Sunshine…Part Two.
There’s a lot of darkness.
Flashes of lightning in the darkness.
The thing is I know what they’re doing.
Trying to bring me back…I’ve been through this twice…
There’s something there…going on outside of me, busy like.
Then there’s the familiar kiss of painkillers.
More darkness.
………………………………..................It’s still dark but I hear Rachel crying…I can hear my kids….grandkids.
“I’m sorry Ma’am he’s in a coma there’s nothing we can do.”
“Nothing…?”
~Rachel?~
“No, we’re not authorized to do more.”
“What? What do you mean not authorized.”
“He went in after he was retired Ma’am he gave up his rights to Firefighter healthcare insurances when he retired.”
“But he went in to help isn’t there a waiver of stuff when he got recalled?”
“There’s a waiver that says he can help and that he cannot sue if he’s hurt or that others can’t sue him in pursuit of his duties. But he wasn’t insured and the coverage you have will not cover his life support treatments.”
“But…”
“I’m sorry Ma’am.”
~Asshole, money grubbing pencil pusher…~
“What about his life insurance?”
“That claim won’t be valid either ma’am as far as I know, but you’ll still get his pension.”
~Hey…Hey!…mark it off as in the line of duty…~
“That won’t save him!”
“Nothing will ma’am.”
“God…I’ll never get out of this hole…damn you Joel!, just dammit!”
~I’m sorry honey…I’m sorry…I had to save her.~
~I never meant to leave you like this.~
“Ma’am there is one thing…”
“What?”
“There’s a medical bio-tech company that is affiliated with your husbands cyber ware. They will pay you for his body.”
“What?”
~No…hell no, Rachel bury me…pull the damned plug and bury me.~
“They’re studying the real life long term effects of the cyber systems on a human body, they will pay for him.”
“How much…”
~What!!! No!, no, no, no…dammit listen to me! I don’t want this.~
“Seventy thousand dead, half a million…alive.”
“What!?”
~No!!!~
“They can collect huge amounts of data by monitoring his systems and trying out others while his body is still alive.”
“But Joel’s still alive.”
“He’s brain dead Ma’am there’s no activity there.”
~Yes there is!, there is dammit! I’m thinking right now!…beep…come on you fucking machine beep!~
“It’s you best option Ma’am, given your situation.”
“But…”
“Ma’am think of it as organ donation, or donating is body to science to help others.”
“But…”
“With the lurch he left you in Ma’am, you have to take the offer…Joel would’ve wanted it this way.”
~Like Hell!, You don’t ever use my name asshole! Don’t you ever!…Please Rachel…please baby…no…~
“Alright…”
“Are you sure?”
“Yes I’ll lose everything with these bills if I don’t.”
“Right this way, I’ll get the paperwork started….orderlies you get him prepped to be shipped out.”
“Let me say goodbye first…”
~Rachel…please…~
I sense her, I do and I can barely feel her kiss…but she’s closer…I think I can smell her…I feel something wet hitting my face…over and over.
I’m screaming inside trying to wake, to move or twitch…I want to touch her one last time, see her one last time so badly!
“Goodbye Joel…I love you.”
~Rachel!!!….God…Please…? God?….I love you too!~
Then she’s gone.
I hear voices…”Hook him back up and get him out of here.”
“His brain was still going?”
“He’s not going to make it…and I get twenty percent finders fee for these living lumps.”
“Dude’s a firefighter, a hero.”
“He’s hamburger, look at him….who’d want him?”
“His wife?”
“And he’d still die and she’d really be fucked…just leave the woman alone, it’s for the best.”
“He’s really not going to come out of it?”
“No, they won’t let him…besides there’d be zero-quality of life.”
“That’s not fair man…”
“Life’s not fair, I’ll cut you in for twenty five thou.”
“Okay…Life jut got a little more fair.”
I’m trying to scream, trying to move and fight because I’m still here dammit…
I’m still here!
~Please…don’t let them do this! Someone!…Anyone!?~
~Help….~
I feel the sweet lull of the painkillers pulling me down, down, down into the darkness…
Comments
Sold!
Eek! And for parts too! Double eek! Okay, I think you've got that dark future thing down pat, Bailey. I really hate to think the next bit of unpleasantness is headed poor Joel's way's.
The outright lying to get Rachel to sign him over when they knew he wasn't brain dead.
The sad part is how close we already are to that.
hugs
Grover
It is very close to that Grover.
If medical care hadn't changed that could very well be the case in the future as people are taken out by their insurance companies by some loophole and sold off for parts and profit.
*Great Bug Hugs*
Bailey.
Bailey Summers
"I’m still here!"
uh oh. This is not going to be pretty ...
Nope but a long way to go yet.
Things are just getting started.
*Great Big Angel Hugs*
Bailey...A Proud Big Brother.
Bailey Summers
Can you say...
REVENGE. The doctor better watch out.
I'm not sure if revenge is going to happen.
It wasn't the Dr. But the payment officer of the hospital.
*Big Hugs*
Bailey.
Bailey Summers
Scary
Scary, and I have nightmares like this. Thank you Bailey
Draflow
Definitely Scary Draflow...
To be there screaming unseen and unheard and still there but they won't hear...or worse.
*Great Big Hugs*
Bailey.
Bailey Summers
Scary is a good word!
I'm not sure which is worse. That I could see some insurance lawyer arguing he wasn't covered despite doing the right thing or that I could almost see someone selling his still living remains for the money for medical research. A real 'urrrgh' chapter, that gives the shivers with that dark turn.
Looking forward to how it develops. :-)
"Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it."
It can be a bleak future.
As much as it can be a bright one. The scary thing is this could happen in the near future with just the wrong turn with a few elections.
*Great Big Hugs*
Bailey.
Bailey Summers
>:(
Corrupt assholes like that just make me want to-
*Narrows her eyes very dangerously and unsheathes her sword*
Joel would appreciate the defense.
Right now really appreciate it.
*Big Huggles.*
Bailey.
Bailey Summers
Merchs
The wrong type to be in healthcare but some still are.
Powerful chapter, thanks
Yes and some are nearly that bad now.
Transplant seekers are almost mercenary when it comes to organs. Add in profit and you get...
*Hugs and Howls*
Bailey.
Bailey Summers
This isn't that far from reality now...
Health insurance providers are constantly looking for ways to deny coverage to people any way then can come up with. They are in effect "death Panels" who in one documented case, denied cancer treatment to an insured patient because she had failed to mention that she had had acne as a teen. After a long fight the provider agreed to provide coverage for treatment, but due to the long delay the cancer, which was easily curable in the early stages when this all started, had progressed to the terminal stage and the woman died just a day after the insurance co had decided to cover the treatment after all. How tragic!
I’ve also been reluctant to sign an organ donor card, because of stories about how people who have didn’t receive life saving care because they happened to be a match for some one.
P.S. Baliey, I don't know how you manage to keep coming up with all these wonderful stories and still keep adding more chapters to all of your other great stories. Thanks for the marvelous writing and keep up the good work.
HUGS!
Tamara Jeanne
Not receiving the right care isn't true.
They can lose their licences doing that. what very often happens though in severe cases there will be someone often that will approach the family and argue the case for discontinuing treatment over the chance of them having a poor quality of life and they will push, but gently push organ donation and sometimes will speak for a specific donor on their list.
Still very close to the same thing right...I can see a few wrong elections and the death panels will be harvesting options too.
*Big Hugs*
Bailey.
Bailey Summers
Gil the ARM
Ever read Larry Niven's Gil the ARM series? There is a serious shortage of transplantable organs, so the death penalty is reinstated for just about everthing. But you are not put to death and buried, you are instead dissassembled for the Organ Banks. Habitual traffic offender, rolling stopsigns and going faster than the posted speed? Guilty, send them to the Organ Bank! Chillingly realistic!
"Life is not measured by the breaths you take, but by the moments that take your breath away.”
George Carlin
No I never read that before.
I was sort of just taking the bad HMO's to another place with a corrupt company things sort of change up a bit in part 3.
*Big Hugs*
Bailey.
Bailey Summers
I love your Sig Line
Correct use of simple grammar (like to/two/too, your/you're etc.) is one of my pet peeves. I've learned to enjoy the stories here despite the astonishing freqency with which the authors mangle such things.
Even the Great Authors (hi Bailey!) have to be granted Special Dispensation in this context.
T
*Hugs* Thank You!!!
I'll be needing that dispensation.
*Hugs*
Bailey Summers
Someday ...
I'll post a story here.
And when I do, I know I'll make a grammar mistake. (Or even spelling mistake like the one I just caught right after posting this.) No matter how many times I go back over it before I push the POST button.
And because I've made such a fuss about the way many of you don't pay attention to grammer, you guys will rake me over the coals.
It's not the same, of course. Honest. But that won't stop you.
***
And ... I guess it shouldn't. Please be gentle with me.
T
Giggles!;)
I've tried, in vain to get Bailey some proofing help, but He just has too many ideas too quickly for waaaaaaay too many stories to keep up with it all!!!;0
Love And Hugs,
Jonelle ;)
[email protected]
I understand ...
Bailey gets Extra Special Dispensation as a Great Author. And some Additional Dispensation for 'prolificness'. (Ouch. Did I just coin a word?)
(But DON'T let it go to your head, Bailey. We still notice. And we still wish you would/could do better.)
T
Shit like this is why germany
Shit like this is why germany has a serious organ donner problem. Nobody really does it anymore. There were doctors who just sold the donated organs to the highest bidder, so people are starting to wonder if they'd also "create" new organs. There are drugs to generate a brain-dead state after all.
Anyway, great but creepy story.
Thank you for writing,
*hugs*
Beyogi
Well honestly the fact this might have a RL mirror.
Thing is pretty scary stuff too Beyogi. The human race has some truly effed up people in it.
Still glad that you liked the story though.
*Great Big Hugs*
Bailey.
Bailey Summers