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.”

could hear Dr. Horton gasp. “Nicholas,

I stop breathing or my heart stops for any reason, the hospital staff is not to resuscitate me with CPR or other life-saving measures.

do this. Think about your family; think

cannot keep doing this to them. To myself. Just let me die. I promise you may have my body for your research. Maybe

have given this

I 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 let

that is

“It is.”

up. I will see they are signed by the end of my shift. I will call your family and tell them you are being discharged. But I am sending you home in an ambulance.

“Fair enough.”

the floor, and he assumed that Dr. Horton had stood up. The sound that followed was

had to figure out how

***

parlour, where she found the others. Octavius had received word from Dr. Horton saying that Nicholas had left the hospital against the doctor’s suggestions, and they were sending

discussing their theories of why Nicholas was refusing medical treatment. Naya

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

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

and now he was a husk of that man. He looked like a living corpse.

the papers 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 be to go against

looks on Samuel and Naya’s faces. “You want us to just let

No more. I am done with it. His document is legally binding. Make your