Author:
Loveroy posting as Hurricane Wilma turns into a Cat 3
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Date Posted: Monday, October 24, 12:21:29am
In reply to:
Loveroy
's message, "I Rembmer Sarah - Chapter 22 and forward" on Friday, October 14, 10:37:19am
Nikita rocked back and forth while sitting on the antique rocker Adrian ordered placed in the now converted office. The blonde mom watched her baby daughter’s attempts at standing as Adam multitasked playing a video game and watching a DVD of ‘The Incredibles’. Nikita wondered what Michael would have thought of the new impromptu décor of his formerly austere office, which presently held a flat screen televisions staging amusing cartoons and colorful plastic balls instead of stark charcoal leather and steel furniture.
The children there gathered brought a sense of peace to the beautiful woman who unwillingly managed the difficult task of grieving in public. Adrian and Jones had been surprisingly accommodating, allowing her space and taking care of the incidentals that would bring closure to the beautiful essence that was Michael. Nikita now waited with baited breath for the arrival of her beloved’s body at the futuristic Med Lab.
The door to the room opened allowing Birkoff and Belinda access while an obviously grieving Walter accompanied them. The old man was there to escort Nikita to Michael’s side. The young woman gave instructions to Belinda and Seymour in the care of the children, clearly buying time to gain composure before seeing Michael. Belinda handed Nikita a tube of lipstick and a comb and made some sweet remark about the woman’s appearance.
When Nikita arrived in the viewing portion of the operating theater Michael was already on a stretcher under the intense lights of an OR. Surrounding him was an assembly of health care professionals, dressed in red scrubs and evaluating the wounds. To the side stood a hefty tall doctor who spoke with a gun wielding Madeline about whatever was making the pretty brunette sulk.
“You will do the possible, then the impossible and finally the improbable, but you will save Michael’s life. I don’t need to tell you that if you fail, there will be a lot of dead bodies in this room.” Madeline said and for show chambered a round.
Nikita noticed that the monitors they attached to Michael were steadily indicating a weak but in any event hopeful vital signs. Walter told her not to hang-on to futile hope brought on by the blue squiggly lines, for that would only serve to break her heart further. Nikita didn’t answer the caring older man, she just watched Michael’s chest rise and fall while the oxygenator filled his lungs with air and then released it from him with a whooshing sound.
Nikita asked Walter to empty the room of everyone present and to leave her alone with Michael. Walter assured her that if there were changes in Michael’s prognosis while she was alone with him, the Med Team would find out through the monitors and be all over Michael, ‘Like White on Rice.’ She nodded and watched the man give orders to everyone, including Madeline, and they all started their departure in a cloud of efficiency.
Nikita sat in the bleachers alone while Walter finished emptying the glass-encased room where Michael lay. She had been given white scrub pants, muscle shirt and flip-flops to change into and as she finished changing her clothing and tying her hair into a sleek pony tail, she theorized. Life was mapped out for us since before we were born; everyone knew death was a given and yet, we were devastated when it happened upon us.
It was surprising to Nikita, who watched the events as if she was watching someone else’s life unfold before her, how contrasting life could be. For example, the crimson color of Michael’s wounds and the scarlet of the surgical scrubs guffawed at her, mocking her. At this point in her existence she felt she was the victim of a bad prank. While she philosophized, Sarah and Chuck finally appeared to either sides of Nikita who was starting to ambulate towards Michael.
Nikita asked her friend Sarah who was the picture of dignified serenity, “Sarah, where have you been?”
The angelic figure answered Nikita’s query calmly, “We were with Michael…” Before Sarah could continue, Nikita heard Walter advise her that the OR was clear and all media was turned off as Nikita requested.
When Nikita turned to continue speaking with Sarah and Chuck she found them gone once again and she called out to them but didn’t receive an answer. Having heard that the reason Sarah and Chuck were gone was because they were with Michael made Nikita understand that the man was indeed gone from this earthly plane. Nikita took a deep breath before entering the room but realized that she needed her composure to be able to reflect on their short lives together.
The first thing Nikita noticed was the temperature and the piquancy of the room for it was really cold and awfully bright. She approached Michael who lay on white sheets covering the stainless steel berth; his lower body was protected by another white sheet and his taut torso marred by a series of bright pink scars brought together by surgical tape, glue and staples. Nikita covered her mouth with one hand in consternation and gently stroked an index finger on the lacerations.
His green eyes opened and he smiled at her tender touch, “Good Morning.”
Nikita started to cry, “Oh God Michael, I thought I would never see you again.”
Michael moved to a sitting position and watched in hilarity the wireless contraption that monitored his vital signs and said, “You knew I would come to see you one last time.”
Nikita was angry and fell to her knees, “Don’t say that, you can’t leave me alone, please Michael I beg you.”
He stood now and pulled her to her feet, “I am not leaving you alone, I’ll take care of you.”
She slapped his tender caress away, “Bull shit Michael, you are abandoning me in this hell hole – take me with you.” She knew this request was not what she wanted either, she had Sarah and now Adam to worry about.
He answered her, “There are great things in our future.”
Nikita looked at him and tenderly touched her lips to his, “I cannot live without you my love.”
Michael confessed, “I love you Kee-tah, I’ll always be right here beside you. You’ve got to learn to trust me.”
Michael lay back down and his eyes closed rapidly and Nikita noticed the beeping of the monitor return her to consciousness. She wailed not only for the potential loss of her beloved Michael, but because she was angry with him. How dare he leave her alone, how dare he not choose to stay with her and the children?
George, Adrian and Jones entered the room and moved to stand beside Michael’s bed full of concern and apprehension. Nikita wanted them to leave, but realized they had the same, if not more rights than she did to be present with their son. Her tears were not stopping, she was sobbing and her father moved to hold her in his arms as the beeping ceased.
Nikita screamed, “No… NO - call the doctors tell them to come. Walter. WALTER!!!!!!”
Her father and in-laws dragged Nikita out of the room as the medical personnel came in. She could see, someplace in her subliminal, how Sarah, Chuck and Simone watched her and their anguished faces alarmed Nikita. She thought, knowing they would hear her contemplation, how unfair this death had been and begged them to tell Michael she needed to talk to him just once more.
The profundity of her experience in the short time she had known this man and the depth of the wake he was leaving in her life overwhelmed her. How could he think she would rebuild her life and move on? Didn’t Michael understand that he was leaving a full set of fingerprints in the woman’s broken heart?
She entered the room where the children slept and valiantly took the drugs the doctor gave her to calm down. She touched Sarah’s little head with her lips and replaced the baby’s pacifier in her mouth. When she approached Adam he opened his eyes and smiled. She fell asleep and quickly navigated through a tumultuous engorgement of chimera. At least the pain had ceased for the time being and tomorrow would be another day.
And then the room imploded. Walter and Belinda felt their room shake because of the proximity to Nikita and the children's room. The explosion was contained and the late shift working at the Organization ran around like chickens without heads, trying to deal with the alarm. The Triumvarate was called by an efficient Operations and advised of the horrendous accident. Madeline reminded a horrified Birkoff, that not everything is as it seemed.
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I Remember Sarah - Chapter 24