The Best Friend's Contract

"Do we need an otolaryngologist?" Williams speaks from behind.

"No, we don't. I have to expose his spine through an incision in front of his neck next to his windpipe," Willows replies, nodding his head a few times. "Through that incision, I'll remove the herniated disk and any bone spurs that may be causing pain. Afterward, the space left between the vertebrae is refilled with a piece of bone either his own, taken from his hip bone, or a bone graft from a donor or other material, fusing the adjacent vertebrae together." "We don't have time for a bone graft or other material," I mutter.

"You're allowing me to take it from his hip bone?"

My eyes meet with Willows, leaving me sighing deeply at the decision before looking at the more severe damage done to his brain. "That's not my only concern. He may be in a coma,"

I continue to speak, "His brain is swelling as a result of trauma and the fluid pushes up against the skull. This will eventually cause the brain to push down on the brain stem which can damage the RAS," With every word that has left my lips is only causing me more and more pain.

"RAS?" David asks, furrowing his brows.

"Reticular Activating System. A part of the brain that's responsible for arousal and awareness," I reply before sighing, "Which will only cause an anoxic brain injury,"

Without me realising, my hands are already shaking which causes David to grab onto them, looking me straight in the eyes-trying to calm me down by rubbing soothingly onto my back with his other hand, making me nod a few times, assuring myself. "You can wait outside, Kenna." Willows says, the room quiet with only the sound of the machine beeping.

Williams steps beside me, "I'll take it from here."

My eyes wander to look at him before nodding and take a few steps back to look down at my hands, leaving me to walk out of the operating room.

My heart clenches at the sight of him as I fall onto the ground, running my fingers through my hair as soon as I've taken the gloves off-letting the tears fall down my cheeks again, leaving me to place a hand on my mouth to avoid any further sobbing. "God," I mutter as I feel the pain continue to increase without showing any signs of letting me breathe properly.

--

---

With every step I take towards the intensive care unit, my heart continues to race because I know that as soon as I reach the room, his family will be there; Diana, Marc, Mia and even Harley but of course, not Alain which is not a surprise because according to Aidan, he's nowhere to be found for the past weeks.

I walk inside the intensive care unit before taking a deep breath and step inside his own private room, seeing Diana, Marc, Harley and Mia turn to look at me. Their eyes widen at my sight and within seconds, I feel Diana pulling me in for a hug; leaving me to feel my eyes tearing up again.

"I'm sorry, Kenna." Diana whispers as she wipes away her own tears.

"Where's the doctor?" Marc asks, he seems to hesitate at first according to the look on his face before turning to look at his son, who seems to be in the same position ever since he was placed here a couple of hours ago after the surgery.

I stand in the middle of the room as they all continue to look at me, "I'm the doctor. "

Mia's eyes widen, turning to look at Harley in surprise before she breathes out while Diana and Marc appears to be speechless; their eyebrows frowning but their eyes are wet with tears. "A neurologist... why?" Diana mutters.

"Aidan's in a coma due to anoxic brain injury," I reply and the four of them turn to look at Aidan, seeing the machine helping him to breathe. "A brain condition caused by total lack of oxygen to the brain and lack of oxygen for a few minutes causes cell death to brain tissues. He had a severe blow to the head," I mutter, somehow hard for me to let the words escape my lips; knowing that this is normal procedure for the doctor to explain about the patient's current condition but with me being involved with the patient and family, it's somehow hard for me to even breathe.

"Oh my god," Harley breathes out.

"I'm sorry," I say before feeling the tears escape from my eyes which causes Mia to immediately pull me in for a hug; her arms wrapping tightly around my body, "I'm so sorry," I continue.

"I need a few minutes to myself," Marc says before stepping out of the room, the tension rising in here as Harley takes a seat, her mouth slightly apart as she looks down at the ground while Diana starts to grab onto Aidan's hand, her tears running down her face. "It's not your fault. You saved his life," Mia whispers near my ear as she continues to soothingly rub onto my back, letting me snuggle closer as my eyes land on Aidan's figure, seeing both of his eyes closed with the bandage wrapped around his head and neck due to the injury and the surgery as his mouth is slightly apart due to the machine helping him breathe.

"Mother, I think we should give them a minute." Mia turns to look at her mother, as they both nod before Diana smiles at me as the three of them walk out of the room, leaving me alone with Aidan who seems to soundly sleeping in his coma.

I take a seat beside him, eyeing down at his chest to see it moving up and down in a slow pace before grabbing onto his hand, gripping hard. My heart clenches at the sight of him and it's only hurting me more to see him laying on the bed as if he's lifeless with only the machine helping him breathe for the meantime.

"I'm going to assign you to another doctor," I mutter under my breath. "I can't do this, Aidan. I can't always be in the same room as you to check your conditions and be disappointed if you're not making any progress. I want to be in this room to talk to you everyday or when you wake up but I'm not strong enough to disappoint myself," I say.

"I don't know when you're going to wake up. You're not showing any signs and your injury is quite severe-it's painful for me to say this but, Aidan, you're a rare case." My voice almost inaudible at the end as I lift his hand closer to my face, feeling the same warmth meeting my skin.

"Don't leave me, Aidan. You have to come back to me. You have to come back to me," I close my eyes to let the tears stream down cheeks, leaving me to hold my breath. "Please, come back to me."

I wipe away the fallen tears before I

begin to entwine our fingers together, eyeing how his hands are much bigger than mine but

whenever we hold hands or have our fingers entwine, we just fit perfectly. I the back of his hand on the my cheek, somehow

Side 19

reminding back of when we were together and how he was touching me endlessly, it felt like hours ago.

Just like that, I kiss the back of his hand. "I love you. I'll wait for you-it doesn't matter how long it will take for you to wake up because I'll be here everyday just like how we promised," I breathe.Material © of NôvelDrama.Org.

As I step out of his room and walk away from the intensive care unit, I look up to see Flynn staring back at me, his eyes are red as his hands hold onto Aidan's phone. He walks towards me, "Hi, Kenna... this belongs to you," He hands me the phone, letting me press the home button' to look at his lock screen, seeing a picture of me smiling as I was looking at the camera.

"Thanks, Flynn." I mutter.

Just as I'm about to walk away, "I was there, Kenna. I was there with him," He stops me which causes me to turn around and look at him, seeing his shirt is slightly dirty with blood. "Are you hurt, Flynn? That blood-"

He cuts me off, "-is not mine. I want to say sorry. I should've done something but I was scared, I was shocked and I didn't know how to react. They had guns, Kenna... they were, they-"

I immediately grab onto his hand, "Stop. Don't force yourself. Don't blame yourself, either. Anyone would've been as scared as you and it's not your fault, Flynn. You and Aidan were just at the wrong place and at the wrong time," I reply.

"Go home, please. Take care of yourself," I add before I continue to walk down the road, my whole body continues to weaken with every step I take but I try my best to stay strong.

To my surprise, I find Dimitri immediately pulling me in for a hug as soon as he sees me, his arms wrapped around my body as he snuggles close, letting me place both of my hands on his back.

"Are you okay?" He asks, pushing my hair away from my face.

Without even needing to utter any

words to tell him the truth, Dimitri seems to have caught and understood just how things are not going well as he continues to rub onto my back. My heart clenches at the thought of Aidan laying motionless in his room, not knowing When he'll be able to wake up and see the sunrise or the sunset in the nearest future and it pains me.

"I'm here. I'll always be here," Dimitri whispers.

After standing and being in his arms for approximately five minutes, he pulls my body away to look down at my face before he starts to wipe away the fallen tears as we both walk down the hallway, straight towards one of the benches where less people are wandering with only a few nurses and doctors hurrying away. "How did you know?" I ask, turning to look at him as he runs his fingers through his thick yet neat hair.

"I'm on his emergency contacts." He replies and I look down at my phone to see a couple of missed calls from an unknown number, realising how Dimitri and I have always been on his emergency contacts-it has been that way ever since we started owning a phone. "Kenna, this is fucking insane. I'm losing my mind," He adds.

"He was just at the wrong place and at the wrong time," I mutter under my breath.

"They've captured them. All of them," He replies. "They deserve to rot in jail just as much as they deserve to rot in hell-they tried to harm a child, for god's sake. Who does that?" He continues to speak. "What is wrong with the whole damn world?"

Just as I turn to look up at Dimitri, an unknown person calls out my name which causes me to turn and see two men standing with their badges-making me blink a few times, "Mrs. Kenna Ashton-wife of Aidan Gabriel Ashton?" One of them asks, leaving me to nod. "Do you have a moment? We have to talk regarding your husband," He continues.