Revelations
AJ
looked up from the bar, where he was shoving heaps of empty beer cans into a
garbage bag. “What’s wrong?” he asked in
alarm, upon hearing Jack’s shrill cry of “Somebody call
911!”
“Justin’s
got alcohol poisoning!” Jack exclaimed.
“Call an ambulance, quick!”
AJ
dropped the bag of cans and grabbed his cordless phone, while Jack and Josh heaved
Justin’s body off of the couch and lay him flat on the
carpet. Suddenly, a gurgling sound was
heard from Justin’s throat, and he began to gag and choke unconsciously.
“He’s
vomiting,” Jack cried. “Roll him over,
quick, or he’ll choke.” The two men
rolled Justin over onto his side, and he threw up all over AJ’s carpet. Doug jumped back, watching in disgust.
When
Justin’s vomiting had ceased, Jack knelt down beside him and checked his
pulse. It was abnormally slow. “Come on, ambulance, get here,” he muttered,
feeling a wave of panic rush over him.
He
wasn’t sure exactly how much alcohol Justin had consumed, but it was obviously
a dangerously large amount. Alcohol was
a depressant, and at this rate, it would continue to slow Justin’s heart until
it just stopped beating. Jack was
determined not to let that happen. He
knew he couldn’t blame himself for Justin’s decisions that night – after all,
Justin was an adult and was responsible for his own actions. But he still felt guilty. After all, he had invited Justin to the party
that night, knowing he was depressed and upset over Kristine’s death that
day. He should have expected something
like this; it was one of the number one reasons why people drank - to loosen up
and forget their problems. Justin,
wanting to fit in with the older, more experienced guys and put his horrible
day behind him, had done just that.
I
should have watched him more closely,
Jack thought. I knew how drunk he was
getting, and I should have cut him off from the bar hours ago. He
wasn’t Justin’s father or his babysitter, and he wasn’t responsible for
Justin’s actions outside of the workplace, but he was one of the only ones
Justin knew well at the party, the only “friend” he had to make sure he didn’t
get himself into trouble. And as a
friend, Jack had failed.
The
other men still there had come up to observe Justin. They all just stood there in silence, looking
guiltily around at each other, remembering how they had egged a plastered
Justin on during his Dr. Dre imitation. But Justin was not rapping now – he was
laying on the floor, clammy and ghost-white, his breathing ragged, his heartbeat slowing as the massive quantities of alcohol
took their toll.
+++
Kylie
McCartney yawned loudly, as Harry Littrell drove the ambulance down the
highway. The two, along with their
fellow paramedic Allison Brooks, were working the night shift that night. Nights were usually much calmer and less
hectic than days, but they were also boring and exhausting most of the time. Kylie was already tired, after a long day of
shopping with Addie, and she wished she could just go to bed.
Harry
was nearing the station when a call came over their radio.
“Squad
209, come in, over” said the woman from dispatch, her voice muffled over the
static of the radio.
“This
is squad 209, over,” Kylie replied.
“We’ve
got a call at 1004 Dayton Avenue, male in twenties suffering from alcohol
poisoning, over” said the dispatch woman.
“We’re
on it, over” replied Kylie automatically.
“Did you get that address?” she asked Harry. “Dayton Avenue – that’s AJ’s street.”
“That’s
right… I was thinking that address sounded familiar,” Harry replied
thoughtfully. “Do you happen to know
what AJ’s house number is? Alcohol
poisoning… God, I hope it wasn’t somebody at the party.”
The
color drained from Kylie’s face. “Oh my
God!” she exclaimed. “The party, that’s
right! God, I hope it’s not Josh!”
“I
hope it’s not AJ!” Harry cried. “You
know how he used to struggle with alcoholism…”
“I
know,” Kylie said, remembering AJ’s stint in rehab just the year before. “But AJ’s responsible now; he’s been sober
for over a year. He wouldn’t do that.”
“Brian
was at that party too,” Harry said, thinking of his younger brother. “But I know it couldn’t be him. He’s never been a heavy drinker.”
“I
hope it’s not Jack,” Kylie said. “He’s
never gone out of control before, but I do know he likes to party.”
The
whole ride to the house, they kept tossing names back and forth, worrying about
their friends. When they reached Dayton
Avenue, Kylie and Allison watched the house numbers flash by on the
mailboxes. 1001… 1002… 1003…
“It
is AJ’s house,” Kylie said with a sinking sensation as they read the number on
the mailbox in front of AJ’s familiar home, which was lit up like a torch, even
though it was after midnight.
“Alright,
guys, let’s go,” Harry said with a sigh, parking the ambulance on the street,
for AJ’s driveway was full with cars of the men still there.
Harry,
Kylie, and Allison got out their supplies and their stretcher and hurriedly
went up the driveway and to the front door.
It flung open immediately, and a grim-faced AJ stood waiting to greet
them.
“Who
is it?” Kylie demanded, relieved that it was not AJ, but worrying even more
about her husband. Like Jack, Josh
usually knew when to quit, but also liked to party, and she was worried he had
gone overboard.
“It’s
Justin Timberlake, Bianca’s med student,” AJ replied.
Kylie
tried not to sigh aloud, although she was extremely relieved. She pictured the awkward, curly-haired blonde
med student that worked in the ER and felt bad for him, but glad that it was
not her Josh.
AJ
led the three paramedics down to his basement, where they found an unconscious
Justin laying on the floor, a trail of vomit running from the corner of his
mouth to a puddle at his side. He was
pale and clammy, and his breathing was very ragged and slow.
Kylie
caught sight of Josh sitting at his side, but she said nothing to him, just
focused her attention on Justin.
“Does
anyone know how much he drank?” Allison asked.
The men, who were in various states of intoxication themselves, looked
around at each other and shrugged guiltily.
The
three paramedics immediately set to work, hooking Justin up to IV’s and oxygen
and checking his vitals. As quickly as
possible, they got him ready for transport and loaded him onto the
stretcher. A few of the doctors followed
them up the stairs and out into the cool night.
As
the paramedics loaded Justin into the ambulance, Jack hopped into the back as
well, muttering, “I’m coming with.”
“I’ll
call and check up on him later,” said AJ.
The others grunted in agreement.
Harry
climbed into the driver’s seat and started the ambulance, while the two female
paramedics got into the back with Jack.
Then, the lights whirling and sirens wailing, they sped down Dayton
Avenue and headed straight for Atlantic City Memorial.
+++
Nick
Carter wandered down one of the hallways of the oncology floor while taking a
short break from his duties. He was
working the night shift in the ER, and though it was unpredictable, he needed a
break so he decided to pay someone a little visit.
Most
of the patients Nick caught glimpses of were sound asleep, for it was well
after midnight. But when he came to
Bailey Cole’s room, he found the eleven-year-old still up, reading by the light
of her dim bedside lamp.
Standing
in the doorway of her room, he cleared his throat casually. Bailey’s head jerked up, her concentration
ruined.
“It’s
a little late to be up, ya know,” Nick said with a smile.
“I
can’t sleep,” Bailey mumbled. “Reading
helps.”
Nick
shrugged. “I’m not much of a reader
myself. So, what are you reading?” He cautiously approached her bed.
Bailey
Cole was well-known around the ER and now the oncology floor for her quick
temper and sarcastic sense of humor. She
had been diagnosed with leukemia three weeks ago and had been on the floor ever
since. It had saddened Nick to watch her
body deteriorate from the chemo treatments she had to undergo; her brown hair,
which had once hung down to her shoulders, was rapidly falling out, and her
already-thin body was gaunt and bony from the amount of weight she had
lost. Still, despite how ill and weak
she was most of the time, Bailey was strong on the
inside. She kept her wit, her sarcasm,
her temper. And as much as she could be
a pain in the ass, Nick admired her for it.
“Great
Expectations,” the eleven-year-old replied, smugly holding out the thick
book for him to see.
Nick
raised his eyebrows in surprise. “Dickens, eh?”
“Have
you read it?”
Nick
had – it had been a requirement for one of his high school English courses –
but the only thing he really remembered about it was the parody they had done
of it on an episode of Southpark.
“Yeah,” he replied, hoping Bailey wouldn’t quiz him over its plot. She most certainly would understand it better
than he, even if she was only eleven. It
was already obvious to Nick that she was highly intelligent.
Bailey
nodded. “Did you like it?”
“Uh…” Nick blushed.
Bailey
shrugged. “I don’t think it’s all that
great either,” she replied. “A Tale
of Two Cities was better.”
“Oh
yeah,” Nick agreed quickly. “Definitely.”
Bailey
studied him with a smirk, until Nick, feeling her eyes boring into him, glanced
quickly at his watch and announced, “Well, I better get going. I’ve gotta get back to work. Goodnight, Bailey.”
“Night,”
Bailey replied shortly and went back to her book. Nick turned around, rolling his eyes once his
back was to her, and left the room.
+++
When
the ambulance pulled up outside the ER, Kylie flung the back doors opened, and
she, Allison, and Jack lifted Justin’s stretcher out and set it on the
ground. Harry came around back to join
them, and the four quickly wheeled Justin into the ER.
“What
do we got?” Siara Reily asked automatically, joining the paramedics. She did a double-take as she saw Jack among
them. “Jack, what are you doing
here? Weren’t you going to that party at
AJ’s tonight?”
“That’s
where we came from,” he replied, glancing grimly down at Justin.
Siara, getting a good look
at the patient on the gurney, did another double-take. “Oh my God!” she gasped. “Justin!
What happened??”
Ignoring
the fact that this was a med-student that worked there in that very ER, Allison
rattled off Justin’s information as she did with all her other patients. “Twenty-four-year-old male suffering from
alcohol poisoning, unconscious when we arrived on the scene…”
Siara, still stunned,
said, “Let’s take him to Trauma 2.”
“Justin?!”
cried a shocked voice.
Jack
looked up to see that Meghan had come to join them. Allison again gave her Justin’s symptoms and
vital signs. Meghan just shook her
head. “Shit, Jack, how much did you guys
give him to drink?”
She
hadn’t been seriously accusing him, but that’s the way Jack took it. He felt even more horrible than before. Still, knowing he couldn’t let his emotions
take over, he ignored his guilt and focused on his patient, trying to push the
fact that it was Justin out of his mind.
“Let’s
order a chem pan and BAL,” Jack said, as the others
transferred Justin’s lifeless body from the stretcher to the gurney in the
room. Lifting Justin’s eyelids, he moved
a penlight back and forth in front of his eyes.
“Pupils are sluggish.”
“Uh,
Jack, what do you think you’re doing?” Siara asked
suddenly.
Jack
looked up. “Huh?”
“You’re
intoxicated, Jack. I can smell the
alcohol on your breath. You can’t be
working on patients.”
“What? But, Siara, I-”
“But what? You’ve been drinking, Jack, and it’s illegal
for you to treat patients under the influence,” Siara
replied matter-of-factly.
“I
didn’t have that much to drink!” Jack protested. “Please, I want to help him!”
“We
can take care of that, Jack,” Siara said. “If you want to wait for an update, you can
go sit in chairs.”
Jack’s
mouth opened in surprise, unable to believe that Siara
had just kicked him out. But, despite
his state of intoxication, he still had some reasoning left, and he knew she
was right.
“Alright,”
he said with a sigh. “Someone come get
me when you’ve got him stabilized. I’ll
be in the lounge, okay?”
“Okay,
Jack,” Siara said and went back to her work.
Feeling
cut off from the activity around him, Jack slowly left the room and walked down
the hall to the lounge.
+++
Half an hour later, the door to the lounge opened,
and in walked Siara.
Jack, who was sitting at the table, sipping black coffee, immediately
looked up and asked, “How is he?”
“It looks like he’s going to be all right, Jack,”
she replied, pulling up a chair next to him.
“He’s stabilized anyway. We won’t
know any long-term effects until we run some tests in the morning though.”
Jack nodded, thinking of all the internal organs
high quantities of alcohol affected, mainly the liver. He hoped Justin would come out of this lucky
and learn something from it.
“Jack, I’m sorry for snapping at you like that in
the trauma room,” Siara apologized suddenly.
“What? Oh,
it’s okay, Siara,” Jack replied. “I understand. I would have done the same thing if it was
you. You did the right thing.”
Siara smiled. “Good.
I’m glad you’re not pissed at me about it.”
Jack returned her smile. “You can’t let friendship get in the way of
your work. I already learned that lesson
a few weeks ago.” He shook his head
guiltily, remembering Bianca.
Siara smiled knowingly and
nodded. “Well, I need to get back to
work,” she said, standing up. “And you,
you should go home. You’re working tomorrow,
aren’t you?”
“Yeah. Not
till noon though. I’ve got a half-shift,
thank God,” Jack replied.
“Oh, good.
Well, go home anyway. You look
like you could use some sleep.”
Jack smiled wearily.
“I agree,” he said, both emotionally and physically exhausted after his
long day. “Goodnight, Siara.”
“’Night, Jack.”
+++
Josh McCartney was awakened the next morning by a
horrible retching sound coming from the bathroom. Disoriented, he pulled herself up and
squinted at the clock, unable to read the numbers without her contacts in. Leaning closer, he saw that it was only
5:30. He had hours to sleep before he
had to get up for his noon shift.
The retching sounds continued, and concerned, Josh
climbed out of bed and left the bedroom, padding down the short hallway of the
apartment to the bathroom. The door was
closed, and a small strip of light shined through the crack beneath the door,
illuminating the dim hallway. Josh
knocked lightly. “Ky?”
he called softly.
His wife did not answer, and so Josh slowly opened
the door and peered in. He found Kylie
kneeling on the floor in front of the toilet, holding back her dark hair with
one hand as she vomited into the toilet bowl.
Josh hurried into the bathroom and rubbed Kylie’s
back as she continued to throw up. When
she finally finished, Josh wet a washcloth and handed it to Kylie to wipe off
her mouth.
“You okay now, Ky?” Josh
asked, looking at Kylie in sympathy.
“I hope so,” Kylie moaned, still looking slightly
green. “God, this better not be the flu
or something. That’s the last thing I
need.”
“Are you running a fever?” Josh asked.
Kylie pressed her palm to her forehead for a moment,
then shook her head. “No, I don’t think
so. It’s just my stomach. I’m so nauseous. I woke up like this the other morning too;
you were still at the hospital finishing up the night shift.”
Josh frowned.
“How did you feel yesterday?” she asked.
Kylie shrugged.
“Fine. I don’t know what it
is. It’s weird.”
“Could it be morning sickness?” Josh asked, raising
an eyebrow.
Kylie rolled her eyes with a grin. “I’m sure it’s not,” she replied.
“Have you had your period lately?” he pressed.
Kylie thought for a moment, counting the weeks in
her head. “I had it towards the end of
August,” she said slowly. “So I guess
it’s a little late, but only by a few days.”
She gave him a look. “I know what
you’re thinking, Josh. Don’t get all
worked up about that yet; I’m sure I’m not.”
He cocked his head at her. “You sound like you don’t want to be. I thought you wanted children.”
“Well, I do, but not now!” Kylie exclaimed in exasperation. Seeing the look he was giving her, she sighed
and added, “I didn’t mean it like that… it’s just, we’ve only been married a
few months, and I think it’s a little soon.
But I’m sure I’m not pregnant anyway.”
Josh nodded.
“Yeah, probably not,” he said.
Still, he couldn’t help but think maybe it wouldn’t be so bad if she
was. The thought of having a baby was
definitely a little intimidating, but he was sure they could handle it. Fatherhood would be more than rewarding
enough to balance out the extra expenses and stress of having a child, he was
sure. At least that’s what Darrin had
told him after MacKayla had been born. And with Brandy’s recent death, Josh needed a
little joy in his life.
+++
“Damn,
Joey, you look like shit,” remarked Melissa Ruffino
to her boyfriend, Joey Fatone, as he staggered into
the staff lounge.
“Why,
thank you, Melly,” he replied with a sarcastic smile,
raking a hand exhaustedly through his thick brown hair as he spun the dial on
his locker. “I only got about three or
four hours of sleep last night.”
“Jeez,
how long were you at that party?” she asked in surprise.
“Till about one. But then I couldn’t
get to sleep when I got home. You know
what happened, right?”
“You mean to that Timberlake kid?”
“Yeah. Okay, so you
do know. You have any idea how he’s
doing?”
“He’s
been admitted for observation and taken upstairs, I think, but it looks like he
was lucky.”
“That’s
a relief,” said Joey. “I was worried;
the poor kid looked pretty bad off last night.”
“Who
looked bad?”
The
couple looked up to see Mariah Johnson, one of the other ER receptionists,
saunter into the room. Hearing the word
“bad” and seeing Mariah at the same time, Joey suddenly got a visual of the
shapely blonde woman dressed in a tight leather top
and booty shorts, singing Willa Ford’s “I Wanna Be Bad”.
Melissa
glanced over at Joey and saw him staring directly at Mariah’s
surgically-enhanced breasts. She elbowed him hard in the ribs and said quickly
to Mariah, “We were just talking about one of the med students who got alcohol
poisoning at AJ McLean’s party last night.”
“Oh… which med student? Is it that blonde
one?” Mariah asked, arching one of her thin, perfectly-plucked eyebrows.
“Yeah,
the one with the ‘fro, right Joey?”
Joey
chuckled. “Yeah, the one with the ‘fro,”
he echoed, trying not to laugh as he pictured the curly-haired blonde trying to
be Dr. Dre. If
Justin wasn’t in such a serious situation, Joey knew that story would be
spreading like wildfire by now.
“Oh no, poor baby!” Mariah gasped, her lower lip sticking out in
sympathy. “Is he here in the hospital?”
“Yeah,
he was here in the ER, but Mel said they’ve moved him to a different room,”
Joey replied.
“Hmm…
well, maybe a visit from Mariah would make him feel better.” Smiling superiorly, she turned and left the
lounge, her hips wagging as she walked.
Melissa
rolled her eyes and started to make a snide comment about her to Joey, but when
she turned to her boyfriend, she found him gazing hungrily at Mariah’s ass as
she walked away. Glaring, Melissa gave
him another hard jab in the side.
+++
Justin Timberlake weakly raised his head off his
pillow at the sound of a knock coming from the closed door of his hospital
room.
“Come in,” he called hoarsely, his head throbbing
with the sound of his own voice. He
didn’t know it was possible to have a hangover so bad. Of course, with the amount of alcohol had had
drunken the night before, he should have realized what misery he was going to
be in the next morning. He hadn’t
expected any of this though; waking up to find himself in the Memorial ER as a patient
rather than student was quite a shock to his system.
The door to his room opened and a beautiful blonde
woman came in.
Am I hallucinating? Justin thought, wondering how
many drugs he had been given.
“Hi, Justin,” the blonde said softly, smiling, her
eyelashes batting furiously over her gray eyes.
“Remember me?”
Justin blinked, confused. He wasn’t sure who she was or if she even
really existed, for that matter. How
many brain cells had all that alcohol killed off anyway?
“I’m Mariah,” the woman said, lingering over her own
name. “Mariah Johnson. I’m one of the ER receptionists, but I
usually work the night shift. We met a
few weeks ago, I believe.”
Justin thought for a moment. His knew some of his memories were fuzzy; he
had no idea what had gone on the night before.
But as he thought some more and tried to remember, he did recall seeing
her before, on one of his first few days at the hospital, when a pregnant woman
from a car accident had been brought in, and he’d had to have someone call up
to OB. He also remembered she’d had a
big streak of bright red lipstick smeared across her cheek, and he chuckled. That was a big mistake, for it sent waves of
pain radiating through his head.
“What’s so funny?” Mariah demanded, frowning.
“Nothing,” Justin grunted, groaning in pain. “But yeah, I remember you.”
“Oh.” Mariah
smiled, pleased. “Good.” She paused, as if waiting for Justin to say
something, but he didn’t, so she went on, “Well, I heard you were here in the
hospital, so I knew I just had to come visit you right away!”
I wish you hadn’t, Justin thought, wanting to be
left alone, but as his eyes wandered from her face to her chest, which her
scrub shirt was pulled tightly over, he decided having her there wasn’t too
bad. Her breasts were as big as
Britney’s, and Justin liked breasts.
Grinning, despite his pain, Justin replied, “I’m
glad you did.”
+++
Kylie’s shift did not start until noon that day, but
she left for the hospital at ten. Josh’s
suspicions had made her curious… could her nausea and vomiting be something
other than the stomach flu? Maybe it was
just her being her usual worrywart self, but she decided to go to the hospital
early anyway, in hopes she could get in for a quick appointment with her
gynecologist before she had to be at the rescue squad station.
Kylie parked in the large visitor lot of the
hospital and entered through the main entrance, not the ER entrance, as she was
so accustomed to doing. She took the
elevator to the fifth floor, the maternity floor, where her OB/Gyn, Dr. Melanie
Reyes, had her office.
She stopped at the receptionist’s desk after she got
off the elevator.
“Can I help you?” the receptionist asked.
“Yes, is Dr. Reyes working today?” Kylie asked. She suddenly felt stupid, realizing she had
taken a chance coming there. She didn’t
even know if Melanie was there, let alone if she could find time to examine
Kylie without an appointment.
To her relief, Kylie was in luck. “Yes, she’s here,” replied the
receptionist. “Do you have an
appointment with her?”
“Uh… no. I…
uh… I just need to talk to her about something, if she has a chance,” Kylie
replied.
“Well, I believe she’s with a patient now, but if you’d
like to wait in chairs, I’ll let her know you’re here,” the receptionist
said. “Can I get your name?”
“Kylie McCartney,” Kylie replied, thanked her, and
went over to the waiting area. She sat
down, picked up the Sunday paper, and skimmed through the headlines.
Before long, Dr. Reyes finished whatever she was
doing and arrived in the waiting room.
“Hi, Kylie,” she said with a smile.
Kylie looked up and smiled in return, standing up to greet the
doctor. “So, what’s up?” asked Dr.
Reyes.
“Well, I was just wondering if – if you have time,
of course – you could see me real quick.
I, uh…” Kylie glanced quickly
around the room, not wanting to reveal everything to the whole waiting room.
Dr. Reyes seemed to understand. “Sure, Kylie, I think I could fit you in,”
she said with a nod and a smile. “Wait
here for a few more minutes, and I’ll have a nurse come get you.”
Kylie smiled in relief. “Thanks, Dr. Reyes,” she said gratefully.
“No problem,” replied the doctor, returning Kylie’s
smile and leaving the waiting room to get back to work.
Kylie waited for awhile longer, watching as a few of
the women in the room were called back for their appointments. Finally, a nurse came into the waiting room.
“Kylie McCartneyt?” she
called, and Kylie stood, offering the young nurse a slight smile. “Come on
back,” the nurse said and led Kylie down one of the halls to an examining
room. She tossed her a gown and said,
“Dr. Reyes will be in in a bit.” With that, she left the room.
Kylie changed into the gown and sat on the examining
table, anxiously waiting for the gynecologist to come in. She glanced at the
clock on the wall, hoping the examination would be done in time for her to make
it to the station by noon.
Luckily, Dr. Reyes didn’t seem to be too busy and
arrived in Kylie’s room within ten minutes.
She sat down on the wheeling stool in the room and said, “So, Kylie,
what’s the problem?”
“Well, this may sound stupid, but I’ve been feeling
really nauseated lately, usually early in the morning, and I was thinking maybe
it could be morning sickness, instead of a stomach bug,” said Kylie.
Melanie nodded.
Repeating Josh’s earlier question, she asked, “And when was your last
period?”
“Toward the end of August,” Kylie replied. “Now that I think about it, it should have
started last week, but it didn’t. It
didn’t even cross my mind until this morning, but it is a few days late. Still, it’s probably nothing. I just wasn’t sure, and I-“
Dr. Reyes smiled and said, “I’ll order a pregnancy
test.”
Kylie smiled, a rush of nervousness speeding through
her. She tried not to think too much
about it, but she couldn’t help but wonder… was it true? Could she and Josh really be having a baby?
+++
Jaela Miller pulled into the parking lot of George Washington Carver
Elementary School at approximately four p.m., half an hour after she received
the call from the twins’ teacher that their father had not picked them up. Jaela, at this point and time, had given up on depending on
her husband, Paul. This had been the third time in two weeks Jaela had had to leave her job at the hospital as an RN to
go pick up Alexandra and Joshua. Of course, she didn’t mind picking up her
children, but Paul was supposed to do it when he got off from work early, while
Jaela was working. She was very thankful that she
worked with such an awesome and understanding team of nurses at the hospital,
who always covered for her when she needed to leave early.
Calm down, Jaela thought to herself as she
walked across the parking lot to the large brick schools entrance. She walked
the familiar path to Mrs. Bishop’s kindergarten class and immediately saw her
two blonde children sitting on either side of their teacher as she read them a
story. Mrs. Bishop looked up when she noticed a presence in the room and handed
the book to Joshua to look at as she walked to the door.
“Mrs. Bishop, I’m so
sorry about this. My husband was supposed to pick them up today,” Jaela apologized.
“It is no problem,
Mrs. Miller. Things like this happen, and I don’t mind staying with the
children. They are a pleasure to be around,” the young teacher reassured Jaela with a smile.
Jaela smiled back at the teacher and after once again thanking the
kind teacher, she walked into the room and, a few minutes later, exited with
her two young children in tow. When Paul got home, he would have some major
explaining to do.
+++
After picking up her
two-year-old daughter from daycare, Jaela was now in
her kitchen, making a cup of tea. She
hoped the warm liquid would somehow calm her nerves. She had come home to an
empty house and had received no word from Paul on if he was okay or not. Deep
down inside, she didn’t really care, but her love for him overshadowed these
feelings, and she was genuinely worried.
As she was sitting at
the table, sipping at the tea and going through her mail, the phone rang. Jaela quickly walked over to the phone, ready to pick it
up, but withdrew her hand when an unrecognizable name and number appeared on
the Caller ID. She picked up the phone anyways, and when she greeted the
caller, all she heard was silence.
“Hello?” she said
again, becoming irritated with the caller.
“Is Paul there?” the
cold voice of a woman asked.
“No, I’m sorry, but
he is still at work,” Jaela replied, and before she
could ask who was speaking, the caller hung up the phone.
That was strange, Jaela thought as an uneasy feeling
stirred from within her stomach.
Not even five minutes
later, the phone rang again. This time
Paul’s cell phone number was displayed on the screen, and Jaela
picked up immediately. After Paul apologized for not being able to pick up the
kids and explained he had to work late tonight, Jaela
hung up on him, thoroughly disgusted. After almost seven years of a marriage Jaela thought was perfect, her world had come
tumbling down.
Paul was cheating on
her.
+++
Kylie pulled into the parking lot outside the
apartment building, her heart fluttering with excitement. She saw Addie’s
silver Beetle parked in its usual spot, her boyfriend Jack’s black Mercury
Cougar right next to it.
She shut off her own car and climbed out, eager to
get up to the apartment and talk to Addie.
She went inside the two-story building and hurried up the stairs to the
second floor. Jogging down the hallway,
she came to her friend’s apartment and rapped her knuckles lightly against the
door. “Addie? It’s me, Ky!” she
called.
“Come on in!” she heard Addie yell from within the
apartment, and she immediately turned the knob and opened the door, stepping
inside. She found Addie and Jack sitting
closely together on the couch.
“Hey, Ky,” said Jack,
scooting over to make room for Kylie.
Kylie perched on the edge of the couch and fidgeted
with anxiety, unable to hold back her excitement for too long. Addie noticed this.
“So what’s up, Kylie?” she asked. “You sure look excited about something.”
“Yeah,” Kylie said with a grin. “Well, I went to see…“ She stopped, remembering Jack was there. Should she tell him the news too or wait until
she could get Addie alone? She shrugged;
what did it matter if Jack found out now?
“…I went to see Melanie Reyes today,” she continued, “and I found out…”
Addie leaned forward in eager anticipation. Kylie could tell by the excitement in her
friend’s blue eyes that she had already guessed Kylie’s news, but was waiting for
Kylie to say the words.
“… I’m pregnant,” she finalized. It was the first time she had heard herself
say the words aloud; she hadn’t told Josh yet.
It sounded strange to say it, but she was getting used to the idea. She had to admit, though she had been shocked
when Dr. Reyes had delivered the news, she was excited now. She had always wanted children, and though
she hadn’t expected one so soon after marrying Josh, she was now glad.
Addie let out a high-pitched squeal and threw her
arms around Kylie. “Oh my gosh, Kylie!”
she cried, bouncing on the spring couch.
“Ooh, does Josh know yet?”
“Not yet,” Kylie replied, grinning widely. “I want to wait and surprise him. I thought I’d make it special.” She glanced at Jack and said sternly, “And a
certain friend of his better not ruin it by letting something slip.”
Jack chuckled. “You know I wouldn’t do
that, Ky,” he said.
“And congratulations!”
“Thanks,” Kylie beamed.
“Oh, I can’t believe it!” Addie went on, her eyes
flashing animatedly. “And to think, a
few years ago, you thought I would be the first to get pregnant!”
Jack eyed his girlfriend. “Well, we need to get going on that then,
don’t we, babe?” he asked teasingly.
Addie giggled and smacked him playfully.
Kylie just watched the two of them, a smile playing
on her lips. She had a feeling that at
the rate they were going, it wouldn’t be long before she was expecting as well.
+++
It was just after one in the morning, a week later,
when Elizabeth O’Brien hurried over to the entrance of the ER, as paramedics AJ
McLean, Howie Dorough, and Josh McCartney burst through the double doors,
wheeling a stretcher. A man and a woman
came hurrying in behind them, crying, the woman hysterical.
“Sixteen-year-old male, tried to hang himself in his
closet, no pulse on scene,” Howie said quickly.
“Trauma 1,” commanded Elizabeth, hurrying the group
into the nearest trauma room. The boy’s
parents followed, but Elizabeth stopped them at the door. “I’m sorry, but it would best if you would go
wait in chairs until we’re done working on your son,” she told them, pointing
to the waiting room.
The parents nodded tearfully. The man wrapped his arm around his wife and
led her dejectedly off to the waiting room.
Elizabeth, after calling several of the nurses into the room, closed the
door and went back to his patient, who had been in cardiac arrest for some
time.
Glancing at the heart monitor he had just been
hooked up to, she said, “He’s in asystole. Natalie, start CPR. I’ll intubate him.”
Nurse Natalie Spade immediately began giving the boy
chest compressions, while Elizabeth prepared to insert a tube in the boy’s
throat to help him breathe. Leaning over
him, she got a good look at his face for the first time. He looked familiar to her, and she tried to
place him. Suddenly, recognizing him,
she gasped.
+++
The next morning, Lance Bass entered
the lobby of Memorial with a box tucked tightly under his arm and his hat
pulled down tightly over his head. Today he didn’t have to report to work until
the evening shift, so he was going to spend his free morning going through his
belongings in his locker when he should be sleeping.
He entered the staff
lounge and sat the box on a nearby table. With shaking hands, Lance turned the
combination lock on his locker, and, after a few failed attempts, he finally
got it opened. He uncharacteristically
threw the locker back and slightly grinned at the loud bang the sound of metal
hitting against metal produced. Without
a second thought, Lance put his arm inside the locker and pushed all the
contents into the floor, quickly bending to sort through everything.
It all took just ten
minutes for Lance to pack up an important part of his life and shove it into a
box, then close it up so no one else could see. Again setting the box on the
table, Lance reached into the back pocket of his jeans and pulled out a piece
of paper, which he slipped into his friend and co-worker Chris Kirkpatrick’s
locker. Then he took one last look across the room as he picked up the box,
hoping he wouldn’t see this place again for a long time.
+++
Lance walked quickly
through the lobby, lost in his thoughts.
Next thing he knew, he had hit something and had fallen on his butt in
the middle of the large lobby, his belongings scattered all about him. He looked
around, stunned, and scrambled to get up and gather everything that had fallen
before anyone recognized him and asked any questions. In all his haste, he had
not realized what, or who, he had bumped into, and when he realized, he blushed
a deep crimson.
“I’m so sorry,
ma’am,” he said sheepishly, embarrassed by his rude behavior.
“It’s all right,” a
pretty, red-headed woman said with a shy laugh. “Here, let me help you,” she
offered. But before she could reach for the picture and notebook that were within
her reach, Lance yelled at her to stop. The woman looked up at him in
confusion, but withdrew her hand, which was in mid-reach for the picture.
“Hey, don’t you work
here?” she asked as she got a closer look at the young man who had moments
before plowed her down in the hallway.
Lance stopped what he
was doing and looked up. Busted , he thought.
“Yeah,” he said with
a short nod.
The young woman
smiled at him before extending her hand. “Risha Veers; nice to meet you. I know
I had seen you around here before. Plus,
it was kind of strange that you were carrying a box full of stuff. Are you planning on leaving?”
“Yeah,” Lance said as
he closed up his box and got up off the floor, extending Risha a hand to assist
her in getting up. I guess you could say that.
“So do you have a
name?” Risha asked with a slight grin, trying to get the young man to open up
to her.
“Yeah, Lance
Bass.”
Risha looked up at
the clock located on the wall in the lobby, quickly noting she only had five
minutes to get ready and make it up to her floor before her scheduled
time.
“Lance, I need to get
going and report to the Surgery Ward. It was nice meeting you. Maybe we can
meet one day for coffee or something.”
“Yeah, that would be
fun,” Lance said nervously, hopping from one foot to another.
“Good luck in
everything, Lance,” Risha said as she headed on past him for the
elevators.
Lance watched sadly
as the elevator doors closed behind Risha, realizing that she had been the only
kind face he had seen since early morning the day before, and it saddened him.
With all that had gone on in his life in the past twenty-four hours, Lance
needed a kind person who was willing to listen and he had found that person in
Risha. Too bad it was too late to make any difference.
+++
Entering Lance Bass’s
apartment, you would have felt like it was nighttime because it was so dark
inside. Every blind in the apartment was pulled tightly shut, not allowing any
light from the outside world enter Lance’s dark chamber. All lights but one
were turned off, giving the apartment an eerie glow.
Lance was now seated
on his bed, unpacking his box of belongings and deciding where to put them.
Ever since the call he had received that morning, Lance had turned from his
normal, level-headed self to someone who was angry at the world…
It was almost eight
in the morning, and Lance, having just gotten home from a twelve-hour shift at
the hospital, immediately collapsed in his bed without bothering to undress.
Just as he closed his eyes, the phone at his bedside rang shrilly, and Lance
groaned, guessing that it was probably the hospital wanting him to come back to
work for someone who had called in. He looked at the Caller ID, and his
suspicions were confirmed when one of the hospital phone numbers popped up on the
screen.
“Hello?” Lance asked
as he picked up the phone despite his common sense telling him not to.
“Lance?” a shaky
voice questioned. Lance’s face transformed to a look of confusion as he tried
to place the voice he knew had heard before.
“Lance, this is James
Williams, Oliver’s father.”
Lance shot up out of
bed as the caller identified himself - he could immediately tell something was
frighteningly wrong.
“Sir? What is wrong?”
Lance asked, although he knew deep inside what had happened, but had to feed
his curiosity by asking.
“Oliver is gone,” Mr.
Williams said softly.
“Oh God…”
“He hung himself in
his closet late last night or early this morning. His mother had gotten up and
saw his light on.” The man at the other
end of the line swallowed heavily before continuing his story. “She went in and
Oliver was ha...hanging from his closet, dead. There was nothing the paramedics
could do, but they brought his body to the hospital to be evaluated.”
“Was he an organ
donor?” Lance asked, realizing how stupid that question had sounded but he
needed to know.
“Yes,” Oliver’s
father replied. “He was.”
Lance nodded and
closed his eyes tightly to fight back the wave of tears that threatened to
escape.
Lance and Oliver had
become close friends soon after Oliver had been admitted a month earlier, when
he overdosed on his father’s medications. Oliver had survived the ordeal, and
Lance revealed a similar story, determined to help the young man even though it
brought back painful memories. It seemed to have worked for a while, for
Oliver’s attitude appeared to have changed, and he was again starting to live
life the way it was meant to be lived.
He also had frequent counseling sessions with the hospital psychiatrist,
and Lance had even been asked to go to one with Oliver to help relate his
problems to Oliver’s, which had made Lance happy that Oliver seemed to trust
him. Lance remembered the last time he saw Oliver, just the day before. Oliver had seemed down when Lance had first
approached him, but Oliver quickly reassured him he was okay and seemed to
brighten when Lance challenged him to a game of basketball, which was another
one of Oliver’s favorite sports. As tears flowed down Lance’s flushed face, he
came to his senses and held the phone far away, the dial tone hurting his
sensitive ears...
Lance took one last
look around his bedroom, as if to engrave it in his memory. Before he could
change his mind, he opened the nightstand drawer and took out an object that
would bring him the happiness he craved. Surrounded by pictures of his loved
ones and the possessions he held so dear, Lance took a deep breath.
A second later, the
only sound heard was a loud bang.
And then there was
silence.
+++