Page 39 of Fly with Me

If you don’t want to talk about the list or the race, can we discuss you going viral?

“Ugh. No. That’s even worse.”

Going viral was one more thing that could blow up in her face. One more thing that could chip away at the only good things she had left in her life. Though… it had brought her Stella.

“The entire thing is ridiculous. Saving Mickey Mouse? Completely absurd.” Olive harrumphed in an immature way that would have earned her a teasing hair ruffle had Jake actually been here.

Her eyes settled on the tubes and cords keeping Jake “alive.”

He wasn’t here.

Not really.

Whatever was left of him was suffering, and that was all her fault.

The door opened. Morgan came in wearing bright purple scrubs that seemed to make the entire room friendlier. Her red hair was twisted into a bun on top of her head. Olive dug in her bag and tossed her friend from nursing school a sandwich.

“Oh my god, Olive. You didn’t have to bring me one.”

“Last week you were practically drooling over mine. I called ahead to see if you were working.”

“You’re the best.” Morgan grinned. “Now I won’t have to have a vending machine lunch.”

Olive rested her chin on her clasped hands, her elbows digging into her knees. “Thanks for taking care of him. It makes me feel so much better to know you work here.”

Morgan waved off her gratitude. “My job. Glad me being here makes you feel better.”

Olive’s attention refocused on her brother. “How’s he doing?”

Morgan patted Olive’s shoulder and spoke in a quiet, soothing voice. “The same.”

Olive nodded. This had always been the answer. Nothing had changed in months. “Have my parents still been coming on the normal days? And Heather?”

“Yeah. She’s mostly just quiet though.”

“My mom still bullying the staff?”

Morgan pulled her stethoscope out of her pocket rather than answering, but it was confirmation enough. She wrapped a blood pressure cuff around Jake’s arm and squeezed the pump several times.

Olive gritted her molars together. “I’ll need to bring some baked goods for the break room to say thank you to you all for putting up with all that.”

“Everyone would love that.” After pulling her stethoscope from her ears, Morgan became serious. “Your mom wants to bring in a new doctor from California.”

Above the bed was an addition to the room that Olive hadn’t noticed before. Her mother had obviously added that while Olive had been in Florida. A gold crucifix that Jake would have definitely labeled as creepy in its level of detail. Perfectly symbolic of everything her mother had been doing over the past few months.

Olive sighed and dragged her fingers through her hair. “Of course she does. She’s never going to stop. What’d the team here say?”

“We showed her the most recent scans and tried to explain why we felt recovery wasn’t possible.” Morgan adjusted the curtains. The rain outside had slowed, the sun seemed to be attempting to pierce the dense blanket of November clouds.

“It’s not going to stop her.” Olive couldn’t hide the edge of bitterness in her voice.

“Oh, we know.” Morgan checked on all the life support machine settings and safety equipment before kneeling at Olive’s side. A frown of such sympathy came over her face that it tore at Olive’s heart. “You’re doing the best you can, Olive. We all see it.” And with one more shoulder pat and a few more thank-yous about the sandwich, Morgan left her alone.

Alone, because her brother wasn’t really here anymore at all.

Chapter 17

The day after seeing Jake had been busy and terrible at the hospital, so Derek insisted on an impromptu wine night at Olive’s apartment after work. He invited Joni to come along. Although Joni was a relatively new friend, Olive would be glad of her opinion, mainly because she was less likely to encourage her to get drunk and call Stella and confess that she had not-at-all-fake feelings for her.