The elevator door opens to the waiting room and Lindsey embraces me. “Oh thank god you made it. Come with me.” she pulls me away from Mackenna. I look back at the room seeing Mr. and Mrs. Basso, Doug and his wife, Lindsey’s parents, The Edwards and lastly my eyes notice the blue eyes staring back at me filled with so much sorrow I almost breakdown. He is telling me with his eyes, the news isn’t good. Making sure that I prepare myself before going in. He doesn’t walk towards me giving me the distance he knows I need right now.
Lindsey practically throws me into the room and my dad is lying there with tubes and wires hooked up to his body. There is a beeping sound coming from the machines next to him. Jack is sitting next to him holding his hand, his head down on the bed. If it wasn’t for the beeping of the machines meaning my dad was still alive I could have thought he was dead. Jack picks his head up with relief that I am there.
Jack’s hair is in a million different ways showing how many times he ran his hand through it. I hear the streaks of the chair across the linoleum floor, I know Jack is coming and I will the tears not to come. When his big warm arms surround me they release in a gush. I sob into his chest while he smooth’s my hair telling me we will survive this. He tells me our Dad is a fighter and everything will be ok. The problem is Jack’s appearance doesn’t match what he is saying and we both know it.
I take a chair on the other side of my dad from Jack while Lindsey stays by the windowsill. Jack fills me in what is going on. The doctors don’t know much yet, says they are still running tests but they think he had a stroke. An hour later a nice male doctor who doesn’t seem much older than Jack tells us our dad actually suffered a heart attack and they need to take him to surgery right away. Right as the young doctor is telling us the specifics of what happened and what we can expect my mom comes bursting in the room.
She trips over the doorframe falling into the doctor.
“Oh…nice.” She remarks looking the doctor up and down as he catches her. “What happened to him?” she nods her head in my dad’s direction. I can smell the cigarettes and alcohol on her. She is wearing a tight black skirt that hangs just past her ass along with a black halter-top. Her hair is down and curled and her eye make-up is as smeared as the red lipstick across her teeth. I roll my eyes in exhaustion giving Jack a questionable look to why he called her.
“I’m sorry, are you related to Mr. Jennings?” The doctor turns to my mom.
“I’m his wife.” She remarks and I gasp.
“Ex-Wife” I declare staring at her with what I assume my most evil eyes.
“Madeline!” She says my name curtly indicating she wants me to shut-up and I do but mostly to keep her mouth shut as well.
The doctor doesn’t skip a beat, he must be familiar with dysfunctional families. He instructs us to go to the waiting room, the surgery will take approximately four hours and he will come and get us when it’s over. We each take our time saying good-bye to dad conveying our love of him with our assurance we will see him come out of this. Jack goes first and then he and Lindsey leave making me thankful he will have to deliver the news to the waiting friends but upset that I am stuck with my mom. I go second as my mom instructs me insisting she should go last for some absurd reason. Does this woman not remember she divorced him?
I walk down the long hallway alone while nurses stare at me with grief in their eyes. Do they know something they aren’t telling me? I don’t want to face all those people in the waiting room but that’s where this hallway ends I can’t escape them now. Rounding the bend my heart is beating faster than a race horse.
Mrs. Basso is the first to embrace me whispering in my ear how sorry she is and they will do whatever I need. I nod in the shoulder of the woman I consider my mother. She holds me tight and I don’t think she is ever going to let me go and relief washes over me. The people in this room love me, love all of us and that is why they are here to support us in any way we need them.
Mr. Basso pats me on the shoulder in his silent way telling me the same as his wife. All the other family members hug me and reassure me my dad will be ok, that he is a fighter. I know they can’t guarantee my dad will survive but what are they supposed to say.
Bryan and Colt are sitting with Mackenna next to the Edwards, Kenna lets everyone touch me before she steps in. She puts her arm around my shoulders and I think she is going to lead me to the vacant chair next to her but she turns at the last minute and releases me into Gabe. The feeling of his welcoming arms eases my shoulders letting them collapse while he holds me steady. He sits down in a chair encircling his arms around me on his lap. His hand keeps my head firmly placed in the crocked of his neck. He doesn’t assure me everything will be ok or that my dad will pull threw. He doesn’t say my dad is a fighter. He just assures me he will be here for me regardless of what happens. That he will get me through this nightmare to the other side with or without my dad. Those words mean so much to me and the fact that they came from Gabe means even more.
Gabe and I stay like that for an hour. No one interrupts us. No one comes by us. I hear conversations being carried on around us but I don’t want to leave my security in his arms. Gabe doesn’t seem very interested in letting me go either.
“Do you want me to get you something to eat or drink?” He whispers softly to me.
“No but if you want something I can get up.” I go to get up from his lap suddenly feeling awkward. I haven’t had a real conversation with him for over two years.
“No, I don’t need anything.” He pulls me back down intertwining his hands with mine. “I know this isn’t the right time, but I am enjoying the hell out of this.”
I start cracking up laughing and the room looks over at me but I can’t control myself. I don’t know why it isn’t as though what he said was funny. Maybe it is the tension in the room or the fear of something happening to my dad but it feels so good to laugh.
“You’re making me look like a schmuck.” He bites his lip to keep the smile at bay.
“I’m sorry, I don’t know what is wrong with me” I put my head back in his neck trying to conceal my laugh.
“Madeline.” I know the cold voice that states it; I don’t need to lift my head in acknowledgement so I don’t.
“Sorry Mrs. Jennings. I made a careless joke making her laugh. I meant no disrespect.” Gabe speaks for me since I refuse to look up at the woman who shouldn’t be here.
“Please keep it down and Jesus Madeline sit in your own chair.” She hisses before turning away.
I get up to crawl in the chair besides Gabe but he holds me firm. “Don’t even think about it.”
I must have dozed off because by the time the doctor comes out it is only Gabe, Jack, Lindsey, my mom and Kenna there. I stood holding Kenna’s hand with Gabe’s hands resting on my shoulders from behind. Jack holds Lindsey close to him while my mom stands to the side.
“He’s out of surgery but it is still touch and go for a while. We will know more in the morning. He is in the ICU, let him recover for tonight and come back in the morning.” He instructs.
I don’t feel right leaving but everyone guarantees me it is for the best. I reluctantly leave to spend the night at Jack’s. I take the guest room and Gabe goes home for the night. I think my mom thought I would spend the night at her house but I have no reason to be with her. She probably went back to the bar after she left the hospital anyway.
Jack tells me Gabe is in town visiting his family when they got the call but he is supposed to be leaving to go back to Florida in two days. I ache thinking of him leaving me again but I wouldn’t hold him from his dreams. Jack discloses to me later that evening that Gabe and a couple buddies bought a house on the beach and are in the process of flipping it to use the extra money to start a real estate company. I know Gabe wants to be his own boss and I am not surprised he is already attaining it.