Page 83 of The Kidnapped

“They’ve given her IV fluids,” Hollis spoke up.

“It would be better if she just stays on them for the next few days. I’d also like to monitor her.”

“I don’t want the hospital,” Olivia told him.

“I know your opinions. You’ve made them very clear,” he said, chuckling at her. “No more chemo, radiation, new trials, or medication. This isn’t any of that. It would just be monitored pain meds and fluids while we run a couple of tests.”

“I have a day nurse and a night nurse. I’m only without a medical professional for a couple of hours a day. Can’t you give me instructions to give them?”

“I’d still need the hospital to run the tests, Olivia.” He smiled over at Hollis.

“Mom, come on. It’s only for a few days. Right?”

“Two to three, at most,” the doctor replied. “And if I remember right, you said you liked hospital Jell-O.”

“Everyone likes hospital Jell-O,” Olivia said, laughing through a wet cough.

“I’ll take time off work and stay with you,” Hollis told her. “Maybe I can get a cot again so that you don’t have to be alone.”

“Absolutely not. Hollis, I don’t want this to be your life.”

The doctor stood from his rolling stool and said, “Why don’t I give you two a moment to talk it over? I’ll send the nurse in with my instructions in a few minutes. We can talk more, depending on what you decide.”

“Mom, you’re dehydrated. And he wants to run some tests,” Hollis said once the doctor was gone.

“The tests will only tell him that I’m dying,” Olivia reasoned. “And the nurses can give me IV fluids for the dehydration, but I don’t need hospital Jell-O. Honey, I think it’s time we have that talk you keep begging me to put off.”

“No. We’ll get you checked into the hospital, and they–”

“Hollis, I’m dying.”

“We can–”

“Baby, I love you. I know this is hard. But you need to listen to me, okay? I don’t know how much longer I have, but I don’t want to spend two or three days in a hospital with you sleeping on a cot in the corner. If I only get the first five years of your life with you and this time right now before we have to say goodbye, I don’t want that.”

Hollis’s eyes welled with tears, and she said, “What if it could give us two to three more days?”

“We’ve talked about this, Hollis… I know what I’m asking, and I know it’s hard, but I’d like to go home with my daughter. I’d like to sit in bed with her as we watch TV and talk until I fall asleep, okay?”

???

“She had her attorney call me,” Hollis shared as she washed a plate and handed it to Raleigh.

“Why?”

“To go over what he called ‘end-of-life stuff.’”

“Oh, babe… I’m so sorry.” Raleigh rested her head on Hollis’s shoulder.

“He’s coming by tomorrow, and I don’t know if I can handle it.”

“Do you want me to be with you?” Raleigh lifted her head and dried the plate, putting it onto the drying rack and wiping her hands on the rag now that they were done.

“You have to work,” Hollis said.

“I can work from anywhere,” Raleigh replied. “But I can also work from home and take a break to come over here. I don’t want to get in the way. It’s a packed house as is, with the nurses here now.”

“The day nurse quit yesterday,” Hollis told her.

---