Free In Another Life by Carys Jones Page B

princess.”

HRH
     
    Dr. Simmons looked in on his patient in the ICU.
     
    “Has there been any change since Friday?” he asked the doctor conducting the handover. He said the words Dr. Simmons dreaded hearing;
     
    “None at all. She remains stable.”
     
    “I see.” Dr. Simmons looked gravely at the chart in his hand, indicating Marie’s vital signs over the past forty eight hours.
     
    “We’re approaching seventy two hours,” the other doctor commented.
     
    “I know.”
     
    “We need to prepare the family, find out if she’s a donor.”
     
    “I know.”
     
    *
     
    Sebastian Fenwick inhaled the last of his cigarette, savouring the dense flavour as it entered his system. It was the first time he’d smoked since his rebellious phase in prep school. But he’d needed something, anything, to calm his nerves over Marie. He’d spent the weekend either at St. Jude’s or at her parent’s home and still she didn’t wake up. She remained motionless on the hospital bed, like Snow White in her glass casket, waiting to be awoken by her Prince.
     
    Sebastian had carefully kissed her on the Saturday, allowing himself to believe for one desperate minute that perhaps a kiss from him would miraculously revive her. It didn’t. Instead when he pulled away from her he was greeted by only the steady methodical beeping of the machines which were keeping his fiancée alive.
     
    It was busy outside the hospital as staff arrived to start their working week. Sebastian was supposed to be commencing his day in London, working with his father but instead he was here sinking in to despair. He had twenty minutes before he was due to meet with Marie’s lead doctor, along with her parents. He sensed that any news they were to be given wouldn’t be good.
     
    He tried to brace himself for the worst. To imagine a world without Marie in it but it was just too terrible to bear. Marie was his world. Perhaps he’d never told her enough, but she was. If she left him alone, the darkness in his soul which she suppressed would eat him alive.
     
    “Oh, you’re here,” Bill Schneider said sheepishly as he rounded the corner. He smelt of fresh smoke. It seemed both men had succumbed to the same vice in their darkest hour.
     
    “Just waiting on the meeting,” Sebastian stubbed out his cigarette on the nearby bin.
     
    “Hopefully they will have some news for us,” Bill tried to sound upbeat but he looked broken. There were ominous dark circles beneath his eyes and fresh lines had formed on his forehead over the weekend.
     
    Sebastian didn’t look much better. His hair was matted against his head and he was ghostly pale. He couldn’t sleep, he couldn’t rest, he could barely eat. Every second he spent away from Marie’s bedside he feared would be the second she’d wake and find him not there. Or worse, it would be the moment she’d slip away. Either way, he wanted to be there for her.
     
    “Time to put on our game faces,” Bill said, clearing his throat. “We’ve got to be strong for Carol.”
     
    *
     
    The three of them were led in to a small office. An additional blue chair had to be brought in for Sebastian. Carol sat between the two men, barely able to support her own weight. She had a tissue permanently attached to her left hand which she periodically dabbed against her cheeks even though she had no tears left to shed.
     
    Moments later Dr.Simmons entered and positioned himself behind the small beech desk opposite them.
     
    “Good morning,” he greeted them stiffly. “I’m Dr. Simmons.” Bill and Sebastian shook his hand politely but Carol couldn’t even look up at him.
     
    “I’m the lead doctor on your daughter’s case,” he began, casting his eyes back over her patient file. He already knew all the information it contained it was just a force of habit and a way to prevent awkward tension with the family.
     
    “Initial tests have shown that there was a substantial bleed on the brain which is most