She couldn't help the tears that streamed from her deep violet eyes. She only loved one
person in the entire world and he was lying in the bed next to her. She glanced over
at him, but his eyes were closed. She wanted so much to see his gorgeous, grassy
green eyes, but she couldn't. She wanted to stay awake until he woke up, but the
drugs the nurse gave her were making her too drowsy. She finally slipped back into
unconsciousness listening to the rhythmic sound of his heart monitor.

The woman woke up with a start when she heard chaos surrounding her. For a fleeting
second, she thought maybe, just maybe, her family came back. But no, they'd disowned
her forever because of her choice to stay with him. Her eyes fluttered open and her
heart began racing immediately. Doctors were surrounding him, shouting things at each
other while the monitors went berserk. Momentarily, everything just stopped and during
the silence that followed, she felt as though her world was crashing down on her. She
couldn't breathe, she couldn't move. She was paralyzed. And then the machines began
buzzing once more.

But not until she saw his chest rise and fall again with deep breaths, did she breathe.
Her heart was still beating rapidly and she could suddenly feel every burn, bruise, cut,
and broken bone in her body. She opened her mouth and tried to scream, but her throat
was too sore. She was trapped, and there was no way for anybody to know. Tears
spilled from her eyes as she stared at him. He seemed peaceful, despite his injuries.
There was not a single mark on his beautiful face, but he still wasn’t waking up. The
woman felt the bed shake violently and it took her a few moments to realize that she
was the one shaking.

“Doctor, the woman is awake,” a nurse said giving the woman a sympathetic smile. The
doctor took one look at her and rushed forward.

“Well jeez Maggie! She must be in agony. Poor thing can’t even tell us her name. Give
her more pain meds.” The woman tried to shake her head, she tried to tell him no, but
he didn’t listen. He gave her the drugs anyway, under the wrong assumption that he
was helping her. She would rather be in pain, watching over him, than sleeping. Once
again, she found herself falling into a deep, dreamless sleep.

When she awoke once more, she immediately glanced over, staring at him silently,
willing him to wake up so she could see his deep green eyes. She wanted to be able

to use her voice again, but her throat was far too sore, and her voice box didn’t seem
to be working right anyway. If only she could ask a nurse what was going on with him,
her Danny. She waited patiently for a nurse to come in and check on them, before she
pointed to her throat.

“You want some water?” the nurse asked. She nodded a yes. “Oh yeah. Sure. I’ll be
back in a moment.” The nurse was gone for only a minute before returning with a plastic
cup full of water. The woman gulped it down quickly not caring about how stale it tasted.
It proved to soothe her unbearably dry throat, and that’s what she’d wanted.

“What’s… what’s wrong with him?” she whispered, nearly inaudibly. The nurse gazed at
the woman with sympathetic eyes.

“He’s had a lot of internal bleeding. We’re hoping he’ll pull through, but it looks unlikely.”
The woman stared at the nurse. She wanted to hate her. Danny couldn’t be dying. He
was the only person she ever loved. She couldn’t even imagine life without him by her
side. What would she do if he was no longer a part of her life?

“Will you push me closer to him? So I can hold his hand?” she asked quietly as she
continued to gaze at him lovingly. The moment she settled her hand onto his, a warm
feeling spread throughout her. As she closed her eyes and felt the heat of his skin and
listened to the sound of his slightly labored breathing, she felt whole again, as if it were
just moments before the treacherous car accident. Almost the second she opened her
eyes to gaze at his perfect face, his machines began to go awry once more.

Doctors and nurses rushed in, shouting words that were unintelligible to the woman.
She hoped for the machines to go back to normal again, that it was just another scare.
But there was never going to be a “normal” ever again. Not that their life was any kind of
normal in the first place.

After her family kicked them out, they went from town to town, staying at motels and
hotels. She tried to always find the nicest place for them. Only the nicest things for her
Danny. She’d buy him the world if she could afford it. But she was poor, she couldn’t
afford much.

The doctors pushed her away, allowing her quiet protests to go unheard. She felt the
unwanted tears leak from her eyes. But they didn’t start to stream heavily until she
heard the flat line. She was hoping – willing – the machines to start up again, to start
beeping normally. They remained silent. She watched helplessly as the doctors hung
their heads in defeat and recited the time of death. The woman wanted to scream at

them and tell them that they lost nothing. She was the one who lost something. Not
just “something” either… she lost her Danny. Her Danny. How was she going to live
without him? He was all she had to live for.

She reached out for him, she tried to see through her river of tears, to no avail. She sat
up hastily, ignoring the pain, and ripped her wires out of her bruised skin. She didn’t
register the pain, she didn’t care. All she wanted to do was hold him one last time. She
stumbled forward completely ignoring the doctors. She pulled him into her arms and
held him as her tells fell onto his peaceful, beautiful face.

After only a few minutes, she curled up next to him and closer her eyes. She wasn’t
ready to face the world without her Danny.

The doctors tried desperately to revive her, it was useless though, she had no will to
live. Her heart was broken.

Two white caskets laid side by side. One considerably smaller than the other. The
funeral contained just one of the woman’s nurses and a doctor who had tried in vain to
save them. The hospital tried to contact their family, but they had no name. Only Danny.
That was the only name the woman gave them.

They were buried together on a sunny summer morning. They were all each other had
in the world. Mother and son never to part.