Six
"...there is no Mr and Mrs Cooper here."
No Mr and Mrs Cooper.
Frozen in her spot, Nadia didn't notice her mother walk up to stand beside her until she felt her mother's hand on her shoulder. She looked up to find her apologizing to the people at the door.
"I'm really sorry but Mr and Mrs Cooper were very close to us and we didn't know that they had moved. Sorry for bothering you."
The lady who stood beside her son smiled slightly.
"No worries."
Nadia's mother nodded her head with a small smile before walking behind her and turning her chair around, pushing her towards the car. She couldn't say or do anything until her mother asked her to push herself onto the ramp.
"You don't seem surprised. Did you know about this?" Nadia asked once her mother had sat in the driver's seat and put on her seat belt.
Her mother let out a breath and finally looked at her, nodding her head.
"Why didn't you tell me?" she asked, feeling tears surround her eyes.
"I didn't want you to worry about it. You have a lot going on─"
"A lot? Like what─being disabled?"
And as soon as she said that word, her tears fell and her mother began to cry too.
"That's not what I meant Nadia─"
"No it's exactly what you meant."
"Nadia..." her mother trailed off.
"Just start the car. Please," she told her, wiping her face and looking out of the window. Her mother didn't say anything for a few moments and allowed the silence to grow around them until she finally started the car.
And neither of them spoke a word as she drove.
---
The next morning, she sat quietly in her wheelchair and nervously tapped her thumbs against each other, waiting for her doctor to enter the room. Her mother placed her hand gently on hers and caused her to look at her.
"Stop freaking out," she said, trying to distract Nadia as she smiled.
"It's hard not to," Nadia replied straight-faced.
As soon as she finished speaking, her doctor walked inside, shutting the door behind him and walking to his chair behind the desk.
"Good morning," he said, smiling slightly at both of them as he pushed back his glasses.
"Morning, any good news doctor?" her mother spoke in her place. He flipped through the file in his hands emotionless, further increasing her worry.
"So far, there hasn't been any change in her condition. However, because of the paralysis, it's not impossible that in the near future she may develop muscular atrophy," he informed them.
"W-what's muscular atrophy?" her mother asked, already getting a bad feeling about what he had said.
"It means that her muscles will begin to waste away as the cells in her muscles degenerate from lack of use and movement."
Nadia's mouth opened involuntarily as she processed what he had just said. She felt her mother begin to shake beside her, shaking her head from side to side repeatedly.
"No, this can't happen," she faintly heard her say.
"I'm sorry but it is the truth," the doctor said.
"Is there anything you can do to prevent it?"
He was quiet for a few moments before he finally said something.
"We will have to wait to see how she progresses before we can decide on how to proceed."
Nadia excused herself after hearing that, pushing herself out of the room as she breathed heavily and shook her head over and over just like her mother. It wasn't as if she had already come to terms with being paralyzed but now she was going to lose her muscles? This couldn't be happening.
It was times like this when she wished that she had been the one who did not survive that accident instead of Jackson.
She continued on, deep in her thoughts until she heard a cry from a room with the door slightly ajar. She knew that it was wrong to eavesdrop but she couldn't stop herself from going back until she was close enough to peak through.
Inside, Nadia saw a girl laying on a bed with her eyes closed as many machines were hooked to her. And beside her, sat a boy who held onto her hand, crying.
"You have to come back Leena. You can't leave me like this. You can't leave your family like this─we miss you," she heard him say.
He didn't say anything else after that and only cried silently for a few moments before he reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone. And not long after, music filled the room. However, the lyrics were in a different language which she couldn't understand.
She continued to watch as he placed his phone on the stand beside the bed.
"I know how much you wanted to see them live. And I saw an ad which said they're coming here. We could go together just like you always wanted. Just please, don't leave me like this."
Nadia didn't notice that she was crying along with the boy until she heard a voice behind her.
"Is everything alright, miss?"
She turned her head to find a nurse looking at her and quickly wiped away her tears. She nodded her head mutely and waited for her to leave before she turned around, looking into the room one last time before she pushed herself towards her doctor's office, the memory of what she had just seen clearly imprinted on her mind.
* * *
A/N
Thank you very much for checking out another chapter! To be honest, I wasn't really fond of this one but I hope you enjoyed it anyways. I kinda skipped over the scene with her mom in the beginning but there's a reason for that. But like I said, I hope you enjoyed it.
-candysweet101
[edited - 2019/06/28]