elbows, setting her down on a dining room chair as she sat opposite her, their knees touched as she told her daughter that death wasn't in fact a long nap.

It was where a person simply stopped existing, and you never got the chance to see that person again. They were simply gone from this world. One thing Aliya couldn't argue with was that at least her mother didn't tip toe around basic facts like her father did.

Several years after Trent's wife died, her nephew, James, asked her what death actually was.

Aliya thought about it for a moment, knowing that her parent's separate explanations weren't enough on their own.

She described death to her nephew as when something happens to a person which means they don't come back. They were gone. It was simple, really.

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