"Sir..can you hear me?"

loud coughs were heard from room 309 of the emergency wing. A man lay in the bed, coughing his lungs dry, his throat starting to hurt and his eye's almost bursting out of his skull.

A nurse finally ran in, after about 3 continues minutes of his coughing. She lifted him so he sat straight up, keep rubbing his back and patting it with some force, this eventually stopped his coughing.

He lay back down slowly, wincing as each part of his spin bent, his muscles aching after his coughing fit.

"I haven't seen something that bad in a long time, I was about to ask if you're OK, but I guess you wouldn't be here if you were." she smiled at him, her comment almost insensitive but made him laugh a little which only brought pain.

She walked over to his medical chart to read what was his ailment. He watched through a red mist over his eyes as her face slowly tried to read the doctors writing. Her face going from concentration to all out shock, as her eye's widened she looked up from the chart at him.

" I'm..I'm so sorry."

" It's not your fault, nor is it the doctor's, nor is it anyone else's." he pushed these word's out of his lungs, it felt like exercise with all muscles being stretched.

"Is there anything I can do for you? To...to make it....better?"

"No" his eye's closing and opening without his control, all he was focusing on was thinking straight, keeping every thought his own.

She went for the door,

"Wait!" he pushed the words out so hard he could have sworn something burst. He didn't want to be alone, not now...not at this moment.

She turned to face him, a questionable look on her face though she spoke no words, perhaps she felt if she spoke she might start to tear up and that wasn't good form in front of a patient.

"Let me ask you one question.you don't even have to answer, I just want to utter these words because they have been plaguing me for far too long now"

She cam closer and sat at the side of his bed, close to his left foot.

"If you had the choice, when the time came. Would you ask for more time or would you accept your fate?"

This took her by surprise, she had these thoughts at times but she crushed them, pushed them out. They would effect her far too much if she let them run around her mind. She got up and slowly walked to the window, looking out to a pitch then a suburban neighborhood, it was almost 7.35 or at least it was the last time she had looked at her watch. She focused on nothing, her eyes met nothing in the distance, she only saw a setting sun, an orange tint had taken over the land creating a very sepia look.

"I don't know....." her words bounced of the walls though she had not noticed. She had zoned out, she heard, saw, smelt or felt nothing. Her mind racing.

Time passed, and she mulled the word's and thoughts that had stemmed from that question, thinking. Making sure to scrutinize every single letter.

"I think...or....maybe....no!" she finally took control, her mind leashed down. She made a consistent thought that she knew would help control her thought's "when the time comes, I will be different to who I am currently. If I have that choice I would not know how to answer for my answer would different."

She smiled, she was often proud of her strength, this being one of the main reasons she was a nurse was because she was strong of mind and soft of heart. Something her parent's always told her was to be strong of mind and soft of heart.

"now, you asked the question, it's only right you give an answer..." She turned while smiling, prideful of the decisions she had made until she noticed his stillness. His Silence, his face turned away from her

"Sir?" Time had slowed, she rushed and asked one question that she sadly knew the answer to.

He was gone.