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Nixon nods. “Thank you, Dr. Hendriks.”
The doctor offers him a small smile before going back to her job.
Nixon turns around. “She’s going to be okay,” he says, pulling Yasmin in for a hug.
My eyes fall on the door. She’s here. Just mere feet away.
“I—”
“Go,” Yasmin gives Nixon a little push toward the door. Her hand falls on my shoulder, startling me. “Both of you.”
Nixon and I exchange a look, but we don’t have to be told twice. We go toward the nurse’s station. It takes a few minutes for her to check if Jade’s settled, but then she takes us toward the back.
Our footsteps echo in the quiet hallway, the smell of antiseptic bringing back memories I don’t want to face.
The nurse stops in front of the door, pumping some disinfectant onto her hands before she pushes the door open.
Nixon follows after her almost immediately.
Not me, though.
My heartbeat grew faster with every step we took closer to Jade, our footsteps echoing in my eardrums. Sweat coats my palms as the past flashes in front of my eyes, mixing with the present, to the point I don’t know what’s true and what’s a memory.
The shake of the doctor’s head.
A loud, almost animalistic cry comes from my mother.
“I’m sorry, there was nothing that we could do.”
I swallow hard, brushing my palms against the side of my legs, forcing myself to take a step closer.
Jade’s not Gabriel.
She’s fine.
She made it out.
She’s fine.
Almost on autopilot, I reach for the little dispenser by the door, drenching my palms in disinfectant before I enter the room.
The loudbeepingof the machines breaks me out of my thoughts. And then, my eyes fall on her. Jade. And it’s like I’ve been hit by a train.
She’s lying in bed, covers pulled to her chest and her arms placed by her sides. Different wires and tubes are connected to her. She looks so small, so…fragile.
Seeing her like this, she’s nothing like the girl I know. Nothing like the girl I fell in love with. And yet, she’s all that and more.
Nixon smooths her hair away from her cheek. The dark strands are loose, face free of makeup, and her skin is so pale it’s almost the same color as the bed sheets.
So freaking fragile.
Nixon sits beside her, gently taking one of her hands into his. His lips move as he says something, but that damn beeping is the only thing I can hear.
Unable to look at her, my eyes scan the small room, going over the machines, and looking at her stats. Officially, I still might be a far cry from a doctor, but after years spent in the hospital by Gabriel’s side, I knew how to read every single one of them by heart.
Heartbeat, oxygen levels, blood pressur—
A hand falls on my shoulder, snapping me out of it. I look down to see the nurse watching me. “You can go and sit down,” she whispers softly.
