The Comfort Of A Silver Lining

...Sebastian POV…

It is in horror that I see Kati disappear under the water, my entire being comes to an end, and I almost stop breathing as pure panic sets in. In a fraction of a section, I dive underneath and catch her just as she is about to hit the bottom. I rush to the surface and pull her lifeless body from out the freezing water. There is a suffocating silence that sets over the valley as I furiously try to find the faintest touch of a pulse beating against my fingertips.

I cannot understand what happened; she was swimming fine, then in an instant, she was sinking. She was not overpowered by the current, and it was not even so deep where we were standing. Something must have happened. But I cannot worry about that now; I need to find a pulse; the last thing I want to do now is leave her here alone by herself while I go to phone an ambulance.

As I squeeze my fingers more tightly over her tiny wrist, I can feel it faintly pulsating. I let out one scream of relief, but now I need to get her to breathe again. So I strongly breathe into her mouth four times while I pinch her nose closed. I wait for only one brief moment to see if her chest is rising. Nothing. Then I go for another four deep breaths; I pinch her nose and check for any breathing movement. Nothing.

"Kati! Dammit! Breathe!"

With breaths even stronger than before, I breathe deep into her mouth again, then as before, I put my ear near her mouth, and I wait. The tears are drowning my eyes as I try to hold them back; I promised Kati I will not cry when I cannot wake her up. Then it happens, I hear her take one big breath as she gasps for air, and only a second of a second later, she start to choke from the water that has filled her lungs. I must say that those are the most beautiful noises that have come from her lips in the last few minutes.

"Kati, are you okay?"

"Sebastian, what is wrong? What happened?"

"You went under the water. I thought that you drowned."

"I was very dizzy, and then I got really tired, and then all of a sudden it went black. I must have been from all the excitement."

"Sweety, you should not blackout from swimming."

Then that is when I see it. Her bathing suit is full of blood from when she coughed up the water. Her eyes grow wide out of fear. She stares at me in disbelief and then burst out in uncontrollable sobs. Why is this happening? Something is not right; Kati should not get like this.

"Kati, sweety, please let me take you to the hospital."

"Sebastian…"

"Please, something is not right. Please, if you do not want to do it for yourself, then please do it for me?"

"Okay, I will go."

I pull her deep into my arms; this time, it is with more intensity than I have ever done before. I did not think she would agree, but I am so glad that she did. We need to find out what is wrong with her. She is getting too sick, too fast, and it is making me worried, something else, something more is wrong with her.

So once she is strong enough to walk back to the cabin, I let her lay down on the bed while I pack our bags. She has not noticed it at first, but now she looks at me kind of strangely.

"Sebastian, why are you packing two bags?"

"Do you think I am going to leave you all alone there by yourself? I told you I would never leave you, and I am not going to break my promise."

"I don't think they will allow you."

"I don't care, Kati, they will allow me, and if they don't, I will just camp outside in a tent."

"You said you hate camping?"

"For you, I will do anything, now let us get you changed into something else, then we can go. Are you okay with that?"

"Yes, I promised, and I will not break my promise either."

It takes us a very slow half an hour because she has no strength left and another awful five minutes of her getting sick. I just breathe deeply, and with some sort of comfort, I feel relieved that we are going to the hospital and that somehow she is going to get better.

So while we are on our way there, I send my mom a quick message to let her know that she must come through. She is even more relieved that Kati is finally going to get the help she needs. I just hope that it is not too late to save her still.

We have almost been here for three weeks, our time together is starting to run out, and by the rate, she is getting sick, it seems like it will be far sooner than it is supposed to be. I still have not made peace that it was three months, then I got knocked with the reality that it is only two. And yet I am still not ready; I don't think I would ever be ready if you reminded me every day. I shall not give up on a miracle, there is a miracle; there is hope for us out there. And she can't get sick; we still have a wedding to plan. I don't care for what reasons we are doing it; now more than ever do I want it to happen, even if it means we do it from a hospital bed.

But the greatest comfort that I have now is that Kati will be in the hospital; I know we both promised that we would not let it happen, but I think maybe she too has seen that there could perhaps be a chance that things will be better. I am afraid to say that with the way she is sick now, I don't know what to do to help her anymore.

So as we get to the hospital, we find Dr. Wilson is already waiting for us on the steps. But the moment that Kati sees the wheelchair, she changes her mind.

"I will not go in there if you put me in that thing. I can walk!"

"Katy, sweety, you are still very weak; please, you won't be able to walk so far."

"No, Sebastian, I say no wheelchair."

I nod to Dr. Wilson, that very reluctantly pushes it away. He comes and helps me get Kati out of the car. The instant he sees how pale her face is looking, he is immediately concerned.

"Kati, are you bringing up a lot of blood, you look very pale."

"Honestly, I have stopped looking."

"Let's get you to a bed; I need to do more tests."

"No tests!"

If I thought that coming to the hospital mean that they can do tests, it seems that I have completely misunderstood the concept of why we are here.

"Kati, please, remember how we said they must see what is wrong?"

"Yes?"

"Now sweety, they need to do tests to see what has changed from the last time we were here."

"Okay, but only if you stay with me."

Then she turns to Dr. Wilson.

"And Sebastian is sleeping with me in my room."

"Kati, we can't allow that."

"Do you want to do these tests?"

"Mmm, see that there is nothing wrong with that brain of yours; you still know how to pull the strings. Fair, I will set a bed up next to you. But we immediately need to run another round of all the tests we did the last time. Are you okay with that?"

She only shakes her head in agreement and moves deeper into my side. She is clinging to me so tightly that I can barely breathe. I know she is frightened but we need to do this, she will see that everything will be fine. I just know that she will be okay; I know there is a silver lining between all those machines there.

So after they have done the tests that Dr. Wilson wanted, we are patiently sitting and waiting for him to come to give her a physical examination. The moment he steps inside the room, I see Kati's face turn to horror.

"Sweety, I am here. I love you; I won't let anything bad happen to you, ever."

As Dr. Wilson comes to sit next to me, he pulls out Kati's file. But the moment his own face goes paler than his coat, it is not so much the color of his face that frightens me, but the words he says.

"Shit."