Chapter 13
At
four-thirty, a nurse came into the waiting room, where Jane, Kevin, Howie, AJ,
and Brian sat anxiously.
“Nick’s
been prepped for surgery and taken up to the surgical holding area,” she
informed them. “Dr. Madden’s running a
little behind schedule, so it could be a little longer before he actually goes
into the OR. Would you like to see him
before the surgery?”
Jane
nodded. “Yes, that would be great,” she
said.
“Okay,”
the nurse said, smiling pleasantly.
“I’ll take you all downstairs to the surgical floor then.”
“Thank
you,” Jane said.
The
nurse nodded, and started out of the room, motioning for them to follow her.
The
five of them took the elevator to the surgical floor, and once there, the nurse
led them down the hall to an area with many patients in it, each separated by a
curtain. She led them to one of the
corners, where they saw Nick lying on a gurney.
“Go ahead and spend some time with him.
We’ll be back to take him to surgery in a little bit.”
“Okay,”
Jane said. “Thanks.”
“No
problem,” the nurse replied, walking away.
When
she had gone, Jane approached the gurney on which her son lay, just as still as
ever. “Hi, baby,” she murmured, giving
his hand a tender squeeze. “It’s
Mom. I’m here, and so are the guys.”
“Hey,
Frack,” Brian spoke up, his voice catching in his throat. He would never get used to seeing Nick like
that, so inert and lifeless. He studied
Nick, struggling to hold back his tears as he did so. Nick’s face was colorless, except for the
purplish bruises that dotted his forehead and temples. The bandages around his head had been
removed, and he could see stitched-up cuts running across his forehead,
embellishing an arc-shaped bruise that had obviously come from his head
crashing into the steering wheel.
“Hey,
Nick,” the others mumbled.
They
spent the next twenty minutes making small talk to Nick’s still form, not even
sure if he could hear them or not. Then,
finally, the nurse from before came back with some other nurses and
attendants.
“It’s
time to take him to the OR,” the nurse explained to Jane.
Jane
nodded nervously, grasping tightly to Nick’s limp hand. She bent and gave it a tender kiss, then
forced herself to step away. “We’ll see
you later, baby,” she whispered. “Be
strong.”
Unable
to speak, the four guys stepped back from their friend as well, reluctantly
following Jane from the room.
***
An
hour later, they sat in a waiting room on the surgical floor, nervously
awaiting news on Nick.
They
all looked up at once when the door opened.
Brian’s heart began to pound rapidly when he saw Dr. Madden walk into
the room. His expression was unreadable.
“Nick
made it through the surgery just fine,” the doctor said. “He’s in Recovery right now and will be there
for the next couple hours, just so we can monitor him.”
Jane
nodded. “So, you drained the fluid?” she
asked.
Dr.
Madden nodded. “Yes,” he said. “The pressure and swelling of his brain
should go down now. Then we just have to
wait.”
“What
are his odds?” They all turned to look
at AJ, who had asked the question.
Dr.
Madden cleared his throats. “I’m going
to be honest with you,” he started, and they knew right away it was not
good. “Even with the pressure being
released from his brain, the odds aren’t very good. I’d say his chance of surviving is
30-70.” Brian’s heart sank. Those weren’t good odds at all. “And while I’m talking to you about this kind
of thing, I just want you to be prepared.
Even if Nick does pull through, there’s a good chance he’ll never be
normal again. He could have severe brain
damage and be impaired for the rest of his life.”
Jane
began to cry right then. “Oh, my God,”
she murmured, her voice shaking with tears.
“I’m
sorry to tell you that, Mrs. Carter,” Dr. Madden said, looking down on her
sympathetically, “but I think you should know the truth. It’s not a sure thing; I just want you to be
prepared for the worst.”
Jane
was unable to say anything with the flood of tears that spilled from within
her.
“Thank
you, Dr. Madden,” Kevin said bitterly.
Dr.
Madden gave a quick nod and left the room, leaving them to be alone in their
grief at the discouraging news they had just been given.
***
A
week after the crash, Marissa was still having nightmares every night. She had not gone to school all week and
didn’t know when she would ever go back.
She was in no emotional state to be there, she knew that much. Just the thought of it made her wince.
She
had thought that as time passed, things would get better. But they had not. She was not even near getting over the
crash. She didn’t talk to Kaelyn very
much, but when she did, Kaelyn always seemed depressed and emotional, sounding
on the verge of tears nearly all the time.
Marissa worried about her greatly.
She herself had been emotionally scarred by what had happened that
night, but she knew Kaelyn was even worse off than she was, for Kaelyn had lost
Luke, her boyfriend, the boy she loved with all her heart. Could she ever get over the pain of that
loss? Marissa wasn’t sure.
As
worries about her best friend flooded Marissa’s mind, worries over someone else
flowed through her as well. That someone
was Nick. Marissa hadn’t heard anything
on his condition since Monday’s TRL. She
was partly uneasy by this, yet partly relieved.
She had hoped to hear that he was getting better and would make a full
recovery, and hearing nothing disappointed her.
Yet, in some ways, it was a good thing, for she knew that if he had
died, MTV would be the first to find out, and she’d hear about it right away. And that was definitely something she didn’t
want to hear. She wasn’t sure she could
handle Nick dying, with Luke already being dead. What would happen if Nick died too? Not only would she be hit with double the
grief, but millions of girls worldwide would literally hate her. Just thinking about it brought tears to
Marissa’s eyes.
Why had this happened to her? Just a week ago, she had been a normal
teenage girl, having fun with her friends at a party, with not a care in the
world. And then, because of one stupid
mistake, one wrong decision, she had been jolted into this horrible world of
pain and guilt. She wanted to ask what
she had done to deserve it, but she knew that was a stupid question. She had been drinking, and so had Shawn, and
she had let him drive her home. If she
had been responsible, none of it would have happened. She would probably be going to another party
that very night. Luke would be alive,
Nick would be fine, and they would all be happy. If only they could be happy like that
again. If only…
***
