Chapter
49
The next day, I sat in the NeoICU next to the incubator
Hallie had been placed in, crying softly. One of my best friends was dead, and my
newborn baby daughter was hovering between life and death.
I stared at her, lying so tiny and feeble, attached to a
heart monitor, a ventilator, and tons of IV’s.
All these machine were keeping her alive, just waiting for her own
organs to mature enough to function and provide life for her on their own.
I suddenly felt a hand on my shoulder, and I jumped. When I whirled around, I found Nick standing
there.
“Hey,” I said softly, gazing sadly up at him.
“Hey,” he replied, just as sadly.
I stood up from my chair and suddenly wrapped my arms
around him. His arms came around me, and
before I knew it, I could feel his body shaking in my arms and realized he was
crying. I said nothing, just held him
tightly, and cried too.
“You know, Julie,” Nick said a few minutes later. “I think Hallie’s gonna make it.”
I looked up at him suddenly. “Oh, Nick, I hope so,” I said,
but there was doubt in my mind.
“Julie, this may sound corny, but I think Hallie’s got a
guardian angel watching over her,” Nick said softly.
Realization hit me, as I suddenly understood what he
meant. “You mean… Sammy?” I asked.
He nodded. “You see,
Sammy has a niece named Delaney. She’s
about Megan’s age. And before she was
born, her great-grandfather was very sick.
When she born, and her great-grandfather heard about it, he finally
passed on. Ever since, her family’s
believed that he’s her guardian angel.”
Tears sprung to my eyes once again. “Oh, Nick, I hope so,” I said. “I hope Sammy really is up there now,
watching down on us… and Hallie.”
Nick nodded and smiled sadly. “I know,” he said. “I hope so too.”
With that, we walked out of the room together, and I left
with more hope than I had had in days.
***
One week
later
We stood bathed in beautiful golden light, which radiated
from a gorgeous sunset that had settled on the horizon, casting a reflection
off of the gentle waves of the ocean. It
was a beautiful evening, and the group of us were on a strip of deserted beach
in Santa Barbara, California, Sammy’s hometown.
Sammy had requested to be cremated, and to have her ashes
spread out into the ocean near the place where she had grown up. So, here we were. We had just come from her memorial service,
and now we were here to watch Nick, Megan, and Sammy’s mother, Elizabeth,
spread her ashes, the way she had wanted.
Sammy’s father had died years before from lung cancer, so he was not
there. But I knew he would be in Heaven,
with his daughter.
It was hard for us all to get to Santa Barbara, but we had
managed to make it there. No one wanted
to stay behind. Even Brian, who had had
surgery on his leg only days before, was there, sitting in a wheelchair. Josh and I stood side by side, holding hands,
and I tried hard not to cry. We had left
Hallie back at the hospital in Lexington.
It hadn’t been easy, but I didn’t want to miss Sammy’s memorial service,
and neither did he. We had made the
staff in NeoICU promise to contact us if anything happened, good or bad.
Tears blinded me, as I watched Nick, Elizabeth, and Megan
scatter Sammy’s ashes into the rolling waves of the ocean. When they were done, we stood for several
solemn minutes, and finally went back to the hotel where we were all staying
for the night. Nick and Megan were going
to stay in Santa Barbara with Elizabeth for a few days before going home to
Florida. The rest of us were just
staying overnight, and then going our separate ways. Brian, Leighanne, and Hope would be returning
to their home in Georgia. AJ, Amanda,
Howie, Kevin, and Kristin were all going back to Florida. Heidi was going back to her home in
Virginia. And Josh and I were going back
to our home, and to our new baby, back in Kentucky.
So that night, we all hung around together, knowing it could
be awhile before we were all reunited again.
As night fell, we all retired to our separate hotel rooms
to go to bed, for we all had to get up early the next morning to catch our
flights home.
***
I woke up to the sound of terrified screaming. In a panic, I leapt out of bed. The screaming was coming from the room next
door. Nick’s room.
I ran out of my room in my pajamas and turned his doorknob,
but of course, it was locked. Suddenly
though, it turned from the inside, and the door opened. Megan stood there, wide-eyed and terrified
looking.
She stepped aside, and I hurried into the room to see Nick
sitting up in his bed, his hair sticking out everywhere, a bewildered
expression on his face.
“Nick! Nick! Are you okay?” I asked
“What’s going on?” he asked.
“You were screaming,” I told him, my eyes wide with fear.
“I was?” he asked.
“Yeah,” I said softly.
“Are you okay?”
“No,” he told me. “I
saw the whole thing all over again.”
“The murder?” I asked.
He nodded. My heart broke for
him. “Oh, Nick,” I said. I sat down on his bed, took him in my arms,
and began to rock back and forth slowly, just like a mother would do to a
scared child.
“I don’t think I’ll ever get over losing her,” Nick said
through his tears. I just sat there,
letting him continue. “The funeral was
beautiful though. I want my ashes to be
scattered in the same spot. So I can be
with Sammy.” With that, he broke down
again, and I began to softly cry with him.
I stayed in his room the rest of the night, just holding
him, rocking him, and whispering soothing words. I told him everything would be okay, but I
wasn’t so sure. Justin Timberlake had
robbed us of so much. How could we ever
get on with our lives?
***
