Catastrophe - Chapter 2

Portia's POV

My heart stopped for a split second and I couldn’t catch my breath. 

Ellen was lying unconscious on the ground. She must’ve protected me from that dumb huge glass that fell from above. 

I sprinted toward her in panic and dropped to my knees. Nonchalantly scratched my knees and legs from all the shattered glass around.

“Baby?” I whispered while trying to flip her body, putting her head on my thigh. 

“Ed, darling? Please, answer me…” I struggled to even find my voice. 

“Porshe…,” I heard her called me without opening her eyes. 

“Oh my god! Baby, are you okay? Stay with me, I’m gonna get help. Please, just stay with me,” I cried out. 

I could feel something warm seeping out from the back of Ellen’s head and I knew it was blood. 

“I...don’t—“ Ellen struggled to say something but soon her head fell back down.

“No, no, no, no, no! Ed, please…” I couldn’t control myself. 

The ground had stopped shaking, but I could also feel that my wife was struggling to catch her breath.

Will she die? Here? In our house? Like this? She does not deserve this! A voice in my head panicked out. 

The thought terrified me to death but I tried to breathe normally so that I could think. 

“Baby, stay with me. You’ll be okay,” I said, not sure whether it was to convince my wife or more to convince myself. 

I slowly put Ellen’s head on the floor and I used every strength that I had to sprint back to the kitchen and frantically searched for my phone. I found it within second beside the kitchen bar. 

I ran back to the front door to see my wife while dialing 911. 

“911, what’s your emergency?” 

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*3 hours later*

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I buried my face on my shaking hands, uselessly trying to calm myself down. I was exhausted. I cried so much I ran out of tears. 

The scratches and the glasses that was accidentally attached on my legs had been cleaned by a sweet nurse and it started to sting.

Ellen had been in the ER since almost 2 hours ago and it stressed me that I could do nothing to help beside sitting in one of the rooms in the hospital to prevent people seeing me. 

I hadn’t even called any of my, nor Ellen’s family to tell them what happened or asked them if they’re okay. My phone was dead and I, too, felt dead. 

I knew it’s wrong and I should call Betty any moment now but I just needed to calm myself first. The past hours had been too much for me. 

I looked outside the window, at the dark sky with some shining stars here and there. I wondered if my wife would have her chance to stay alive. The thought of losing her crushed me a little by a little. 

The hospital was really busy since there were also quite a lot of people injured during the earthquake earlier. The doctors and nurses were running from room to room and there were beds with or without blood on its white sheets scattered along the aisles.

It was terrifying. 

“Mrs. de Rossi,” a man that I figured as the doctor blasted the office’s door and stood there, holding some papers.

I jolted from the couch, waiting to hear any news, good or bad, anytime right now. 

“Yes? How’s my wife?” I asked him, silently preparing myself for the worst.

“I have good news and bad news. Are you ready?” he asked me straight to the point and I nodded.

“The good news is… Mrs. DeGeneres is alive right now,” he said and I couldn't help but flooded my face with tears of relieve, gratefulness, and happiness. 

“Thank you… thank you, thank you, thank you,” I whispered inbetween my tears. 

As long as my wife was alive, that mattered the most to me. As long as I didn’t have to see a world where I wouldn’t be able to be with her, that mattered the most to me. 

The doctor nodded. 

“Bad news is…” he continued, “she’s in coma and we do not know when she will wake up or if she’s going to wake up at all. The glass hit her head pretty bad and there are internal cerebral hemorrhage that’d take time to heal itself. We’ve done the first aids we could do to save her and we’ll continue to do our best,” he delivered the news straightforwardly but with hints of sorry in his voice. 

I tried to process all the information that he just said. It took some time before I nodded my head and wiped my tears. I knew I have to stay strong. This wasn’t going to be easy for me, for my wife, or for our family. 

This wasn’t going to be easy. 

“I understand,” I finally said. “What do we do now?” I asked him, surprising myself that I was able to talk in such strong tone at the moment. 

I felt numb in some ways, though. But, I needed that numbness right now or else I would've just broke down. 

“I need you to sign some papers of agreement for the operation that needs to be held as soon as possible. The operation may take 6 to 7 hours to be done and I, myself, will do the operation. After that, your wife will probably have to stay in the ICU or she can stay in the normal room, it depends on the situation,” he explained, while handing me some papers that he had been holding and a pen. 

I read the terms carefully but quickly, not paying too much attention on the charges part. All I wanted right now was to know that every staffs in this hospital would do their best to save the love of my life. 

It may sounded selfish, but honestly, that was all that I wanted.

After some couple of pages, I reached the end and put my signature on the blank space. 

I handed the papers back and held the doctor’s hand firmly with my clammy hands.

“Doctor, please do your very best to save her. She is my everything,” I could feel the tears started to form itself again but I prevented it to fall down. 

Stay strong, Portia. Ellen needs you to.

“I promise you I will do my best to save your wife, Mrs. de Rossi. And please, just call me Max,” he said while squeezing my arm with his other hand.

“I recommend you to call other family members if you haven’t. You’ll need some good supports in time like this, and her family needs to know her condition too. I’ll ask the nurse to bring in the telephone here,” he said while walking to the door. 

I was stunned at first, but then I nodded, although he couldn’t see my face anyway. 

He's right. I needed every bit of support I could get, especially from the family. I wouldn't be able to bear this all by myself.

“Thank you, Max,”