Her mom moved to her side and clung to her arm. All the years as a nurse still hadn’t prepared her to watch her husband’s body fail in front of her. Reagan pried her arm from her mother’s grip and wrapped it around her shoulders, pulling her mom into an embrace. Before she understood what was happening, the paramedics transferred her father to a gurney, and they rushed out of the room. Her mom followed them, but Reagan stood rooted to the spot, staring at the now empty bed.

“Reagan.”

Her breathing quickened and she continued to stare at the crumpled sheets and discarded tubing strewn across the bed. She rushed over and stuffed it all into the garbage can. “He’ll be home soon. I need to get it back in order. He’ll be home soon,” she muttered to herself.

“Reagan.”

She fluffed the pillow and tried to pull the sheets up when Betty turned her away from the bed.

“Reagan!”

She lifted her eyes to meet Betty’s concerned gaze. “Your mom is going in the ambulance with your father. You need to follow them in your own car.”

As she started to turn toward the bed again, Betty gripped her chin and held her in place.

“Reagan, do you understand?”

“Y-yeah.”

“Do you need me to drive you?”

Reagan shook her head.

“I’ll straighten up around here. You don’t need to worry about this. I’ll meet you at the hospital as soon as I can, okay?”

“O-okay.”

With a gentle push from Betty, Reagan went back into the kitchen and grabbed her phone, keys, and wallet. As she made her way outside, the ambulance was just pulling away so she hurried to her car. In the back of her mind, she knew she shouldn’t be driving, but if she stayed close enough to the ambulance, she’d have something to focus on and would be safe as she drove.

Ten minutes later, she pulled into the emergency room parking lot behind the ambulance. While it continued to the unloading area, she quickly found a parking spot and hurried into the building. She watched as her father’s gurney was wheeled through two large doors. When they closed, she stood there and stared at them, willing them to open and let her through. She knew her mother stood next to her, but she couldn’t find the strength to acknowledge her.

She didn’t know how long she stayed there, but her phone chimed in her back pocket and she jumped at the noise. Pulling it out, she read an alert reminding her she had a meeting with Jill in thirty minutes.

“Shit,” she muttered before typing out a message to Gwen. She gave her the rundown of the situation and asked if she could cover for her at the meeting at Jill’s office.

It’ll all be taken care of. Anything you need? Gwen replied.