Love For Hire

His family had come by a few times through the next few days to see him, but Nicholas had left orders with the medical staff to send them away. He did not want to speak to anyone. He had spent a lot of his time thinking. The nurses told him he needed to get up out of bed, so at least once a day, they put him in a wheelchair and wheeled him out to the hospital atrium so he could get some air. When they brought him back to his room, Nicholas asked them to park his wheelchair by the window and to open it so he could hear the birds.

He had been sitting by the window for a while when he heard footsteps come into the room. They were too heavy to be female, and since he was not taking visitors, they had to be Dr. Horton’s. “Hello, Doctor.”

He heard Dr. Horton chuckle. “How did you know it was me?”

“Lucky guess,” he lied. He did not feel like explaining his process.

“My nurses told me you asked to see me when I came on duty.”

“Yes, thank you for coming.”

“How could I say no to my favourite patient?” He could hear Dr. Horton pull up a chair and sit down. “So, you wanted to talk.”

“How is your research coming?”

Dr. Horton sighed. “Honestly, I am getting nowhere. I do not know how to help you.”

His heart sunk, but it was what he had expected to hear. “Be honest with me, doctor… I am at the end, are not I? I am failing fast.”

“Nicholas, there is always hope.”

“No, there’s not. You know it as well as I do. I am about two steps away from the grave,” Nicholas held a hand out. “I want to sign a DNR.”

Dr. Horton gasp.

for any reason, the hospital staff is not to resuscitate me with CPR or other life-saving measures. They are to let

cannot do this. Think about your

The longer I linger, the more they suffer. I am a burden. I cannot keep doing this to them. To myself. Just let me die. I

sound like you have

thought of since I woke. I am done, Doctor. I am not doing it anymore. No more medication, no more treatment, just send me home and

that is what

“It is.”

I will call your family and tell them you are

“Fair enough.”

that Dr. Horton had stood up. The sound that followed was Dr. Horton leaving

he just had to figure out how he was going to tell

***

the hospital against the doctor’s suggestions, and they were sending him home in an ambulance.

with one hand resting on the mantle and a glass of bourbon in the other. Teegan and Kinsley sat together on the couch, discussing their theories of why

understand why Dr. Horton allowed him to check himself out,” Teegan

even dying men have rights,” everyone jumped when they heard Nicholas speak. He was at the door. He was dressed in a pair of black slacks and a deep blue button-up shirt. His eyes were sunken, and he was very thin. He was still seated in a wheelchair, and Octavius was pushing

husk of that man. He looked like a living corpse. “Nicholas,” Naya spoke as she went to his side. “You are

in his hand. “This is a living will. It states that I am not to be kept on life support if something happens. It also had a DNR. I am not to be revived if my heart stops or I stop breathing. It is signed by myself and the doctor. It is witnessed and notarized, and legally binding. To go against it would

devastated looks on Samuel and Naya’s faces. “You want us to just let you die?” Naya asked. “That is too much to ask

return was misery and suffering. No more. I am done with it. His document is legally binding. Make your choice. Accept it and stay until the end or leave now in protest and be done with