Helena: Get her to calm down. Where’s the anesthesiologist?

Doctor: Here!

Helena: Get her to sleep, I can’t have her hollering in my hospital like that.

The injected some sleeping drugs to calm Shane down. Carmen watched Shane’s eyelids droop and close. Those piercing green eyes were full of hatred.

Helena: I don’t think she even knows what she’s doing. Don’t take anything she does or says to heart. Shane’s probably lost it for now. Once this is over, she’ll return to normal.

Carmen: When will that be? I can’t watch her suffer like this.

Helena: All in good time. She’ll get better. Know she’s under extreme pain all the time. It might be too hard for her to bear, she’s pushing her conscious self away from the world.

Carmen: What the hell does that mean?

Carmen was angry. She was angry that she couldn’t do anything to help her.

Helena: Calm down, it just means she’s lost some of her abilities to control her impulses.

Carmen: Will she remember any of this?

Helena: Probably not. Shane’s reacting like none of my other patients. She’s under mental stress. Lots of it. And her usual way of dealing with it is closing herself off from the world. When her brother died, there was a period of time, she wouldn’t talk to anyone. She was just thinking. Shane doesn’t remember much from that time. She lapses in and out of her consciousness.

Carmen’s knees buckled under the weight.

Carmen: All I want is for her to be well. All I want is my sweet sensitive Shane back.

Helena put a hand on Carmen’s shoulder.

Helena: Her temper will simmer down. I’ll lower the dosage or extend the time between doses if you want.

Carmen shook her head no.

Carmen: I don’t want to jeopardize her well being for something so trivial.

Helena: If you can’t take it anymore, just get one of the gang to watch her. Take some time off. I’ll have the nurses pull another bed into the room so you can stay with her.

Carmen: Thanks.

Carmen sat there on the ground looking up at Shane. She was finally sleeping peacefully. The nurses brought Carmen food and a bed. She wasn’t hungry. She missed being next to Shane. Shane’s eyes were flickering open. Carmen got up behind the plastic.

Shane: Carm?

Carmen: Yeah babe?

Shane reached out for Carmen.

Carmen: Wait one sec.

Carmen rushed outside to get all the necessary gear on before she could go in. Carmen unzipped the plastic wall around Shane and held onto her hand.

Shane: Carmen, I feel bad.

Carmen: It’s okay. You’re just sick. You’ll be okay though.

Shane: I want to go home.

Carmen: You can’t babe, you have to stay here.

Carmen’s eyes were beginning to tear. Shane’s green eyes were begging and pleading with her. She had to look away to refuse Shane’s request.

Carmen: I’ll be right here, until you get better.

Shane: I wanna go.

Carmen: Shhh…

Carmen hugged Shane trying to get Shane to calm down. Shane closed her eyes.

Shane: Promise?

Carmen: Promise.

Shane fell asleep holding onto the Latina’s hand. The nurses dimmed the lights so Shane could sleep better. Carmen brushed Shane’s hair away from her face to see the face of her once strong fiancé weak and brittle. She wept silently. It was all her fault.