Chapter
47
Harold
and Jackie entered Brian’s room together.
Jackie gripped her husband’s hand as they came closer to their son’s
hospital bed. Although Dr. Adele had
assured them Brian would be awakening shortly, he looked sound asleep to them,
lying in bed with his eyes shut, his body motionless.
Jackie
took his hand in hers, feeling a sense of déjà vu spread over her. It seemed that she had been in this situation
so many times recently, standing in a dim, stark hospital room, holding onto
the hand of her son. She sighed. When would it ever end? Would their lives ever be normal again? The worst is over, she told herself
confidently. Brian’s had his
transplant, and now his heart problems are gone for good. I’ll never have to do this again. Jackie wanted to believe that with all her
heart. But she was wrong.
***
“Oh,
my God. Oh, my God, no,” Nick murmured
over and over again, all the while staring at the horrible words of that
newspaper headline. It really was
his fault. They had all been telling him
it wasn’t his fault, but he had known the truth all along. And the press did too. And now the whole world would know. They would know what a horrible person he
was. They would know that without him,
Harold would still be alive. What would
Brian think when he woke up to find that his brother was dead… and all because
of Nick? Nick couldn’t even imagine how
upset Brian would be. That is, if he
woke up.
“Nick,
calm down,” Howie said quickly, noticing how pale Nick had suddenly
gotten. He placed his hand lightly on
Nick’s good shoulder. “Nick, this isn’t
your fault. This is a tabloid. They’ll print anything to sell! It’s not true, by any means. You know that right? Right, Nick?
Nick!?”
For
Nick, the room had begun to spin, and he suddenly could not catch his
breath. He began to gasp for air, and
his body swayed, sudden panic rushing through him.
“Calm
down, Nick,” Kevin ordered, easing Nick’s trembling body back in his
wheelchair. “Sit back, and put your head
between your knees.”
Nick
did as he was told, but it provided minimal relief. Panic and fear jolted through him as he
struggled to breathe.
“Take
deep breaths,” Kevin instructed, his voice soothing and calm. “Just calm down, Nicky. Relax.”
Nick
tried to do so, tried to relax his shaking body and take in slow, deep breaths
of oxygen. Eventually, it worked, and he
could breathe more easily.
***
Fifteen
minutes passed, and then twenty. Jackie
and Harold sat anxiously next to Brian’s bed, awaiting his awakening. Impatient and rather worried, Jackie glanced
up at the clock to see that it had been forty-five minutes since they had come
to Brian’s room, and still, he had not made any sign of stirring.
“Harold,
do you think something could be wrong?” Jackie asked, her voice slightly
trembling.
Harold’s
gaze bore into her, and she could see the worry in his eyes. “Let’s not think the worst,” he said
softly.
“Do
you think we should call a nurse?” she asked.
Harold
considered it a moment, then nodded.
“Just to be on the safe side,” he assured his wife. Jackie nodded and hit the nurse call button.
Moments
later, a nurse entered the room. “Can I
help you?” she asked cheerfully.
“We
were just wondering if anything was wrong with our son. It’s been over forty five minutes since we
got here, and Dr. Adele said Brian should be waking up in fifteen, at the
most. Why is it taking so long for the
anesthesia to wear off?” Jackie asked.
The
nurse looked perplexed. “I’m not sure,
ma’am,” she said. “I’ll go get Dr. Adele
for you.”
“Thank
you,” Jackie said gratefully, watching as the nurse bustled out of the room.
Dr.
Adele arrived in the room just a few minutes later. He looked remotely concerned. “Hello, Mr. and Mrs. Littrell,” he greeted
Brian’s concerned parents. “Could I have
you two step out of the room for a little bit while I check Brian out?”
“Sure,”
Harold said. “We’ll be in the waiting
room.” He took Jackie’s hand and led her
reluctantly out of the room.
***
Jackie
and Harold both looked up as the door to the waiting room opened, and Dr. Adele
stepped in. A feeling of dread washed
over Jackie as she got a good look at him.
His expression was blank, almost unreadable, but Jackie could sense that
something bad had happened.
“What’s
wrong?” she asked, her breath catching in her throat.
“It
looks like Brian’s in a coma,” Dr. Adele said sadly.
Jackie’s
heart sank. “Oh, no,” she whispered, tears
rising from within her. “What caused
it?”
“I’m
not positive, but it’s most likely from the complications we encountered during
surgery. A result of the effect his
pneumonia had on the anesthesia. It must
have cause a reaction of some sort, which caused him to flat line, and now
this,” Dr. Adele explained grimly.
“What
exactly does this mean?” Harold asked.
“Is this life-threatening?”
“It’s
hard to tell right now,” Dr. Adele said.
“We just have to wait and see. He
could come out of this fine, or he might never wake up from it. If he does wake up, he could be perfectly
normal, or there could be permanent damage.
Right now, there’s no way of knowing how serious it is. I just want you to be aware of the worst case
scenario.”
Jackie
and Harold nodded solemnly, unable to speak at that moment.
“I’m
very sorry,” Dr. Adele said. “As a
doctor, I’m not supposed to get emotionally involved with any of my patients or
their families, but sometimes, it happens.
This time is one of them. I care
about your son, and I’d do anything to make him live through this. Believe me, I would.”
Jackie
gently took Dr. Adele’s hand, her eyes brimming with bright tears. “Thank you, Dr. Adele,” she whispered. “Thank you.”
Dr.
Adele nodded, offered her a hopeful smile, and slowly left the room, his head
bowed low.
Right
after he was gone from sight, in burst AJ, Kevin, and Howie. Jackie’s voice caught in her throat as she
watched them tear in. She could tell
from the expressions of their faces, a mix of anger and fear, that something
else had gone wrong. But what was it?
“Look
at this, Aunt Jackie,” Kevin cried, thrusting something at Jackie. “Just look at it.” Jackie glanced down to see she was holding a
tabloid, which was turned to a certain page.
She gasped when she read the headline that leapt out of the page.