Pull the Plug

“I really shouldn't be doing this,” Tristan gasped.
“But it's so right, I know it is, and you know it too!” Rachel pleaded. “Please, just for a moment, it's just you and me. Forget about her, she isn't right for you, I know she isn't right for you! You belong with me!”
“I'm sorry what did you say?” Tristan asked, ripping the headphones out of his ear. “I need to turn the volume up so I can concentrate. Man, can you believe I'm bench pressing 180 now? I really shouldn't be doing that,” he reiterated. “Thanks babe, you're such a great spotter, what would I do without you? You're like one of the guys.”
“Any time,” Rachel managed, crestfallen.

For the past six months, Rachel had been spotting for Tristan, the juiciest meat head on the football team. She fell in love with him the moment she saw him, he however, was slow on the uptake.

“Alright, I'm about to head out,” Tristan said, interrupting her reverie. “Crystal and I have a hot date tonight. She said she has some big news to tell me. You remember Crystal, right? I met her when I was job shadowing Nurse Kellan at the hospital. I think I've mentioned her a couple times.”
Rachel indeed remembered Crystal, the blond, leggy girl Tristan occasionally took out. “Have fun,” Rachel called to Tristan's retreating back. He waved absentmindedly on his way to the locker room.

While Tristan showered, he thought mainly of his date tonight, and vaguely wondered what Crystal needed to tell him. He liked Crystal, she was a nice girl, but he knew in his heart that he could never love her. In his mind, there was only one person for him. That didn't mean he didn't appreciate Crystals assets, though. He licked his lips as he recalled the feeling of her tight little body under his, her legs straddled around him, the sweet intake of breath, the sounds of babies being made. He laughed to himself. Crystal, sweet as she was, was not right for him. She was only part of the elaborate facade he created to cover up his true self. The only person could ever love was his boyfriend Ramon.

That night, at the restaurant, Crystal revealed her big news.
“I'm pregnant.”
“What? Are you serious? How? And...it's mine....isn't it? Of course it is sorry I asked. But, how? When did you find out?” Tristan stuttered.
“About a month ago. It's a sure thing. But the baby's in trouble! It has a rare blood disease, I'm so worried,” Crystal was almost in tears.
Tristan tried to reassure her. “Don't worry baby, it'll be fine. What can I do?”
“Nothing. I've talked to the doctors. Our baby needs a kidney transplant as soon as he comes out. Luckily, the doctors have already found a match. But it's kind of complicated. You remember me telling you how I grew up in an orphanage?”
Tristan remembered. How could he forget? He vividly recalled the chilling details Crystal instilled in him as she spoke of sleeping on the cold, wet concrete floor with no company but rats and vermin.
“Well,” Crystal continued, “They finally located my family. My last name is Suckskavitz. My birth parents died three years ago, but they left me with a sister.”
“Rachel,” Tristan breathed.
“Yes, how did you know?”
“I work out with a girl names Rachel Suckskavitz. Her parents died three years ago, but she never told me she had a sister,” Tristan explained.
“Hmmm,” Crystal leaned forward as if dishing on the latest gossip. “I was told by the hospital that my mom had an affair with the Senator Thompson right around the time I was conceived. At that point, there was no way of knowing who my father was. So, doing the only thing she could think of, my mother hid the pregnancy from the public, and in order to spare my father the shame of raising a bastard child, gave me up for adoption the second I was born.”
“Why didn't she just get an abortion?”
“She loved me,” Crystal said. “Simple as that. My “father” didn't, but she did. She never knew for sure whose child I was, but she loved me nonetheless. Now I know, thanks to the tests the hospital performed after they exhumed the bodies, that Ralph Suckskavitz was indeed my father. Now, Rachel has to agree to donate a kidney to save my baby. You said you know her, do you think she will?”
“I'm sure she will. How could she not? She and I are friends. I'm sure she'd do anything she could to save my child.”
“Well, in any case, we're about to find out,” Crystal said. “I'm meeting her tonight. She has some sort of appointment at the hospital so they are going to explain the situation to her then.”
“What time is the appointment?” Asked Tristan.
“It starts in about forty-five minutes,” Crystal answered, checking her watch.
“Alright, I'll pay the bill and we can head over there early,” Tristan said.

Meanwhile, at the hospital...

The walls were closing in, my breathing coming in shallow gasps. Everything was fading into a black abyss, and I couldn't see my way through it. My world was ending. How could this happen to me? What had I ever done to anger God this way? Wasn't unrequited love punishment enough? Of course not. Now this. How could my body betray me this way? I worked out, ate healthy. 'It's genetics.' That was the doctors explanation. Genetics? 'There's nothing we could have done.' Nothing? What about the experimental chemo? Why hadn't they tried that? 'It's too dangerous.' Dangerous? I'm going to die!! I have no concept of danger! 'It was too risky at the time, now there is no point.' No point? My life has no point to you? 'You only have two hours.'

“Two hours.” These were the last thoughts racing through Rachel's mind as she collapsed to the floor. The doctors hurried to hook her up to an IV, knowing they could do nothing to ease her pain.
“At least she'll be with her parents soon,” The attending nurse stated, her eyes filled with sympathy. “She was just so young.”
“Remarkable, isn't it?” The doctor said. “But listen, don't go to ICU. There's been a terrible accident, two teenagers hit a semi, they're both barely alive. I don't think they're going to make it through the night.”
“That's horrible!” gasped the nurse.
“That isn't even the worst of it,” said the doctor. “One of them, the girl, is pregnant.”
A little while later, Rachel came to and wasn't surprised to see a team of doctors surrounding her bed. After living nine months with leukemia, one became used to such things.
“Rachel, can you hear me?” Asked the one standing nearest the window.
Rachel nodded her assent.
“I have news for you. You have a sister, one that your parents never told you about,” the doctor said.
“I do?” Rachel asked, flummoxed. This hadn't been what she was expecting.
“Yes, and she's pregnant. But the baby's in trouble. You see, it has leukemia as well, and it needed a kidney. You would have been a perfect match.”
“Would have been? Why am I not still?” Rachel asked, confused.
“Well, your sister and the father of her baby were just in a car accident. The father is in critical condition, but your sister isn't as lucky. Her brain was hit hard, and she's in a vegetative state. It's possible she'll wake up, but it's only a fifty-fifty shot.”
“Why are you telling me this?” Rachel asked.
“Because you're her only family,” the doctor explained.
“It's up to you whether or not we pull the plug.”
“Can I meet her?”

The doctors helped Rachel out of bed and led her upstairs to the ICU where she entered the room of her long lost sister. There was a man covered in bandages and blood one bed over. Rachel looked at him questioningly until the doctors told her that he was the father of the baby. Next to his bed a Latin American man was holding the bandaged man's hand and weeping. Rachel looked away, embarrassed to have witnessed the private grief of the man. She crossed the room and, for the very first time in her life, looked into the face of her sister.
“Her name is Crystal,” the doctor explained.
“Crystal,” Rachel breathed. The name triggered a negative reaction in her sub conscience, but Rachel was so overwhelmed by all the news she had received that night she couldn't immediately figure out why.
“Rachel,” The doctor interrupted her thoughts. “We need you to decide if you want to keep your sister on life support, or remove her.”

Rachel looked at her sister, marveling at the bizarre twist of fate that led her to this moment. How could she decide whether or not to end this girls life? She didn't even know her! All she knew was that “Crystal” had gotten pregnant out of wedlock, and that her name triggered some sort of unknown animosity. It shouldn't be up to Rachel to decide! This was terrible! Suddenly Rachel couldn't bear to look at her sister's face anymore. Her eyes furiously swept the room looking for something, anything else to look at, to focus on and forget about the half dead girl lying next to her. Her gaze landed on the man in the next bed's face. There was something familiar about it...It all suddenly clicked. Crystal, Tristan, the Latin American man was a bit of a mystery, but she let that one go. Tristan was the father, Crystal, her sister, was his date. She was pregnant. That was the big news. That was why they were on the date. Tristan, her soul mate, had been with this vile creature fighting for her life in the bed next to her. And now Rachel was in charge of whether or not Crystal would survive. Of course. It all made sense to her now.Slowly, deliberately, Rachel turned to the doctor and made her last request.
“Pull the plug.”