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. “Nicholas, you know what

staff is

cannot do this. Think about

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 promise you may have my body for your research. Maybe one day, you can save someone else… but where I am concerned,

you have given

doing it anymore.

is what you

“It is.”

signed by the end of my shift. I will call your family and tell them

“Fair enough.”

the chair drag against the floor, and he assumed that Dr.

to figure out how he

***

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 parlour because the EMS had called ahead

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 Nicholas was refusing medical treatment. Naya took a seat on the couch across for the

check himself

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 button-up shirt. His eyes were sunken, and he was very thin. He was still seated in a wheelchair, and Octavius was pushing it. Nicholas did not look like he had the strength to move the wheels on

the first night they met, and now he was a husk of that man. He looked like a living corpse. “Nicholas,” Naya spoke as she went to his side. “You are not well; you should be the hospital where the doctors can care

that I am not to be kept on life support if something happens. It also had a DNR. I am not to

“You want us to just let you die?” Naya asked. “That is too much to ask of a mother,”

I did things your way. All I received in 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