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Fight
Maia
Ileapoutofmy chair and everyone else follows suit, meeting them in the middle of the hallway. My heart is pounding again as I look at them, trying to find any sign that might give away the answer.
Please let him be okay.
“Thank you all for being here. We’re so grateful to have you all in our lives.” Meredith’s voice is shaky and my stomach twists again. “Braden’s been moved to the ICU. He’s stable, but his condition is still critical. There’s a lot we won’t know for a day or two.”
She continues on, detailing the extent of his injuries.Broken clavicle. Several broken ribs. Mild to moderate pelvic fracture. Fractured nose. Shattered right femur—now held together with a rod and pins. Lacerated liver.
“His ruptured spleen is what caused the severe internal bleeding. Thankfully, they were able to remove it, and he should recover from that just fine. The biggest thing they’re watching now is swelling around the brain.” Meredith’s voice breaks and Hank squeezes her hand and takes over.
“They said it’s common after car accidents. It could go away on its own. But if it gets worse…” He pauses and Meredith sniffles. “Well, it could be a sign of severe trauma to the brain. We won’t know for another day or two. Right now, they’re monitoring it—and everything else—and keeping him sedated.”
Meredith steps in again. “He’s intubated and hooked up to a lot of machines, and he has frequent monitoring, so all other visits besides us need to be kept short and no more than two at a time. But,” she pauses and steps forward, taking my hand, “they think—and we hope—that he can hear what we say. So, Maia, I was hoping you’d be willing to go in. I know it’s a lot, but—”
“Of course,” I say. Because what the hell else am I going to say?
I don’t want to. I’m fucking scared. I don’t want to see him like this.But I have to. He’d do it for me, right? I laugh internally at that. No, he wouldn’t. He’d be a chickenshit. Try to get out of it or make Nick go with him. But it doesn’t matter. I’ll do it for Harper, for him. He needs me. I have to. But I really don’t want to. At least, not alone. My eyes go from Vince to Nick to Leigh before landing on my father.
He steps forward and puts a hand on my shoulder.
My eyes meet Vince’s. He might be the one who comforts me the most, but I need someone who isn’t wrapped up in all the complexities of this situation. He gives me an understanding look and a nod. “It’s okay. Go. Love you.”
Love you, too, I mouth, then start down the hallway, my dad at my side. There’s something perpetually chilling about hospitals. They’re always cold. The bright white lights make everything feel sterile and disorienting, and the smell of antiseptic ravages the nostrils and turns the stomach—in case being in this situation didn’t do that enough.
We stop outside his room and I wish I could find an excuse to not go in.
Dad puts his hands on my shoulders. “You don’t have to.”
“Yes, I do.”
He nods in understanding. He’s been in an all-too-similar situation. Only they lost Ella.Fuck. Every single person in our family and friends has experienced a loss from something far too similar.Is it my turn now?
“Then I’ll be right next to you.”
I inhale deeply and reach for the door. As I swing it open, I’m greeted with several different rhythmic beeping noises. A curtain is drawn most of the way up the center of the room, obscuring all but his feet from view. My steps grow heavy. As we pass by the curtain, there’s a gut-wrenching guttural sound, somewhere between a scream and a cry. It’s not until my father’s arms are around me, preventing me from falling to the floor, that I realize it’s coming from me.
“I’ve got you,” my dad whispers, holding me close.
I blink back the tears clouding my vision and force myself to look at the bed again. The same horrific feeling swells within me because when I look, I don’t see Braden. I see a limp, swollen body covered in wires, tubes, and bandages. There’s no sign of Braden at all, except for the small tuft of auburn hair sticking out from under a bandage around his head.
“That’s not him,” I whisper, slowly moving toward his bed.
I need my Braden. The one who’s always laughing and joking. The one whose smile lights up a room. The boy who made me dance in the rain to cheer me up. The one who took my hand on a dance floor at age six and changed my life forever. I need my best friend.
Slowly, I lower myself into the chair beside his bed and take his hand between both of mine. I softly kiss his rough knuckles as sobs overtake me again. I’m sure some people wouldn’t understand. He’s my ex, after all. Things have been rough between us. But that’s not all we are. You can’t love someone for over ten years and not feel a piece of yourself shatter in a situation like this. Especially when ten years of love doesn’t even begin to sum up the depth of the relationship. Those ten years are just a piece of it. Just a piece of Braden and me. I hope it’ll be a small piece of a much longer story. This can’t be the end.Please don’t let it end like this.
“Brade, if you can hear me, it’s Maia. Um, I know we left things kinda shitty, and I’m sorry for that. But here’s the thing: I don’t want to do this without you. I don’t want her to call anyone else her dad. I don’t want Harper to grow up never knowing you. And I don’t—I can’t—” My voice breaks along with the rest of me. “We’ve been through so much together, and I need you to fight now, because I want us to figure everything out. I want to scream at each other, yell, get it all out, and then I want to fix it. I want Harper to grow up seeing her mom and dad love and support each other the way they have since they were kids—even if it’s not romantic anymore. That love is still there, Brade. It’s just different now, and I need you to fight, heal, wake up, come back to us. We need you. And there’s a little girl who needs her dad. So, please, please fight.Please fight.I love you. We all do.”
I lean down and rest my head on my hands, holding his even tighter as I cry. He needs to know how much he matters. How loved he is.
Dad’s hand runs over my back. “Jesus, Braden. This might be your dumbest move yet. And I can’t lie, kid, I’m pretty pissed at you. But, see, I’ve got a daughter and a granddaughter and, well, an entire family of people who love the hell out of you, who need you. And—” My father’s voice wavers and my tears come harder. “I’ve been through something like this before. It didn’t turn out so well, and it leaves a scar that will never heal. I don’t want anyone to have to bear that scar, especially not Harper and Maia. So, I’m gonna need you to man up and fight now. Fight to get back to us, to them. This is where you belong, Braden. It’s where we all want you to be. We love you, kid.”
My dad sniffs back tears and squeezes my shoulder. I can’t move. I don’t want to let go of his hand. I want him to know I’m here. But, all too soon, a nurse comes and asks us to step outside. My dad has to practically drag me from the room. Once we’re in the hall, he gives me a tight hug. “Ready?”
I nod and take some deep breaths as we walk back toward the waiting room. I don’t know how to process what I just saw. When we get back to the waiting room, everyone looks at us. My dad gives my hand a squeeze, then walks over to Meredith and Hank, while Vince pulls me back down next to him.
“How was he?” Vince asks.
I don’t know how he’s still alive.
