One Last Breath

Skylar

"Skylar, honey, your father and I have missed you so much!"

"That explains why you're trying to kill me in this hug," I mumbled, trying to wiggle out of my mother's arms. She didn't seem to hear this, and to get her off, my father had to pull her away while laughing.

I gave him a grateful smile while my mother just looked at us both with a sheepish grin gracing her lips. I gave my father, who towered over me considerably, his hug. He sighed in content and kisses the top of my head. "Your mother is right, I missed you a lot."

After we let go of one another, I looked at the other people that they had brought with them. Mom had brought my aunt Sheri and her daughter Dani, both of which I hadn't seen in so long. Dad had brought Heather, my step-mother, her son, Anthony, and their daughter of four years, Angelina.

I welcomed them all with hugs, telling them all how much I had missed them, and to piss Anthony off, told him I thought he had grown and inch or so. He glared at me an folded his arms over his chest. I laughed and ruffled his hair, telling him I was just kidding. He always was a little insecure about his height.

"Are we having a party in here?" Dr. Mutter questioned, looking around at my family when he came into my room.

"They didn't bring any cake, so I think not," I replied while my parents laughed.

"You're supposed to eat healthy, cake does not fall into that category," Mutter mused, tsking at me.

"I'm a growing woman, damn it, I need fattening sustenance!"

While everyone found humor in that, I noticed that Julia and Noah had walked through the door to join the party. I waved at them, receiving and enthusiastic wave from my younger friend and a dazzling smile. Mom was the one who noticed Julia first and squealed just as loud as she had when she had seen me. Thankfully, she held her composure so she didn't jump on the fragile girl and end up breaking one of her bones.

"Hi Mrs. White, Mr. Arkin," she welcomed, walking farther into the room. Mom gave her a gentle hug, whispered something into her ear, then passed her over to my father who gave her a hug as well.

"It's nice to finally meet Skylar's parents," Noah's voice cut in, causing all of my family to turn to him. I did the same and was enchanted by the way he looked at them, how happy he seemed to actually be meeting them, "I'm Noah McKnight, Skylar's new doctor."

"New doctor, huh Sky?" Anthony teased, winking over at me. I huffed and glared right back.

"Don't call me Sky."

He just smirked at me and leaned back against the wall, acting like he had won some kind of battle. This boy infuriated me and made me act like a little kid. Sometimes I wondered why I loved him. Probably because he was the sweetest thing on earth until he entered high school. Jerk.

I turned away from him and watched as my family interacted with the new man. They didn't question why Dr. Frant was no longer here, they didn't ask if he was going to stay, they just treated him like family; like a hero who was going to save me.

"Oh, Skylar, you asked me to bring this?" my mother questioned, removing a black VHS tape from out of her purse. From here, I could see her fancy handwriting on the white tape and it said "Skylar's Dance". I nodded my head with a smile on my face, playing the familiar tape in my head by memory.

"I told Noah that I used to dance, and he didn't believe me, so I said I would ask you guys to bring something. Tada, the last performance I was in."

Noah frowned, knowing I had taking what had gone on out of text, but wiped it away as soon as my mother handed him the tape. "Well, you'll see how true her statement really was. You go play that while we all get settled in."

Noah

I took the black tape, briefly thinking how old this thing was since it was a VHS, and stuck it into the VCR/DVD player that was attached to the TV. By the time I had pushed "play" and it started, everyone had found a seat. I locked eyes with Skylar's ocean blue ones and she patted the space next to her on the bed with a smile on her face.

Just as I had sat down, the dance started, and an unfamiliar jazz song started up. I looked at each girl in the group as the moved, all dressed as old time jazz dancers. My grin widened when I spotted Skylar, who was dead in the middle, leading all the other girls behind her.

I admired how flexible they all were, seeing as they had to do a lot of jumps, bends, and I saw them all do cartwheels in unison. It amazed me at how well that they all danced at that age, but it amazed me even more how fluid the younger girl was in here. Every move, no matter how difficult it was, smoothed together like water.

Farther on into the performance, I noticed something moving out of the corner of my eye. I turned my head just a bit to see Skylar's hands and feet moving, almost like the twitch she had had before. For a second, I was worried about her health, but when I noticed that the movement of her body was fitted to the music from the tape. And her eyes, they were glued to the screen. The way that they moved showed me she was following every move that her younger self had made, maybe even imagining herself doing the exact same thing now.

After half an hour of this, the tape finally ended and we all clapped as if we were the audience in the video, and the whole group was looking at Skylar. She bent down from her waist, bowing as best she could and rolling her hand. "Yes, yes, I know, I am quite amazing."

"Wow Sky, you used to be really good," the teen boy, Anthony, said, causing a slow silence to consume the room. In my ears, the words used to rang and echoed, and I wondered if it had been the same for my patient. She was the first one to realize the quietness that had taken over and looked over at the boy.

"Don't call me Sky," she kidded, punching him in the arm. He glared at her, and they went into a little wrestling fight, making everyone laugh and vacate the bed. Skylar had managed to break the awkward atmosphere.

When the time came to say goodbye, I saw a couple teary eyed glances, and there were a lot of hugs going around. I even got one from each of her parents. When Skylar's mother went to let go, she whispered to me "Take care of my little girl."

When the eight visitors left, all that remained was Julia, Skylar, and I. The blonde turned to me, and the sadness that I had glimpsed in her eyes was hidden by the smirk she had put on her face. "I told you I could dance."

I shrugged my broad shoulders at that statement. "I've seen better."

//////

Later that night, I was walking through the hallways, coat on my arm and belongings in my hand, headed out the door so I could go home. I passed by doctors, waving them goodbye as I did so, and was coming closer and closer to the elevator. As I was about to push the down button, I heard the soft melody of a sound of a melody floating around me, a piano's serenade.

I looked up, concentrating on where the music could be coming from, and walked in that direction I thought it was coming from. As I did, there was a chorus of voices singing along to the music, but I couldn't make out what they were saying until I finally made in front of the door that the music was coming from. The workout room.

"Five hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes
Five hundred twenty-five thousand journeys to plan
Five hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes
How do you measure the life of a woman or a man?"

During this chorus, I quietly opened the door a smidge to see what was inside, and my heart sunk when I saw who it was.

Skylar was dancing around, doing what seemed like ballet, and with the big moves that she was doing, I knew that it hurt her. That fact was proven correct when she jumped and landed on her feet beautifully, but winced at the pain. Even though it hurt, she continued on, spinning around like a real ballet dancer as the new chorus came on.

"In truths that she learned
Or in times that he cried
In bridges he burned
Or the way that she died"

The song continued, carrying on its little tune, but Skylar had stopped, her breathing ragged like she had run a mile and he shoulders slumped. I knew that the last line had caught her, relating to her and the situation she found herself in, and I wanted to pull her close to me and tell her everything would be alright.

I knew I couldn't do that. Skylar wanted to seem strong, to keep the illusion of being a normal girl, and me giving her sympathy in a time like this would shatter the perfect picture that she had painted. As she slowly slid to the floor to rest, I closed the door and continued on my way home.