Chapter
57
Nick almost
felt faint as he was pushed into the room. He figured it was nervousness and
fear and probably his shoulder injury taking its toll on him, but Nick quickly
pushed the feeling aside and looked at the figure who was in the bed. He didn’t
really look any different from the last time Nick had seen him and he began to
wonder if maybe the doctor was crazy and thought Brian was awake when he
really wasn’t. He sighed and looked down sadly as Howie pushed him to the side
of the bed as he and AJ took seats on either side of Brian’s bed.
“Hey Buddy, we
are here for you” Howie started to say. “Dr. Adele said you are out of your
coma, that is great news to hear.”
Nick looked
down at his best friend’s face, hoping for a reaction to Howie’s words but when
he seen none, he rested his head on his non-injured arm, fatigue slowly
starting to take its affect on him. His head shot up as fast as a bullet from a
gun when he heard both Howie and AJ gasp out loud. Nick almost felt like
screaming out in joy when he found himself looking into Brian’s eyes; eyes that
he hadn’t seen open for several days. As he looked closely at his friend, he
could tell he was doing a little better since the transplant. A little color
had returned to Brian’s face but Nick didn’t know if this was from the
transplant or from the fever that still raged through his friends body, but his
eyes were a little brighter than they were earlier. The room was strangely
quiet, besides the hiss of the ventilator and the beep of the heart monitor. If
you listened closely you could still hear the slight rattling sound in Brian’s
lungs as he breathed. Nick shook his head sadly, he had hoped that by the time
Brian woke up, the pneumonia would be out of his system, but no such luck.
Since his body was so weak from his heart problems, he had trouble fighting off
the pneumonia, which added extra stress to his heart and body. Nick hoped that
now since he had a new heart, his body would get stronger and beat the horrible
case of pneumonia, along with the help of more medicine given to him by the
doctors.
Nick laid his hand gently by Brian’s side and
smiled down at his friend who was finally awake after several days of deep
sleep. His eyes filled with tears of happiness as he felt Brian’s hand take his
own and squeeze it weakly. He noticed Brian making some gurgling and mumbling
noises and realized that his friend was desperately trying to speak, but not
succeeding because of the tube that was down his tube, the tube that had helped
in keeping him alive all those days since the day he collapsed. Nick felt his
heart break as he looked into Brian’s pleading blue eyes, he knew his friend
was thinking Please get this machine out of me, I have so much I want to ask
about what has happened. Nick shook his head and quietly told his friend
that if all went well the doctor might be taking the tube out of his
throat later that day. Brian weakly nodded and began to drift off to sleep
again. Moments later his grip on Nick’s hand relaxed and Nick knew Brian had
fallen asleep. He then looked up at his two friends with tears of joy in his
eyes. Brian was back and Nick never planned on losing his best friend again.