~Part Four~

A half smile appeared on Hamilton’s mouth and made it’s way quickly to his eyes. He threw the bed sheets back and put his feet firmly on the floor, ready to run straight to Jake’s room.

“Uh, uh, uh,” the nurse stopped him in his tracks, “you had it right the first time.” With that she smiled and pulled a wheel chair into the room that she had brought with her. Hamilton waited until she reached the bed, and then quickly slid down into the chair not wanting to waste a second.

The nurse grabbed his oxygen tank and pushed him along the floor, out into the hall amongst the traffic of patients and doctors.

“How is she Emma?” Hamilton asked, looking up at the elderly nurse.

“You’ll find out soon enough Hamilton,” she said, reaching up and tousling his hair a little, then chuckling to herself. He sighed and looked forward, waiting anxiously on the ride to Jake’s room.

Emma had been the only company he’d had after his mother left that morning. She would come in frequently to visit with him and assure him the doctors were taking good care of his friend. He found himself telling her all about the situations he and Jake had gotten themselves into. She just laughed, finding it terribly funny that they had been able to pull it off for so long.

“So, are you ready?” Emma asked, stopping in front of Jacqueline’s door.

Hamilton took a deep breath and closed his lingering eyes. “...Yeah.”

* * *

Jacqueline lay in her bed gazing through the window, longing to be outside on such a warm, clear day. It was getting closer to winter and there wouldn’t be many more days like this before the snow hit. She looked down at her covered legs, her smile fading a little, knowing she wouldn’t be able to enjoy even one.

Emma poked her head in and smiled brightly at Jacqueline, who had immediately looked up from her legs at the light knock on the door. Jacqueline simply couldn’t help but smile back at Emma’s highly contagious grin.

“You’ve got a visitor Miss Pratt.” Emma said, a sly grin appearing on her face. “But I’m not sure I should let him in...he looks a little suspicious.” She tried to contain the laugh that was forcing its way into her throat, but it broke through as Hamilton started to jokingly grumble behind her. Emma opened up the door and pushed Hamilton along the glazy floor to Jake’s bed.

The oxygen tube Jake had been relying on earlier was now replaced with a smaller one, similar to the one that Hamilton had been hoping to get rid of. A thin I.V. was dripping a clear liquid into her seemingly sun burnt arm, while her heart monitor was relaying a more comforting rhythm. Her face looked worn and pale, and she fought at the lingering temptation to let her eyes rest.

“Emma,” Jacqueline coughed, a little unsure, “isn’t this a family only visiting area?”

The tiny nurse just walked towards the door and turned her head, eyebrows raised as if she hadn’t heard a word Jacqueline has said. A mock innocent grin appeared on her wrinkled face and she winked with one playful eye, slipping out the door.

“She is somethin’ else!” Hamilton laughed after Emma left.

“Yeah.” Jacqueline’s voice had almost been reduced to a whisper and the strain in her breathing was evident when she spoke.

“You know, you look...”

“I know how I look,” Jake quickly cut him off, shaking her misted head while a smile still lingered on her lips, “and I don’t need you to tell me.”

“What?” Hamilton looked at her innocently. “All I was going to say was...totally foxy.”

Jacqueline began to laugh, but quickly stopped with a brief reminder of the sharp pain in her chest. She gritted her teeth and tried to hide the tears that had been creeping into her eyes. After a few minutes she finally let out a slow breath and grinned. “So...do you use that on girls?” she turned to look at Hamilton’s worried face as it softened.

Hamilton gazed at her, drawing on her strength, with a genuinely serious expression in his smile. “Just one.”

They silently smiled at one another until Jacqueline’s eyelids drifted slowly down to rest upon their soft pillows, her breath slowing to a quiet rhythm. Hamilton just let her sleep, watching the rise and fall of her chest. After a few moments he quietly leaned forward and kissed her forehead gently, not wanting to wake her. He leaned back in his chair and took in the scene, smiling, before turning towards the door and slowly wheeling himself out.

* * *

Mrs. Pratt sat on her chair in the small room until long after Dr. Blake and Dean Fleming had left. The production in London she was currently performing in still had three performances left and she had just spent the last thirty minutes on the phone with her producer canceling every one of them. She loved being a part of a drama she could walk away from after only a few hours, but her career meant very little to her if she lost her daughter and after the last ten hours, it had been the farthest thing from her mind.

Monica had just left for the theater when the harrowing call came from Consuela. The kind woman who tended her house when it was ghostly dormant and always help her to keep things in perspective was now frantic with worry, speaking half in English, half in Spanish. Every fear that had ever entered her soul was brought back in that one solitary phone call. Her driver almost didn’t hear her when she directed him to the airport.

It took literally hours to find a flight out of London with an empty seat, every second of the plane ride haunted as a painful reminder of just how easily her world could collapse. Now she was in the hospital, a few mere feet away from a gift she never anticipated loosing. Picking up the small purse next to her, she stood up, ready to face the demons she had eluded for so long.

* * *

After stopping in for a few brief moments to make sure he was all right, Hamilton’s father had left, under the pretense that a lot had to be done at the school in which he was to supervise. Hamilton had asked his father before he left if Jake was going to be thrown out of school. His father simply skirted around the issue stating that he didn’t have the time to discuss it right then.

Even after Hamilton had visited Jake, he stilled worried whether or not she was all right. He had never seen her face so pale, or witnessed the energy drain from her so quickly as he had in those brief minutes. He knew she would never admit how torn she felt either, which fed his growing fears.

The doctor had told him that he would have to stay in the hospital until the following morning and that he would need to stay in bed for the next two weeks to recover. After his mother’s performance that morning he knew he’d have no chance of checking up on Jake, let alone visiting her. He would simply have to reside in his bedroom, giving up the freedom he lived off of.

Hamilton sat in bed, staring at nothing, the commotion of the last hour haunting his consciousness, slowly drifting to sleep.