A Beta's Undying Love

Chapter 2: Sickness

-Garrett-

“How is she today?” I asked one of the nurses, Katrina.

Katrina sighed deeply, and I knew exactly what that meant.

“It’s not one of her best days,” she sadly said, as she looked over a small sitting area, where a fragile older female was sitting all by herself, looking out of a big window.

I nodded and walked away, taking slow steps over to the female who studied the outside, like she didn’t even know what it was. I sat down in front of her and took a second before I decided to speak:

“Hello, mother.”

She didn’t even look at me, but that wasn’t so strange. Most of the time when I came to visit, she barely even noticed I was there. She mostly just sat there looking through the window. I sighed deeply before running my hand through my hair. It only got harder and harder visiting her in this human nursing home for Alzheimer and dementia patients. My mother didn’t have dementia, but she might as well have. She couldn’t remember me and didn’t even understand where she was. After the former council killed most of our family and our pack, my mother suffered a severe breakdown that she never recovered from and since the wolf-world didn’t have any sort of nursing homes, I hid her here. Luckily, people thought she was just crazy. So, it didn’t matter if she spoke of werewolves and murder and council. She wasn’t able to do any harm anyway and unless the nurses helped her eat and go to sleep, she wouldn’t. She was slowly withering away, and no one even knew she existed. I knew the others would gladly be there to support me, but I wasn’t interested in them knowing. Not even the king. I knew he wondered where I disappeared to, but he knew I would always come back after a while, and that was all he needed to know.

“So everything is pretty calm lately. We still haven’t tracked down Zane’s mother, but with the way her mental state is in, we are not worried. We are pretty sure she isn’t going to make it for long out there.”

Whenever I came here, I would always tell my mother what had happened lately. I just didn’t know what else to talk about. It was not like I could ask her about her day, and I hated uncomfortable silence. So I would simply just talk about mine or other not-so important things.

“Darren? Is that you?” my mother asked the window.

I sighed again. She would often call my dad’s name. She would also confuse me for him. I looked exactly like my father. The only thing I shared with my mother was my blond hair. The rest I got from him. So I would sometimes have to act like I was him, and tell her how the kids were doing good and everything was just perfect. I hated it, but it would soothe my mother.

“Mom, dad isn’t here,” I said, too tired today to try to humor her. “It’s me. Garrett.”

But her eyes just focused on the snow falling outside the window. I wanted to reach out and grab her weak and skinny hand, but I knew that would just confuse her. Sh*t, she was so skinny now, she really didn’t have much time left. I wondered if she would even make it until summer, and would I be lucky if she did? She didn’t even know who she was. Wasn’t this state she was in, worse? I just hated seeing her like this.

“Darren, I am cold. Could you bring me my scarf,” she asked me, as her eyes looked at the snow outside.

I shook my head lightly. It was very warm inside. The fireplace was just beside her, and the fire was making sure no one in here was cold, but she was very confused, and I could do nothing but do as she asked me.

“Of course,” I said before getting up.

-Lily-

I stretched my back, tired, as I put my stuff into a small locker in the staff room. Sh*t I could already feel the tiredness overcome me, but still I had decided to go to work like nothing was wrong. Besides, what else should I be doing? Sit at home and get ready for death? That would be a no. I had just transferred to this small nursing home in the city after my old hospital closed, and since all the elderly patients were transferred here, and they were my favorites, I requested to be too. I knew my former bosses had hoped I would had gone to bigger hospitals with more chances to rise to higher status, but I wasn’t interested in becoming head nurse or anything like that. I just enjoyed taking care of the elderly and weaker ones. Of course, my mother’s own disease did have an impact on what career I chose. I knew what it was like for these people, to see their loved ones slowly wither away, and they could do nothing but sit and watch. It was truly horrible, and I hoped that even if I couldn’t cure their loved ones, then I could help ease their pain.

“Lily, right?” someone suddenly asked behind me.

I turned around and was met by a red-haired and smiling woman, with her hand extended.

“Yes,” I said and shook her hand. “And you are?”

“Katrina. It’s nice to meet you,” she said as she let go of my hand.

“You too,” I said politely.

“Well, if you are ready, I would really like to show you around and give you your first assignment,” Katrina said.

I nodded.

“Well, go ahead!”

Her smile only got bigger and she waved me along. She was a very small and chubby woman, but she had a very calm and happy energy around her, which made it clear she was fit to take care of people. She wasn’t overwhelming or too much. You just felt instantly at home around her.

“Here is the reception, and this is Vicky,” Katrina said and referred to a small blond sitting behind a computer with her glasses on the tip of her nose.

We greeted each other before Katrine led me inside a big warm living room.

“And here is the seating area, where both visitors and residents often will be, if they are not too weak to leave their rooms.”

I nodded while I looked around the big wooden room. It was very homey with the big fireplace in the middle, the green-golden couches and the big windows that faced a big garden, where snow was falling.

“Very nice,” I said.

It definitely wasn’t a bad place to live the rest of your days. It had an old Victorian style mixed with a bit of the modern 2000.

“Yes, it has its own charm, and so far no one has really complained,” Katrina said with a small playful smile.

Then she continued to lead me across the room, and show me a few of the residents’ bedrooms. Some of them were empty and in others there would be elderly lying on the bed, moaning a little, but certainly not aware of our presences. They all carried the same homey Victorian style in every room but there weren’t many things in the rooms other than a bed, and maybe a couch or two. Unless the visitors had brought something to decorate the rooms, they were pretty plain.

“And in here we have … Oh, so sorry Garrett, I was just showing our newest staff member around,” Katrina said, as we both almost crashed right into the most handsome man I had ever laid my eyes on.

His eyes were these piercing blue. I almost felt like they looked right into my soul, and as they slowly scanned me, I felt my body shivering slightly, as if I was being watched by an animal, who was ready to paunch at me at the slightest movement. And he was tall. Very tall. He towered over both Katrina and I, and he was broader than any other man I had ever met. Was he made of nothing but muscles? They were clearly visible through his black shirt. Wow! Stop staring like a creep, I reminded myself, but I was not the only one who was taken back by his beauty. Katrine seemed to eat him with her eyes, as she spoke to him. Who was this man?