I glanced around the room. I recognized almost everyone after working here over a year. I didn’t have any close friends, but I was on chatty terms with everyone. The nurses and orderlies who brought patients to my therapy room were the ones I knew the best, although precious few of them were invited to this party. It seemed to be all doctors and administrators. A few RNs. Probably charge nurses. I guessed I was the only riffraff who had made it in, and then only because I was engaged to Darion. I hated hospital hierarchy.
The director prattled on about patient outcomes and positive hospital culture, which sounded to me like the bad result of a Pap smear. I had to pinch my lips together to avoid laughing. But it felt good to lighten up a little. Just a little.
My phone buzzed from the tiny purse hanging on the back of my chair. I calculated the risk of looking. The room wasn’t dim, so the light wouldn’t show. I glanced at other tables. At least two people at each one were staring at their crotches. No doubt their phones were hiding under the table.
Fine. I could be a crotch-gazer too.
I tugged the phone out and held it under the table in my lap.
Another baby picture from Jenny. I instantly clicked the screen off. That was for later.
It had been two months since the baby arrived, and I was doing better. Somewhat. I’d actually held the little bugger on Christmas Eve. She was cute, of course, and dressed like only Jenny would do. Sparkle and color and matching shoes and headbands and blankets.
Darion draped his arm around the back of my chair. I could feel his tension, how much he wanted to leave. We all got stuck in places that made us uncomfortable, I guessed. Life marched on.
People around us clapped, and I snapped to attention. Finally, an end! A projector popped on and the lights came down as a presentation started.
“That’s our cue,” Darion said. “Not a minute more.”
I had no desire to argue with that. I scooped up my purse and phone and shawl and followed Darion to the closest door.
When we were outside the room, I burst out laughing. “You’re terrible,” I said. “Skipping out on your company party just when you were learning how to create positive cultures.”
Darion broke out in a broad grin. “I needed to get you home. I want to see that little black dress on the floor.”
My phone buzzed again. God, Jenny and her baby pictures. Maybe it was time for me to ask her to stop. I couldn’t exactly block her. Although maybe I could create a setting to automatically strip the images.
Uggh, I was doing it again. Avoiding the unavoidable.
Darion dragged me closer to him. “What’s getting you?” he asked.
“Nothing. Just Jenny and her baby pictures.”
“Give me that,” he said, holding out his hand.
I passed him the phone. “What are you going to say?”
He clicked it on. “Just that your doctor has put you on a strict image diet of two baby pictures per day and surely she doesn’t want to—”
He halted, staring down at the phone.
My heart seized up. “What is it?”
He lowered the phone and dragged me close. I knew it was bad then, real bad. He never acted like this.
“Darion, tell me,” I said.
“It’s Albert,” he said, and at the name, my knees buckled. “He’s coding.”
I jerked away from Darion and took off for the elevators at a run. Darion’s footsteps pounded behind me.
I punched the button, but when the doors didn’t open immediately, I shot away for the stairs.
My ballet slippers tried to fall off as I hurtled up the steps two and three at a time. I pushed off the railing with every footfall, propelling myself faster.
I burst through the door and sprinted down the hall, Darion on my heels. I saw two familiar nurses outside Albert’s door. When I got there, Marianna held up her hand. “You can’t go in, Tina. Not right now.”
Like hell I couldn’t. I tried to push through, but Darion grabbed my arm. “Let them do their job,” he said.
Inside, the code team surrounded Albert. I couldn’t see him. Layla stood in the corner, her hands clasped by her chest.
A firm voice said, “Clear,” and the unmistakable sound of paddles releasing a shock made my heart fall. I knew it would happen. But I couldn’t bear it.
I turned to Darion. “How do I find out if he had an advance directive to stop this?” I couldn’t imagine Albert wanting to go on, since a suicide attempt was what got him here. I wanted to kick myself for not checking on this before now.
Marianna wrapped an arm around my waist. “He had one. It was very specific,” she said. “You or Layla are allowed to make the call. Layla made it.”
I turned back to Layla, watching intently, her eyes red and wet. “I need to talk to her,” I said.
“The code team won’t pull out once they have a directive,” Marianna said.
“I know. I just want to see what happened.”
She released me, and I slipped into the room, careful to slide along the back wall and out of the team’s way. When I made it to Layla, she clutched my arm. “Oh, Tina, it was so scary. He choked and his heart stopped.”
I wasn’t going to question her decision, not right now. I knew Albert had given up his choices to make them ours. He was letting us let him go on our timetable, not his. The ultimate in trust and love.
We wrapped our arms around each other and waited to see what would happen to our beloved Albert.