And..... Life Goes On
The continuous high shrill of the flat line permeated the entire room, making ears ring and hearts drop. A team of doctors and nurses had been working continuously for the last twelve minutes trying to revive the young man. Although the volume on the machine never changed, the longer it stayed constant, the more deafening it seemed to get.
“Push the Epinephrine. Charge paddles to 200.”
“Charging”
“Clear.” The thump of the body’s chest jolting off the gurney only to fall back again echoed off the bare walls.
“How long has he been down for?”
“Almost thirteen minutes doctor.”
“Charge to 300”
“Charging”
“Clear”
“Still in V-fib”
“Resume chest compressions. Come on, come on…. This can’t be happening.” The doctor in charge looked at the others around the room. “Does anyone have any other ideas? Anything at all….” Blank stares mirrored back at him. Each person seemed too terrified to fail to offer even a remote possibility. “Shock him again. Charge to 300.”
“Charging”
“Clear.” The thud of the young man’s lifeless limbs fell carelessly to the side, stopped only by the raised rails of the last bed he would ever lay upon.
“That’s it people, I’m calling it.” A slight but collective gasp went up around the room. “Time of death 4:15 am.”
No one spoke as machines were turned off and the room fell silent. The harshness of breath being inhaled and noses being sniffed was finally joined by a small voice in the corner of the room saying the words everyone else was too chicken to utter. “Who’s going to tell his…?”
-----
Reid wearily made his way up the stairs. His entire body ached from the marathon surgery he had been called in for. Another satisfied customer he couldn’t help but think smugly while reaching the threshold of the bedroom he shared with Luke. He never got over the rush of saving someone’s life. He figured he never would. He should have stayed and gotten a few hours of sleep at the hospital. It’s what he always used to do, before he had someone to come home to. He glanced over at the bedside alarm clock. It read 4:15. He sincerely thought about turning the alarm off so that whenever he eventually woke up later Luke would still be there to keep him warm.
That would be very selfish of Reid and he liked being selfish. It was one of the things he was good at. But he was sure Luke had things planned to take care of at his new office come morning, and as the good boyfriend Luke was trying to teach him to be, he would suffer through the morning alone if he had too. Of course that didn’t mean he didn’t have the right to wake Luke up now for some ‘alone time’ before giving into the tiredness that was dragging his body down. With enough renewed energy to wake Luke, Reid stripped naked and crawled in on his side of the bed scooting his way over to where the warmth should be. Reid was surprised and bewildered when no warmth was to be found. He rolled back over to his side and turned on the table lamp.
“Luke?” But no answer came.
-----
The tension within the four walls surrounding the body was palpable. No one wanted to acknowledge what had to be done, let alone who was going to do it. The pain of making the call to say someone’s loved one was dead was hard enough but this would be so much worse. This would be devastating. They all looked at each other silently begging for someone to summons the bravery. Then, appearing as if conjured from thin air, the hospital’s chief of staff entered the room and took in the scene as it unfolded in front of him.
“I heard he was crashing. Has it been called?”
“Yes doctor.”
With a face set in stone he nodded his head and turned to leave. “I’ll go make the call.” He walked down the hall and took out his phone. There was no need to look up an emergency contact number or flip through any chart for the next of kin information. He already knew who it was and he knew the number to call. Despite the differences they had in the past, he wished this was one call he’d never have to make. Resigned to the inevitable he punched the number and waited for the man on the other end to pick up.
-----
Reid quickly got out of bed and threw on his briefs and an old Harvard t-shirt. He made his way back downstairs. He figured he would have noticed when he first walked in if Luke had fallen asleep on the couch but wanted to double check. Not finding Luke there the only other logical place was to look in Reid’s office. Just last week he had come home at a similar time to find Luke curled up in his chair, a red-checkered flannel blanket covering his legs and one of Reid’s ratty torn Harvard sweat shirts covering his top. He looked like an angel, peacefully asleep, with his mouth just slightly ajar and edges of his lips curled up like whatever he was dreaming about was making him happy. Reid had leaned against the wall for a long time just watching him like that. Then of course he’d called himself a sentimental fool and flipped on the light and abruptly made Luke wake up and fall unceremoniously to the ground.
“Ouch, my ass” Luke had pouted, rubbing one hand over his eyes to keep out some of the florescent brightness, and the other over his sore bottom.
“Awww, I’m sorry, did I wake you? Well damn, what’s wrong with me? And you hurt yourself? Come here and let me rub that for you. I’m sure I can make it feel better.” Luke’s eyes finally adjusted enough to the light that he removed his hand and looked over at Reid who was wearing his patented smirk.
“Jackass” Luke replied in a loving tone that only he could get away with.
“Yeah” Reid agreed. Luke walked over to him and gave him a sweet loving kiss on the lips while removing the hand off his own backside to reach around and slap Reid’s.
“Hey” Reid bellowed at the loud smack.
“See, doesn’t feel so good does it?”
Reid’s smirk became a full-fledged smile. “Now we both need some special attention.” Luke smiled just as warmly back and took Reid’s hand in his and led them both up for some of that attention in their bed. They had been living together for almost a month but Reid felt like Luke could have been there his whole life. They’d had their share of fights or course. They were still adjusting to each other’s quirks, but for the first time in… well forever…. Reid felt whole.
The images of that night flashed across Reid’s photographic memory as he walked to the doorway of his office. He found it empty. He quickly searched the rest of the house and found no Luke, and no note. He could feel the beginnings of a panic attack when the phone in the kitchen began to ring.
-----
“Hello….. Yes it’s John. Sorry to have to call at such an early hour, I truly am, but I’m afraid you need to come to the hospital right away. The news isn’t good….. I’m sorry….. I’ll fill you in when you get here.”
-----
“Hello? Luke?”
“Oh Reid, I’m so glad you answered. I forgot to leave you a note. Did you just get back a little bit ago? I hope you weren’t too worried.”
“Luke, it’s not even 4:30 in the morning. Where the hell are you?”
“I just had a great idea for Grimaldi shipping and I had to come to the office to make some international calls. I really am sorry if I worried you.”
Reid didn’t want his panic to seem too evident and played it off as best he could. “I didn’t even notice you weren’t here…..never crossed my mind.”
“Uh huh….sure….whatever you say. I’m on my way back now. I’ll see you in about ten minutes ok?”
“I’ll try and stay awake but I’m not making any promises” he quipped. Reid could almost hear Luke rolling his eyes on the other end of the phone. “And Luke…. Be careful.”
“Love you.”
“I love you too.”
-----
At 9 am a brunette TV reporter came over the airwaves for a special report. “Good morning, I’m Molly Conlan and I’m interrupting Regis and Kelly to report the death of a prominent member of Oakdale and former chief of staff at Memorial Hospital Christopher Hughes. His month long battle awaiting a new heart ended tragically this morning when he was pronounced dead at 4:15 at Memorial. He is survived by his parents Bob and Kim Hughes as well as his brothers and sisters. No date has been set for the funeral services but all of us here at WOAK would like to express our deepest sympathies to the Hughes family and particularly our boss Kim. We are saddened by your loss. I promise to keep everyone posted on the latest information when there is anything new to report. We now return you to your regularly scheduled programming.”
TBC...