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You’re a match.
Three words that Kat Richardson hoped against hope that she wouldn’t hear.
She should have figured that this would be the outcome. Everything works in Eva and Leslie’s favor. They come to town hellbent on (successfully) destroying her family? They get rewarded with forgiveness and an inheritance funded by Kat’s grandmother. Leslie attempts murder on Laura (twice) and Eva covers it up? Kat gets called delusional and obsessive.
Eva gets Kat’s dad? Check. Eva gets Kat’s job? Check. Eva sleeps with Kat’s boyfriend? Don’t even get her started on that last one.
Why not take a piece of Kat’s liver? Eva clearly hasn’t taken enough of what isn’t hers.
“Did you hear her, Kat?”
Those words are spoken by her cousin, Chelsea Hamilton. The two women are standing outside the hospital’s lab with Nurse Shanice Johnson.
“I did,” Kat replies. She focuses on Shanice who looks warily at her. “Don’t look at me like that.”
“Like what?”
“Like you’re worried you’ll have to pick up the pieces of my father’s broken heart because of me,” Kat says, coolly. “I’ve made up my mind.” A beat. “I’ll do the surgery.”
Kat hears Chelsea let out a sigh from beside her. Relief appears in Shanice’s eyes and travels down her body as her shoulders relax.
“Okay,” Shanice says, all-business once again. “We’ll need to —”
“If you promise me one thing.”
Shanice pauses. The wariness returns as she looks between the cousins.
“If I can.”
“Kat?” Chelsea says, hesitantly.
“You can,” Kat says, ignoring Chelsea. “It’s HIPAA-related.”
“I’m a professional, Kat. I’ve seen it all and then some. Mostly over the past twenty-four hours,” Shanice points out. “There’s nothing you could request that would throw me.”
Kat smiles humorlessly at her.
“I didn’t say it would surprise you,” Kat says. “You just won’t like it.”
***
“What’s taking so long?” Leslie Thomas demands.
“We’re almost over the hurdle,” Izaiah Hawthorne reminds her. “Getting Kat in there was half the battle. We’ll clear whatever comes next.”
“Even if I have to restrain her, myself.”
“Hey,” comes a sharp voice. They turn and see Dr. Nicole Richardson standing there. “You may think you’re entitled to say whatever you want because you’re a mother in panic mode, but don’t think for a second you’ll threaten my daughter’s life and get away with it.”
“Leslie was just —”
“And you. I know how you spoke to Kat,” Nicole directs at Izaiah. “Saying that she wasn’t getting tested out of revenge? I would be ashamed if my son spoke to anyone that way, and I know that your mother would be, too.”
“You don’t get to presume to understand what’s going in her or anyone’s head,” she continues. “Let alone pass judgment on decisions that will affect her body and mental well-being.”
“Nicole, come on.” Nicole’s eyes flash as she turns to face her ex-husband, Dr. Ted Richardson. “Things were said that were out of line, but we’re running on fumes. We’ve been here all night.”
“I know,” Nicole says, coldly. “While our daughter was missing amidst fallen trees and live power lines, you were purposefully vague with me until Carlton implied something was wrong.”
“Your daugh – ter,” Leslie interjects, emphasizing the end of the second word, “was out there being her usual Kit-Kat brat self. If you ask me, a shock to the system would’ve done her —”
“I swear to —”
Nicole advances on Leslie but, before she can reach her, a pair of arms wrap around her. She knows those arms. Normally, she would welcome them. Not right now, though.
“Let me go, Carlton,” she orders.
“I can’t,” Dr. Carlton Fitzgerald replies. “You’re about to do something you can’t take back in your place of work. Be mad at me, if necessary, but this is for the best.”
“That’s right. Scamper off,” Leslie taunts.
“Dana, enough,” Ted snaps.
Nicole snarls at the other woman before shoving Carlton off and walking to the other side of the waiting area. She straightens herself out as the elevator dings. Stepping off are …
“What are you two doing here?” Nicole asks. “It’s the day of the Primary.”
“We’d finished voting when I got Dad’s text,” Martin Richardson says, hugging his mother and looking over at where his father stands. His husband, Bradley “Smitty” Smith hugs her next. “I couldn’t believe what I was reading. Kat’s actually doing the right thing?”
“Martin,” Smitty sighs as Nicole says, “I beg your pardon?”
“Now’s not the time for this,” Ted hisses.
“Now’s exactly the time for this,” Nicole counters. “Now I see why I wasn’t looped in last night. It’s been twelve hours of verbal Kat lashings. I expect it from those who will one day be called home to the Seventh Circle.” She stares directly at Leslie, who pulls a look of wry amusement. “But you?” She looks at an abashed Martin. “I expect better.”
“Kat’s the one from whom you should expect better,” Martin says, crossly. “Your Miracle Baby has always been your weak —”
“Hey.” Ted’s voice carries across the waiting area, deeper by several octaves. “Don’t speak to your mother that way. Or mock your sister.”
“Dad.”
“Ted.” They all turn sharply as Shanice appears. “Kat’s a match.”
“Thank you, Jesus,” Leslie says.
Thank Kat, Nicole thinks with a scorching glare.
“When can we get moving?” Leslie asks. “Eva needs that liver.”
“She’s not getting the whole liver, Dana,” Ted reminds her. “Just enough for them to both be healthy and recover.”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah. When?” Leslie presses Shanice.
“Where’s Kat?” Nicole interjects. “Has she said what she’s decided?”
“She signed off on the surgery.” There’s palpable relief. “Chelsea’s with her now, but you can go see her, Dr. Dupree.”
“Let’s all go,” Martin says, looking between his parents.
Before they can start walking, Shanice raises a hand.
“Only Dr. Dupree can go.”
“What?” Ted says, uncomprehending. “I need to see my daughter. I need to thank her.”
“What’s going on?” Martin demands.
“HIPAA,” Shanice says, grimly. “Ms. Richardson only had one condition before she signed off on the procedure.”
“Seriously?” Izaiah says in disbelief.
He withers under Nicole’s death glare. Then:
“What ‘condition’, Shanice?” Nicole asks.
Shanice sighs heavily, looking regretfully at Ted.
“That her visitors are limited to a specific group of people unless otherwise requested by her,” Shanice says. “You made the short-list, Dr. Dupree. As did Senator and Mrs. Dupree, Chelsea, and the Hamilton-Hawthornes.” She looks at Izaiah. “Not including you.”
Izaiah shakes his head and turns away.
“Tell me you’re joking,” Ted implores.
“I wish I were,” Shanice says. “She did have a message for you.”
Ted motions for her to continue. Shanice takes another deep breath.
“She hopes this goes the way you want it to,” Shanice relays. “And that you don’t have twice as much heartache.”
“I need to go to her,” Nicole says, immediately.
“I need to make sure things are ready on Eva’s end,” Shanice says. “I’ll bring you on the way.”
They walk off at a brisk pace, leaving a stunned group in their wake.
***
“That was …”
When Chelsea doesn’t finish the thought, Kat looks up at her.
“Bitchy?” she supplies.
“I was going to say ice cold,” Chelsea admits. “Are you sure you want to bring this sort of energy into surgery with you? No one was the best version of themselves last night.”
“That’s just it, Chels,” Kat emphasizes. “This is who Eva and Leslie have turned them into. If I’m honest? It’s barely Eva and Leslie’s fault anymore. Not when people who’ve known me all of my life are so uncaring about my feelings when I lay it out for them.”
“So this is about boundaries.”
“Exactly,” Kat sighs in relief. “See? You get it.”
“I do,” Chelsea confirms. “But I don’t like seeing you this way.”
“Me neither,” Kat says. “But this is where we are. And I’ll tell you this much: they should relish in it, because some people are gonna need to get ready for me to cut more out of my life than just a piece of my liver.”
“I really don’t like the sound of that.”
The two women look at the door and see Kat’s mother standing there. Kat’s eyes immediately fill with tears as her mother walks over to her and squeezes her hand.
“You’re still here.”
“Of course I’m here,” her mother says. “So are your father and brother. Who, for the record, I had words with.”
“Martin or Uncle Ted?” Chelsea asks, curiously.
“Yes,” Kat’s mother replies. Chelsea raises her eyebrows as Kat uses her free hand to wipe under her eyes. “You didn’t tell me things were said between you and Martin.”
“I didn’t want to upset you,” Kat says. “Or for you to feel like you had to choose sides.”
“I love both my children,” her mother says, fervently. “How Martin is treating you is inexcusable. Same goes for your father in a totally different way. We’ve all borne witness to your aversion to medical situations. Whether or not we agree or understand shouldn’t matter. This has to be the choice that you make. Not any one of us.”
“I made this choice so they can’t have this power over me,” Kat says, sitting up straighter in the bed. “I won’t let them dictate who I am. But I mean it, Mom. Things are going to start to change if I come out of this.”
“When you come out of it,” Chelsea stresses.
“Listen to your cousin, Kat,” her mother says.
Kat purses her lips and looks out the window.
“I’m setting boundaries,” she says more to herself than anyone else. “‘Princess’, ‘selfish’, ‘brat’. I won’t keep defending myself to people who’ve known me a hell of a lot longer than they’ve been around Eva. It’s exhausting and demeaning. And I deserve better.”
“Hey. I came as soon as I got Chelsea’s text.” The three women watch as Detective Jacob Hawthorne enters the hospital room. “Looks like I missed a few chapters.”
“Chels will fill you in,” Kat says. “Shanice said the surgery will take about six to eight hours?”
“Typically, yes,” her mother confirms.
“Can you check in periodically when I’m in the ICU and then on the transplant floor?” Kat asks. Jacob nods, but he tilts his head in confusion. “I’ve sort of … barred my father and Martin from coming into my room. And, uh … some other people.”
“Your brother,” Chelsea supplies helpfully.
Kat gives her an exasperated look. Jacob blinks.
“Come again?”
“It’s a long and ugly story. Like it always is where the Thomas women are concerned,” Kat says, shortly. “I just need to know that no one violates the HIPAA papers I signed.”
“Damn. You put this in writing?”
Jacob glances at Kat’s mother who just shakes her head as if to say: Don’t start.
“Is Smitty here?” Kat asks, suddenly.
“Yeah,” Jacob replies. “I passed the fam on my way here.”
“Can you pull him aside and tell him I need to speak with him?” Kat asks. “Alone.”
“Kat.” She looks up at her mother. “You know this’ll put him in a tough spot with Martin.”
Kat frowns and looks down at her sheets.
“Then don’t say I need him to come,” Kat amends. “Just tell him I’d like to ask him something. If he refuses … I’ll tell one of you. I’d just prefer it if he heard it from me.”
“Got it,” Jacob says. Before he ducks out of the room, he strides over to her and squeezes her shoulder. “I know this isn’t easy for you, and I know why. Whatever Izaiah said, I hope that you know he doesn’t speak for me.”
“I know,” Kat says, softly. “Thanks, Jacob.”
“You’ve got this,” Jacob reassures her. “You’re too damn stubborn.”
Kat lets out a choked laugh, which makes him smile.
“Thanks, bro,” Chelsea says, squeezing her brother-in-law’s hand.
Jacob gives one final nod before leaving the hospital room.
Now, all Kat can do is wait.
***
“I can’t believe she’s doing this,” Martin says. “I just can’t.”
“Really?” Smitty says. Martin stares at him in shock. Smitty gives him a look. “You laid into her good, Martin. Publicly and brutally. It was painful to watch.”
“It was painful to say,” Martin retorts. “But it doesn’t make it any less true.”
“The truth according to you.”
“Excuse me?” Marin says, outraged. “Whose side are you on?”
“My family’s,” Smitty snaps, losing his temper. “A family that includes Kat, my sister-in-law, who happens to be one of the aunts of our children.”
“Emphasis on ‘one of’,” Martin hisses. “The other is in there, fighting for her life, and Kat can do something about it! She needed to hear what I had to say!”
“Did she?” Smitty says, dryly. “Or did you need to say it?”
“What does that mean?”
Before Smitty can respond, he catches movement out of the corner of his eye. He looks across the hospital floor and beyond The Hub. Jacob presses a finger to his lips and motions for Smitty to quietly extract himself from the others.
“Smitty.”
Smitty looks at his husband. He shakes his head.
“To be continued,” is all he says before walking in the opposite direction.
“That looked tense,” Jacob remarks. “Does it have anything to do with Kat’s visitor embargo?”
“You heard about that?” Smitty says, wearily.
“From the source.”
That gets Smitty’s attention.
“You spoke with Kat? How is she?”
“Terrified,” Jacob responds. “And determined. I need to get back to the station, but she tasked me with finding you. She wants to speak with you and only you.”
Smitty feels a weight settle on his shoulders. He looks back toward Martin who is now speaking with Ted and Izaiah. The weight drifts down and lands in the shape of a rock in his stomach.
“Oh, boy.”
“Yeah,” Jacob acknowledges. “Nicole told her this would put you in the middle of something. Kat emphasized she doesn’t need you to come; someone else can relay the message to you.”
“You have no idea what it is?” Smitty asks.
Jacob shakes his head.
“All I know is, her preference is speaking with you directly.” Smitty swallows. “So it must be important, right?”
There are times when Kat can behave dramatically, and even she’ll admit that much, but she’s shrewd when it comes to the parts of her that she lets others see. If Kat needs to speak to him, even knowing there’s a chance that it won’t happen, it won’t be about something trivial.
It doesn’t make Smitty’s decision any easier.
“What room is she in?” Smitty eventually asks.
Jacob outstretches his hand. When Smitty accepts and shakes it, he feels something pointy and made of plastic. Smitty knows what it is before looking at it.
A room pass.
***
“I’m going to have a scar,” Kat sighs.
“It’ll heal and eventually fade,” her mother says. “Back in the day, scars could be over a foot long. Now they can be as short as three inches.”
“Hey, that’s good,” Chelsea chirps. Kat gives her a look. “Look on the bright side. While you’re recuperating, we’ll have more time to plan for mine and Madison’s wedding!”
“Oh, my God. ChelseaKat!” Kat gasps. “The meetings! The upcoming launches! The —”
“Kat? Breathe,” Chelsea implores.
She breathes in once and waits until Kat does the same. When Kat doesn’t, she gives her a pointed glare and points at her own mouth. Rolling her eyes, Kat breathes in before the two women exhale. Her mother looks on in amusement.
“This isn’t funny, Mom,” Kat insists. “We’ve got so much coming up. It’s summer and —” Her eyes widen in horror. “The Tokyo Fashion Collection! How am I supposed to travel?”
“ChelseaKat will be waiting for you once your body is ready,” her mother reminds her.
“As for Tokyo,” Chelsea chimes in, “I’ve got your back, cuz. You’ve selected the best to work on your team, and I’ll make some calls today to loop them all in. We’ve dealt with worse.”
“I just …” Kat looks down at her hands. She tries her best to blink away the burning sensation. “We were so excited.”
“I know,” Chelsea says, gently. Kat stares at the hand that now rests on top of hers. “But you say it all the time — it’s just the beginning of ChelseaKat. Right?”
“R-Right,” Kat says before clearing her throat.
“Is this a bad time?”
Kat looks up through blurred vision and immediately shakes her head. She wipes her eyes and feels gratitude course through her as her brother-in-law comes into focus.
“I wasn’t sure if you were coming,” Kat says. “Thanks.”
“It’s a … complicated situation,” Smitty says, carefully. He looks to his mother-in-law, who nods, before he looks at Kat again. “But you know I consider you as much of a sister as you’d be if we were related by blood.”
“Right back at you. As a brother,” she adds, unnecessarily.
Smitty snorts. When Kat looks between Chelsea and her mother, they understand.
“We’ll give you a few minutes,” her mother says. “We’ll be right outside.”
Once they exit, with Chelsea closing the door behind them, the in-laws look at each other.
“Martin doesn’t know I’m in here,” Smitty prefaces. “But if he asks, I’m not going to lie.”
“I get it,” Kat says. “Can you promise me something?”
“I’ll certainly try.”
“Don’t … tell anyone what I’m about to ask you,” Kat says, her voice catching on the words. “They’ll just say it’s ‘Kat being dramatic again’ and write it off. But this is important to me.”
“Will it hurt Martin?” Smitty asks. “Or the kids?”
“No,” Kat says. “This isn’t about them. It’s about me trusting you with something.”
“Then I promise,” Smitty says. He nervously intwines his fingers in front of him. “What’s up?”
Kat has tried to rehearse the request in her head, but the words seem to have fallen out of her head some time between Jacob leaving and Smitty’s arrival.
“Everyone keeps telling me this’ll all work out,” Kat prefaces. “But you know me. I like my ducks in a row, whether it’s about fits or dining options.”
“Kat, you’re scaring me.”
“Oh, good. I’m not alone anymore,” she says with a breathless laugh. “If it … If they’re wrong …”
“They won’t be.”
“If they are,” Kat insists. She swallows thickly and the first tear falls. Then another one. “I want you to be the one to write my obituary.”
Smitty looks as though a gentle breeze would knock him over.
“Jesus, Kat.”
“Promise me, Smitty,” Kat cries. Tears are falling freely now. “I don’t want something perfunctory or … or over the top. I know people think I want pomp and circumstance for everything, but I just want the truth. You always tell the truth.”
“It tends to get me in trouble,” Smitty murmurs.
“We have that in common,” Kat says, wiping her eyes again. “My parents shouldn’t have to do it. And when Martin takes charge, and you know he would … you know how he sees me. He made it painfully clear.”
Smitty looks at her with his own pained expression.
“He loves you.”
“Only at my best,” Kat replies. “And I’m only able to love the parts of him that he lets me see. It’s taken me a long time to see it for what it is, but Martin loves on his terms. Maybe it’s different for you two, I hope it is, but it hurts.”
The only sounds around them are heavy breathing and the noise filtering in from beneath the hospital room’s door. Smitty is staring at the floor as he absorbs Kat’s unexpected request.
Eventually, he meets her eye.
“I’m not going to put this out into the universe,” Smitty says. Kat waits with baited breath. “But I’ve got your back, Kat. Go into this with a clear head.”
“Trying to,” Kat sighs. “I’m gonna be under for such a long time. The longer you’re out, there are all these risks.”
“You’ll be amazed by how quickly it passes,” Smitty says. “And we’ll be thinking about you the entire time.”
Kat reaches out and squeezes Smitty’s hand when he offers it to her.
“Give Samantha and Tyrell a hug and kiss for me?”
Smitty nods in agreement.
“Count on it.”
Less than a minute later, her mother and Chelsea walk in with the orderlies. One look at them tells Kat all that she needs to know.
“It’s time,” she says with heavy resignation.
The orderly closest to her nods in confirmation.
“We’ll be right out there waiting for you,” her mother reminds her. “I’m proud of you, Kat.”
Kat’s lips turn downward.
“Because I did the moral thing?” Kat says.
Her mother shakes her head.
“Because you made a choice. You did,” her mother emphasizes. “You refused to let anyone bully you or manipulate you. For all that, I’m proud.”
“Ditto,” Chelsea says before squeezing her cousin’s shoulder. “See you soon, cuz.”
Kat looks between the two women before glancing at Smitty who gives her a two-finger salute. She cracks a smile in return, which seems to please all of them.
“I love you,” Kat says, looking between them nervously.
A chorus of “I-love-yous” is the last thing that Kat hears before she is wheeled from the room.
***
“It’s been hours, and nothing,” Martin huffs.
“We knew it would be long,” Smitty reasons.
“Knowing it and accepting it are two different things,” Vernon Dupree says.
He and Anita arrived shortly after Kat was wheeled in for surgery. Neither is happy that they didn’t get a chance to kiss her or give her strength before she goes under the knife, but they were both dead to the world after the fatigue-inducing events of the previous night.
Dead to the world, Smitty repeats internally. Not the best expression.
“Unfortunately, this type of procedure is a waiting game. On both ends of it,” Nicole says. “And it’s just the beginning. Both Kat and Eva are in for a long road ahead.”
“How long?” Martin says, hesitantly.
His mother’s lips form a thin line. It’s a look that Smitty has seen numerous times over the years and tries to avoid ending up on the receiving end of if he can help it.
“I told you — this is not for the faint of heart,” Nicole says. “Kat will spend the next day or two in the ICU and, depending on how she responds, she’ll spend three days to a week here.”
“And then?” Smitty prompts.
“And then,” Nicole sighs, “her liver will regenerate and reach normal volume in about six to twelve weeks. She’ll need to take it easy for the next two months. No heavy lifting. Nothing remotely strenuous.”
“What about Tokyo?” Anita asks, suddenly.
Nicole looks directly at Ted and Leslie as she responds:
“Off the table.” As if to say: You’d better acknowledge what she sacrificed.
“Let’s see,” Leslie says, condescendingly. She outstretches her hands, palms up, and adjusts them like they are scales. “Fashion show … saving a life … fashion show …”
“That’s rich coming from you,” Nicole snaps. “If you thought you could score an invitation, you’d mow down whomever …” Nicole pauses and gives an ironic smile. “Oh. Wait.”
Shrilly, Leslie says:
“I will not have you slander the good name of Dana Leslie Thomas!”
“Oh, is that the name you’re going by these days?”
“Let’s take a walk,” Dani Dupree announces.
She grabs her older sister by the arm and forcibly removes her from the situation. The smaller side conversations resume, but Smitty is quickly distracted.
A doctor has emerged from one of the corridors. When Ted and Nicole had mentioned earlier the two surgeons who would be operating on Kat and Eva, this doctor was one of them. Kat’s surgeon, to be specific.
Smitty doesn’t like the look on his face. He feels the foreboding sharpen in his chest.
“If it … If they’re wrong …”
“They won’t be.”
“If they are,” Kat insists. She swallows thickly and the first tear falls. Then another one. “I want you to be the one to write my obituary.”
“What’s going on?” Nicole asks, sharply. “What happened?”
“Doc,” Ted interjects before the man can respond. “Is Kat okay?”
“She is,” the doctor prefaces. “But it wasn’t a simple procedure. There was some bile leakage.”
“What?” Vernon says, horrified.
“Fluid leaked from the cut edges of the bile duct,” Ted explains.
“Many times, it resolves itself,” the doctor adds, addressing them all. “In Ms. Richardson’s case, we needed to use a temporary drainage tube. She’s getting settled in the ICU now.”
“And my Eva?” Leslie interjects.
Smitty barely resists the urge to roll his eyes to the back of his head.
“She’s still in surgery. Excuse me, I need to go check on another patient.”
“Can I go see Kat?” Nicole asks.
“A nurse will bring you over shortly,” the doctor responds over his shoulder. “You’ll have to limit it to one at a time.”
“That won’t be a problem,” Martin mutters, flatly. “Seeing as half of us are banned.”
“Come again?” Anita says.
“You didn’t hear, Gran?” Anita stares at her grandson, uncomprehending. “Dad, Izaiah, Smitty, and I are barred from seeing Kat by Kat.”
Smitty looks at Nicole and Chelsea. Both of them are already looking uneasily at him.
“Martin doesn’t know I’m in here. But if he asks, I’m not going to lie.”
“I get it,” Kat says.
“Why on earth would she do that?” Anita asks.
“I have a different question,” Vernon says. “Why are you three looking like you’re having your own side conversation about this?”
Of course Vernon would be paying attention. Smitty should have known better.
Sorry Kat, he thinks.
“I wasn’t barred from seeing Kat,” Smitty confesses. He looks hesitantly at his husband who looks thunderstruck. “Sse asked to speak with me before the surgery.”
“What?” Martin gasps.
“What’d she say?” Vernon asks.
“I promised not to discuss it,” Smitty says. Several mouths start to open in protest. “After I made sure of something.”
“Will it hurt Martin?” Smitty asks. “Or the kids?”
“No,” Kat says. “This isn’t about them. It’s about me trusting you with something.”
“Then I promise,” Smitty says.
“I can’t believe she let you in but not her own brother,” Martin says.
Those words are a direct hit to Smitty’s chest. Someone lets out a low whistle — let’s be real; he doesn’t need to look to know it’s Leslie — and there are several intakes of breath. All that before the temperature drops several degrees.
“Kat may not be my blood, but I love her like a sister,” he says, coldly.
“We know, Smitty,” Anita says, intervening before things can go further sideways. “No one would ever question that. Right, Martin?”
“That came out wrong,” Martin says, begrudgingly. Smitty narrows his eyes but doesn’t respond. “I’m just concerned. This whole situation is a nightmare, and it didn’t need to get to this point.”
“On that, we agree,” Smitty says. Then, “I’m gonna give the kids a call to check in.”
He walks away before anyone else can offer their own two cents.
***
When Kat opens her eyes, it’s bright.
Too bright for her to clearly see what’s in front of her. When her eyes eventually adjust, she furrows her brow in confusion. The last thing that Kat recalls is worrying about donating her healthy liver right before the anesthesia went into effect.
Now, she’s in the Grands’ backyard, lounging in their pool. She looks down and is confused by the absence of a surgical scar. Did she not go through with it? Was there some sort of miracle match with someone else?
The illusion — or delusion, depending on your perspective — doesn’t last. The scene shifts and she is suddenly back in the hospital room. Only, she isn’t lying in bed recovering.
Kat is staring at herself in the hospital bed.
“Oh, God,” she whispers. “Did I die?”
The room is silent but, upon closer inspection, she notices that the other Kat is breathing. She watches as that version of herself barely moves an inch. Then …
Neither of them is alone anymore.
“Mom,” Kat exhales in relief. “Thank God you’re here. I don’t know what’s —?”
Her mother brushes past her. She doesn’t even acknowledge Kat’s presence. She beelines for the bed and stares down at her. The other her. Kat feels like she’s losing whatever is left of her mind. This whole situation is —
“No,” her mother gasps.
Kat’s head whips up and sees that her mother has pulled back the sheet. She must be looking at Kat’s incision site, because when she pulls back her hand …
Blood, Kat thinks faintly. That’s my blood.
“Help!” Kat screams at the same time as her mother. Then, Kat adds: “Somebody help me!”
More than one medical professional comes charging into the room. Her mother is pushed back so the doctor and nurses can see exactly how much blood there is and that’s when Kat notices the monitor is blaring beside her bed.
“Oh, my God,” she cries. “I really am going to die.”
***
“Nicole. Nicole, what is it?” Ted asks, anxiously. He approaches his ex-wife. “We saw doctors running. How’s Kat?”
“Bl-Bleeding,” Nicole gasps. “There was so much blood.”
Terror seizes Smitty and he sees that his fear is mirrored on the faces of the rest of the family. Anita and Dani immediately run to Nicole’s side, and he grips Martin’s shoulder to steady him.
“But they can stop it,” Vernon says, half-questioning and half-willing it to be true. “They can … staunch it. Right?”
“If they can’t …” Nicole blinks tears from her eyes. “If it’s not from the wound but something else entirely …”
“They’ll have to bring her back in for surgery,” Ted finishes. “It may be internal.”
“And if they can’t fix that …” Martin begins.
“Don’t,” Nicole and Ted say in unison.
Martin recoils. Smitty tightens his grip on him.
“Come on,” Smitty urges. “Let’s sit down. Take it easy.”
Smitty successfully lowers Martin into a chair, but the attention shifts toward him.
“I tried to respect my daughter’s wishes, but I need to know what she said to you before they wheeled her down to OR.” Nicole asks. Smitty looks up at her with beseeching eyes. “Your loyalty isn’t at risk here; Kat’s life is. Did she know she was at a greater risk and not tell us?”
“It wasn’t anything like that,” Smitty promises. “I swear to you all — on Samantha and Tyrell — she didn’t have any medical foresight into something going wrong.”
“Why did you phrase it that way?” Vernon asks, suspiciously. Smitty winces. “Bradley.”
The use of his given name jolts him like it would if he stuck his finger in an electrical socket.
“It won’t reassure you,” Smitty insists. “It was … It seemed like a superstition. A fail-safe.”
“Kat’s instincts have always been right on the mark. Even if no one was willing to listen,” Dani says, pointedly. “Did she have a bad feeling about this surgery?”
“Of course she did,” Chelsea cries. “She didn’t want to do this!”
“Chelsea,” Naomi Hamilton-Hawthorne interjects, looking from her sister to their uncle. “Don’t.”
“Don’t what, sis?” Chelsea snaps. “It’s the truth. Kat was afraid. She didn’t want Eva to die, but she didn’t want the fam looking at her sideways either. Her hand was forced.”
“We didn’t tie her down!” Martin shouts.
“No,” Chelsea says, sardonically. “Just called her an entitled princess who only thinks about herself. You’re right; she wasn’t backed into a corner at all!”
“ENOUGH,” Smitty shouts. Everyone goes quiet, including the passersby who were listening with interest as the Duprees tore each other apart limb-by-limb. “How is this helping Kat?”
“Hey,” Jacob says, suddenly appearing from behind Naomi. “What’s all the commotion about? I heard you two floors down.”
Smitty looks directly at Vernon who meets his eye, waiting. Smitty takes a deep breath.
“If things didn’t go according to plan,” Smitty begins, “Kat requested that I write her obituary.”
Several things happen at the same time. Vernon and Anita cling onto one another as Nicole stumbles back into her younger sister’s steadying arms. Ted grips the side of The Hub tight, while Martin hangs his head and Chelsea’s face contorts in agony.
Like I said, Smitty thinks. Not reassuring.
“Are you serious?” Jacob breathes. “That’s why I had to get you?”
Smitty raises a hand and then lowers it slowly when he senses Martin about to speak. It seems to work, because Martin doesn’t say anything or rise from the chair.
“She was scared,” Smitty confirms. “But I think what frightened her even more than the surgery was the idea of any of you having something else to worry about doing on top of it. She trusted that I wouldn’t make it …”
Smitty tries to remember her exact words.
“I don’t want something perfunctory or … or over the top. I know people think I want pomp and circumstance for everything, but I just want the truth. You always tell the truth.”
“It tends to get me in trouble,” Smitty murmurs.
“We have that in common,” Kat says, wiping her eyes again.
“What did you tell her?” Ted asks, gruffly. “Did you say you’d do it?”
“I said I wasn’t going to put it out into the universe,” Smitty replies. “All I said is that I had her back. I’m still trying to.”
“Dr. Dupree. Dr. Richardson,” Kat’s doctor says. They all turn around in a panic, but he raises both of his hands. “We were able to identify the source of the bleeding. It isn’t internal.”
“Oh, thank God,” Nicole cries. Everyone breathes a collective sigh of relief. “Can I go back in?”
“Yes,” the doctor confirms. “But keep it brief. She’s resting now and we’ll be closely monitoring her until we’re confident she can be transferred to a regular room.”
“Thank you, Doctor,” Ted says, shaking the man’s hand.
Ted starts to walk forward to follow Nicole and then remembers himself. He stops short and Nicole turns to look at him with a somber expression.
“Give her a kiss for me?”
Nicole nods and turns on her heel. Once she is gone, they all lapse into a heavy silence.
The wait continues.