DEATH CAN WAIT.
EPISODE 12.
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(DOCTOR COLLINS APARTMENT)
"POV - DOCTOR COLLINS."
Doctor Collins arrived home from the hospital that night. As he stepped inside, he called out his daughter's name, but there was no response. He loosened his tie, removed his shirt, and dropped his briefcase in the living room. For a moment, he stared at the clock on the wall, which read 9:49 PM. Then, he moved toward the bathroom for a shower.
In the bathroom, Doctor Collins turned on the shower. He scrubbed his body to wash away the sweat and dirt accumulated from the day's work at the hospital. After a ten-minute bath, he dried off and wrapped a towel around his waist. He then proceeded to his wardrobe, changed into casual home wear, and headed straight to the kitchen.
Upon arriving in the kitchen, he opened the fridge and spotted the leftover jollof rice he had ordered the previous day. He carefully retrieved the container from the fridge and took it to the microwave to reheat the food. After some time, the microwave beeped, signaling that the food was ready. Then, he quickly grabbed two plates from the basket, served the food, and set the tray for himself and his daughter.
Doctor Collins carried the tray of food, headed towards his daughter's bedroom, and found her lying motionlessly in bed. His daughter had been in a coma for over a year, and Collins had secretly been caring for her at home. He set the tray of food on his daughter's bedside table, pulled up a chair, and sat beside her silently. Then, for a brief moment, Doctor Collins stared at his daughter, and tears nearly filled his eyes.
His daughter was suffering from Nyxin syndrome, a disease that had caused her skin to pale. She also had dark spots all over her body, and the bandages Dr. Collins had used to cover several wounds on his daughter's skin were almost completely soaked in blood. But he never grew tired of changing the bandages everyday, having done so for over a year faithfully.
"Hey, sweetie, how are you doing today?" Doctor Collins said softly, even though he knew his daughter wouldn't respond. He leaned in closer to her and gently adjusted a stray strand of hair from her forehead.
The Nyxin syndrome affecting his daughter was at a critical stage, and the disease was mercilessly taking its toll on her fragile body. Every day, every week, and every month, her condition worsened steadily. Yet, Doctor Collins was the only one who refused to give up on her. His wife had abandoned him, unable to cope with the emotional toll of their daughter's illness. She had left without showing concern for their daughter's fate, leaving Doctor Collins to face the ordeal alone.
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(FLASHBACK - SIX MONTHS AGO)
Dr. Collins left the hospital and headed straight home, exhausted from the long day at work. He climbed the stairs and entered the master bedroom, only to find his wife making preparations for her departure.
Rachel (Dr. Collins' wife) had a suitcase opened on the bed, carefully arranging her clothes one by one in silence, without even a glance at Collins direction.
"Rachel, what's going on here?" Dr. Collins asked, surprised. "Are you traveling without telling me?"
"I'm not traveling, Collins," Rachel replied angrily. "I can't take this anymore, and I am leaving you." She said, still refusing to turn and look at her husband.
"What are you talking about?" Dr. Collins responded. "Leaving me? For what reasons?"
"I'm leaving you because of your obsession with trying to save our daughter," Rachel explained. "Don't you realize you are hurting other people and destroying their lives just because you want our daughter to survive? You cannot play the role of God, Collins; you cannot decide who lives or dies, no matter how desperate you are."
"What is this all about, Rachel?" Dr. Collins questioned again. "I'm confused and don't understand you."
"I know about your experiment and the dangerous serum you are developing, Collins," Rachel said angrily. "This is completely unacceptable, and you are going too far with your experiments. How can you use innocent patients who come to your hospital, trusting you for care, as test subjects for our daughter's sake?"
"That's because I cannot try the serum directly on our daughter," Doctor Collins fired back. "The serum is still in its developmental stages and not yet perfected. Do you want me to risk killing our daughter with my own hands by testing it on her?"
"What! How about the family you are destroying." Rachel fired back too. "How about the innocent girls you are testing the serum on at the hospital and ending their life. You have ìnjēct-ëd fifteen innocent people, Collins, and none of them survive this so-called experiment of yours. How long are you going to keep destroying others' homes? Just to keep ours together?
"I just can't sit and do nothing," Dr. Collins replied. "I am a certified surgeon, and I won't just watch my daughter die because there is no cure for the disease afflicting her at the moment."
"Can you even listen to yourself?" Dr. Collins' wife snapped at him. "Do you see what you're doing? You're playing with patients' lives that are under your care. You are being reckless."
"Our daughter is dying, Rachel" Dr. Collins said abruptly. "I am trying to save her and give her a chance to live again. And you dare call me wicked for trying to save a child conceived in your own womb? You don't understand science, Rachel. I've developed a serum that shows promise. I am closer than ever."
"How many times have I heard you say you're getting closer?" Rachel exclaimed angrily. "Yet the patients you use as test subjects di–e after you inj–ect them with this so-called serum of yours. Our family is falling apart, Collins. Our daughter deserves peace, free her and let her pass on to the afterlife. Do the lives of other people mean nothing to you? simply because you are trying to save our daughter's life at any cost."
"You must think I enjoy doing this too," Doctor Collins replied, running a hand through his hair in frustration. "I just don't want to watch our daughter die while the world offers nothing but sympathy. I want to give her a chance at life. Isn't that what parents do?"
"She is our daughter, Collins," Rachel replied. "But what you are doing to her, and to us isn't right. Our daughter is in severe pain too, and you are prolonging it every day. Turn off the supporting machine and let her pass on since the world has no cure yet for Nyxin disease. Stop destroying other families; we can still have another baby."
"How can you say such cruel things about your own daughter?" Doctor Collins responded. "She is still here and fighting. I hope you are ready to face her when she survives."
"Think of our daughter's sleepless nights, her soreness, the endless treatments you provide her everyday." Rachel said and began crying. "You have sacrificed everything, Collins, now is the time to let her go."
"I can't let her go, Rachel," Doctor Collins said, looking away. "She is my daughter. Why should I give up on her?"
"Then you do it alone," Rachel said sadly. "I am done. I can't be a part of this mur–de–rous anymore."
"You don't mean that, Rachel," Doctor Collins replied. "How can you abandon your daughter like this?"
"I am done, and I mean it," Rachel confirmed. "Collins, if you keep going down this path, using other people's daughters as test subjects, I will report you to the authorities. They will know everything and understand that you are endangering lives."
This time, Rachel was already finished packing her belongings. She zipped the suitcase shut and walked past Doctor Collins without a word.
Collins tried to stop her from leaving, but she pushed him out of her way and exited through the door. Doctor Collins stood frozen for a moment, and then he sank onto the edge of the bed and began to cry bitterly.
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(FLASHBACK OVER - THE PRESENT)
Doctor Collins leaned in closer to examine his daughter's condition, but there were no signs of vitality in her. He listened to her breathing and adjusted the oxygen cannula under her nose.
"Dearest daughter," Doctor Collins said sadly, even though she could not hear him. "It's been six months since your mom left, but here I am because your dad wouldn't dare give up on you. We are closer than you might think, and the new serum I just created is promising."
"I know it's been hard for you, harder than anyone could ever have imagined," Doctor Collins continued. "But you are strong, and I need you to hang in there for a while.
"I know your mom didn't understand why I had to do this, why I had to keep trying to save you. But I won't give up on you; I can't. The serum I am working on is no longer just a theory, and I hope to test it on someone first at work tomorrow."
"There is a girl about your age in the hospital," Doctor Collins continued. "Her name is Shola, and her parents abandoned her. This makes it easier to test the serum on her first to determine the reaction on her body. I know it will work, because for Shola, DEATH CAN WAIT.
"And I know it will work for you too, my daughter." Doctor Collins said. "You are going to come back to me, my daughter; I will make sure of it
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