“I lost my phone, and your number was in my phone, Grace. I tried to call but—”
Grace lifted her chin and stood taller as she looked at Noah, then the girl standing next to him. “Well, I’m sure you’ve been busy. Congratulations on your wedding. I hope the two of you have been happy.”
Noah pulled his head back and looked at Grace with a confused expression. Turning to the girl next to him, Noah shook his head as he looked back at Grace. “Wait. Is that why you wouldn’t return my calls, Grace? You think I’m . . .”
Noah’s voice was cut off by a code blue coming across the speaker system. “Code blue room two thirty-two.”
My heart dropped. Lauren. “That’s Lauren’s room!” I shouted as I ran down the hall to the double doors that led to the ICU.
By the time I got to Lauren’s hospital room door, my heart felt like it was going to beat out of my chest. People were going in and out of her room.
Panic had already set in and I felt as if I was forcing the air to move in and out of my lungs. “What’s going on?” I asked as nurses walked in and out.
Grabbing the younger nurse, I shouted, “Someone tell me what’s going on?”
“Sir, I need you to let me go, she is in respiratory distress, let me go.”
Dropping my hands, I started to head into the room when I felt someone pull me back.
“Colt, you need to let them do their job.”
Turning I looked to see Scott had a hold of me. “No. No, she needs me! Let me go, Scott.” The door opened and my heart stopped when I saw what was happening. The doctor was giving Lauren CPR. “Oh. My. God. Lauren! Lauren!” I screamed as someone yelled, “Shut the door and get him out of here!”
I was about to rush into the room when I felt more hands on me. “Colt, waiting room. We need to go to the waiting room.”
My father’s voice registered in my mind, but all I saw was Lauren. Lying on the bed as someone attempted to get her breathing again.
Respiratory distress.
Pulling against Scott and my father, I yelled, “Let me go! Lauren, please, God no! No!”
The next thing I knew, Scott, my father, Will and Luke were attempting to hold me down as I fought like hell to get to Lauren. I just needed to hold her. If she felt me, I knew she wouldn’t leave me. She would never leave me.
Standing in front of me, Scott yelled, “Colt!”
My eyes snapped to his and I saw nothing but fear. “Scott,” I whispered as tears fell from my eyes. “Please let me go. I need her. She can’t leave me. She needs to know I’m here.” Closing my eyes, I felt my legs give out as I fell to the ground. “Don’t take her from me. I just want to hold her. She likes it when I hold her. Please. Please just let me hold her.”
My sweet Lauren. I promise you . . . I’ll spend forever holding you . . . even if it’s only in my memories.
Dropping to his knees in front of me, Scott grabbed me and held me as my entire world fell apart.
COLT. I HEAR Colt’s voice calling out for me. Looking around, I couldn’t believe my eyes. I was looking at myself in the hospital bed as the doctor tried to get me to breathe. The fever was gone. The aches in my body were gone.
Then I felt a warmth like I’d never felt before wash over my body as I turned and saw him.
“Grandpa?”
Smiling that brilliant smile, he moved closer to me. “My precious little Lauren.”
“H-how am I talking to you?” Colt’s voice continued to call out to me as the room grew brighter and I felt such a sense of peace.
Taking my hands, my grandfather smiled. “I’ve missed you, sweet Lauren.”
Turning, I glanced over my shoulder. Nurses moved about in my room as I let out a gasp. “Grandpa, I’m—”
Slowly looking back at my grandfather, I felt a love I’d never experienced before. “Not now, Lauren. Not now, my sweet niña. He loves you too much.”
Closing my eyes, I heard Colt calling out to me. Looking back at my grandpa, I smiled weakly. “I feel his love pulling me to him, Grandpa. I can’t leave him.”
My grandfather leaned over and kissed my cheek. “My sweet Lauren, open your eyes. Open your eyes and go back to him.”
The light slowly faded as the voices grew louder. “I’ve got a heartbeat, Dr. Wilker.”
Another voice. “She’s breathing. Her temperature is down to one hundred and one, doctor.”
“Let her family know she’s stable. Good job, everyone.”
The voices slowly started to fade as I drifted off to sleep.