The Professor's Daughter

Maria was more shaken from her half-conscious state then woken from sleep the following morning. The nurse, a young brunette girl with flawless skin, had entered the room and proceeded to check all the lines that went in and out of her mother. The plastic tubes and grey bed sheets made Anne Ludwig look even more alien then before in the tiny ‘private’ room she had been assigned.

Maria watched as the nurse wrote down some figures on the clipboard at the end of the bed. She wished there was more she could do for her mother herself even though her mother wouldn’t know her work. She was sleeping, or that was what Maria assumed anyway. The nurse was the only person she’d seen since returning back to England, that and her father. Who had slept all the time in the chair by the window, waking only briefly when Maria arrived to acknowledge her hand on his shoulder and to go back to sleep.

“Do you know what is wrong yet?” Maria asked, holding her mother’s bony hand between her own.

“You’ll have to wait for the doctor I’m afraid.” The nurse sighed, not looking up from the paperwork.

“He’s not here?”

“The one specifically assigned to your mother’s case will be in around noon. They ran tests once she was stable yesterday, Dr Roberts will be able to tell you the results.” The nurse slotted the board back into it’s position and slipped the pen back in her pocket. “Why don’t you take your father home for a while? He looks like he could do with a freshen up?”

Maria turned to her father who’s snoring was making his nose hair quiver with each breath.

“I don’t think he’s going anywhere soon.” She sighed. There was little for her to do but wait for the doctor to arrive but that was the worst part, there was nothing Maria hated more then sitting around not doing anything. After all, she had done it all night. “Is there a phone around here?”

“At the end of the corridor by the toilets.” The nurse instructed.

Maria thanked the nurse and headed out of the stifling room, following the signs for the toilets and arriving in front of the payphone. She pulled some coins from her pocket along with the folded piece of paper, poked the money through the hole and typed in the number.

The phone rang and rang and with each long beep Maria grew more restless, checking the time on the large clock to see it read just after nine. He would be boarding the plane soon and phones were not allowed during flight.

As if on cue, the ringing ceased and there was a clunky noise transmitted.

“Professor?” Maria said suddenly.

“This is Thomas Leighton, I can’t get to the phone so lea…”

She leant against the wall by the phone and closed her eyes as the message played out. She didn’t listen to the words, he could have just announced war for all she cared, it was just the voice, the sound of him that she wanted to hear. It relaxed her heightened nerves and offered grateful reassurance. It was what she needed.

Later, after splashing her face with water, Maria returned to her mother’s room and took up her position once again. She took her mother’s hand and rested her head on the edge of the mattress. The room was still silent, her mother still ‘sleeping’, her father’s nose hair still quivering. This time it was as if she’d never left.

More hours idly passed and little happened. Anne never stirred, a twitch of the hand or foot but nothing significant and Professor Ludwig rose once to use the bathroom. He didn’t talk to his daughter even when she asked him a question; he merely shrugged and sat back down. But Maria didn’t want to leave, the only place to go was back to the scene of the crime as it were and she didn’t think she’d be able to handle that by herself.

The nurse from before reentered the room in the early afternoon and once again checked over her patient and made notes on the board.

“It isn’t healthy you know, staying cooped up in here all the time.” The nurse chided with a raised eyebrow.

“I’m not leaving.” Professor Ludwig mumbled as his eyes stayed fixed on his wife’s untroubled face.

“Thought as much. Either way, I believe Anne has another visitor. Should I call him in?”

Professor Ludwig looked questioningly up to the nurse just as Maria shot up.

“No!“

“Really? He’s been sat out there for about twenty minutes.”

“I mean, it’s fine. I’ll go and see who it is. You stay here father.”

Thomas took a seat and immediately stood up again, thinking better. Actually maybe the seat was better or was that too relaxed? He had almost made up his mind when that nosey nurse had started talking to him, smiling and giggling her way through what was clearly an uncomfortable conversation for him. He wasn’t there to make new friends, he was there to support Maria.

Once more Thomas stood and slid his clammy hands into his pockets, drying them on the inner material just as the door to the hospital cubicle opened. Out slipped Maria into the corridor and Leighton’s breath hitched.

She looked terrible and yet beautiful at the same time. Beautifully terrible? No, he wasn’t some sadist. Terribly beautiful? Neither was he a depraved man.

Her eyes were rimmed red from exhaustion and her skin had taken a grayish hue as it reflected it’s bleak surroundings. And yet there was still that grateful smile, and her inky blue eyes still searched him above those endearing apple cheeks.

They stood a couple meters apart, Leighton’s hands still in his pockets where they fisted and knotted and Maria’s clasped expectantly behind her back.

“Thank you for coming.” Maria said, her voice sweet and still.

Leighton took a step closer, his mouth opening, closing and opening again. “I… I said I’d come.” Maria nodded, a secret smile playing on her lips. “I t-“

“You-“

Leighton’s nervous manner relaxed slightly.

“You first.”

Maria inched forwards, an unexpected confidence overwhelming her as the worries over her mother dissolved for the moment. “I was going to congratulate you.”

“Oh?”

“Yes. You are a brave man, Professor.”

“What did I say about calling me that?” Leighton smiled nervously as Maria stepped increasingly closer. She looked up at him through her long lashes and Leighton in reply held his breath unknowingly.

“Not to?”

He nodded his head slowly and Maria let out a brief mischievous grin.

“You were saying…”

“Oh yes.” She gestured that they sit down and they did; Maria took in Leighton’s straight posture and the way his hands were placed uniformly on top of his thighs. “You are sat only a couple paces from my father and that makes you a very brave man in my books.”

“It does?”

“Few people are as daring.” Maria joked.

“Ah, well, you have shown yourself not to be too chicken-hearted either.”

“How do you me-“

“Excuse me, are you Miss Ludwig?”

Maria turned to see a gangly crinkled doctor in fresh scrubs.

“Yes?”

“Ah, I am Dr Roberts, Nurse Josephs told me you were asking about your mother’s condition.”

Maria stood and shook the doctors hand followed shortly by Leighton.

“As the nurse said we ran some tests once we got her stable yesterday.”

“And?”

“Well, when your mother fell she knocked her head badly, from the CT scan we found she’d burst a blood vessel in her brain causing a hemorrhage. She’s currently in a comatose state with which she’ll stay until she wakes up. We’ll keep an eye on her but there’s not a great deal we can do at the moment.”

Leighton glanced over at Maria as Dr Roberts explained, she was looking only at the floor that childlike grin gone leaving only its accompanied innocence in its place. She lifted her head to the doctor.

“How long until she’ll wake up?”

The doctor pulled a sympathetic expression, “Comas can last days or weeks, we suspect it will be the latter though it should be no more then five weeks.”

“What if it is more then five weeks?”

“Then we asses your mother’s situation at that point and go from there. It’s best we take things one step at a time, not get ahead of ourselves and over worry.”

Maria nodded and looked to Leighton with watery eyes. He placed his arm around her shoulders uncertainly as she leant into his chest. He could feel her shaking just enough to let him know the tears had already overflowed.

“Is there going to b-be brain damage?” Leighton asked.

“Possibly, we’d need to run further tests to determine a more exact answer. I need to go and speak to Professor Ludwig now but do not hesitate to ask questions.”

“Of course, thank you.”

The doctor left and headed into Anne’s room, leaving Leighton with a shivering Maria. He didn’t know quite what to do, the hand on the shoulder had been instinctive but where was he to go from here? He glanced to his left to see the doctor talking to Ludwig the same pained expression on his face. Of course, Leighton had not seen Ludwig in years and the old man still appeared as old and as cynical as before but that was not what was important.

Now Maria was what was important.

“Maria?” He asked softly, placing his hand on the back of her head in a way some would say was ‘affectionately’

“Uh-huh.” She sniffed.

“Do you want to talk about it?”

“Not right now.” Came a muffled reply

“Did you sleep at all? Or eat for that matter?”

He felt her shake her head against him. No.

“Come on then.”

Maria peered up with a quizzical look. “Where are we going?”

“Home.”

Maria nodded and Leighton grabbed her suitcase, keeping his arm protectively around Maria as they headed out of the hospital.

“I’m sorry I got your shirt wet.” She said with a small smile.

“It’s okay, it’s not like it’s the first time.”