LoveMrsG
09-27-2011, 05:38 PM
This fanfic is from The Jeffersons and here's the synopsis:
The Jeffersons' and everybody else's world is suddenly turned upside down when Louise Jefferson suffers a heart attack. George Jefferson is changed forever and is given disturbing insight into his faults as a husband. He also learns of a whole new side to Louise that he's never seen before, as well as the truth behind several important things Louise has kept hidden from him through the years. Through the painful and frightening process, George learns things about Louise and about himself he never could have dreamed of before, and through it all, the Jeffersons as a couple quickly realize they and their relationship with never be the same. Nobody's lives will ever be the same after this...
Chapter One
The moment she felt his lips softly brush her cheek, Louise Jefferson smiled, because she immediately knew who was kissing her and trying to gently bring her out of sleep.
“Weez?” George Jefferson whispered in his wife’s ear.
“Hmm?” she responded without opening her eyes.
“Can you wake up for me for just a second, honey?” George asked with obvious tenderness in his voice.
“Not without another kiss,” Louise whispered with a smile.
“My pleasure,” George said to Louise, and then instantly obliged her request for another kiss, making this one much longer and more passionate. After the long kiss ended, Louise opened her eyes, and George smiled. “Hi, gorgeous.”
“Hi, handsome,” Louise whispered back, still not fully awake yet. “What time is it?”
“It’s a little after four.”
“Oh goodness, I need to be getting up,” Louise said as she started to rise.
“Oh no, you don’t have to stay awake. I just wanted to help you to the bedroom,” George explained as Louise moved her legs around into a sitting position. When George realized Louise was determined to sit up on the couch, he quickly got up out of her way so he wouldn’t be an obstacle for her. Once Louise was sitting up, George sat back down on the couch next to her.
“Sorry Romeo, but you know the doctor said it would be a while before I was up to…you know,” Louise teased.
“No,” George said with a laugh. “That ain’t what I meant, Weezy, and you know it. I meant that I wanted to help you get to bed and lie down. You’ll be more comfortable there than on the couch.”
“I appreciate it, sweetheart, but if I let my nap last any longer, I won’t sleep a wink tonight.”
“Don’t worry about it. You can always sleep late,” George suggested, and Louise let out a slightly frustrated sigh.
“You know I can’t put off going back to my volunteer work forever,” Louise told him, and at that, George, too, let out a sigh of frustration. George knew Louise was hoping to return to her work the following morning and that sleeping late was the last thing she wanted to do. “They need me. There are a lot of people who are really counting on me. There are a lot of children who are really counting on me,” she said soberly.
“Everybody’s fine, Weezy,” George insisted. “Will you please, just trust me? I’m learnin’ the ropes. Look, I promised you in the hospital that you weren’t in this alone anymore, and you’re not. I may not know Zion as well as you do yet, but I’ll get there. Even Marco says I’m doin’ a good job holdin’ down the fort, and he hates my guts.”
“Believe me, George, I do trust you,” Louise said warmly while putting her hand on top of his. “And I’m not at all surprised to hear that you’re doing well down at Zion. You’re a very clever and intelligent man and you’re a very fast learner, especially when you really put your mind to something. I know how hard you and Marco and everybody have been working and you’re all doing a wonderful job. This isn’t about you or how well you’re doing at Zion. It’s about me needing something more to do with my life other than lying around and sleeping and asking you or Mama or Florence to fluff my pillows for me.”
“Lyin’ around sleepin’ and askin’ for your pillows to be fluffed is exactly what you’re supposed to be doin’ when you’re recovering from a heart attack. It’s barely been three weeks.”
“It’s been four weeks, George,” Louise corrected him, knowing that he knew better. “Darling, can’t you see it? Can’t you at least try to understand? It’s time we started moving on with our lives. Dr. Garrison said yesterday that everything was looking well and that I could begin my volunteer work again anytime I wanted to.”
“He’s a quack,” George said instantly, and Louise smiled at her husband’s loving stubbornness.
“He is not a quack and you know it,” she told him gently. “You asked for him to oversee my case in the hospital because you investigated all the different doctors and cardiologists in New York City and you were told he was the best of the best around here. The man knows exactly what he’s talking about, George. He’s a professional in the field of cardiology.”
George let out another sigh, this time out of fear, and buried his head in his hands for a moment, and then told Louise honestly, “Weez, I’m scared. I came so close to losing you. And the work you do at Zion is hardly an ordinary job. It’s all so incredibly stressful and I think stress is the last thing in the world you need right now.”
“But George, stress is something that’s a part of everyday life. It’s how you handle it that counts, and believe me, it’s going to make it a lot easier for me now that you know everything where Zion and the Help Center is concerned. And if it makes you feel any better, I promise you I’ll take it really slow and easy.”
“And that you’ll stay out of danger?”
“And yes, that I’ll stay out of dangerous situations over there…for now.”
“For now,” George grumbled. “Well, knowing you, that’s probably the best I’ll get.”
“George…we’re dealing with the very lives of young children, here. You know that in my position at Zion, I have no choice. I have to take risks sometimes. I refuse to be the kind of leader that’ll order the people working under me to do things that I’m not willing to do alongside them myself.”
“I do understand, Weez,” George said in a deep voice. “And believe me, sweetheart, I am in awe of what you do at Zion every day, what you’ve been doing there every day for years without me having the slightest clue. I do understand why you do what you do and I love you and appreciate you for it. You’re a remarkable woman, Louise,” George whispered, and Louise kissed his cheek. “And we can talk about the dangerous stuff later. Right now, helping you is what’s important, and if going to back to do some light work at Zion is what you need, then I’m with you and I’ll do all I can to help you.”
“Thank you, George,” Louise said as she wrapped her arms around him. “Thank you so much.”
“No, Weez, thank you. I thank you for…” George started to say as his mind then went to the hardest place for his heart to go to.
Thankfully, Louise immediately sensed what George was trying to say, and she stopped him, saying, “No George, don’t.” Then she started rubbing his back as tears came to his eyes just at the thought of all she’d gone through silently for his sake. And to think, after enduring the closest thing to hell on earth he could imagine, now, here she was, comforting him. It was beyond anything George could imagine. “You don’t need to say it. You don’t need to say anything. I know how you feel. Believe me, I do.”
“No, you’re wrong. I do need to say something. I’ve taken you for granted for far too long,” George told Louise after the hug ended. With his arms still holding her and with him looking into her eyes, George said, “After the past few weeks, I don’t ever want to take anything about you or our relationship for granted again. I won’t go into long speeches. I’ll just say…thank you, sweetheart. Thank you. Thank you so much for giving me so much. Thank you for putting yourself through so much for my sake. Thank you for putting up with so much crap from me through the years. Thank you for always treating me so much better than I deserve.”
“Oh, George,” Louise gasped as tears came to her eyes, and then she hugged George again. “I thank you for saying all that. It means so much to me.”
At that, George hugged Louise tighter.
Scenes like these between Louise and George were commonplace nowadays since her heart attack four weeks ago, but before then, it was far more common to see the Jeffersons at each other’s throats. Largely, it was Louise having to get at George’s throat for doing something wrong or she was having to drive herself crazy trying to keep her self-centered, immature husband out of trouble. George and Louise had met, fallen in love, and gotten married and had their only child back in their early twenties in Harlem. George worked all kinds of different jobs and Louise worked as a maid for many years until George was finally able to start his dry-cleaning business some years later. Getting ahead and making it into their East Side neighborhood had certainly gone to George’s head a lot in the past and he often liked to take all the credit for it and overlook all that Louise, too, had gone through to help get their family where it was today.
Overlooking all that Louise was going through was something George was doing all too well the night of Louise’s heart attack. That night, George was completely clueless to how ill Louise looked, although before their maid, Florence Johnston, and their upstairs neighbors and best friends, Tom and Helen Willis, had left the Jeffersons’ apartment that evening, they all had commented about it and Louise had said she was afraid she might be coming down with something. But George had been too absorbed in the enormous cleaning contract he’d landed that day to even begin to think about anyone or anything other than himself and the business, and all the money he knew he’d be making. Louise had complained of weakness and dizziness and nausea she’d been having all day, but it had all gone in one of George’s ears and out the other.
In the last moments of their lives as they’d known them, George had walked back around behind the couch where Louise was standing and had wrapped his arms around her waist and kissed her and said, “Well don’t worry, sweetheart. When you and I sign the cleaning contract with Bill Kronan tomorrow, you’ll be too rich to feel bad.”
“Bill Kronan…from Harlem?” Louise gasped.
“Weezy, ain’t you been listenin’ to a word I’ve been sayin’ all night? Of course from Harlem!”
It was in that very next instant that Louise suddenly started crying out in pain and collapsing as George struggled in vain to hold her up.
“Weez! Weez!” George yelled. “Weezy, what’s the matter?! Weezy, what is it?!”
“I think it’s my heart,” Louise gasped through her sobbing.
“Oh, dear God!” George cried out. “I’ll call an ambulance,” he said as he started to get up, but Louise grabbed him with what was left of her strength still.
“No, don’t leave me, George,” she begged him through her tears.
“I won’t leave, sweetheart, I promise. I won’t leave you. I’m just getting up to go call an ambulance; then I’ll be right back over here.”
“No, George! No! Please don’t!” Louise cried.
“Weezy…baby, I have to,” George told her so gently. “We need to get you to the hospital, now.”
“No, George, you don’t understand. I—” Louise began, but then she went limp in George’s arms. George had been holding Louise in a sitting position, but suddenly, as she was talking, Louise’s eyes rolled in the back of her head and she went dead in George’s arms.
“Weez!” George hollered.
At that very moment, thanks be to God, the Willises, Florence, and Mr. Bentley all came inside. Florence, Mr. Bentley, and Tom and Helen were all going to a local ballet performance together. The Willises had two extra tickets and they were going to ask the Jeffersons to come with them that night, but they asked Florence and Bentley instead when they came downstairs and learned how badly Louise had been feeling that day. Tom, in all the rush and excitement of the evening, had forgotten the tickets after he took them out of his pocket and laid them down on the Jeffersons’ desk. The other three had returned from Bentley’s apartment with him. Of course, when they all came inside, George overheard Tom’s and Helen’s bickering.
“Willis! Quick! Call an ambulance now!” George shouted. “It’s Weezy! She’s had a heart attack!”
“Oh God, no!” Helen gasped.
“I’ll do it, Mr. J.,” Bentley offered. “The Willises are both trained in CPR.”
“So am I,” said Florence.
“Well I need one of ya over here to do compressions,” George told them.
“Oh, God,” Tom said with tears brimming his eyes.
“I’ll do it,” Florence said immediately and got down on her knees near Louise and George (as did Tom and Helen for that matter).
“I’ll start mouth-to-mouth,” George said, and instants later, he and Florence were working together in great precision, Florence pumping Louise’s chest five times, George giving Louise a breath afterwards. “Come on, sweetheart,” George whispered in Louise’s ear. “Breathe for me, baby. Breathe for me!”
After several cycles, all of them watching Louise’s chest like hawks, it looked like Louise tried to move a little air in and out of her lungs.
“That’s it, sweetheart,” George said softly, coaching Louise on. “That’s it, baby! That’s it! Breathe! Breathe for us!”
In that next moment, Louise opened her eyes and gasped, “George?”
“I’m here, baby. I’m here,” he anxiously told her as he held the side of her face with his hand. “We’re all here, sweetheart.”
“It’s…so hard to breathe.”
“It’s still hard to breathe?” asked George and Louise was able to give a slight nod.
“Help me, George,” Louise said in a raspy tone.
“I’ll help you, sweetheart. I’ll help you,” George said nervously, not really knowing what to do next. But thankfully in that next second, it came to him. “I’ll tell you what, sweetheart. I’ll cover your mouth with mine again, and when I breathe out into your mouth, you breathe in as much as you can. Okay? We’ll breathe together.”
Louise nodded again, and for the next minute or so, they breathed together like that in a concerted effort. Then, though, Louise finally felt like she was able to breathe normally again, and gave a big gasp as the air felt like at long last it was returning to her lungs.
“I can breathe again,” she told them. “Oh George, help me sit up. I want you to hold me again like you were before.”
“Okay, sweetheart,” said George and then he pulled Louise back up into a sitting position in his arms. “I’m right here, baby. I’m right here.”
“We’re all here, Louise,” Helen assured her.
“We’re right here,” Tom said. “We love you, Louise, and we’re with you. We’re right here.”
“And we’re not goin’ anywhere, Ms. Jefferson,” Florence said softly.
“The ambulance is coming,” said Mr. Bentley. He had knelt down with the others in the floor several moments before after getting off the phone with the paramedics.
“I’m so scared,” Louise said as more tears came to her eyes.
“I know, Weezy. I know, honey. I know,” George whispered as he continued to hold Louise close. “So am I. We’re all pretty scared right now but we’re together and we’re all right here with you. We’re gonna get through this, Weez. We’re gonna do this together, okay?”
“Together,” Louise whispered with a nod.
“Together,” said George with a nod in return, his eyes locked with Louise’s eyes.
“Oh, George, I need help to the bathroom. I feel like I’m gonna be sick.”
Instantly, before Louise even knew what hit her practically, she vomited all over George’s suit coat and vest.
“Oh, George, I’m so sorry,” Louise said, looking up into George’s eyes, crying.
George quickly took his coat off and started unbuttoning his vest with one hand while he was holding onto Louise with his other arm and hand.
“Oh, Weezy, don’t worry about it, baby,” George said with such tenderness and love. “It’s just clothes, that’s all. My clothes ain’t important, baby. You are. Nothing matters except you right now, Weezy-girl. Nothing. You hear me?”
Louise looked up at George with a slight smile and said, “Weezy-girl? You haven’t called me that in years. I think I’m too old to be a ‘girl’ now.”
“Ah no, Weezy. You’re a girl. You’re a girl. You’re my girl. Forever.”
Louise’s smile grew bigger as she looked up at George and agreed, “Forever.”
“You’re our girl too, Louise,” said Helen.
“And we’re gonna take such good care of you,” Tom said through his ongoing tears.
“We sure are,” Florence said.
At that moment, the paramedics arrived. George held Louise in his gaze as they loaded the gurney she was on into the back of the ambulance. And now George held Louise in his arms and enjoying staring into her ever-lovely face. That face was one of the most precious sights in the world to George Jefferson now and he finally understood what a great God-given gift it was to be able to see it every day of his life. Louise now put her hand on the side of George’s face and held it and locked her eyes with his.
“Where are you, darling?” she asked him gently.
“The night of your heart attack,” George said soberly.
“Oh honey, don’t go there,” Louise said with great warmth. “I’m fine now. I’m just fine, and I’m right here with you, and I’m not about to go anywhere. Not for a long, long time.”
“A long, long, long time,” George whispered and then pressed his lips to hers and kissed her with all the passion for her he felt in his heart.
The Jeffersons' and everybody else's world is suddenly turned upside down when Louise Jefferson suffers a heart attack. George Jefferson is changed forever and is given disturbing insight into his faults as a husband. He also learns of a whole new side to Louise that he's never seen before, as well as the truth behind several important things Louise has kept hidden from him through the years. Through the painful and frightening process, George learns things about Louise and about himself he never could have dreamed of before, and through it all, the Jeffersons as a couple quickly realize they and their relationship with never be the same. Nobody's lives will ever be the same after this...
Chapter One
The moment she felt his lips softly brush her cheek, Louise Jefferson smiled, because she immediately knew who was kissing her and trying to gently bring her out of sleep.
“Weez?” George Jefferson whispered in his wife’s ear.
“Hmm?” she responded without opening her eyes.
“Can you wake up for me for just a second, honey?” George asked with obvious tenderness in his voice.
“Not without another kiss,” Louise whispered with a smile.
“My pleasure,” George said to Louise, and then instantly obliged her request for another kiss, making this one much longer and more passionate. After the long kiss ended, Louise opened her eyes, and George smiled. “Hi, gorgeous.”
“Hi, handsome,” Louise whispered back, still not fully awake yet. “What time is it?”
“It’s a little after four.”
“Oh goodness, I need to be getting up,” Louise said as she started to rise.
“Oh no, you don’t have to stay awake. I just wanted to help you to the bedroom,” George explained as Louise moved her legs around into a sitting position. When George realized Louise was determined to sit up on the couch, he quickly got up out of her way so he wouldn’t be an obstacle for her. Once Louise was sitting up, George sat back down on the couch next to her.
“Sorry Romeo, but you know the doctor said it would be a while before I was up to…you know,” Louise teased.
“No,” George said with a laugh. “That ain’t what I meant, Weezy, and you know it. I meant that I wanted to help you get to bed and lie down. You’ll be more comfortable there than on the couch.”
“I appreciate it, sweetheart, but if I let my nap last any longer, I won’t sleep a wink tonight.”
“Don’t worry about it. You can always sleep late,” George suggested, and Louise let out a slightly frustrated sigh.
“You know I can’t put off going back to my volunteer work forever,” Louise told him, and at that, George, too, let out a sigh of frustration. George knew Louise was hoping to return to her work the following morning and that sleeping late was the last thing she wanted to do. “They need me. There are a lot of people who are really counting on me. There are a lot of children who are really counting on me,” she said soberly.
“Everybody’s fine, Weezy,” George insisted. “Will you please, just trust me? I’m learnin’ the ropes. Look, I promised you in the hospital that you weren’t in this alone anymore, and you’re not. I may not know Zion as well as you do yet, but I’ll get there. Even Marco says I’m doin’ a good job holdin’ down the fort, and he hates my guts.”
“Believe me, George, I do trust you,” Louise said warmly while putting her hand on top of his. “And I’m not at all surprised to hear that you’re doing well down at Zion. You’re a very clever and intelligent man and you’re a very fast learner, especially when you really put your mind to something. I know how hard you and Marco and everybody have been working and you’re all doing a wonderful job. This isn’t about you or how well you’re doing at Zion. It’s about me needing something more to do with my life other than lying around and sleeping and asking you or Mama or Florence to fluff my pillows for me.”
“Lyin’ around sleepin’ and askin’ for your pillows to be fluffed is exactly what you’re supposed to be doin’ when you’re recovering from a heart attack. It’s barely been three weeks.”
“It’s been four weeks, George,” Louise corrected him, knowing that he knew better. “Darling, can’t you see it? Can’t you at least try to understand? It’s time we started moving on with our lives. Dr. Garrison said yesterday that everything was looking well and that I could begin my volunteer work again anytime I wanted to.”
“He’s a quack,” George said instantly, and Louise smiled at her husband’s loving stubbornness.
“He is not a quack and you know it,” she told him gently. “You asked for him to oversee my case in the hospital because you investigated all the different doctors and cardiologists in New York City and you were told he was the best of the best around here. The man knows exactly what he’s talking about, George. He’s a professional in the field of cardiology.”
George let out another sigh, this time out of fear, and buried his head in his hands for a moment, and then told Louise honestly, “Weez, I’m scared. I came so close to losing you. And the work you do at Zion is hardly an ordinary job. It’s all so incredibly stressful and I think stress is the last thing in the world you need right now.”
“But George, stress is something that’s a part of everyday life. It’s how you handle it that counts, and believe me, it’s going to make it a lot easier for me now that you know everything where Zion and the Help Center is concerned. And if it makes you feel any better, I promise you I’ll take it really slow and easy.”
“And that you’ll stay out of danger?”
“And yes, that I’ll stay out of dangerous situations over there…for now.”
“For now,” George grumbled. “Well, knowing you, that’s probably the best I’ll get.”
“George…we’re dealing with the very lives of young children, here. You know that in my position at Zion, I have no choice. I have to take risks sometimes. I refuse to be the kind of leader that’ll order the people working under me to do things that I’m not willing to do alongside them myself.”
“I do understand, Weez,” George said in a deep voice. “And believe me, sweetheart, I am in awe of what you do at Zion every day, what you’ve been doing there every day for years without me having the slightest clue. I do understand why you do what you do and I love you and appreciate you for it. You’re a remarkable woman, Louise,” George whispered, and Louise kissed his cheek. “And we can talk about the dangerous stuff later. Right now, helping you is what’s important, and if going to back to do some light work at Zion is what you need, then I’m with you and I’ll do all I can to help you.”
“Thank you, George,” Louise said as she wrapped her arms around him. “Thank you so much.”
“No, Weez, thank you. I thank you for…” George started to say as his mind then went to the hardest place for his heart to go to.
Thankfully, Louise immediately sensed what George was trying to say, and she stopped him, saying, “No George, don’t.” Then she started rubbing his back as tears came to his eyes just at the thought of all she’d gone through silently for his sake. And to think, after enduring the closest thing to hell on earth he could imagine, now, here she was, comforting him. It was beyond anything George could imagine. “You don’t need to say it. You don’t need to say anything. I know how you feel. Believe me, I do.”
“No, you’re wrong. I do need to say something. I’ve taken you for granted for far too long,” George told Louise after the hug ended. With his arms still holding her and with him looking into her eyes, George said, “After the past few weeks, I don’t ever want to take anything about you or our relationship for granted again. I won’t go into long speeches. I’ll just say…thank you, sweetheart. Thank you. Thank you so much for giving me so much. Thank you for putting yourself through so much for my sake. Thank you for putting up with so much crap from me through the years. Thank you for always treating me so much better than I deserve.”
“Oh, George,” Louise gasped as tears came to her eyes, and then she hugged George again. “I thank you for saying all that. It means so much to me.”
At that, George hugged Louise tighter.
Scenes like these between Louise and George were commonplace nowadays since her heart attack four weeks ago, but before then, it was far more common to see the Jeffersons at each other’s throats. Largely, it was Louise having to get at George’s throat for doing something wrong or she was having to drive herself crazy trying to keep her self-centered, immature husband out of trouble. George and Louise had met, fallen in love, and gotten married and had their only child back in their early twenties in Harlem. George worked all kinds of different jobs and Louise worked as a maid for many years until George was finally able to start his dry-cleaning business some years later. Getting ahead and making it into their East Side neighborhood had certainly gone to George’s head a lot in the past and he often liked to take all the credit for it and overlook all that Louise, too, had gone through to help get their family where it was today.
Overlooking all that Louise was going through was something George was doing all too well the night of Louise’s heart attack. That night, George was completely clueless to how ill Louise looked, although before their maid, Florence Johnston, and their upstairs neighbors and best friends, Tom and Helen Willis, had left the Jeffersons’ apartment that evening, they all had commented about it and Louise had said she was afraid she might be coming down with something. But George had been too absorbed in the enormous cleaning contract he’d landed that day to even begin to think about anyone or anything other than himself and the business, and all the money he knew he’d be making. Louise had complained of weakness and dizziness and nausea she’d been having all day, but it had all gone in one of George’s ears and out the other.
In the last moments of their lives as they’d known them, George had walked back around behind the couch where Louise was standing and had wrapped his arms around her waist and kissed her and said, “Well don’t worry, sweetheart. When you and I sign the cleaning contract with Bill Kronan tomorrow, you’ll be too rich to feel bad.”
“Bill Kronan…from Harlem?” Louise gasped.
“Weezy, ain’t you been listenin’ to a word I’ve been sayin’ all night? Of course from Harlem!”
It was in that very next instant that Louise suddenly started crying out in pain and collapsing as George struggled in vain to hold her up.
“Weez! Weez!” George yelled. “Weezy, what’s the matter?! Weezy, what is it?!”
“I think it’s my heart,” Louise gasped through her sobbing.
“Oh, dear God!” George cried out. “I’ll call an ambulance,” he said as he started to get up, but Louise grabbed him with what was left of her strength still.
“No, don’t leave me, George,” she begged him through her tears.
“I won’t leave, sweetheart, I promise. I won’t leave you. I’m just getting up to go call an ambulance; then I’ll be right back over here.”
“No, George! No! Please don’t!” Louise cried.
“Weezy…baby, I have to,” George told her so gently. “We need to get you to the hospital, now.”
“No, George, you don’t understand. I—” Louise began, but then she went limp in George’s arms. George had been holding Louise in a sitting position, but suddenly, as she was talking, Louise’s eyes rolled in the back of her head and she went dead in George’s arms.
“Weez!” George hollered.
At that very moment, thanks be to God, the Willises, Florence, and Mr. Bentley all came inside. Florence, Mr. Bentley, and Tom and Helen were all going to a local ballet performance together. The Willises had two extra tickets and they were going to ask the Jeffersons to come with them that night, but they asked Florence and Bentley instead when they came downstairs and learned how badly Louise had been feeling that day. Tom, in all the rush and excitement of the evening, had forgotten the tickets after he took them out of his pocket and laid them down on the Jeffersons’ desk. The other three had returned from Bentley’s apartment with him. Of course, when they all came inside, George overheard Tom’s and Helen’s bickering.
“Willis! Quick! Call an ambulance now!” George shouted. “It’s Weezy! She’s had a heart attack!”
“Oh God, no!” Helen gasped.
“I’ll do it, Mr. J.,” Bentley offered. “The Willises are both trained in CPR.”
“So am I,” said Florence.
“Well I need one of ya over here to do compressions,” George told them.
“Oh, God,” Tom said with tears brimming his eyes.
“I’ll do it,” Florence said immediately and got down on her knees near Louise and George (as did Tom and Helen for that matter).
“I’ll start mouth-to-mouth,” George said, and instants later, he and Florence were working together in great precision, Florence pumping Louise’s chest five times, George giving Louise a breath afterwards. “Come on, sweetheart,” George whispered in Louise’s ear. “Breathe for me, baby. Breathe for me!”
After several cycles, all of them watching Louise’s chest like hawks, it looked like Louise tried to move a little air in and out of her lungs.
“That’s it, sweetheart,” George said softly, coaching Louise on. “That’s it, baby! That’s it! Breathe! Breathe for us!”
In that next moment, Louise opened her eyes and gasped, “George?”
“I’m here, baby. I’m here,” he anxiously told her as he held the side of her face with his hand. “We’re all here, sweetheart.”
“It’s…so hard to breathe.”
“It’s still hard to breathe?” asked George and Louise was able to give a slight nod.
“Help me, George,” Louise said in a raspy tone.
“I’ll help you, sweetheart. I’ll help you,” George said nervously, not really knowing what to do next. But thankfully in that next second, it came to him. “I’ll tell you what, sweetheart. I’ll cover your mouth with mine again, and when I breathe out into your mouth, you breathe in as much as you can. Okay? We’ll breathe together.”
Louise nodded again, and for the next minute or so, they breathed together like that in a concerted effort. Then, though, Louise finally felt like she was able to breathe normally again, and gave a big gasp as the air felt like at long last it was returning to her lungs.
“I can breathe again,” she told them. “Oh George, help me sit up. I want you to hold me again like you were before.”
“Okay, sweetheart,” said George and then he pulled Louise back up into a sitting position in his arms. “I’m right here, baby. I’m right here.”
“We’re all here, Louise,” Helen assured her.
“We’re right here,” Tom said. “We love you, Louise, and we’re with you. We’re right here.”
“And we’re not goin’ anywhere, Ms. Jefferson,” Florence said softly.
“The ambulance is coming,” said Mr. Bentley. He had knelt down with the others in the floor several moments before after getting off the phone with the paramedics.
“I’m so scared,” Louise said as more tears came to her eyes.
“I know, Weezy. I know, honey. I know,” George whispered as he continued to hold Louise close. “So am I. We’re all pretty scared right now but we’re together and we’re all right here with you. We’re gonna get through this, Weez. We’re gonna do this together, okay?”
“Together,” Louise whispered with a nod.
“Together,” said George with a nod in return, his eyes locked with Louise’s eyes.
“Oh, George, I need help to the bathroom. I feel like I’m gonna be sick.”
Instantly, before Louise even knew what hit her practically, she vomited all over George’s suit coat and vest.
“Oh, George, I’m so sorry,” Louise said, looking up into George’s eyes, crying.
George quickly took his coat off and started unbuttoning his vest with one hand while he was holding onto Louise with his other arm and hand.
“Oh, Weezy, don’t worry about it, baby,” George said with such tenderness and love. “It’s just clothes, that’s all. My clothes ain’t important, baby. You are. Nothing matters except you right now, Weezy-girl. Nothing. You hear me?”
Louise looked up at George with a slight smile and said, “Weezy-girl? You haven’t called me that in years. I think I’m too old to be a ‘girl’ now.”
“Ah no, Weezy. You’re a girl. You’re a girl. You’re my girl. Forever.”
Louise’s smile grew bigger as she looked up at George and agreed, “Forever.”
“You’re our girl too, Louise,” said Helen.
“And we’re gonna take such good care of you,” Tom said through his ongoing tears.
“We sure are,” Florence said.
At that moment, the paramedics arrived. George held Louise in his gaze as they loaded the gurney she was on into the back of the ambulance. And now George held Louise in his arms and enjoying staring into her ever-lovely face. That face was one of the most precious sights in the world to George Jefferson now and he finally understood what a great God-given gift it was to be able to see it every day of his life. Louise now put her hand on the side of George’s face and held it and locked her eyes with his.
“Where are you, darling?” she asked him gently.
“The night of your heart attack,” George said soberly.
“Oh honey, don’t go there,” Louise said with great warmth. “I’m fine now. I’m just fine, and I’m right here with you, and I’m not about to go anywhere. Not for a long, long time.”
“A long, long, long time,” George whispered and then pressed his lips to hers and kissed her with all the passion for her he felt in his heart.