Baxter fired shots into the crowd. Everyone ran for cover. Judge West ducked and narrowly escaped the first shot, but the second shot hit Dean straight in the neck. Dean's body fell to the ground hard.
Judge West hollered, “Dean!” He put his hand over the gaping hole as blood poured out. “Hold on!” As the blood stained the carpet and Judge West's clothes, a faint smile formed on Dean's lips.
An eager and hunger rookie agent, looking to prove himself, pulled out his gun and fired at Baxter. He was shot twice in the torso. He also fell to the ground bleeding.
“Somebody call the ambulance,” Judge West hollered. Dean's eyes fluttered as if they were going to close. “Don't you do it! Don't you dare die on me!” the judge screamed.
Within minutes the paramedics arrived, and as they lifted Dean onto a stretcher, another ambulance arrived for Baxter. They were both rushed off to the hospital.
Colin had this feeling of déjà vu. Once again Dean was being rushed to the hospital, and again he had the responsibility of calling Olivia. He had to tell her to meet them at the hospital.
By the time Colin and Judge West arrived, Olivia was already there. She told them that Dean had been taken straight into surgery. When she saw Judge West had been released, a fury of uncontrollable tears fell from her eyes. He wrapped his arms around her with enough faith for the both of them that everything would turn out okay.
Thirty minutes later they sat in the waiting room still waiting for an update from the doctors.
“What happened?” Olivia asked Colin.
Colin brought Olivia up to speed on everything that had happened up to the shooting, and just as he finished, Baxter's wife walked into the waiting room.
Her eyes met the attention of Colin, Olivia and the judge, but she didn't want to cause any trouble, so she stayed on the opposite side of the room. In silence she tried to focus on the sitcom that played on the television.
A nurse came in shortly after to inform her that Baxter was in surgery.
When the nurse left, Mrs. Baxter couldn't contain her grief any longer. She had no friends or family around to console her. She cried to herself and tried to stifle her cries by pushing tissues up to her mouth.
Olivia heard her cries, and with compassion in her heart she got up and walked over to Mrs. Baxter. She sat down wrapped her arms around Mrs. Baxter's shoulder. The two women cried together for all the hurt that had been generated between them.
The ladies sat holding hands in silence for over two hours before two surgeons came out.
The one surgeon spoke to Mrs. Baxter. “Your husband is in stable condition.”
She breathed a sigh of relief.
“He is a very sick man. The bullets damaged his lungs. He needs an organ transplant.”
“Okay. Well, how long will that take?” she asked.
“Mrs. Baxter, we don't have a set of lungs available for him at the time. We'll have to put him on a waiting list, and if a set of lungs become available that have the same blood compatibility as your husband then we can do the exchange. We're going to transfer him to the intensive care unit, and we'll pray that he won't have to wait long for a donor, because the longer we wait, the less his chances are of making it through this successfully.”
Mrs. Baxter nodded her head in understanding.
The other doctor turned to Olivia. “A lot of your husband's major arteries were hit, but he is in critical condition. He could still make it.”
Olivia immediately held out her hands for everyone around her to join hands. Judge West, Colin, Olivia and Mrs. Baxter prayed together for the Lord to save their loved ones.
“Excuse me.” A nurse interrupted them. “If you would like, the doctors said you could visit with your husbands, but please not for long, because they both need their rest.”
The two women followed the nurse to the intensive care unit.
Olivia entered Dean's room. She couldn't help but cry. A teardrop fell from her eye and landed on his cheek. He looked so peaceful. She wished he would wake up so she could look in his eyes. Olivia leaned over and kissed Dean, hoping her kiss would waken her prince, but he remained asleep.
When the nurse came in to tell her that visiting time was almost over, Olivia whispered in Dean's ear, “I love you.”
Olivia left the intensive care unit, and behind her she could hear the nurse in the next room over say that her visit was over.
Mrs. Baxter stood next to her husband with tears in her eyes. As she stood over him he opened his eyes and whispered, “Don't let me die.”
Mrs. Baxter broke down in tears. She couldn't allow her husband to leave her. She needed him. He was her provider and her mate. What would she and the children do without him in their lives? Mrs. Baxter left the room and went to speak with a nurse about his condition.
“Nurse, do you think my husband is going to make it?” she asked.
“Ma'am, I really can't answer that question, but it's still early. The sooner we get an organ donor, the better his chances are.” The nurse went back to checking patient charts.
“Thank you.” Mrs. Baxter moved toward the exit doors when she saw Dean lying in his room. “Excuse me, nurse. Can I visit with him? I'll only be a minute.”
Earlier, that evening the nurse saw Mrs. Baxter with Olivia together praying and holding hands, so she thought it would be okay. “Sure, but don't stay too long.”
“I won't.” Mrs. Baxter walked into the room and stared at Dean's chest as it heaved up and down from the breathing apparatus. Being in the hospital she realized she was surrounded by death. Her husband could die, Dean could die. She couldn't take it much longer.
She turned around to rush out and ran into Dean's nurse. A bunch of papers went falling to the floor, and so did Dean's chart. Mrs. Baxter tried to help her pick up her things, but in the process she got a good look at Dean's chart and noticed that Dean's blood type was O Negative, the same as her husband's.
The following morning Mrs. Baxter sent her young children off to school and sat at her computer. She typed in the word
euthanasia
.
The Internet listed thousands of pages of information about euthanasia. Mrs. Baxter wrote down all the information she was looking for and headed back to the hospital.
Once visiting hours began Mrs. Baxter sat with her husband, who was still drifting in and out of consciousness, until it was time for her to go.
Before she left she noticed that Olivia hadn't made it to the hospital yet to see Dean, so she slipped into his room. Mrs. Baxter set her pocketbook down and walked up to Dean's bed. When she did, his eyes unexpectedly opened, startling her. She jumped back when she realized he was watching her. That is when she pulled out the hypodermic needle she stole from her drug-addicted brother and injected a lethal amount of barbiturates into Dean's IV bag. His eyes grew big, but he was unable to speak. He grunted a bit but not enough to alert anyone to what she was doing.
“Sorry, Dean, but if I had to choose between you and my husband, then I will always choose my husband.”
She quickly exited because she knew that he would be dead within fifteen minutes. On her way out the door she ran into Olivia, Colin and Judge West.
“Hello, Mrs. Baxter, how is your husband?”
Mrs. Baxter seemed jittery and nervous.
“Are you all right? Is it your husband?”
“I'm fine.” Mrs. Baxter was in a rush to get as far away as she could from Olivia and the scene of the crime. “I need to go pray. I'm going to the hospital chapel.” Mrs. Baxter raced toward the elevator doors.
Olivia worried about her. She wasn't too fond of Mr. Baxter, but she liked his wife. As they marched toward Dean's room they heard the monitors start sounding off. A bunch of nurses pushed past them and raced into his room. Another nurse escorted Olivia, Colin and the judge out of the intensive care unit.
Olivia was hysterical. “What's happening?”
Colin held her for a while, before a doctor came out to give them an update on Dean's condition.
“Mrs. West, your husband has suffered a setback. At the present moment the only thing keeping him alive is a life support machine.”
Olivia closed her eye to block out the reality of what the doctor was telling her. Colin pulled her closer to him and she laid her head on his shoulder.
“Medically, there is nothing more we can do for your husband.”
“So what?” Olivia screamed. “You're just going to give up and let my husband die?”
Colin walked up beside Olivia and pulled her toward him. “Livie, what the doctor is trying to tell you is that Dean is already braindead. The machine is pumping life into him. It's up to you to decide when we should disconnect the machines.”
Olivia couldn't believe they were leaving the decision up to her of whether or not to kill her husband.
“This is too much. I need to go pray.” Olivia moved toward the elevator doors.
Colin and the judge followed her. âNo.” She held out her hand to stop them. “I need to go alone.”
Colin looked at the judge, unsure if he should honor her request. Judge West nodded his head to allow her to go by herself.
Mrs. Baxter knelt at the small altar with her head bowed and anguish in her heart. She couldn't believe she was so desperate to save her husband that she tried to kill somebody. That morning when she thought of the plan, it seemed so easy and so right, but after she did it she knew she had done the wrong thing. For the past thirty minutes she prayed that the poison she'd used wasn't enough to do any damage. That's when she heard someone come in and kneel next to her. When she looked to her left, Olivia was next to her.
“He's gone,” Olivia cried. “The only thing keeping Dean alive is a life support machine.”
“Don't cry.” Mrs. Baxter tried to make her feel better, even though she was the cause of her pain.
“Mrs. Baxter, they want me to tell them it's okay to pull the plug. I'm not so sure I can do that. I hate to sound selfish, but I don't want him to go. If I have to spend the rest of my life visiting him in the hospital, then that's what I'll do.”
“Olivia, I hate to tell you this, but what you see upstairs lying in that bed isn't Dean. It's just a shell of the man you married. If you keep him alive on that machine, you'll never hear him say the words
I love you
again. You'll never see him open his eyes. You'll never be able to do the things that young couples like you do.”
Olivia cried harder. “I don't want to let go.”
“I know, honey, but sometimes we have to do things that we don't want to do,” Mrs. Baxter said.
Olivia got up from the altar. “I guess it's time for me to say my last good-byes to Dean.”
Before Olivia could walk out the door, Mrs. Baxter stopped her. “Olivia, I hate to ask you this, but I need to ask you for the biggest favor.”
Olivia waited for Mrs. Baxter to continue.
“Since you decided to take Dean off of life support, could you wait and tell the doctors that you want to harvest Dean's organs? My husband could use Dean's lungs.”
Olivia was stunned by her request. She couldn't believe Mrs. Baxter would ask such a thing. Her husband was the reason Olivia had to make such a decision, and now Mrs. Baxter wanted her to save her husband's life.
“You want me to save the man who killed my husband?” Olivia asked in disbelief. She stormed towards the door, but Mrs. Baxter stepped in her path.
“I know you're upset, but I wouldn't ask this if it weren't a matter of life and death. My husband could die if he doesn't receive a lung soon.”
“How do you know Dean and your husband are even compatible?” Olivia was furious. “I don't,” Mrs. Baxter lied, “but we could ask the nurses to check, and if they are I would forever be indebted to you.”
Although Olivia was upset, she couldn't deny Mrs. Baxter's request. “I can't promise anything. I'll think about it and let you know.”
When Olivia walked out of the chapel, Mrs. Baxter prayed that Olivia would have mercy on her and her husband.
By the time Mrs. Baxter returned to the intensive care unit she saw a group of doctors and nurses surrounding Dean, and Olivia stood at the nurses station crying. “Olivia.” She gently touched her shoulder. “Are you okay?” “Yes.” She wiped a few tears away from her cheeks. “I told the nurses what I wanted to do. They're getting the paperwork for me to sign.”
“Thank you, Olivia. What you're doing is so brave.”
“It's more than brave.”
Mrs. Baxter and Olivia looked up at the same time to find Judge West and Colin standing behind them.
“Yes, it is more than brave,” Mrs. Baxter agreed.
“Olivia, I hate to intrude on the promise that you made to Mrs. Baxter, but I must insist that she compensate you for your loss.”
“Compensate?” Mrs. Baxter shouted.
“Yes,” the judge said. “Listen, I used to be a part of the brotherhood and I'm fully aware that they take care of their own. You and your husband are sitting on a lot of money, while my granddaughter has just lost her husband and has a little boy to take care of.”
“So, this is about money?” Mrs. Baxter assumed.
“Judge West, you don't have to do this.” Olivia tried to keep the peace. “I really don't want any money from them.”
“It's not about you wanting it. It's about you needing it. You have a husband to bury and a little boy to take care of.”
“All right.” Mrs. Baxter pulled out her checkbook. “What do you want? A couple thousand dollars? Enough to pay for funeral arrangements?”