Game of Chicken

Alice wasn't chickening out. She couldn't. But when the elevator did its thing of bringing them up to the correct floor, she pulled back when his hand grasped hers. Noah lifted his eyes and narrowed at her, and she helplessly froze on the floor. She felt bad since she had come all the way here to give support to Noah when he needed it most. 

"What are you doing?" Noah asked. 

"Give me a minute," she replied. 

"To do what? Run away?" 

Alice laughed despite her nerves. "I would never. Don't take it personally." 

He tried to pull her out again, but she wasn't budging. "Okay, tell me, Alice. What is wrong?" 

Alice mustered up a smile. "It's nothing. Just a moment please." 

"What is wrong?" Noah repeated. 

She looked at the ground to see her shiny reflection staring back at her. Even the floors of the elevator were shiny. Alice wasn't going to admit defeat, but she did want to tell him.

It made her look wimpy, but it was fine. She could do it. Clearing her throat, she looked everywhere but him, but their reflection also showed that he looked everywhere at her. 

"I'm worried that your grandfather won't like me." 

Admitting out loud did make it seem ridiculous. He smiled. "I like you enough. So will he." 

Apparently, that was all it took to make Alice step out of the elevator. Gripping onto his hand as they approached the room, the hallway was large in width and lively with the potted ferns, but what they were feeling was anything but. 

There were very few doors in this hallway making Alice think that the VIP rooms were extremely large and took up a lot of room. They stopped outside the door with the name tag to the side of his grandfather which read, Henry Jae Park. 

The name plaque was silver and thin. Noah touched the silver tag lightly, his fingers lingering as they both got themselves mentally prepared for what could be on the other side. 

Noah's hand started trembling on the doorknob, but they could hear voices coming from inside. Was it his grandfather's voice? She wasn't so sure. They walked inside the hospital room, which was practically a luxury bedroom, and they stopped right in their tracks when they saw his grandfather lying on the bed with lots of tubes going through him. 

Mr. Henry Jae Park's complexion was anything from healthy, but his chest was rising and falling steadily. The voices they heard were the nurses that were crowding the old man, one of them holding a clipboard in one hand while arguing about what they should do with the others that were surrounding their patient, blissfully unaware of their words. 

Alice squeezed Noah's hands a few times, but Noah's focus was zeroed in with a frown. "How is he doing?" 

It was obvious that something detrimental went wrong, but Alice would let the information fall over them. All her worries faded when she saw his grandfather.

She couldn't be selfish with her feelings in a moment like this. Noah's question wasn't answered, or rather, it just wasn't heard. Alice found her voice before raising it, "How is he doing?" 

The nurses turned over their shoulders, shocked rendering in their faces before flattening their expression. The one to the right was the first to answer. "Your grandfather's vitals have stabilized." 

"I got a call that he died," Noah said flatly. 

Shock rendered Alice speechless. 

"You know we have the best doctors on hand," the female nurse tried to comfort. 

"His heart stopped for a moment at 3:12 pm. We did what we had to do," the other nurse said. "He is alive and well." 

'Well' was certainly subjective in this argument, but Alice kept quiet. There was no way. Noah was able to give her a smile despite knowing that his grandfather had the possibility of not being on this Earth anymore.

The heaviness in her heart wasn't only guilt, and she truly wished that she was able to meet his grandfather once. She was sure that he was a lovely person. 

"Was he aware and conscious of it all?" Noah asked. 

"He was on his routine medication during that time. He was already long gone." 

The wording wasn't ideal, and Alice saw the white-hot anger flash in his eyes.

Alice slid them all a glare. "Is there anything left to do? If not, leave us." 

"He should have a 24-hour watch," was the response she got. 

Noah clutched Alice's hand so hard, she almost winced. But she kept her back straight while Noah answered. "We will be watching him." 

"Mr. Park is all up to date, but Mr. Park should have 24—" 

"Leave us," she said icily. "We thank you for all your hard work."