They knocked before entering the hospitalroom. Jason’s parents and Vicky’s aunt acknowledged them as theyentered. Vicky was still in the same position she was before they’dleft several hours earlier. Hovering over her daughter and holdingher tiny little hand. The scene was just so heartbreaking thatSandy felt a tear slip down her cheek. The room was so quiet. Allyou could hear were the chirps and beeps of the machines and thepump and pull of the respirator. Then there were the nurses. Theywere checking Angel’s vitals and making notes on their clip boardsafter looking at the machines. Sandy wasn’t a rocket scientist butyou didn’t have to be to understand that things had gotten worsesince they’d left. The situation was looking even dire by themoment.
There was a small knock on the door. Franklinwalked back over to the door to open it. He was surprised at whostood on the other side of it. It was Alicia Carter. John andMiriam looked shocked to see her but stood up and held hope thatRyan Carter was here as well. However, Vicky’s back was to her newvisitor. She had no idea Alicia had flown in using a friend’sprivate jet. Ryan had taken the company’s private jet and had notleft a flight plan behind.
Alicia was shocked at what she saw beforeher. She wasn’t prepared to walk into the hospital room and seethat poor little baby in such a state. She knew she was a bitch buteven her heart was touched. “Excuse me, Ms. Martin?”
Vicky slowly turned around to come face toface with the wife of her daughter’s father. She’d never met Aliciain person but she’d seen pictures of her in the papers. Thenewspapers didn’t do her justice because she was a beautiful woman.She had raven colored hair and her eyes looked almost violet. Atthe moment, she couldn’t keep her eyes off of Angel. Vicky was sooverwhelmed with relief that she just started to cryuncontrollably. She stood from her seat and almost ran over toAlicia and hugged her. It was that moment that Jason re-entered thehospital room. He was somewhat bewildered with all the commotion.Alicia on the other hand just stood stoically during the embrace.Vicky was so grateful “Oh my god. Thank you, Alicia. Thank you somuch for coming and getting Ryan here.” After a few moments Vickylifted her head from Alicia’s shoulder “Where is he? Is he talkingto the doctors?”
Alicia cleared her throat as everyone in theroom was so clearly focused on her response. “Vicky, I hate to bethe bearer of bad news but I’m still trying to locate Ryan. I haveall of my people on it but I haven’t been able to find him. He’snot answering his phone. It is going straight to voice-mail.”
Vicky couldn’t believe her ears. Ryan wasn’tat the hospital. Vicky looked over at Jason with pleading eyes.“Jason, please tell me you were able to locate him?” He had no ideahow to tell her that he hadn’t. He’d called in ever favor andeveryone he could think of to help him locate the bastard. But, atthe end of the day he wasn’t able to locate him. They had about anhour left before they went live with the press conference.
All of a sudden everything seemed to happenin slow motion. The monitors started going haywire. The machinesstarted screaming with beeps and chirps. The doctors and nurses allrushed into the hospital room all descending upon little Angelpushing Vicky and Alicia away from the bed.
The doctors seemed to be pulling and prickingAngel every which way. Vicky stood there watching in silent horrornot knowing what to do. Everyone was stunned that these could beAngel’s last moments on earth. A nurse tried to get the family togo into the waiting room so the doctors could work on her. Dr.Franks was barking orders “It’s too many people in here.”
A nurse who was sympathetic but firm tried tousher everyone out of the room. “I’m sorry you all will need to gointo the waiting room and let the doctors take care of Angel.They’ll do the best they can for her.”
“No, No, NO!! I can’t leave. I can’t leaveher” Vicky started to panic. She couldn’t leave her little girl.She had to stay in the room with her daughter. “She NEEDS me. Sheneeds to know I’m here. “Mommy’s here Angel. Mommy’s right here!”Jason had to grab Vicky and almost carry her out of the room.
As they were crossing the threshold theyheard Dr. Franks bark out “Her pressure is dropping too low! We’relosing her. We need to do that blood transfusions STAT! Then, prepher for surgery!”
The last words they heard before the doorclosed was “Dr. Franks we don’t have a blood match for her!”
Jason, Vicky, The Rutherford’s, Aunt Shirley,Franklin, and Sandra couldn’t believe what was happening. Vickystarted screaming and crying uncontrollably. Everyone was in tears.Angel was going to die.
Jason held onto Vicky tightly as he finallylet his own tears flow. Word was getting around the hospitalquickly that Angel was dying. Doctors and nurses from all over thehospital started to come and stand around Angel’s hospital room.Angel had endeared herself to everyone who’d had any contact withher since she’d been admitted. The entire hospital staff had beengoing the extra mile to try and find a match for her. Despair waswritten over everyone’s face as they tried to console each other.Jason in all of this time never thought for one second that theywouldn’t get a match and that Angel could actually die. What werethey going to do?
As everyone stood around trying to wrap theirminds around what was happening, two people came running down thehall towards Angel’s room screaming, “We’ve got it! We’ve got it!We’ve got a match!” The door to Angel’s room immediately opened andthey rushed inside.
The hospital staff and all of Angel’s friendsand family started clapping, cheering, and screaming for joy. Jasonand Vicky just stood there stunned.
“Jason, what just happened? Did they say theyhave a match?”
Jason picked Vicky up and spent
