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,

stops for any reason, the hospital staff is not to

about your family; think

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

sound like you have given

am done, Doctor. I am not doing it anymore. No more medication, no more treatment, just send me home

is

“It is.”

them you are

“Fair enough.”

that Dr. Horton had stood up. The sound that

just had to figure out how he was going

***

the 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 him home in an ambulance. Everyone was gathering in the

of bourbon in the other. Teegan and Kinsley sat together on the couch, discussing their theories of why Nicholas was refusing medical treatment. Naya took a seat on

why Dr. Horton allowed him to check himself out,” Teegan said. “He is not a

me to leave because it is a free country, and 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

man he was the first night they met, and now he was a husk of that man. He looked like a living corpse. “Nicholas,” Naya spoke as

took a document out of the bag hanging on the back. “I took the liberty of having the doctor and the hospital draw up some papers,” he said when Octavius placed 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 my final wishes.”

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

things your way. All I received in return was misery and suffering. No more. I am done with it.