Avoiding Responsibility (Avoiding 2)

Lexi pushed open the door to her father's hospital room and stepped in. "Daddy?" she whispered into the sunlit room tears streaming down her face again.

Her father's eyes fluttered open briefly in recognition before closing again. His breathing was labored and he looked as if he had just run a marathon. His skin was almost a green color and he was soaked through with sweat even though the hospital room was frigid. Despite this, a faint smile appeared at the edges of his lips upon her entrance. "Hey….ba…by," he breathed out before falling silent again, the effort to speak taking too much out of him.

"Hey," she cooed rushing to his bedside, planting a soft kiss on his forehead, and falling back softly into the waiting bedside chair. "You don't look too good old man," she said jokingly. It took everything she could to chuckle softly. She could tell it was straining him to pull up the corners of his mouth, but that didn't stop him.

Lexi pulled out her phone and quickly sent a text to her mother to let her know that her husband was still alive. She didn't want to leave his side long enough to make the phone call. She knew her mother was likely still in hysterics and the thought of being out of the room for long enough to deal with that seemed too much to grasp right now.

A nurse scrambled in the doorway and Lexi snapped her head around at the disruption to the quiet of the room. The only thing that had been constant was the deep wheezing breaths her father was taking and the slow beeps emitted from the machine next to his bedside. The woman stopped in her tracks when she saw Lexi sitting in the previously unoccupied chair. "Well hello dear," she said a bit too brightly for the circumstances.

"Hi," Lexi squeaked out. "Is he going to be okay?"

"Oh he is going to be just fine. The doctors will come in and explain everything to you shortly. You're his daughter I presume?" she asked waddling over to her father's bedside. Lexi nodded mutely as she watched the nurse begin to fiddle with the IV stuck into his hand. For some reason Lexi hadn't even realized it was there. "Well I'm just going to monitor the ECG until the doctor arrives."

A short while later her mother bustled into the room. Her face was still covered in tears and at the sight of her husband hooked up to machines, she fell into another round of hysterics. Lexi stood and allowed her to take the seat at his side that she had occupied. She watched her mother reach out tentatively and grasp his hand in her own. She stayed there staring at the love of her life, the man she had spent the last thirty years with, the man she had had three children with. Lexi wondered if she would ever be as happy as them one day.

Just then the doctor walked through the door. Lexi turned around to face the door as the small brunette entered her nose buried in his chart. "Well let's see what we have here," she began. "George Walsh. Age forty-nine. Heart attack. Overall I'd say you are rather lucky under the circumstances, Mr. Walsh." Finally she looked up at her patient.

Lexi released a short gasp at the recognition between the two. "Parker?"

The doctor looked between Lexi and the patient she had just been addressing and back. She was clearly thrown off that her personal life had somehow managed to wiggle into her work environment. "Lexi?"

"You two know each other?" Lexi's mother asked glancing back and forth between her daughter and the doctor who she realized looked just like Lexi. Lexi and Parker both nodded. "But…you look so much alike," she said wistfully.

"We've heard that before," Parker answered returning to her paperwork quickly.

Lexi forgot how shy Parker could be in uncomfortable situations. "This is my father," she stated even though the fact was now obvious. "Sorry I'll just…uh wait outside. I just need some air. I'll be back in a minute mom." Lexi rushed past Parker and out into the hallway. She took a deep intake of the stale hospital air. She was sure that she was overreacting, but being in the same room with her at such an emotional time had just felt wrong. She needed to leave. She needed to get out of there.

A seat had been placed outside of one of the rooms and she slumped into it. All she wanted to do was shut her brain off. She closed her eyes and pressed her palms to her temples in an attempt to stop the pounding in her skull. A tear fell from her eye as the pressure from the last couple hours seemed to settle on her body. She just wanted to go home, cuddle up with some double chocolate ice cream, and cry herself to sleep. She had almost lost her father today. It wasn't a feeling she was soon to forget.

Lexi looked up when her father's hospital door opened again and Parker exited. Instead of turning away, Parker walked down to where Lexi was sitting, crying. "Hey let's go get some coffee," she said her voice lowering comfortingly.

Lexi wiped at both of her cheeks and stood slowly. "Don't you have to get back to work?" Lexi asked though she was extremely grateful for the offer.

Parker shrugged. "I'm in need of a break. They can still run without me for awhile."

"Sure," Lexi said following her down the hall and into the coffee shop. "I didn't know you worked for the ER." She ordered a large black coffee. The caffeine was exactly what she needed right now.

"They just have me in the ER when other doctors call out. I'm usually in surgery," she told her. Parker ordered a small coffee and doused cream and sugar in it as soon as it was pushed across the counter. The two found a vacant table and slid into their seats. "Sorry about your dad," she spoke softly.

"Me too," Lexi murmured.

"I think he's going to be okay now though. Your mom will keep a close watch on him and I prescribed some blood thinners," she told her reassuringly. "He'll only have to be in the ICU for a day or two."

"Thanks," Lexi said forgetting she was talking to a woman that she had so many reservations against. "I really…just thanks for everything you did."

Parker blushed at the words. "It's my job," she said dismissively.

"Yes well it's admirable. I mean I'm just a blood sucking lawyer," Lexi said with a chortle at the end that she really wasn't feeling.

"I'm sure you do good too," Parker responded quickly.

Lexi shrugged noncommittally. She wasn't sure what to say. Instead she just took another long sip of her coffee and let the caffeine fight her ailments. If someone had told her a few days ago that she would be having coffee with Parker or that her father was going to have a heart attack, she wouldn't have believed them. But here she was at the hospital and both things were true.