Diamonds and Stones

"She slipped into a coma shortly after Holly was born."

The four of us stood there in shock for a minute or so, until I shook my head. "No. No, you're kidding me, right?"

"I wish I was..." she answered, trying to hold back tears.

I couldn't believe it, it seemed so surreal to me. Phil pulled me into a tight hug. "Are you alright?"

"I... I don't know," I replied honestly. "I don't know what to feel."

We broke apart and looked at Dan. He had handed Holly May to Nancy, and was now sitting with his head between his hands. I sat down beside him, unsure of what to do. Finally, I put an arm around his shoulders awkwardly, and he looked up. He had tear stains on his cheeks: had he been sobbing so silently that no one had noticed?

I didn't know what to feel, but I knew one thing I had to do.

"I'll be right back," I said, pulling my phone out of my pocket and dialing Jack's number.

"Hello, Juliette?" he answered after the second ring, his cheerful voice being a huge contrast to my surroundings. "It's pretty late! What's up?"

"Oh, uh, sorry to disturb you! But um I wanted to let you, and Finn, know that, um, well, Lizzy... Well..."

"Was it today?"

I could just hear his grin through the phone.

"Yeah, it was. Um, her name's Holly May..."

"That's awesome! Hold on a sec!"

I heard him call out to Finn, telling him what had just happened. Finn couldn't care less.

"But yeah, that's awesome! Well uhh I'll call you back tomo-"

"Wait, Jack. I have something else to tell you."

He seemed to have caught on that there was something wrong with my tone of voice. "What happened?"

"Lizzy's... Lizzy's in a coma."

The line went silent. I heard some murmuring in the background, and then Finn spoke instead of Jack. "We're on our way."

-----
Great. Now, instead of having five people who had no idea what to feel, there were now seven.

I went to see Lizzy, along with the others. It was almost as if she was sleeping. If only I could convince myself that that was the truth...

But sadly, it wasn't. That isn't the way life works. There was no easy way out of anything.

There really was only two good things that came out of this night: the fact that Holly was born, healthy and whole, and the fact that Finn and Dan were able to forget their feud, just for a little while, even though this was the main consequence of the whole thing.

I watched the world pass by as Jake drove us all home. Nancy was staying at the hospital for the night, what with this whole situation...

Phil had offered to stay the night at our place. I gladly accepted, and really, neither Nancy nor Jake were too concerned about it.

As I lay curled up close to Phil, I thought about how this situation affected all of us. And I also thought about the most obvious thing to think about: how long was Lizzy going to be stuck in that goddamn coma? Things were just going perfectly...

Phil kissed my forehead in an attempt to stop me from over-thinking. I just smiled tiredly at him.
"Things will get better, Juliette, I promise you."

"How do you know?" I whispered, not trusting my voice to be any louder.

"Because they always get better. Maybe not today, not tomorrow or not even next month, but they will. There's a lot of things I don't know or am not sure about, but this is one of the things I am. Trust me. Everything that's happening now is only happening to clear the path of all the good stuff that's on its way."

"Do you promise?"

"I cross my heart, and hope to die."