One Last Breath

Skylar

Doctor McKnight and the other doctors didn't stay long after the introduction between patient and caretaker had been finished. Julia and I politely waved them goodbye, and I could tell by the look in my friend's eyes that she was going to explode when they were all out of shouting range.

"Oh, my God," she almost whispered. I rolled my eyes and readied myself for what I knew was coming. She turned my way so quick, I was shocked she hadn't broken any of her frail bones.

"God loves me. Did you see the fine ass on that man? And, oh, that smile. He's a gift from above I tell you. I think I can die happy now."

"Alright, I'll admit that he's hot, because that he is, but it's not that big of a deal Julia."

She scoffed, giving me a disapproving glance. I had earned that glare many a time before. "You say that now, Skylar, but during your first hour together, you'll both fall in love an live happily ever after."

"Have I ever told you you're a hopeless romantic?"

She rolled her eyes at my comment, but also nodded her head. "You only tell me that every day."

I laughed at that, knowing that it was completely true. I mean, I know the girl was only seventeen, but the opposite sex shouldn't be on her mind that much.

As I continued to laugh, the familiar face of Nurse Sell came poking through the door. I never understood why this woman worked in the medical business, a hospice of all places, when she clearly did not enjoy her job. This was a place that already had a large enough veil of sadness encompassing it, we didn't need her bitter mood to add to that.

Julia groaned when she saw the woman's face, pounding her tiny fist into her fluffy pillow. "Don't take her away, I'll be so bored!"

I stepped out of my warm, comfy bed and placed my feet firmly on the floor before standing up with a wince. This was one of the many things I hated about this damned disease, the fact that resting didn't help. The muscles slowly deteriorated no matter what I did, although exerting myself too much sped up the process. No matter what I did, I was pretty much doomed.

"I'll be back in an hour, Jul, I'm sure there's something on TV that you can use to entertain yourself with."

"I guess," the teen sighed dramatically, moving her hand as if she were waving me off, "just come back soon so we can gossip some more."

I nodded, telling her that I heard her, and walked out the doorway with Nurse Sell. She handed me the clothes I would use for my workout, grunting. That usually meant something along the lines of "go change", or so I assumed. I did so without her having to "prompt" me a second time.

I slipped off the oversized wife beater as well as my bra and traded them in for the neon pink sports bra. Once I had situated myself in the tight spandex, I switched my sweat pants for shorts just as tight as the bra. When I stepped out of the bathroom, I turned around to show off how I looked. She said nothing and just walked off, not even turning to see if I was following. Nice way to hurt a girl's ego.

Noah

"I can't thank you enough for taking this position Doctor McKnight, we're so lucky to have you here. It's always hard to replace a doctor here."

I smiled over at Mutter as we walked down to the rehabilitation room where I was going to see how my patient, Skylar, worked. "I'm a doctor and I have a strong calling to help. When I saw that a post here was opened, I wanted to come here."

He smiled and patted my back turning me down the hallway as he did so. "I feel the same way, but… this place has a way of sometimes sucking the life right out of you. It's sad to think that some time soon, all of these patients are going to die. They're mostly kids, it doesn't seem fair that we'll live longer than them."

I felt my heart fall at that comment, because everything that the man had said was true. Not many men or women could live with death this close every day, and that was why finding doctors was hard.

"Ah, here we are," Dr. Mutter announced, pushing open the door to reveal a large room that really didn't have that many people in it. There was a line of nurses talking to each other while their charges worked out with one another. It wasn't too hard to spot Skylar between them all, seeing as she was the oldest in the group.

It seemed like someone had said something funny because the small group began to laugh and I saw how beautiful their smiles all were.

Skylar's grey eyes opened and seemed to instantly spot me. She widened her smile and waved, causing all attention to go to me. The group waved just like their elder, and shouted hello to the older gentleman next to me. He chuckled and nodded his hello. Without even another glance to anyone, they all continued their work outs.

I watched Skylar, seeing as I was going to be taking care of her, and paid close attention to what she was doing. She was slowly bringing one leg up, as if she was about to walk, but furthered it until her bent knee made her leg a perfect ninety degree angle. Just as slowly as she had brought it up, it went down. She did the same thing to the other.

This time, I watched the muscles moving under her skin. With the slow movements, it was easy to follow the underlined muscles as they contracted. I found it strange that they weren't as large as they should have been for her weight and height. I voiced this thought to Mutter.

"Yes, that perplexed me as well when she first came here. We ran some tests and figured out her disease is more accelerated than it should be. It seems like when she was diagnosed, it was Becker's Dystrophy, but as she aged, it turned into Duchene."

"That doesn't make any sense," I mumbled, biting my lip, "It's like this is a whole new illness."

"She's already a medical anomaly, why not add being the starter of a new disease to her list?" he joked. I didn't find it funny at all. With this acceleration, death was even closer for Skylar than it should have been.

"How old it Miss. Arkin?"

"Nineteen."

Skylar

As the hour started to come to a close, the burn started to overtake my body. With each movement of a limb or the rise and fall of my chest, I had to fight to keep the grimace off my face and to stop the winces. Although it hurt to move, I was proud of myself for going this long, and I knew that right after this, a warm bath would be in store for me. Nurse Sell had actually left five minutes ago to get it ready. I was guessing that Dr. McKnight was here, he was going to come and supervise me.

"Quit over working yourself Skylar, you know it's not good for you."

I glanced over at Dr. Mutter who had reprimanded me and could only smile sheepishly. "Sorry there, boss man."

I saw him roll his eyes but noticed the ghost of a smile grace his lips. "Get over here so we can escort you to the bathing area."

"Hurrah," I said softly, saying goodbye to the younger kids that were still working, and trotted over to the two men. Dr. McKnight seemed to have a distressed look on his face, and I would have asked him if her were okay, but was pushed towards the swinging doors by the other doctor.

"Come now, don't want that water getting cold now, do we?"

I didn't answer, because I knew he already knew what it would be, and instead walked the path that I had every day since I had arrived here. I was quite surprised that there wasn't a trail in the tiled floor from the many times I had taken this trek.

When the door came in sight, I picked up my pace, a large grin on my face just thinking about the warm water that was going to consume my body. I heard laughter behind me, as well as the Dr. Mutter explaining my eagerness.

"She always loved the baths."

"I can't really blame her."

"Talking about someone while they're still in the room isn't polite," I sang before opening the door and walking into the bathing room.

The room was just a single room with a large bath tub in the corner, and as of now, it was almost filled to the brim with hot water, and I knew that because I could see the steam rising from it. Just feeling the heat around me almost made me sigh in pleasure.

Just like usual, I didn't take off the clothes that I was wearing. For some reason, Dr. Frant had always said that it was better than I take the baths with my spandex on. She was the doctor, so she knew better than I did. So, I relaxed once again into the warm water that had soothed me so many times.

After a minute or two, the door opened, and by that time, I had dipped my head into the water until it covered my hairline. The sound of the door shutting echoed in the water, and I sat up to see McKnight standing there quite awkwardly.

I laughed at this, giving him an amused glance. "Don't worry, I don't bite, and I'm clothed."