LITTLE HOPE

    Ethan sat beside Faith's bed staring at her face. She was on a life support machine. Tears were falling down his eyes as he thought of what the doctor had said to them after the emergency surgery. 

      "She has bleeding ulcers and one had haemorrhaged. We have been able to stabilize her, but her pulses are still weak. We are not holding out any hope since she lost a lot of blood and only one out of a hundred per cent survive in this case. But we have gone ahead and started the transfusion."

      He closed his eyes and tears ran down his cheeks and he recalled Charlotte on her sickbed. He wished there was something he could do to take her away from the situation, he wished he could be the one lying there not her. He took her hand and held it in his, the tears were still running down his eyes. 

        "I wish you can hear me now." He sniffed and continued with a cracked voice. "Please, don't hurt me more, I beg you to fight and not to give up, please. I promise to do whatever you want from me if you wake up, please. I can't lose you..." His phone rang as he wept. He took it out of his pocket and saw that it was his mother. He answered the call. 

      "Hello, Ethan, Tyler told me what happened, are you alright?" 

       "No, I'm not. How can I be?" Ethan said as tears ran down his cheeks.  "She is the second woman that is slipping away from me and she is the one I truly love." 

      "Oh, my son, oh, Ethan, I wish I was there with you this moment. I'm taking the first flight to Hollywood tomorrow." 

     Ethan sniffed and wiped his tears, then he said in a firmer voice.   "Tyler told me that things have gotten tighter in San Francisco. You have to lie about my absence. You are hindering a lot of things from happening in the company. I wouldn't want you to come here and leave the seats vacant. I just need your prayers, it would go a long way for me, please. "

     "Oh, Ethan...I need to know that you are fine. I will send one of the twins to come to be with you." 

     Ethan chuckled.  "You never cease to amaze me, mom. I think sometimes you forget that I am older than Fiona and Flora. Besides, they are married and have a family to worry about. Fiona has a little son who needs her attention more than I do, Flora is expecting. Who would you pick to come here and watch me cry?"

      "I will send Tyler, someone needs to be there." 

     "I have friends that are comforting me here. Axel and Camelia are here, Danny and Nora are here..." 

       "Well, they won't report back to me." 

         "Mom, please, you should worry about Faith, not me, she is the one on the sickbed." 

       "God, I'm worried to death about her. I know she means a lot to you and I don't know what you would do if something should happen to her." 

      Tears welled up in Ethan's eyes again.  "Nothing would happen to her." He looked at Faith.  "Nothing would happen to her because she had not said a lot of things to me yet and there are a lot of things we have not done." 

       Nora knelt in front of the altar and put her hands together, facing the statue of Christ on the cross. She was looking at it and tears were running down her eyes. She had never thought she would ever find herself in this situation before, so scared of losing someone close to her. Danny sat in the front pew and watched her. After looking at the statue for a while, she tried saying something to God. 

       "Dear God..." But she broke down again and started sobbing. 

    She sobbed for a while, while Danny sat in the front pew watching her and praying eagerly in his heart for Faith to be alright, if not for anything for Nora's sake. 

     "Please, hear my prayers and answer me according to your steadfast mercy..." Nora attempted again, but the tears won't let her. 

      She kept hearing the doctor's voice in her head and it became a repetitive echo. 

      'We are not holding out any hope since she lost a lot of blood and only one out of a hundred survive in this case.' 

     She fell to the floor and wailed. Danny had to rush up to her and hold her. 

      "Enough, let's go." 

     "Leave me alone!" 

    Danny sat down beside her.  "Babe, how can you cry like one without hope. Rant to him instead of crying, let him see how bitter you are." 

       "I am tired! I am tired!" 

   Danny raised her and hugged her, patting her back.  "She would be fine, she would be fine." 

       Charlie excused himself from the hospital and rushed home immediately after the surgery. Doug was at home when he got back. Charlie greeted him and rushed up the stairs. Confused, Douglas looked at him as he ran up the stairs and resumed reading. 

       A few minutes later, Charlie came down dressed in another outfit. Douglas looked at him as he went to the bar and poured himself a shot of alcohol. 

      "Are you alright? You came back quite early today, are you on leave?" 

       Charlie swallowed the drink.  "I took permission to go home. I am going to another hospital." 

      "Why? You want to start working for another hospital?" 

       Charlie downed another shot of alcohol and started towards the door.  "I am going to see Faith, her ulcer bled."  He moved out of the front door. 

      "Alright, take care!" Douglas called and relaxed back to continue his reading, then something suddenly hit him.  Who is Faith? he thought and looked up from the book.  The only Faith Charlie knew was Faith Prescott, his sister and what did he just say? Her ulcer bled? 

     The book dropped from his hands, he looked out of the living door. Charlie's car was already driving away. He shot up from the seat and went after Charlie but Charlie was not driving slowly, he had taken off at the speed of light. He ran after the car for a while and sat down on the floor abruptly when he told himself that he had just wasted his time, pursuing a speeding car. 

    He ran inside the living room, took his phone and dialled Charlie, but he heard the phone ringing upstairs. 

    "Shit! He forgot his phone in his hurry." His car was not even parked there because he had to take it to a car mechanic for repairs. He slumped on the sofa helplessly. 

       "Faith's ulcer bled?" he asked himself in confusion. 

      Charlie was lucky enough to meet Nora on the hospital premises. He only realized that he had forgotten his phone when he was almost at the hospital. He had wanted to call Nora to ask for Faith's room number. 

      He quickly got down from his car. "Nora!" 

    Nora and Danny turned and he strode over to them. Nora's face was all swollen, her eyes puffy with tears, her nose red and her lips swollen. 

       "You came Charlie," Nora said, it wasn't a question. 

      "Yes," Charlie replied.  "Can I see her? Why did you cry so much?" 

      Tears welled up in Nora's eyes again and she sniffed and spoke in a cracked voice.  "The doctors said they are not guaranteeing anything, she doesn't have a fifty-fifty chance, she has a slim chance." She started sobbing again. 

       Danny held her to him and she wept in his arms. Danny looked at Charlie.  "Why don't we go to her room so that you can see her yourself." 

       Charlie nodded, unable to talk because of the knot in his throat. The three of them proceeded to Faith's room.

      Ethan was by the window when they entered. He turned to look at them. Charlie looked at Faith who was lying so still on the bed, she had a mask on her nose, and she was taking a pint of blood. He blinked severally. She looked so pale and it hurt him to see her like that. 

       "You are here," Ethan said. 

          "Have you eaten anything yet?" Nora asked him. 

            "I don't feel hungry," Ethan replied and looked at Charlie who was still looking at Faith's body. 

           "How did she end up like this?" Charlie asked, almost to himself. 

         Ethan sat down back on the chair by Faith's bedside and took Faith's hand again.  "Your friends are asking how you ended up like this." 

       "Did she stop therapy? Did she stop taking her drugs? Did she drink too much?!" Charlie yelled and a tear fell from his left eye. 

        "Faith is stubborn and she had a lot to drink last night. She drank too much and yet none of us knew why she did that," Nora said. 

      "She met Noah yesterday, " Ethan said slowly. His voice was deep and low. 

       "What?!" the others exclaimed. 

        "He said some things that got her upset and she chose to resort to drinking it away again." Ethan stood up.  I am going to find out what he told her myself and I will strangle him with my bare hands! " Ethan bolted up from his seat.  "Nora, please you should be here with her until I return." 

        "Where are you going?" Nora asked. 

        "Don't worry about me and take care of Faith." 

  Before any of them could say anything, he was out of the room.