“She's upset, but she's overdoing it. I'm sure you knew that.” Her dad glanced down at her and shook his head. “As soon as this stuff is over with Christine and we have her back home, I'm leaving. I can't stand another minute in that house.”
“Christine is going to be okay, right?” Jamie stopped and glanced up at him. “Right?”
“Yes, Pumpkin. This isn't the first time she'd done this.” He averted his eyes. “I shouldn't have left tonight. She's just gotten so good at faking the fact that she's doing okay when she's not.”
“She's done this before? OD'd on drugs?” Jamie pulled back and narrowed her eyes. “When?”
“Right before we came to see you. That's why she was so out of it that night. She had just gotten released the day before. She's having a really hard time with the situation with Stephen. We should have gotten her help. This is all our fault.” He ran his fingers through his hair and glanced around. “I swear I feel like I'm going to crack in half any minute.”
“Well don't, please. We already thought we were going to lose you. This place should know us by first names at this point.” She stepped up to wrap her dad in a hug. “It's going to get better, but we need to get Christine some help, and get you out of the house with mom.”
“Agreed. Christine first, of course.” He moved back. “Alex just walked in.”
Jamie turned and jogged toward him as he opened his arms to her. “Damn, baby. How many nights are we going to end up here?”
“Right?” she whispered and pressed her face against his chest.
Mark's voice sounded beside her. “I'm sorry, Jamie. We should have stayed with you. If you had told us you were going out to the house, we could have taken you. The last thing you needed to see was your sister like that.”
She nodded and turned to face him, keeping her cheek against Alex's chest. “I know. I wasn't going to go, but something kept nagging at me. I'm glad I did now. She wouldn't be alive otherwise.”
“Very true.” Alex kissed the top of her head. “She'll thank you for it when she's back to full health.”
“I don't know about that.” Jamie pulled back and turned to find her dad over by her mother. He'd taken over filling out papers, and her mother was bitching about something loudly beside him in between loud, ugly sobs.
“Come on, Jamie. No one is that much of a bitch.” Mark reached over and squeezed her shoulder.
“I know, but she called yesterday and I should have talked to her. She was being bitchy and angry over Stephen, and I just couldn't take it. I should have listened to my intuition. She was reaching out for help. I knew it, and yet I didn't want to help.” Tears burned Jamie's eyes. “This is my fault.” She felt silly. This wasn’t about her, but she felt she could have stopped it.
“It's not at all your fault.” Alex leaned down and pressed his forehead to hers. “And you're going to stop telling yourself that. You have two little babies inside of you who need you healthy. This situation tonight probably put more stress on you than you can handle. The minute Christine is okay, we're going home, and you're going to let me take care of you. Understood?”
She nodded and sank back into Alex's hold. “Okay.”
“Wow. I thought I was getting ready to see one hell of a marital fight.” Mark laughed and walked to a long row of chairs. “Not that I want you guys fighting, but you know.”
“We don't really fight.” Jamie moved away from Alex and sat down next to Mark. “He gets testy and we have sex. It works pretty well.”
Alex shrugged. “I try to get testy a lot. Works out well for me.”
“I'm not sure whether to be disgusted or hella impressed.” Mark laughed and closed his eyes. “Everything’s going to be okay. It has to be. We’ve been through far too much lately. This shit has to turn from bad to good before too long. Shit eventually turns into fertilizer.”
Jamie nodded, but wasn’t sure whether to hope too much for his words to come true. They all needed it, and yet every time it seemed that things were getting better, another bomb hit.
*
Four hours passed before a doctor finally came walking toward them. Everyone was sitting together, most of them in a zombie-like state when the tall African-American woman stopped in front of them. She had a nice smile, but from the weariness that sat around her eyes it was obvious that she’d been putting in too many hours for far too long.
“Are any of you Christine Connor's parents?” She glanced around at everyone, before stopping on Jamie’s dad.
Jamie's mother and father rose to their feet. “We are.”
“She's doing much better, and is resting right now. We were able to pump her stomach and pull out most of the sleeping drug she ingested. We'll be moving her to a room for observation overnight, and then we need to talk with you and her about treatment. Attempted suicide is a serious situation, as I'm sure you're aware. We need to get this young woman help and now. We almost didn't get to her in time. I had to bring her back twice on my OR table.” The woman shook her head. “She's going to have to go to rehab, and I would even think about taking about putting her into a mental health facility so that the staff can keep an eye on her twenty-four-seven until the threat passes.”
“It will pass though, right?” Jamie's father's voice broke, and Jamie stood up, moving up beside him and slipping her hand into his.
“It will, but it takes some time and lots of counseling, sir. Be prepared for a long road ahead of you all.” She glanced at everyone else. “Everyone is going to have to help this young woman. If life isn't worth living, then the people living around you have to remind you of the small things and bring color back into your grey world. Between your love and involvement and some medication to help her un
til she heals, we have a good chance of bringing her though this darkness.”