Read Proposal in Room 309 for Free Online

making sure that she didn’t get sucked into any of the craziness a Friday night normally brought to the hospital’s doorstep. If they saw her the vultures - i.e the nursing staff and the other doctors on call - wouldn’t hesitate to put her to work to lighten their load. She didn’t want to work, but she did just want to check on one of her patients, a young man who was in ICU with a brain stem injury.
    Joely left Ben, who she was still not talking to, in the waiting room outside the ICU ward, had a couple of words with the sister on duty and slipped into Mr Davies room, surprised to see a young, very pregnant woman sitting at his bedside holding his hand. She looked up at Joely with shattered eyes.
    ‘Who are you?’ she weakly asked.
    ‘I’m Dr Bennett. I treated your husband earlier when he first came in.’ Joely clocked her scruffy maternity dress and her bandaged arm. ‘Were you in the accident too?’
    The woman nodded.
    ‘Are you and the baby, ok?’
    ‘We’re both fine.’ She ran a hand up and down her husband’s bare arm as Joely scanned his chart, keeping her face blank as she read the distressing news. It was written in doctor-speak but the reality was that he’d suffered a massive trauma to his head and had no brainwave activity; he was for all intents and purposes being kept in a holding pattern by the life support equipment.
    Joely wondered if anyone had broken the news to his wife yet. Before she could ask, Mrs Davies looked at her. ‘They have told me that I should let him go…are they right?’
    ‘I’m afraid so,’ Joely quietly said. ‘His injuries are too extensive for any chance of recovery.’
    Tears rolled down the young woman’s face. ‘I can’t, I just can’t. He’s my world and my heart and my breath. I don’t want to be without him, raise our child without him.’ She cradled his battered face in the palm of her hand. ‘He’s such a good man, ‘ she whispered, ‘and he was so excited to be a daddy. We’re having a little girl and he was so thrilled. I can’t believe that she’ll never know him.’
    Joely felt a ball of emotion build in her throat. ‘I’m so, so sorry.’
    ‘He adored me, you know. He loved me so much. He’d constantly tell me and I’d get irritated and think “yeah, yeah, I get it. You love me and I love you but I wish you would take out the damn rubbish now and again!” I want that normal again, I want that normal for forever.’ Mrs Davies buried her face in her hands. ‘I never thought, not for one minute, that I’d be sitting here trying to say goodbye.’
    ‘How long have you been together?’ Joely asked.
    ‘Uh…seven years. It was one of those crazy, I just know that you are the one connections. Like, boom! It was a “here he is, now my life can start” moment. God, we laughed and fought and loved and made love and did it all again. And I want to carry on doing that! I didn’t have enough time with him!’
    Joely placed her hand on her shoulder. ‘I don’t think we ever have enough time with the people we love.’
    Mrs Davies placed her arms on the bed and rested her forehead in the crook of her arm as sobs sent tremors of grief skittering through her body. ‘Can I call someone for you?’ Joely asked.
    ‘Our parents are outside, I just asked for some time to be with him on my own.’
    ‘Good. Nobody should do this alone.’
    Mrs Davies lifted her head and her devastated, grief-stricken eyes pinned Joely to the floor. ‘What nobody seems to understand is that without him I am alone! He was my life!’
    Joley touched her shoulder again. ‘Take as much time as you need. I wish you…strength.’
    Because, dear God in Heaven, the poor girl was going to need it, Joely thought as she walked out of the room. Catching Ben’s eye, she watched as he stood up and walked towards her, his hair ruffled and his eyes tired.
    ‘You done?’ Ben asked, his clipped tone telling her that she was still firmly on the hook.
    ‘Yes. Sorry it