Unexpected

Part 11: Hello Again

"Not to mention you have a little girl you named after me who needs their father." Luna says.

"And a woman who loves you more than life itself. They all love you Max. They all deserve you and you deserve the chance to be truly happy." Looking at all three women, Max takes a deep breath and goes back to the window where Reynolds and his team work hard to save Max. "You have to decide now, Max. Us? Or them?"

***

She hasn't slept in days.

She hasn't eaten or drank in several hours and yet the growling in her stomach and ache in her blood shot eyes are not enough to pull her away from him.

"Helen, it's four in the morning- you need to go get some sleep." Lauren says as she comes in to visit her and Max on her break. Everyone is worried about Helen.

She's a statue of silent pain and no one knows how to cure her.

"I'm not leaving him."

"Darling- Reynolds has him on a vent. He's not waking up any time soon. He needs his rest and so do you."

"I've ruined everything, Lauren."

"Yeah- you told me three days ago after all this happened. You really need to lay down."

"I can't."

"I can bring you in a cot or..."

"I can't lie down. Or look away. Or leave." She says pained. "I have to be here because if I look away or sleep or move—I will lose him and I can't...I can't lose him."

"What if I sit here and watch him and you sleep?"

"No...no, I have to watch him. I have to be here when he wakes up."

"Helen- everyone is worried about you..."

"They shouldn't be. It's my fault he's in this mess. It's my fault his heart got damaged and needed a replacement. It's my fault his lungs collapsed. And it's my fault he thought I didn't love him because I was so consumed in myself and shit that I only made him feel like a disappointment and waste. So I can't leave Lauren. I have to be here...so Max...so Max will come back." Hating seeing her friend upset and crying, Lauren pulls Helen into her arms as she sits beside her on the small couch.

"He's gonna come back. Okay. He will and...and you can make things right." She says to her. "Reynolds says in a few days he should start coming back around. Then they'll take him off the vents and it'll be fine."

"Poor Luna...I bring her to see him and she does understand why he won't wake up. Daphne's depressed- blaming herself."

"So she was the one to text your dad?"

"Yes- deleted it cause he apparently threatened her- course he thought it was me- but still."

"As fucked up as your dad was- at least he did some good." They look at Max and sigh. "His heart is what's keeping Max alive. We're fortunate it took."

"That's the only thing I will ever appreciate about my father now. I still cant believe he would do such terrible things to anyone- let alone his own grandchild." Helen wipes her eyes and grabs a tissue to blow her nose.

"Do you think he really would have done it...killed you or Daphne?"

"Obviously I would have killed me. Max just stepped in front before he could. He's always been a little...off. That's why I lived with Mum in London. Fehrad was the one to reach out to me six years ago. When he was home he'd allow Daphne to FaceTime me on his phone because she needs to know a woman. Her mother died in childbirth and my step mum left my father. So she has had nothing of female influence except me. In a way- she is oddly like a part of me."