3Chapter 1
Resa decided she did not like mornings when that infernal cell phone ring tone went off. She could tell it was Anne Sophie without looking at the caller ID, only her mother would call her at...she looked at the analog clock on her bedside table, 6:30 in the morning, when normal people were asleep.
Poor Resa had never been a morning person but had an early rising French maiden for a mother. She only called Anne Sophie "Mother" out loud, they were too different for Resa to believe that they were really mother and daughter.
Of course she did love Anne Sophie. She had always taken care of Resa, it was only that they were both physically and personality wise too different. Anne Sophie was 4' 10", blond, had blue eyes, a delicate bone structure, a heart shaped face, and a knack for social niceties. Resa on the other hand was 5' 10", had hazel eyes that couldn't decide to be green or brown, black hair, a strong nose, high prominent cheek bones, didn't consider going to parties or other social butterfly behavior fun, and loved books. Resa often speculated that she was either amazingly like her father, whom she'd never met, or she had been switched at birth.
She answered the stupid, unwanted phone with a gruff "What mother?"
She was not expecting the polite soft spoken reply that came. "Is Resa Madison available?" Most defiantly not Anne Sophie.
"This is she." The question meant one of two things: either she was being stalked and had just cooperated nicely to help them find her; or something had happened to Anne Sophie, something had happened to her only family. She had a sinking feeling it was the latter.
"I'm Marie Morgan with the Salem Hospital, your...Mother, Anne Sophie Madison has been in an accident."
"Is she at the hospital now?" Resa asked urgently.
"Yes. She's in extensive care. If you'd like to come down someone will explain what happened." Marie Morgan answered.
"Alright, thank you for calling me."
"You're the only one listed as next of kin and we have to do some tests. You'll need to sign some papers when you get here." The woman explained.
Resa calculated how long the train would take to get to down town, then, the walk to get to the building itself. "I can be there in 20 minutes."
"Alright." Both women hung up.
Resa got out of bed quickly and made herself decent, which for her meant throwing on a ratty pair of jeans and a t-shirt. She scrambled to the kitchen and made herself two pieces of toast before grabbing her purse, a hoodie, her favorite, and her sneakers and rushing out the door. All-in-all it took her about 5 minutes.
She rushed through the streets until reaching the nearest max station. Resa lined up behind an old man, in his late 60's at best, waring a brown overcoat and an "OSU" ball-cap, and a woman in a business suit her 30's. Come on. Come on! I have to get to Anne Sophie! She finally got to the front bought her ticket and sat to wait for the train. She took a deep breath.
"What would I do without you Anne Sophie?" She whispered to no one but herself. "How would I do anything without you?" No matter how different the two of them were, or how sophomoric her mother seemed, Anne Sophie was always the real adult. Resa was barely 16. She was only just learning how to do things on her own. No matter how Anne Sophie wanted her to act, and no she'd never denied that she would love to have more of a socialite for a daughter and less of a book worm, the woman never loved her less or denied her anything she needed (whether that be a lesson in how to make French pastries or how to do algebra). And now the bright sun of a woman was in the hospital in intensive care!
She was startled out of her musings by the sound of the bells, signaling the coming of one of the trains. She stood and took out her ticket. As she watched the train approach she remembered her mother, it was before she started calling her Anne Sophie, telling her to stay off the white stones on the plat form, " Those are there to tell you that you are too close to the tracks and could fall off onto them, if you fall and the train hits you you will not survive." She wondered why she had remembered now when she hadn't thought of it for years, she frowned. Then grinned as a thought popped into her head. At least she was honest, even with a little kid.
When Resa got to the hospital she was completely out of breath from having run from the max station. She took a minute outside the door to really breathe.
Once she was no longer huffing and puffing she made her way inside and to the information desk. There was an elderly woman in front of her that judging by the argument happening between her and the secretary was, or was not according to the secretary, scheduled for a blood test.
"I got this all sorted out last week!" The woman said.
"I'm sorry ma'am but I have no appointment for you in the system." The secretary replied.
"Oh, no! You hospital people aren't going to do this to me again. Last time I had an appointment I had to argue with you people for over an hour before they found it in your Gods be damned 'system'!" The elder woman protested.
"I'll check again ma'am, but I can assure you there is no appointment for you in the system." The secretary started typing quickly in to the computer.
"It's those God fangled computer things, in my day all we had were sticky notes and we never made mistakes like these."
The secretary discreetly rolled her eyes. And muttered under her breath, "I'm starting to see why the last secretary quit, five in one day!" She kept looking through the system. Resa felt sorry for the old woman; she had never personally had a problem with the hospital mixing up appointments and what not, but she had cousins that had. On the other hand she also felt sorry for the secretary, it was a wonder she was able to stay so patient with the old woman, five people doing this in one day!
"I wonder, maybe I could be some help?" Resa spoke up; they had problems like this all the time at her high school. Both the secretary and the woman started, neither had noticed her. "At my school the computers do this all the time, I bet it's the same problem." Resa moved towards the young secretary, "May I?"
The woman was startled but she acquiesced, she rose from the squishy office chair in front of her desk and pointed for Resa to sit down. Resa did. "If you don't mind me asking, what are you planning on doing?"
"It's fairly simple really, that is, if you know what the problem is. All that happened was that this appointment ended up getting saved in a separate copy of the original file, if you go into my documents and open the other copy..." Resa navigated through what she was saying as she said it. "See, the file's right there, and there's her appointment." She pointed to the old woman's blood test. "Your name is Marie Falcon right?" She checked with the elder woman.
"Yes! That's right!" The woman nodded enthusiastically. .
"Your appointment is scheduled for room 411 on the 4th floor." The secretary read over Resa's shoulder.
"Thank you young lady!" Marie said as Resa stood.
"It's no problem at all Marie." Resa replied. Marie walked into the elevator then rode it out of sight. Resa turned to the secretary. "Now maybe you could help me, my mother, she was in an accident and I need to get to where ever she is as soon as I can." The secretary started out smiling at the idea that she could help the young woman that had saved her a huge headache and an hours worth of trouble shooting, but ended with a sad look in her eyes for the young girl.
"Of course sweetie, I'll do what ever I can." The slightly older woman pledged. "What's your mother's name?" She asked gently.
"Anne Sophie Madison." The woman typed into her computer.
"She's in intensive care, room 525. That's on the 5th floor." Resa gave the woman a small smile before hurrying to the elevator.
Resa pressed the elevator call button and tapped her foot impatiently, no matter how different she thought the two of them were, she still loved Anne Sophie an infinite amount. She did not want her mom to die, she was only 16!
The elevator arrived. She shot in the doors as soon as they opened. The detour with the secretary in the lobby had distracted her mind only for a few minutes and she was back in the endless worry track she had been in since she heard Anne Sophie was in the hospital. Resa jabbed clumsily at the button for the 5th floor, missing several times before succeeding.
The elevator finally made it to the 5th floor after what felt like hours to Resa. She rushed out the doors and looked frantically for anyone or anything that would tell her how to get to Anne Sophie's room.
There was a middle age man standing out side of one of the rooms, Resa had a fleeting hope that he knew how to find the room.
"Excuse me sir, could you tell me—do you know where room 525 is?" The man looked startled and just stared at her a minute. "Please sir if you know, please tell me Anne Sophie- My mom is in intensive care and that's where their taking her! Please!"
"Yes, I know where it is, my son's in that room as well." The man told her. "He was in an accident earlier, I got the call about two hours ago. Was your mother in the same accident?" It was Resa's turn to be startled. As soon as she heard that Anne Sophie was hurt all other thoughts flew from her mind, she hadn't even considered that there were others who where hurt in the accident. She nodded numbly to the man's question. He was standing now.
"Come on, I'll show you the way." He said. Resa nodded. He lead her along one long hallway, turned a right, and lead her part way down another hall before stopping in front of room number 525. Before she could think Resa rushed inside, she needed to see Anne Sophie, to know that she was still alive.
She was barely prepared for what she saw on the other side of the door. The room was big for a hospital room for 1, but was small because it was being shared by 2. The beds were that awkward size that all hospital beds seem to be, just a little bigger than a twin, and much smaller than a queen. The walls were the sterile white of the rest of the building, and the lights were those that everyone knows barely give off enough to read by. Along the ceiling there was the track that was meant to give each occupant privacy, visually at least. There were two beds, one on the far wall with a young man in it, the young man had dark hair, his eyes were closed. In the other bed, in the corner by the door, was her mother.
She was full of needles and tubes. She was hooked up to what seemed like hundreds of machines, but was probably only 2 or 3. Her blond hair was stuck to her forehead with a layer of sweat even though her face was serene as if she was just closing her eyes to soak in the sun light, as she had so many times when Resa was a child.
So many times Anne Sophie had told her that sun light and happiness were both too precious a commodity to waste. It looked almost as though she was just taking her own advice.
Resa's knees almost gave out. She stumbled brokenly over to Anne Sophie's bed. The man who'd been her guide watched from the doorway as Resa stared tenderly down at her mother, wiping the now sticky hair from Anne Sophie's forehead. The man turned and left Resa to be with Anne Sophie.
Resa just sat for a while, basking in the knowledge that Anne Sophie was alive. She almost felt happy. She'd been really scared that when she got to the hospital it would be too late. That Anne Sophie would be dead. She'd been scared out of her mind! She hadn't let herself think about the possibility on the way to the hospital but the thought had persisted in the back of her mind. It was only now, when she was sitting next to a clearly breathing Anne Sophie, that she could even let the thought come anywhere near to the forefront of her mind. But Anne Sophie was alive and breathing. Right in front of her too!
Someone knocked on the door frame startling Resa out of her musings. She looked up long enough to recognize the white of the one of the doctors' lab coats, before turning back to her mother.
"Hmm-mm" The doctor, a man with a deep voice, cleared his throat to get Resa's attention. "Are you her daughter?" He asked, trying to be gentle both with his voice and with his words.
"Yes." Resa answered standing to introduce herself. "I'm Resa Madison." She stuck out her hand like a robot. The doctor shook it.
"I'm Doctor Robert Clark. I'm your mother's doctor." He paused, it looked like he was evaluating her to see if she was going to go into what all males refer to as 'helpless female mode'. Well stuff it Doc, I'm all you've got. Anne Sophie didn't trust anyone else. "Why don't we step into the hall way? So I can let you know what happened with your mother." Resa nodded. Her face had morphed into a blank mask, hopefully, betraying nothing of her inner panic and disarray to the doctor.
Dr. Clark swept out of the room. Resa made to follow him, but her eye was caught by the dark haired guy sharing Anne Sophie's room. His face was a mix of peace and sadness, as if he knew what had happened to him and was sad about what it was doing to his family and friends, but was happy to be able to relax and sleep. Resa remembered the man in the hallway who'd shown her where the room was, the young man's father he'd said? She resolved to get some flowers for the bed ridden teen the next day, when she visited her mother.
Dr. Robert Clark was waiting a few yards from the door way when Resa stepped out. The kind man from before was nowhere in sight.
"Please, sit down." Dr. Clark said. Resa complied and sat in one of a grouping of chairs nearest him. He knelt in front of her, balancing on the balls of his feet. "You have to know that your mother is in coma. The accident she was in, involved 24 other patients. The max train your mother was on hit a car, broad side. We called the families of the most seriously injured first, so that's one thing to be grateful of. Your mother was not one of the most seriously injured." He grinned, a sheepish little thing on the younger doctor. His hair isn't even gray yet, how can he be out of med school? Resa thought before she was called back to the conversation by the too young doctors voice. "In fact, she should make a full recovery as soon as she wakes." He gave Resa a broad smile, that for some odd reason reminded her of an oak tree. "I give her a month before she should be on her way out of here." Resa nodded.
"Thank you Doctor."
A/N: Thanks for reading, sorry it took so long. I tried to make it longer, but I don't know exactly what's going to happen next so that didn't happen. Hopefully the next chapter will be up with in the next month.
Thanks to bubublacz and C. M. Levy for the reviews!