Chapter 15
“Mr. and Mrs. Carter, I don’t want to tell you this, but I
also don’t want to get your hopes up,” Dr. Madden was saying, just a half hour
later. “Often, coma patients have
spontaneous movements, where their eyelids will twitch, or their arms or legs
will move slightly. But it doesn’t
always mean they’re coming out of their comas.
Many times, it’s just nerve reflexes.”
Jane’s
heart sank, and she felt Bob’s grip on her hand tighten, as his jaw
clenched.
“So
he’s no better?” Bob asked, his eyes narrowing on Dr. Madden, as if it was
somehow the doctor’s fault.
“Now,
I didn’t say that. Actually, I got some
results back from a set of tests we ran yesterday on Nick, and they showed some
improvement. All I’m saying is, don’t
get your hopes up because Nick moved his hand.
He’s not out of the woods yet, and that’s not guaranteeing that he’ll
wake up anytime soon. We just have to
wait and see,” Dr. Madden said.
They
nodded, but their hopes had been dashed by the thought that Nick’s movement
could have just been a reflex and not a sign of his awakening.
***
“You okay, Mom?” BJ asked, later in the waiting room. She could tell how depressed Jane was after
what Dr. Madden had told them.
Jane
offered a tight smile. “Don’t worry
about me, honey. I’ll be all right,” she
said softly. “But why don’t you take the
kids to go see Nick. You haven’t really
been in there much today, and your father and I need some time alone to collect
our thoughts.”
BJ
nodded, turning to Leslie, Angel, and Aaron.
“Hey, come on guys, let’s go visit Nick, okay?”
They
nodded, reluctantly getting up from their chairs and plodding down the hall
behind her to Nick’s room.
Once
there, BJ turned on the TV, trying to get her siblings’ minds off of the
tragedy that surrounded them. She took
the seat next to Nick’s bed, as they sat in the other chairs.
As
the younger three absently watched television, BJ’s gaze wandered around the
room, as her mind roamed. When she
turned back to Nick, her eyes nearly bulged out of her head. His eyes were opened.
Stunned,
BJ grabbed his hand, giving it a firm squeeze.
“Nick,” she whispered, leaning over to study him. He was staring straight ahead, but his eyes
blinked. This was no reflex, she
knew. He was awake.
Leslie
turned around first at the sound of her older sister’s whispery voice. She gasped loudly when she realized her
brother had awoken. “Oh my-“
Aaron
and Angel spun around and gasped in unison.
“Nick!”
Aaron yelled, leaping out of his chair and hurrying to his brother’s side,
Angel quickly following behind. In a
matter of seconds, the four younger Carters had surrounded Nick.
“Aaron,
go get Mom and Dad,” BJ commanded, her eyes never leaving Nick’s.
Aaron
nodded wordlessly, hurrying out of the room, tearing down the hall as he had
done earlier. It may have been a false
alarm then, but this was definitely not.
Nick was truly awake.
***
“Aaron, how many times do I have to tell you-“ Jane
started, as Aaron came running into the waiting room.
“He’s
awake!” Aaron exclaimed, interrupting his mother.
“What?!”
Jane and Bob cried at the same time, leaping out of their chairs. They ran past Aaron down the hall to their
eldest son’s room.
“Nicky?!”
Jane cried as she burst into the room.
Happy tears filled her eyes as she gazed into the blue eyes of her son,
the eyes she was not sure she’d ever get to see again.
“Oh,
Nicky, baby, you’re finally awake,” she sobbed, giving his hand a squeeze. As she cried, she glanced up at his face,
taking it all in. “I love you so much,
honey,” she whispered.
Surprisingly,
the void look on Nick’s face didn’t change with her words. His eyes stared straight ahead, not fixed on
anything in particular. She knew he
couldn’t talk because he was on a respirator, but she had expected to see
something in his eyes, something to let her know that he was really back. But there was no expression in them, just
blankness.
Something
was wrong.
Jane
stood up slowly, not taking her eyes off of her son. She inched back to where her husband stood,
at the foot of Nick’s bed.
“Be
right back, honey,” Jane said softly towards Nick, taking Bob by the arm and
dragging him into the hall.
“What’s
wrong?” Bob asked, puzzled.
“Did
you look at him? Did you see his face? His eyes?” Jane asked.
“What
about them?” Bob asked, his brow furrowed in confusion. “What do you mean?”
“He
looks so… empty… like he doesn’t even recognize me. I mean, he wasn’t even looking at me. He was staring straight ahead the whole time,
as if he didn’t even see me. It… it was
like he was in a trance.” Jane struggled
to put her observation into words.
“Well… maybe he’s just groggy,” Bob offered.
Jane
looked doubtful. “I don’t know…” she
said. “It just seemed like something
wasn’t right with him.”
“Well,
I’m sure Dr. Madden will be in any minute to check him over,” Bob said.
“I
hope so,” Jane replied.
As
if on cue, they saw Dr. Madden approaching Nick’s room.
“Dr.
Madden!” Jane called.
Dr.
Madden broke into a smile when he saw his patient’s mother. “Hello,” he said. “I hear Nick woke up just now.”
Jane
nodded, smiling. “Yes. But… I don’t know… it seems like something’s
not quite right…” she said.
“How
so?” the doctor questioned.
“Well,
it’s hard to explain. But it’s something
about his eyes. It looks like there’s
no expression in them. They have this
distant, empty look to them,” Jane said.
Dr.
Madden nodded seriously. “Well, I’ll go
take a look at him now, if you don’t mind,” he said.
“No,
not at all,” Bob said. “I’ll get the
kids to come out.”
He
went back inside Nick’s room and called out his four younger kids, who stood
hesitantly against one wall, as if they were afraid to go closer to their
brother.
Dr.
Madden nodded at them in greeting and entered Nick’s room, closing the door
behind him.
***
