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The sound of the ringing phone in the middle of the night woke her from a sound sleep. Whoever it was was going to get an earful when she answered.

“Hello?” she answered sleepily.

“Brianna Cooper?” the voice at the other end of the phone asked.

“Yes who’s this?”

“This is Dr. Chambers at Tampa General. This is about your husband…..”

She cut him off, “What happened to Brent?”

“He’s been in an accident. It’s not good. We need you to come down.”

“I’m coming, I’ll be there.”

She dresses in the clothing she’d discarded earlier in the night and was in her car in less than five minutes.

Ten minutes later, even though they lived forty-five minutes away she pulled into the hospital parking lot.

She ran from her car to the Emergency Room entrance. She forced herself to calm down and WALK inside to the front desk.

“I was called….” she began. “They said my husband was in an accident.”

“Do you know who you spoke to?” the nurse asked.

“Dr. Chambers I believe.”

The nurse pressed a button and said, “Dr. Chambers to the ER lobby, Dr. Chambers to the ER lobby.”

Brianna began pacing as she waited for the doctor to show himself.

Two minutes later, the double doors leading into the heart of the ER opened and the doctor walked out.

He was young, his hair was as black as a raven, and he had chocolate brown eyes. He was very tall. “Mrs. Cooper?” he asked, looking at Brianna.

“Yes,” she said. “Where’s Brent?”

“He’s up in surgery. Before I take you up I need to speak with you.

He held one of the double doors open and she walked through and he followed.

He led her into an empty trauma room and had her sit down. She wasted no time in asking, “What’s wrong with my husband Dr. Chambers?”

He closed the door and began his answer, “He was in a car accident at 11:00pm….hold on,” he poked his head out the door and called for someone.

A few moments later a Tampa Bay police officer stepped in. Dr. Chambers introduced him, “This is Officer Davidson, and he’ll be better able to explain your husband’s accident.”

“Mrs. Cooper, your husband was not intoxicated at the time of the accident. He was heading north on Tanner Road….”

She cut him off, “Yeah, we live on Tanner.”

Davidson continued, “It appears he was heading north and there was another driver heading south. That driver was intoxicated. As the other car reached your husband’s vehicle, the driver lost control of his vehicle and it spun out of control. He hit your husband on the driver’s side of his vehicle.”

“No,” Brianna whispered.

“I’m afraid so ma’am,” both Davidson and the doctor answered.

“Take me to him. Please,” she said.

The officer left the room and Dr. Chambers turned to her and said, “Before I take you up, I need to tell you a few things.”

“What?” Brianna asked, afraid that Brent had died and nobody had told her.

“He was badly injured. He may still be in surgery. He had a lot of internal bleeding.”

“My god,” she whispered, covering her mouth with her trembling fingers.

“If you’ll follow me, we can go check on his status.”

She stood and followed him out of the room and into an elevator that took them up to the “Surgery Floor.”

Once they were there they were informed that the operating doctor wished to speak with Mrs. Cooper before she went in to be with her husband.

A few moments later, they were greeted by a middle-aged man with blackish-brown hair. He introduced himself as Dr. Gregory Harris.

Turning his attention to Brianna, he asked, “You’re Mrs. Cooper?”

“Yes,” she answered straight away.

“I need to speak with you before you go in to be with your husband.

She followed Dr. Harris into the empty waiting room and sat down next to him. “What’s wrong with my husband?” she asked.

“We were able to stop all of the internal bleeding. But a few of his other internal injuries were too severe and we weren’t able to fix them. Frankly, I’m not sure if he’s going to make through the night.”

She let loose a strangled cry and said, “Take me to him.”

“Of course, follow me please,” he stood and she followed suit.

He led her down a hallway to the left of the waiting room. They stopped outside of room 731. Dr. Harris told her, “You can go in as soon as the nurse comes out.”

Brianna stood outside Brent’s room for what seemed like forever before the nurse finally came out. It had actually been only three minutes.

“Mrs. Cooper?” she asked. She went on when Brianna nodded her head. “Your husband’s awake, he’s asking for you. You can go in now.”

Brianna wiped her eyes, opened the door and walked to Brent’s bedside.

She took his left hand in her right and smiled down at him. She didn’t say anything because she was afraid she’d start crying and she didn’t want to distress him.

Brent turned his head and opened his eyes to look at her, “Hey baby girl.”

“Hi Brent,” she whispered.

“I’m sorry.”

“For what baby? You didn’t do anything. The accident wasn’t your fault,” she answered as tears threatened to fall.

“No, I mean I’m sorry for not coming home when you called.”

“No sweetie, don’t even worry about that. Just think about getting better and coming home,” she told him, knowing that it was a possibility that he would never come home to her and the baby she now knew she was carrying.

She pulled the chair from the corner from the corner of the room and sat in it next to his bed.

She clasped his left hand in between both of hers and kissed it. She bowed her head for a moment, praying that Brent would get better and be able to come home. She looked up when she heard a sharp intake of breath come from he injured husband.

“Honey what’s wrong?” she asked full of concern.

He grabbed her left hand tightly, fingering her wedding rings. “Never forget that I love you,” he told her and closed his eyes.

The next thing Brianna knew, doctors and nurses had Brent’s bed surrounded.

She shrank back into the wall and started crying.

She couldn’t see what was going on and she couldn’t understand half of what they were saying.

Brianna knew she was losing Brent, but she didn’t want to believe that it was happening right in front of her very eyes.

Dr. Harris was leading the team working on him and she heard him call for the crash cart.

He had them charge the paddles to 200 and used them on Brent.

After watching the doctors and nurses work on Brent for about forty-five minutes she yelled, “STOP, JUST STOP IT!”

“Mrs. Cooper, do you understand what you’re saying?” Dr. Harris asked a sobbing Brianna.

“Yes I do. Just stop. Please,” she sobbed.

“Are you sure?”

“Yes.”

“Time of death 24:35 am.”