kindred

Chapter 28 : Flatline

But what really took his attention was her chest. Addie still had a childs body, she hadn't started puberty yet so her bare torso wasn't exposing anything. But that wasn't what Elijah cared about. 

A fresh 12 inch scar was freshly cut down her chest, covering a large portion of her tiny torso. The cut was covered in bandages but blood was visibly seeping through. Thick holes had been made for tubes to drain blood from her chest, Elijah winced as blood poured from one. 

Her old scars on her chest from previous surgeries was being overlapped by this horrifically fresh new one. Elijah felt tears well up in his eyes from how poorly his little sister looked. 

Despite all the machines she always managed to look like an angel. Her blonde curls, although knotted, were splayed away from her forehead. Her large blue eyes gently closed and her smooth pale skin peeked out behind the ventilator between her blue tinged lips. She honestly did look like a little cherub.

James' most recent heart surgery was when he was 6, the oldest 3 remembered how awful he looked, but Elijah didn't. He didn't remember how pale and ill they looked, it was a shock to his system. 

The monitoring screens all around her bed reflected white and blue LED lights on to her, making her look even paler. 

Although Elijah knew he wouldn't hear her he squatted down near her head, slowly running his fingers through her tangled hair.

"Hey half-pint. You gave your brothers a bit of a scare back there." he chuckled, he was quite enough so the others didn't hear him. "When are ya' going to open those angel-eyes huh?"

Elijah was joined by Joe who had come up next to him, Elijah allowed them to swap places so he could speak to his sister.

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Adeline's head was pounding, it felt like elephants were jumping on her brain. Someone was stabbing her chest with knives and her lungs felt heavy. A lighting rod was being traced over her skin. 

She slowly cracked her eyes open, before tightly shutting them, the blinding lights causing spots on her vision. She tried again, this time more slowly, as she became accustomed to the ceiling she gently tried to move her feet, her legs felt like complete dead weight.

Elijah had noticed the slight movement as he rushed to her side, he gently pulled the arm away that was trying to grab the ventilator from her mouth.

"Hey, hey Addie, don't move okay?" he muttered coaxing her hand away, silent tears streamed from her eyes and trickled down the side of her face. "Don't cry baby, you did so good."

The nurse who had been in the room monitoring Addie neared her, checking her ventilator and all the other necessary bits. She began to tear up even more when the women was checking her incision, Elijah sent her a glare even though he knew it was unavoidable.

Adeline was watching the nurse with apprehension not sure what she would do next.

"Heyheyhey, darlin' look at me okay? You were so brave Addie." he continued to stroke her hair, lulling her back to sleep.

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Adeline kept drifting in and out of consciousness, the anaesthetic and sedation making her sleepy, it wasn't until the next day at 2pm did she fully come around. She had been out since 8:30am the previous day and so felt extremely groggy.

She didn't move for another 3 hours, just had her eyes cracker open ever so slightly as her brothers fussed over her. Even if she wanted to she couldn't move, she was still attached to all the tubes including the ventilator. 

James, Riley, Thomas and Harry came to visit her in the afternoon, they only stayed for half an hour before she fell back asleep. Joe and Elijah had gone home that previous night to shower and sleep whilst Harlan stayed with the sleeping Addie. 

Now Harlan went home to sleep whilst Harry and Elijah stayed. Elijah had never seen Harlan so on edge or his hair in such disarray. 

He was extremely stressed however little he showed it. When a child has an illness, it's a family illness. Their family will feel their pain in a different way, effecting the family dynamic. All of her brothers were on tenterhooks, whilst she was still in the ICU none of them could relax.

After Harry forced Harlan and the other 4 to go home he and Elijah settled on the two uncomfortable plastic chairs. She was still exhausted and in huge pain so was sleeping a lot. Elijah hated seeing the tears forming in her eyes from the pain, he was helpless. 

Elijah watched a film on his laptop, every few seconds glancing at his sister to ensure she was still breathing. 

He didn't know what happened. It was so quick. 

He must have fallen asleep at some point. 

He jerked away by the rapid succession of beeps and alarms. He jolted up, the monitors above her head going crazy. 

His heart stopped when he noticed the heart monitor had a flat line.

James used to call them death beeps. 

When you hear them going off in the PICU, you pray. 

You pray that the other child pulls you. 

And you are thankful that it's their child and not yours. You cruelly thank god for that. 

And now it was her.

Immediately people rushed into the room, a code blue being called on the announcement.

Elijah's face paled as he was ordered out the room, for once not bothered about being ordered. He immediately clung to Harry in the hallway, something he hadn't done since he was about 12.

"Harlan you need to come back." Harry panicked down the phone line as he held his brother with the other hand.

"What?"

"They had to call a code." Harry's voice gave an almost unnoticeable crack, something that rarely ever happened.

"SHIT" he heard fumbling on the other end of the line before it went dead. Harry watched as more people ran in with a bag of blood and dropped his head into his hands, clutching at his little brother. 

"It's okay Lijah. Its okay. She'll make it, I know she will" 

"I told her she'd be fine. And look at her now" He cried. They both turned their heads to watch a doctor pumping up and down on her lifeless chest. 

Harry finally spoke up "She's a fighter" 

A.N./ DOUBLE UPDATE IN HONOUR OF THE NEW YEAR!!  (almost a double update👍)