Since You've Been Gone

Dave was standing in the hospital next to Karma’s bed. She hadn’t woken up for five days and the only thing keeping her alive was a machine. He was holding onto her hand when Thomas rushed into the room. He had gotten there as soon as possible and now he looked down over his granddaughter. She was significantly bruised and her back was broken severely enough to where if she ever woke up she’d never walk again. She’d suffered a severe injury to her head and the doctors weren’t sure she’d make it at all.

“Nothing has changed.” Dave said gently. “I feel like I’ve lost so many people over the last few months.”

“I hate watching her on those machines…” Thomas said gently as he looked down at her. “They are forcing her to fight, and what’s the point? She has nothing left.” He said and looked at the ground. The back seat of the car had been so severely damaged that it had taken nearly seven hours to get Karma and Trinity out of the car, and the baby’s injuries had required immediate attention. By the time they pulled her little body out of the mangled car seat it was lifeless. It was for that reason Thomas was glad Karma was unconscious, because at least that way she couldn’t know that her baby, the only thing she’d had left of Tyler, was gone now too.

A doctor came in then and took a deep breath. “Mr. Hall…” He said gently.

“Yes…” Thomas said and looked at the doctor.

“We got the final results on Karma’s CAT-scan. The chances of her recovering from her head injury at all are at about .5%. She can live on the ventilator and feeding tube, if you so choose. But she will never be responsive at all again.”

“It’s my choice?” Thomas asked with disbelief, “Shouldn’t it be her mother’s?”

“We have tried on several occasions to contact Mrs. Charleston; however we have gotten no reply at any time. You are the only other family Karma has listed with her insurance. Her father passed away some years ago.”

“I need to contact my daughter first…” Thomas said gently and the doctor nodded and left the room. Thomas sighed and looked at Dave with sadness. “I never thought she’d go before me. She’s only 26 years old.”

“It was fate…” Dave said. Thomas nodded gently and took hold of his only granddaughter’s hand. She didn’t respond in any way and he could feel his tears burning. He hadn’t cried since he was a boy, and now his tears were pushing at his eyes threatening to break through with a force that he couldn’t control. She would never want to live this way; she’d told him so many times that it wasn’t living if you couldn’t be conscious to see it.

He then walked out of the room and to a pay phone where he dialed Rose’s home number. It was two rings before his daughter’s familiar voice rang through in her simple, “Hello.”

“Rosette…” He said with a shaky voice, “Karma’s been in an accident…I’m sure the doctor’s told you in the messages. I was calling to let you know that I’m not keeping her on those machines; she never wanted that kind of life. You can come and say goodbye as you choose, or you may stay where you are. But I hope you will at least attend her burial.”

“I will not.” Rose said gently. “After the way she disrespected me, after everything she put me through getting involved with that horrid man. Now it is best she’d going to be with him in Hell.” She said and hung up the phone. Thomas put the phone back on its hook and walked back into the room Karma was in.

“So…” Dave said.

“So, we let her go.” Thomas sighed and waited for the doctor to return. Once he did Thomas’ tears started to slip over his eye lids and onto his cheeks.

“Have you come to a conclusion?” He asked.

“I think it best that I let her go…she’s lost her daughter and her fiancé in the course of five months, and she’ll never be with us again.” Thomas said gently and looked down for a moment to catch his breath. “So I’ve decided to turn off the machines.”

“Alright Mr. Hall. My staff will be in here to remove the ventilator.” The doctor said gently and left the room. Thomas looked back at Karma lying in the bed. He walked to her and took her hand again.

“We will miss you Karma.” He said gently. Dave still had a hold of her other hand.

“Yes Karma, we will. You were such a beautiful woman.” He said. Soon a team of nurses came into the room and asked both Thomas and Dave to leave while they unhooked the ventilator from Karma’s throat. The both stood outside of the room while they waited.

“She and the baby are going to be buried next to Tyler.” Dave said gently. “When Dean and I took care of Tyler’s burial we made sure there were enough plots to have them together if it need be. Trinity will be between them.”

“Yes, that sounds best.” Thomas agreed. The nurses came out of the room and one stopped in front of Thomas.

“You may be with her for her final hours if you choose.” She said gently. Thomas nodded. He and Dave went into the room. Dave made a few phone calls and soon Dean and Joe were in the hospital room as well. Thomas went back to the pay phone and dialed his home number.

“Hello…” Marie answered gently.

“Marie…I’m going to be here for a couple of weeks…I’ll have a funeral to arrange.” He said gently. Marie gasped slightly with horror and sorrow. “I can’t force her to live while she’s dying.”

“I want to attend the funeral Thomas…I loved her as if she was my own daughter…and I regretted not attending Tyler’s memorial, I won’t miss Karma’s.” Marie said gently.

“Then I will arrange for you to be here. I have to go now Marie…I need to spend what little time I have left with my granddaughter.” He said.

“Of course darling.” Marie said gently and hung up the phone. Thomas went back into the hospital room and watched as Karma’s heart rate would decrease and increase as she tried to fight for her life.

Karma could feel her chest tightening. Why couldn’t she breathe? She had to be alive for Trinity. She couldn’t leave her daughter, she knew she couldn’t. But the blackness and the pain was never ending. She couldn’t think about anything she couldn’t wake up. She could only barely hear the people around her talking in hushed tones. She could still see Tyler vaguely behind the darkness. She fought and pushed with all her will to breathe, she had to be with Trinity. In her mind her baby was with her father, he was holding her tightly in his arms. She couldn’t understand.

After several hours Thomas took his granddaughter’s hand again and squeezed it tightly. “Karma, it’s okay to let go now…” He whispered. “We will miss you Karma, I won’t lie to you…because I love you…and I’ve loved you since the first time I laid eyes on you. You were so beautiful, and I remember the first time I held you in my arms and I thought to myself, this is going to be a beautiful, amazing woman. I was never wrong Karma, you have been an amazing woman…but it’s time for you to leave us now Karma.” He said with tears building up in his eyes.

“Don’t suffer anymore Karma.” Dave said gently. “You can be free now. Remember that you are loved, and you will be missed, but it’s time now for you to go and be free of all your pain. Don’t fight for us.”

“Would anyone else like to say something to her?” Thomas asked gently. Both Dean and Joe stood from where they were sitting and went to Karma’s bedside.

Dean took her hand from Dave and looked down at her. “I remember the first time I met you Karma…and thinking how beautiful you were. How lucky he was to have found a girl like you…that loved him so unconditionally. I’ve loved you so much since that moment…since I saw how perfectly you two fit together.”

Joe looked at the woman lying in the bed and sighed. He didn’t know what to say to her. She’d been with Tyler since before he’d been put in the band, but in the time he’d known her he’d loved her. “Thank you Karma, for always being so nice…” he said gently, “I’ll miss you as much as everyone else, but don’t fight for me, don’t fight for us.” He said.

Now there was a slight light in her darkness. She was starting to just let herself give up. But suddenly she was pulled back into the nothingness with only the slight vision of her love and her daughter. She wanted more than anything to be able to tell everyone she loved them too and she would miss them too. Then she heard her grandfather speak to her one last time.

“Karma, you’re going to be with Tyler now…you’ll be with him again…for eternity.” He said gently and she could feel herself release all her energy. She could feel herself leave her body and for a minute she was in the hospital room looking down on her body. She saw the heart monitor flash a flat line across the screen and she saw Thomas start to cry as did the other three men in the room. She reached for her grandfather’s hand and pulled away at the sound a perfectly familiar voice.

“I’d have waited and eternity for you Karma.” Tyler said so gently and perfectly. She turned to see him there with the baby in his arms. But now there were no tears, and there was no pain. This time it wasn’t just another dream. “I never left you…I was here with you all the time…”

“Now…I’m with you again…” She whispered and when he reached out for her she didn’t hesitate to take his hand.

“I’ve waited so long to see you again…”

“I know…” She said gently.

“But never even for a moment did I stop loving you. Now I can finally tell you again.” He said. She nodded and stood on her toes to kiss him again for the first time in nearly six months. Once she pulled away from him he put his free arm around her waist and they left the earth together, and he would never leave her again.