Hopes POV 🥀
I've always hated hospitals. I started hating them when I was 8, and fell from a tree and broke my leg.
I yelled as soon as I hit the ground, but I didn't cry.
I don't cry. At least not very often.
But I'm crying now, running down the corridor of the Intensive Care Unit, no makeup on, my hair all over my shoulders, hobbling from the blister I got from running here.
"Where is he? WHERE IS HE?" I'm yelling hysterically as I run past the rooms, all the patients. "Where's my Jammy Dodger? WHERES MY BROTHER?"
Someone grabbed my arm firmly. It took all my willpower to not whack them in the face and scream at them to get off me. "Excuse me miss, you're disturbing our patients! Please quieten down or we'll have you removed!"
"Fuck off." Is all I have to say to that, then I push past the nurse and run down another corridor, looking in all the rooms. "Is he dead? Is my brother dead? IS JAMES EMERSON DEAD?" I scream.
I feel hands around me, more gentle this time, guiding me through the ward to a room at the end. "Jamie? Jammy Dodger?" I sob, "Is he in here?"
They open the door and I frantically run my eyes around the room, no one is here. There are several comfy seats but no hospital bed, and most importantly no Jamie!
"No! I want to see my brother I don't want to go in here!" I wail.
Several nurses shush me and usher me into the room, push me gently onto the chairs.
"Where is he?" I beg. "Please tell me."
There's a moment of silence while the nurses talk amongst themselves quietly.
"I can hear all of you! Where's my brother?" I snap, now out of tears, just purely angry.
"Don't talk to us like that, or we will have you removed." Snapped the same nurse as earlier.
"Stop threatening me! I don't give a shit, I want to see my BROTHER!" I growl.
"What's your name, love?" Asks an Indian nurse
"I'm Hope Emerson. I'm James Emerson's little sister. Please, let me see him."
"Well, Hope, your brother is in a serious condition, but for now he's stable."
I wilt like a flower, relief filling my body. The tears want to come again, but I push them back.
"Can I see him?" I look up at the nurse pleadingly and he glances at another woman, presumably a doctor, who nods.
They lead me through the ward into a closed off room, where my brother, my beloved big brother, was lying in bed with tubes everywhere, legs in casts and an oxygen mask on his face.
Juliette is there, I haven't seen her for months. She's grown taller, blossomed, her breasts are a lot bigger and her hair is shorter, in almost a thick pixie cut.
Mums there, looking older than ever, pale and exhausted. And I'm most surprised of all to see ... dad?
Dad never paid James any attention when he was well, and not in hospital, why is he here now?
But I block all them out and focus on Jamie, looking at his OBS machine. Blood pressure a little on the low side, heartbeat stable, SATS number 87, which is far too low.
"Jammy Dodger." I whisper. "Try and breathe in and out slowly, okay?"
"What are you whispering to him about?" Snaps Juliette. I give her the death stare, and turn back to James. At first I don't think he can even hear me, but his eyelids flutter a little, and he begins breathing more slowly and his oxygen levels go from 87 to 93.
His legs are wrapped in casts, he has a stitched cut on his forehead, and I brush his hair back to look at the cut.
"How did this happen?" I ask in a low voice. "Did he hit his head on the way down, or when he landed?"