Forty minutes passed…..Then an hour…. Then almost 2 hours since Spencer had seen her mother retreat back down the hospital corridor towards the O.R.

To Spencer, those two hours had felt like an eternity, but at the same time, it felt like only a few minutes.  One part of her dreaded the prognosis of Ashley’s condition while another part yearned to know how her baby was doing. 

In the waiting room, Chelsea sat by Spencer’s side, lightly and repeatedly combing a few loose strands of Spencer’s hair back behind her ear.  Spencer’s mascara had long been smeared down to her cheeks but she hadn’t cared to wipe the charcoal color away.  She sat fidgeting with her hands in her lap, staring straight ahead almost appearing never to blink.  She wiped the stray tears that slipped out of her eyes with the back of her hands every now and then.  Clay sat to Chelsea’s left resting his head onto her shoulder, his eyes half open but they conveyed nothing other than pain and fear. 

Kyla had chosen a seat in the waiting room opposite the side that her friends sat.  She had told them that she wanted to be alone, and her friends, dealing with their own emotional turmoil and pain at the moment, obliged.  After crying nonstop for almost two hours Kyla’s eyes dejectedly started to close as she slipped into a restless semi-conscious sleep.

Becoming overly restless and emotional Spencer stood up and walked over to Kyla who seemed dazed in her semi-awake state.  Spencer sat down next to her and gently took held her left hand and rested her head down on Kyla’s shoulder much like Clay had been laying on Chelsea.  The two women said nothing as Kyla quietly exhaled a breath she did not know she had been holding in as Spencer silently sank into the seat, her eyes bloodshot, half open staring straight ahead.

 Though not religious at all, Spencer had found herself yet again silently praying for what had to be the 30^th time since she had realized that Ashley had been shot. 

Please, please, please let my baby be okay. 

Tears slipped out of her eyes.

 I know I haven’t prayed to you since I was a kid, I never felt… I never felt like I needed to turn to you.  But, whoever’s up there, if she doesn’t survive… I…I… don’t know what I’m gonna do, I don’t want to live without my baby.  Please don’t take her away she… she’s the best person that I’ll ever know.

More tears began to pour out of her blue eyes and choked sobs began to escape from Spencer as Kyla stiffened and then relaxed, initially startled by the sudden sound of the sobs in the dead quiet waiting room.  Eyes from the other people in the silent waiting room temporarily looked up to see the sobbing young lady, only to return towards the ground after a few seconds.

What seemed like hours later, Spencer awoke to the sensation of being lightly shaken.  She awoke to Paula standing in front of her surrounded by her friends. 

“Hey sweetheart,” Paula said quietly and caringly.

“Mom,” Spencer stated, all of the emotional turmoil returning to the blonde beauty’s features.  “What..what’s going, on.. how is she?”

“Well..” Paula began.  A few seconds later everyone was still waiting to see what Paula had to say.

“Tell me now, and tell me the truth, right now, I want to know what happened, I need to know what happened, I can handle it, tell me!!” Spencer shouted, clearly shaken up by Paula’s hesitation to tell her daughter what had happened.

“She’s .okay.for.now,” Paula rushed the words out of her mouth. 

Hearing the word okay, Spencer began to smile for the first time since prom when her and Ashley had been enjoying themselves, but the smile faded as quickly as it went.

“What do you mean for now?” Spencer choked out with a raspy voice.

“I mean, she survived surgery, she should be conscious in a few hours but she wasn’t breathing for quite some time …”

With everybody staring blankly at her, Paula continued

“So her brain went without oxygen for far too long so we don’t know if there will be any permanent brain damage,” Paula began, “We won’t know her true prognosis until…if… she wakes up.”