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Slice of Lex: Ch. 8

By Jen Harlow

Lexi was sitting in the theatre, it was cool and about nine in the morning. The wolf let out a quiet yawn, stifling it. Mark walked back and forth, reading the sign in sheet. He looked over the small audience of students, checking off names and circling others. As he reached the bottom of the list, his face became the model of surprise. "Alexi, can I talk to you for a moment?"

The wolf shrugged, approaching the otter beneath the set, he motioned for her to come back stage. "What's up Mark?" She asked, attempting to see his clipboard.

"Christine isn't here yet. Didn't she ride in with you today?"

"No, she said she was taking a Handi-cab here." The wolf shrugged, "Maybe the driver got lost? It happens."

Mark checked his watch. "It's just unusual for her to be late." The otter professor pulled his cellphone out of his pocket and flipped through his texts and emails. "Besides, if Christine was running late, I would have gotten a text from her by now." Christine was one of the few people given Mark's personal number, as texting was more quickly accessed than email.

"Can I take out my phone? I'll step outside, I just want to make sure she's okay."

"Sure, but make it quick. Call starts in five."

Lexi smiled at the otter as she walked back into the bleachers. "Five, thank you five." Lexi said as she took the phone from her bag.

Daren caught her shoulder as she walked past. "What's wrong sis?" He asked, looking her in the eyes.

"Christine isn't here yet, and she hasn't sent Mark any sort of communication.:

"Not like her, not like her at all." Daren said, rubbing his sibling's back.

Lexi walked out into the sunlight above, the door closing quietly behind her. She pulled her phone out. "Where are you?" She texted. There was no response, she waited nearly the full five minutes. "Christine, are you okay?" Still no response from the mouse. "Did the cabby get misplaced?" Her heart sank, she looked at the time and sighed, she'd missed "five," by at least four more minutes. She started to walk into the building, a sense of dread knotting her inside. Her phone rang. Not a text tone, but Soul Eater - Resonance. It was Christine's number. Now something really did feel wrong. Christine never called, it was a waste of her time and energy to do so. Lexi hesitantly answered the phone.

"Lex?" A panicked voice said on the other side. "Lex, Christine's here but she's unconscious. There's an ambulance on the way, but I don't know what to do. There's so much blood..."

"James, calm down, tell me what's going on if you can. Okay buddy? I need you to stick with me here."

"I let myself in with the key she gave me. She was on the floor, there's ibuprofen everywhere. She's bleeding from... from between her legs, and it looks really bad. It doesn't look like it's stopping!" The squirrel said. He sounded as if he were on the verge of tears.

Lexi walked back into the building. "James, it's alright, she'll be alright. Just don't panic, and stay calm. Is she breathing alright?"

There was a pause as James put his head on the still mouse. "She's breathing, it's slow and so's her heart beat."

"James, get her legs elevated if you can, the paramedics should be there shortly."

"Yeah I hear the sirens now. I'm scared Lex, I really am."

"I know, just stay with her okay? Make sure she stays with you." The wolf hung up her phone, she already felt warm tears running down her face. She walked back into the theatre. Everyone stared at her, not really sure what to make of her right now. She walked over to Mark, and pulled her TD into a hug. "She passed out. According to James, she's bleeding really badly and it hasn't stopped."

"Did she hit something on the way down? What's wrong." He asked softly, putting his hands on the wolf's shoulders.

"No... It started off as just bad cramps and a heavy period." She said softly, "I don't know what went wrong, but now James says it's not stopping. It's not very much at a time, but it won't stop."

Mark leaned his head up, "Listen everyone, call today is canceled. I normally wouldn't do this, but one of our family is in very serious condition. Christine LeBlanc is on her way to the hospital after fainting and losing a lot of blood. As this could impair performances today all around, for those of you who know her, I'm releasing you today."

There were stunned gasps and quiet murmurs from the assembled students. Lexi turned her head to the crowd. "What are you waiting for? Dismissal? Fine, you're dismissed, the call time tomorrow is noon to midnight." The wolf said, a little bitterly, before she stormed out the door.

Daren caught her up in the parking lot. "Wait, I want to go with you."

Lexi looked over and nodded. She took her phone back out from her pocket, and called Victoria's department chair."Jason... It's Alexi Asher. Victoria's girlfriend."

"Um, Hi?" He said confusedly. "How can I help you today ma'am?"

"I need you to get a message to Victoria, it's kind of an emergency."

"What's the message?"

"Tell her Christine's in the hospital, and she's pretty bad off."

"Okay, I'll tell her when she comes off stage next."

"Thanks." Lexi said, her voice now audibly choked. She hung up, her eyes fixated on the road ahead, as she started crying audibly. Daren reached over, rubbing his younger sibling's shoulder.

"Lex," He said quietly, "Let me drive."

"I'm fine!" The wolf said, in more of a shout than she'd intended.

"You just ran a red light, and almost got t-boned without noticing. Let me drive. It won't do any good if we're not well when we arrive." The male wolf said, squeezing his sister's shoulder.

Finally Lexi relented, pulling into a driveway and switching seats. She sat the rest of the way to the hospital quietly, occasionally her body would shake with a small sob. They arrived at the hospital within minutes. The nurse directed them to a room, yet all they found there was James, who was looking very panicked. He had a large band-aid on one arm. He was sitting on an empty bed, his head resting on his knees. Lexi walked over, stroking his back softly. "James, what's going on?"

"They took Christine in at the emergency room and ran some tests. I don't remember exactly what they checked, but they found-" James stopped, swallowing hard. "They found a mass, they said, the size of a golf ball in her. It's bleeding really badly, they said that's what's causing her to hemorrhage. They're prepping her for emergency hysterectomy right now."

"How about you? How are you holding up?"

"My girlfriend's undergoing emergency surgery, I'm dizzy from giving two pints of blood in the ambulance on the way over, and I've been alone for the past ten minutes. So, overall, kind of crappy." Lexi coaxed the squirrel into laying down on the bed, the doctors giving him permission to use it as he signed on to stay with the mouse. She covered him up to his chest and sat down next to him. Darren sat on the other side.

"Why did you have to give blood? That shouldn't have happened."

"I didn't have to, I wanted to. I'm O negative, and I gave some for a transfusion on the ambulance ride over. The blood onboard had apparently gone bad or something." The squirrel said, shrugging slightly. "We got stuck in bad traffic, and it was life or death at the time."

"Well, rest easy, she's here now and they're doing what they can for her." Darren said, putting his hand on the other man's shoulder. "You did everything right."

Victoria arrived sometime later. She hadn't even stopped to take her stage makeup off, and looked largely cartoonish in her white baggy shirt, orange tights covered by shorts, and her heavy makeup. She sat down next to the wolf, who filled her in on everything that was happening. James in the meantime had fallen into an uneasy sleep. Hours passed, mostly spent in quiet, the little conversation there was tried to distract from the grave situation, but it always just ended in more silence. Lexi nudged James at the sound of a bed being parked outside, a nurse dropped a chart into the door and walked back out. Christine was brought in, she looked small and fragile, she looked like something out of Lexi's nightmares, tubes running every which way. She was placed next to James, who climbed out of the bed and walked over to her. He put his hand out for a second, looking afraid to touch her. He reached out gently, rubbing the gentle curve of her round ears, and letting his hand idly stroke her hair. "How long until she wakes up?" He said, turning to the doctor who had followed the bed in.

The doctor checked several things over before she nodded approvingly. She turned to James, her face expressionless. "Right now, we're keeping her in a barbiturate induced state of unconsciousness. The strain on her system might trigger her epilepsy, which would could tip her over the edge right now. We'll give her body a couple days to focus on healing itself without worrying, let her build her systems back up, then we'll bring her out of it." The older leopard put her hand on and smiled at the squirrel. "She came through like a trooper though, I can't say with a hundred percent certainty, but my prognosis is good." The doctor gave a few notes to the nurse, who nodded and they both departed, leaving the friends together in the room as they closed the door. Victoria elbowed Lexi, who turned and looked at her curiously.

The vixen mouthed the word "tradition" and Lexi nodded knowingly. "Daren, you stay here with the two of them, Victoria and I have something to take care of."

The wolf and the fox walked at a leisurely pace down to the gift shop, they held hands and talked quietly about nothing in particular. As they reached the small shop, Victoria sighed. "The only part of a hospital that's cheery." She said, wandering among the rows of little baubles and feel-good things. Lexi and her girlfriend picked out two small bears, one was white with black ears and footpads, the other was black with white. They arrived back at the room, James had fallen asleep again, his head was rested next to the mouse's hip. He snored softly. Lexi took a pen from her pocket and scribbled names down on the bears' tags. She left them both sitting on the small table next to the bed. Before she left, she tousled the mouse's hair slightly. She then kissed James's ear, causing it to flick slightly. "Come on, we'd best get home visiting hours are almost up, and I think James needs to be alone with her right now." Lexi said quietly, as she started to leave the room.

Lexi dropped her brother off on the way back to Victoria's house. She pulled into the driveway, and got out of her car. She was fine until she hit the doorway, she didn't cry, instead she threw her backpack down with a frustrated growl. Victoria ran over, putting one arm around her, making soft shushing noises. "Mom will kill you if you wake Kylie up right now. It took forever to get her to stop wandering around tonight."

"I'm sorry." The wolf said, gently bumping her forehead to her girlfriend's. "I'm just angry with myself."

"What over? There's nothing you could have done."

"That isn't true though, I left her alone last night. If James hadn't come back to get his misplaced book, who knows what would've happened?"

"None of that is your fault, I'm telling you." Victoria kissed her cheek as she started to cry, the vixen pulling the wolf into a tighter embrace. "Come up to my room, I'll get you some of the food dad fixed while you take a nice hot shower." Victoria said, rubbing Lex's back comfortingly. "You and the rest of us have known Christine for awhile now, and you care a lot for her. Besides her parents in Oklahoma, we're about the only family she has right now." The two walked up the stairs, Victoria with her arm around her girlfriend's waist. Victoria sighed, "Why don't you call her parents, I'm sure they'd like to know." She said, nuzzling her cheek against Lexi's.

"I'll have to get their number from James, he's got her phone." The wolf leaned into the fox's nuzzling, returning it as well. "But I will call them, if he's up right now I'll go ahead and do it." She broke from the fox, who walked back down stairs. She slipped quietly into her parents' room. Lexi threw herself on Victoria's bed, staring up at the ceiling. She pulled her phone out and called James.

The squirrel answered, he sounded tired. His breathing was slow and soft as if he'd just woken up. "Hello, Lex?" He said quietly.

"Yeah, it's me. I was wondering if you can give me Christine's parents' number. It's in her phone."

"Mmm, okay, let me sit up." The squirrel said, Lex heard him shifting to sit up. She then heard the sound of plastic hitting tile. Followed by grumbling. "Sorry, I literally just dropped my phone getting out of bed." He got Christine's phone out of his pants that he'd tossed aside. "Okay here it is..." He read the number, taking it digit by digit as his tired mind processed what he was reading.

"Thanks James, how's she doing?"

"Her pulse is coming back up, and she's stabilizing more and more. The doctor said that if all goes well she'll be able to wake up by tomorrow night." He said, quietly.

"That's good. You take care of yourself too understand?"

"I will, thank you for the bear." James yawned, "I'm going to try and get back to sleep now. See you later."

Lexi smiled as she hung up. It was good to know that her friend was rallying. She took a deep breath as she stared down at the number on her phone. Victoria appeared in the door frame, making a come with me, motion. "I'll be there in a sec babe, I'm just trying to get up the nerve to call her mom and dad." The fox came over and sat on the bed with her, the vixen's tail snaking its way into Lexi's lap. The wolf stroked the orange fur idly as she pushed the dial button. The phone picked up and there was silence on the other end, except for a quiet mumbling. "Hello? Mr. and Mrs. LeBlanc?"

"Yes, who's calling please?" The female voice said, sounding a little annoyed.

"My name is Lexi, I'm one of Christine's friends."

"Oh, she e-mailed us about you. You're the one who's been helping her out..." Her mom suddenly got very quiet. "What's wrong with Christine?" She said, suddenly sounding alarmed.

"She's in the hospital right now. She's recovering from surgery, they had to remove a non-cancerous mass from her, it was causing her to bleed really badly."

"What!?" The mouse said, audibly jumping on the other side of the line. "What sort of surgery? When did this happen? Why didn't she text us? Is she alright?"

"They had to do a hysterectomy on her. It happened today, not long after ten in the morning. She's been unconscious all day, she fainted before being taken for surgery. She's alright, James is with her and she's recovering. They're keeping her under right now, they're concerned about her seizing while she's recovering from the blood loss."

"Why didn't anyone call earlier?"

"Christine never gave us your number, and James honestly forgot he had her phone."

"Give me the address for the hospital, we'll be there in a couple hours."

Lexi gave Christine's mom what she'd asked for, the mouse thanked her and then hung up. She turned to Victoria. "So what did you need?" She said, leaning on the Vixen's lap.

"My dad couldn't sleep, so he's moved to the living room. He's offered to stay with us while we eat dinner." Victoria said, looking down on the wolf, playing idly with the blue part of her hair. "He said that nothing is more important than, and I quote, his son and daughters, he included you with that."

Lexi came down the stairs, the smell of a pot roast was heavy on the air. Her stomach rumbled, it had been more than twelve hours since her last decent meal. She and Victoria sat on either side of the older fox. He was wearing a pair of blue and black striped pajamas, a crutch set next to the couch as he'd left his prosthetic in his room. As the girls tucked into their dinner, he talked with them quietly. Reassuring them that things were going to be okay, He held them both close, in a warm hug as they talked, and watched at a comedic movie. Finally, the two ladies settled. Victoria leaned up and kissed her dad on the cheek, before standing up. Lexi started to say "Thanks Mr. A-"

"You call Jessica 'mom', feel free to call me 'dad'." He said, kissing the wolf between her ears.

"I will, thanks dad." She said, smiling as she took her girlfriend's hand. Lexi still felt bad about leaving the mouse alone, even though both Victoria and her dad had attempted to reassure her. She ran her hand through the fluff of Victoria's tail, as the fox snored softly beside her. Eventually, she found herself too exhausted to stay awake fretting anymore. She leaned over, and rested her muzzle on Victoria's shoulder. James is with her, she thought as her eyes became heavy from the combination of sheer exhaustion and the fox's warmth. She knew that the squirrel wouldn't leave, and would likely become quite protective of her. As she remembered James standing up to her father while they were dating. She couldn't be in better hands.

Meanwhile, somewhere across town, James had moved a chair over next to the mouse. He had taken his blanket from the bed, and laid it across himself, wrapping it around as best he could. He then reached out and took her hand as he leaned his head back. It wasn't the most comfortable place to sleep, but he didn't care. Christine had panicked in the night, slipping out from the sedation slightly and had panicked at the tube in her throat. He had talked her down, getting her to settle back as the nurse gave her another dose of the anesthetic. He kissed her, just above the nose, careful not to disturb any tubes or wires as he did so. He held her hand, she was still fever-warm and he could feel it. He smiled softly, seeing her calmed, every time the doctor had returned, the news was better and better. "Goodnight Christine." He said. Sitting in the chair, wrapped in a light blanket with not much cover, he fell asleep. Christine being safe nearby enough for him at the moment.