Free The Waiting by Hunter Shea

bed, he saw that the infusion pump was dark.  
    “Dammit,” he muttered.  
    No matter what buttons he pressed, it was dead.  
    “What the hell?”  
    Did we have a power outage?  
    He flicked the overhead light and the brightness seared his eyes. Okay, so power wasn’t the problem. Maybe the machine just died. Brian turned on the small Hello Kitty lamp, went to wash his hands and came back to disconnect the hyperal. Cassandra would be all right until morning without it.  
    When he opened the medical waste bin, he saw a good length of the power cord snaking out from under the bed. Dropping to his hands and knees, he followed the path of the cord until he came to the outlet.  
    It was unplugged.  
    Did he trip across it during his drunken walk to the bathroom? But that would have been impossible. The cord was kept out of the way so just that kind of thing couldn’t happen. And what about the backup battery?
    He got up and checked the battery compartment. The battery was connected, but there was no way to tell if it had any juice left in it.  
    The headache that had been building had reached an intolerable crescendo. It hurt too much to concentrate on getting the hyperal hooked back up. He set the alarm for six a.m. and tried to get a few hours’ sleep. His brain wouldn’t shut down.  
    How did it get unplugged? It would have tripped me if my foot got caught.  
    He’d taken to closing the door day and night, not wanting to even glance into the hallway by accident.  
    No. Not possible.  
    He shuddered under the blanket, staring up at Cassandra’s bed until dawn.

Chapter Eighteen
    Louisa had asked Brian if she could take his blood pressure but he’d refused. Instead, he’d said he had to get something out of his car. He didn’t look well. She’d often seen caregivers fall into worse situations than the patients because they didn’t take proper care of themselves. Stress took years off their lives.  
    She replaced the battery on the infusion pump and took Cassandra’s pulse. Weak but steady.  
    “All fixed?” Alice asked.  
    Louisa was equally worried about Cassandra’s mother. If Brian was in free fall, Alice was buoyed to the point that Louisa was concerned she could no longer see the present situation with any sort of clarity. The higher she went, the worse the fall should Cassandra take a bad turn.  
    And last was Cassandra. By all rights, she should be better by now. Less and less of the infection was draining from her and the worst was in the rearview mirror. But still, she slumbered on like Sleeping Beauty, with one twist; her prince was by her side and even his kiss couldn’t bring her back.  
    “Yes,” Louisa replied. “I tested it several times and the battery is fully charged and switches on if I disconnect the AV power. There shouldn’t be any problems.”
    Brian entered the room looking harried. He said, “I had some signed forms for you, Louisa, and I thought I left them in the car but I guess I didn’t. Maybe they’re on my dresser.”
    He riffled through a stack of paper-clipped documents. She sidled next to him and asked, “You want some help? I can spot my company’s paperwork from a mile off.”  
    Alice said, “You know Brian, I thought I saw you put them in that box in the closet. Aren’t they the ones you were working on the other night?”
    “Yeah, those were the ones,” he said.  
    Alice walked to the closet and pulled out a plastic tub. It was filled to the top with medical and insurance forms.  
    Louisa heard the floor pop twice behind her and turned to see if something had fallen out of her bag.  
    She saw a young boy turn his back on them and walk silently out of the room. She took three quick steps to see where he went, but he’d disappeared.  
    When Brian yelped, “Found ’em!” she gasped.  
    “Sorry, didn’t mean to scare you,” he said.  
    Louisa finally understood. She needed to talk to Brian, alone.  
    “No, I’m fine. My mind just