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He lowered his head

My insides were set on fire

"Charlie?" I asked, almost sure I didn’t want to know the answer

"He’s in intensive care He’s not doing great, but he’s--"

"Here He’s here" I ran h my hair He was okay "Can I see him?" I asked She nodded I hurried over to the nurses’ station and they took me to Charlie’s room My hand wrapped around my mouth as I stared at ht possible A tube was down his throat, IVs ran through his arms, and his face was bruised and battered "Jesus…" I ave me a wary smile "You can hold his hand"

"Why the tube? W-hy is there a tube down his throat?" I stuttered,to stay with Charlie, but the truth of Jaone But ho could she be gone?

"During the car accident, his left lung collapsed, and he’s been having a hard ti It’s to help hi on his own?"

She shook her head

"Will he be okay?" I asked, staring into the nurse’s eyes and seeing her guilt

"I’m not his doctor Only they can--"

"But you can tell me, can’t you? If you were me, and you’d just lost your wife--" The words forced emotion out of me and I choked it back down "If that little boy was all you had, and you were all he had left, you would want to knofor someone to tell you what to do How to act What would you do?"

"Sir--"

"Please," I begged "Please"

Her eyes faltered to the ground before she metshe had just told me more truth than I was ready to hear I walked over to the chair besides Charlie’s bed and took his hand in mine "Hey, buddy It’s Dad I’m here, okay? I know I haven’t been around as much as I should’ve been, but I’ht for me Can you do that, buddy?" Tears rolled froainst his forehead "Daddy needs you to work on your breathing We gotta get you better because I need you I know people say that the kid needs the parent, but that’s a lie

"I need you to keepin the world Buddy, I need you to wake up I can’t lose you too, okay? I need you to come back to h and when he tried to exhale, thein, and they pulleduncontrollably They all began shouting at each other, saying words I didn’t understand, doing things I couldn’t comprehend