Five Years of Fame [COMPLETE]

48. In A Hospital Room

Winter, Year 5, Month 1

His rhythmic breathing was helping lull her into a state almost like sleep but not quiet. She was too aware of his breathing to let go and fall into unconsciousness. There had been one or two times when he had taken his time inhaling or exhaling and so she had stared at his chest, willing it to keep moving, begging him to take another breath and then another after that.

The hospital room was dark and cool. The night-time nurse had finally given up trying to convince Reeve to go home and so had brought her a pillow and blanket. Reeve was curled up on the chair seated right by Walter's bed and she wasn't moving.

It was raining outside with half-hearted attempts at snow every few minutes. It was a slushy Boston winter mess and it kept Reeve company while she kept her vigil.

Her suitcase was in the corner, near the sofa. Somewhere in the depths of its chaotic mess, her phone was off and surely piling up messages, waiting for her to turn it back on and return to her responsibilities. She hadn't had much time when she ran off the plane that afternoon to think about turning it back on and made a point to leave it off when she finally remembered it existed. The only beep she wanted to hear was the constant beeping of Walter's heart monitor, telling her every second or so, he was alive, he was going to be okay.

It was not how she had expected her day to end. She had woken up on the opposite coast that morning and had a million things running through her brain as soon as she had opened her eyes. Walter hadn't even been one of them. But Noah had been at the top of the list.

She looked at her phone every three minutes, trying to prepare for rehearsals in between glances. She calculated the time difference over and over again as Kelly drove them to the rehearsal space. It was almost his lunch break. Surely he would call. They would work through this. They had to. Yeah, it was a fight but couples fight. They have miscommunications and misunderstandings. That's what happens. He would call. She would say 'I'm sorry, please forgive me.' He would, too. And in two days, they would walk the red carpet together, arm-in-arm, for the first time, on what was sure to be the biggest night of her career.

Sitting in the hospital room very early the next morning, Reeve couldn't even remember what the argument had been about. And she couldn't have cared less about the award show.

Reeve stopped rehearsal in its tracks when Noah finally did call. She opened with 'I'm sorry' but didn't make it through when the shallow breathing came in loud from the other line.

"What is it? What's wrong?"

Instantly Reeve's heart started pounding. A million scenarios ran through her mind and none of them were good.

"It's my dad."

That narrowed all the scenarios down to the worst of the worst.

"What happened? Is he okay?"

Amid his attempts to not completely break down, having to take several moments to collect himself, along with the various sounds of what was surely a hospital emergency room around him, Reeve caught the phrases "some kind of attack" "unconscious" "Ruby called an ambulance" "called me at work" "I don't know if he's okay" "surgery" and even more that made Reeve's decision easy for her.

Reeve turned to her back-up band where they all stood looking to her for direction and then turned to where Kelly and Anton had stopped their conversation to hear what was going on.

"Anton, take over. Kelly, I need a flight home. Now."

She assured Noah that everything was going to be fine, that she was on her way, to hold on, everything was going to be okay while hurrying from the rehearsal space to the car.