Chapter 17
One
week later
“Dr. Madden?”
Dr.
Madden looked up from his desk to see a young man standing in the doorway of
his office. It was one of Nick Carter’s
friends. Brian.
“Yes,”
he said, smiling politely at Brian.
“Come in.”
Brian
hesitantly stepped into the office. “I’m
sorry to bother you, but I just wanted to talk to you in private,” he said
apolitically.
“No
problem. Sit down,” the doctor replied,
motioning to one of the two chairs in front of his desk.
Brian sat down in one. He was silent for a moment, as he collected
his thoughts. Then he spoke, saying
bluntly, “He’s not getting better, is he?”
Dr.
Madden sighed. He steepled his fingers
together and leaned forward in his chair.
“Well… his condition is progressing much more slowly than I had hoped,
but I can’t tell you he’s not getting better.
He is. It’s just… slow going,” he
finished uneasily.
“But
do you think he will get better? Fully,
I mean?” Brian pressed.
The
doctor shifted uncomfortably in his seat.
He knew Brian was expecting his full honesty, no matter how hard it
would be. “All right, I’ll be honest
with you,” Dr. Madden started hesitantly.
“As far as his physical condition is going, his breathing is much
better. I haven’t told his parents yet,
but I’ll probably be taking him off the respirator this afternoon. I think that as long as he’s still on oxygen,
he’ll be okay. And as for movement of
his body…” the doctor trailed off.
“How
bad is it?” Brian asked, his blue eyes boring into Dr. Madden’s troubled brown
ones.
“I’m
not sure that Nick will ever regain full usage of his arms and legs again,” the
doctor finished softly.
Brian
gasped. “So… he’ll be paralyzed? For the rest of his life?”
“I’m
not promising it. But at this point, it
looks likely.”
Brian
nodded, refusing to let his pent-up tears rise.
“Wh-what about his…mental condition?”
Dr.
Madden sighed again. This was the
hardest part of being a doctor – having to give families and friends of
patients bad news. “Brian, it doesn’t
look good. I don’t think his parents
realize it or accept it yet, but Nick’s never going to be… the same. He’s going to have to learn to read and
write, and even speak all over again, if that will even be possible…”
Brian’s
chin trembled as he stared at the doctor in shock. “He’ll be like an infant…” he murmured, his
voice trailing off.
Dr.
Madden nodded. “Once he is well enough
to be discharged from the hospital, he’s going to require full-time care, at
least for awhile.”
“For
how long?” Brian asked.
Dr.
Madden shrugged. “That depends on
whether or not he recovers enough to be on his own. Many disabled people can be on their own and
live fairly normal lives. But others
have disabilities that are so severe, they need to be tended to around the
clock for the rest of their lives.”
“And
that could happen to Nick?” Brian gasped.
“In
all honesty… yes,” Dr. Madden replied sadly.
Brian
nodded, struggling with all his might to contain his emotion. “Thank you,” he mumbled. “I have to go.”
Dr.
Madden nodded. “I’m sorry,” he
whispered, as Brian walked out. “So
sorry.”
***
“Hey, buddy,” Brian whispered, a few minutes later. He sat next to Nick’s bed, holding his
friend’s hand, as he had done so many times before. Nick’s eyes were open, as they usually were
nowadays, but they stared straight ahead with that blank look in them. Brian gave Nick’s hand a squeeze.
What had happened to his best friend? What had happened to the Nick he knew? It seemed as if the body in the bed was not
really Nick, but just his shell. He was
awake, alive, but he was not really there.
His body was, but where was his soul?
Brian gazed deep into those blue eyes, as if the real Nick
was hiding somewhere behind them. The
eyes blinked, but Brian figured that was just a reflex, not a sign that Nick
knew Brian was there with him. If he did
know it, he sure wasn’t showing it.
“Don’t worry, Nick,” Brian said softly. “Dr. Madden said he’s going to take you off
the respirator later today, so at least you won’t have that stupid tube crammed
in your throat. That must suck.”
Brian cleared his own throat, continuing, “And if he’s
right about you needing full time care, don’t you worry. We won’t ship you off to some nursing
home. You’ll have all of us around to
help you out. Your dad and mom, BJ,
Leslie, Angel, Aaron, Kev, Howie…” He
listed all their names, wondering if those names had any meaning to Nick
anymore. “We’ll all take care of you,
Frack.”
“Brian?”
Brian whirled around, startled at hearing his name. He saw Jane standing in the room behind him.
“Oh, hi, Jane,” he said, offering a slight smile and
rubbing quickly at his eyes. He wasn’t
sure why; it wasn’t as if she hadn’t seen him cry before.
“What did you mean by ‘shipping him off to some nursing
home’?” Jane asked, her eyes narrowed.
Brian played with his hands nervously. “Well… maybe you should talk to Dr. Madden
about that…” he said softly.
“Did he tell you something, Brian?” she demanded.
“Well… yeah. I
talked to him this morning,” Brian confessed.
“And he said Nicky would need to go to a nursing home?”
Jane cried, her eyes wide.
“No, no. Not for
sure, at least. He said it was a
possibility that Nick would need full-time care for awhile,” Brian said,
stressing the word possibility.
Jane gasped. “Oh my
God,” she whispered. “It’s that bad?”
Brian sighed. “Jane,
he said that Nick will be like an infant.
He’ll need to be cared for 24/7.
Eventually, he’ll have to learn to talk all over again. He might walk again…”
Jane had begun to cry softly, so Brian stopped. “I… I couldn’t deal with that,” she
sobbed. “I could never give him that
care.”
Brian raised an eyebrow, rather shocked at what she
said. He had thought that as Nick’s
mother, Jane would do whatever she could for her son. “Aw, you don’t mean that, Jane,” he
reasoned. “We just have to keep telling
ourselves that Nick’s alive. And that’s
the most important thing.”
“But is it?” Jane fired back, her eyes filling with fresh
tears. “What is a life worth if it’s
spent being taken care of like an invalid?”
Brian’s mouth dropped open.
“Well, I’d much rather take care of Nick for the rest of my life than
have him dead,” he said.
“I can’t do that though!” she cried. “I have my own life. We all do.
The kids are so busy. Bob and I
are so busy. We would never be able to
take on that kind of responsibility.”
“So what would you do?
Would you ship him off to a nursing home?” Brian asked, aghast.
“If that’s what’s best,” Jane replied coolly.
Brian shook his head.
“I don’t think that’s what’s best for him,” he argued. “I think he needs to be with someone who
loves him, someone who truly cares about him, not just for him.”
“Then you take him,” Jane snapped.
“You mean that?” Brian asked.
“Yes, I mean it. I
told you, we can’t take him home with us and give him that kind of
attention. If you want to do it, fine.”
“All right, fine,” Brian agreed, glaring at her. With that, he jerked past her and out the
door.
***
