The Cookie Lady [Complete]

46

* I am not a medical professional, my expertise is in the Criminal Justice Field so all you medical professionals, save your think pieces for Greys Anatomy, I do not care to know all the medical lingo for a fanfiction book LOL😭.

| Emory Hospital |

"H-hi." Zac stated to get the nurses attention at the little front desk area. "I'm here to see Louis Alexander Rossi." He rested his hands on the elevated counter while the nurse clicked away at the keyboard. "And what is your relation to the patient sir?" She asked looking up from the desktop. "He is my father."

"Room 333." She stated standing up and leaning over the counter to give him directions. "You are gonna walk down this hallway, make a right, and then it's the second door on the left." She instructed before pager went off. "Excuse me." She walked away.

Zac grabbed Fatima's hand as they made their way down the hall, a number of things rushing through both of their minds as they got closer to the room. Finally making it to the room, Zac let out a deep sigh before knocking and then waiting a few moments before entering.

"Oh I thought you were the doctor." Veronica stated half-way standing up, she walked over to both of them giving them both hugs. "Sorry to ruin your vacation but when he was rushed in last night, they stated he may not live to the morning and I didn't wanna wait another second without letting you know." She explained.

Junior looked up from his iPad, jumping off the seat, and running towards Fatima. "Mommy!"

"How is he?" Fatima asked, picking Junior up and planting a few kisses on his head. "He's stable for right now...but it's still up in the air." She uttered going back to her original seat next to Richard who stood up to hug them as well. Zac looked around the room. "Where is Momma Cheryl?"

"You just missed her maybe 15 minutes ago, something happened at the shop so she had to check it out."

"And you let her go alone? Especially with what happened last time?" Zac asked in utter belief. During the past month or so, Zac and a few of his teammates put in overtime to fix the mom and pop shop once insurance covered it, they covered only 70 percent of the costs and since Zac's contract wasn't official, they had to ask the community for donations. They ended up with more donations than they expected and they donated the remainders to different buildings that had the same thing happen to them.

"It was an employee thing, something with the backdoor alarm being faulty so she needs to go over there to reset it. Only three people have the code, you, her, and Louis." Rich explained.

Zac felt a rush of relief. "Okay...so what happened?" Both Veronica and Rich looked at each other, unsure of how to break this kinda news to him. "Uhm...before we say anything we need you to be calm, not that erratic and emotional Zac...okay?" Veronica practically pleaded, she knew her son all to well. He would flip every chair in this room.

"Okay." He nodded his head slowly, tightening his grip on Fatima's hand.

"His kidney is failing and has been for quite sometime now." Veronica admitted looking at Louis in the bed before turning her attention back to Zac. She watched his mouth curl, then his eyes wander, before his eyebrow finally furrowed. "Did he know?" He asked.

"Yeah...apparently he had known all year long." Rich uttered entering the conversation. "Doctor stated he stopped taking his medication and was preparing for the worst."

"What the fu-" Zac stopped himself biting his bottom lip, Fatima consoled him throughout this entire process. Feeling guilty she didn't mention it when she found out all those months ago, although she made a promise to Cheryl that she would only tell Zac if he directly asked, he never did and it slipped her mind with everything she had going on. Plus, he looked to be getting better from how Cheryl described him.