Chapter
36
By Julie
Two hours later, Dr. Collins returned
to the waiting room. “Well, we finished
the surgery and took Brian back to the ICU,” he said, his expression
grave. “You may go see him now, two at a
time.”
Jackie
and Harold stood. No one protested,
just watched as the couple solemnly followed Dr. Collins down the hall to the
ICU room where their son lay.
Jackie
gasped when she entered the room and saw her youngest son lying there, still
and pale, attached to many machine and monitors, just like Nick, who lay in the
bed next to him.
“How
could you let this happen?” asked Harold, eyeing Dr. Collins. “Why would you let a med student work on our
son?!”
“Harold,”
Jackie said, tears brimming in her eyes.
She was angry and upset also, but she knew that what had happened was an
accident.
“I’m
very sorry, Mr. Littrell,” Dr. Collins said sincerely.
“Sorry
isn’t good enough. Because of some
stupid, inexperienced med student, our son is in a coma! I want to press charges!” Harold yelled.
“Harold!”
Jackie cried, grabbing her husband’s arm.
“Calm down. We will deal with
this later. For now, we need to worry about Brian.” She began to cry harder when she uttered the
name of her precious baby son. Harold’s
expression softened, and he turned away from the doctor and put his arm around
his sobbing wife.
***
Awhile later, after most everyone had
been in to see Brian and Nick, it was Howie and AJ’s turn. They went in together, heading to Brian’s
bed first. It shocked them to see Brian
lying so lifelessly. They had gotten
used to seeing Nick that way, but had never expected they would have to see
another of their bandmates like that.
“Hey
B-Rok,” AJ said, his voice catching. He
took a seat next to Brian’s bed. Howie
sat down o the other side. Without
warning, Howie began to cry softly.
“I
can’t believe this is happening,” he moaned through his tears. “First Nicky, now Brian too.”
“I
know, D,” AJ said, sniffing back his own tears.
They
stayed by Brian’s side for a few more minutes, before moving over to the other
side of the room to be with Nick.
“Come
on, Nicky, man, you gotta wake up soon,” AJ said to Nick’s lifeless form. “Now Rok’s in bad shape too. We can’t have you both dying on us. Please wake up.”
“Yeah,
Kaos, we need you here with us. Please,
you have to pull through. Brian needs
you,” Howie urged.
Suddenly,
Nick’s face, which once held a blank expression, twisted into a grimace of
pain. Howie and AJ’s eyes widened, and
they looked at each other in shock.
“Do
you think he could be waking up?” Howie asked.
“He
looks like he’s in pain,” AJ said.
“I’m
going to call a nurse,” Howie said, pressing the call button.
A
few minutes later, Becky appeared in the doorway. “Do you need something guys?” she asked.
“It’s
Nick,” AJ said. “He just got this look
on his face, like he was in pain or something.”
Becky
looked confused for a moment. “Well, let
me go see about giving him some more morphine,” she said. “I’ll be right back.” She left the room.
AJ
and Howie turned back to Nick. His face
had relaxed again. But suddenly, he
moaned.
“Nicky?”
AJ asked, hopefully.
“Come
on, Kaos, wake up,” Howie urged. “Open
your eyes for us.” His eyes grew wide
with excitement as Nick’s eyelids began to flutter. Suddenly, they opened, exposing the baby blue
eyes that Howie and AJ had not seen for days.
“Nick!” Howie cried, his eyes filling with happy tears.
Nick
looked up at him, looking confused and scared.
He opened his mouth as if to speak, but the respirator he was on
prevented it.
“Don’t
try to talk, Kaos,” AJ said gently.
Nick
didn’t seem to relax at all. He looked
wildly around the room, until his eyes rested on the bed next to him, where his
best friend lay motionless. His eyes
widened and filled with tears. Howie and
AJ exchanged glances. They didn’t know
what to tell Nick. Nick looked up at
them, questioningly.
AJ
took a deep breath. “Nick, Brian is in a
coma right now. He just had some surgery
on his broken leg this morning, and there were some complications with the
anesthesia. Do you understand?” Nick was very weak and tired, but he managed
to nod his head slightly. “You are in the
hospital now,” AJ continued, deciding to explain more to Nick, who probably had
no clue what was going on. “You have a
bad case of pneumonia and have been in a coma for a few days now.” Nick’s eyes widened. “Don’t worry, buddy. I think you’re going to be okay now,” AJ
assured him. “Hey, do you want me to go
get your parents? They will be so happy
to see you awake.” Nick nodded.
“Okay,
Nick,” Howie said. “AJ and I will go get
your parents now. We’ll be back
later.” He and AJ smiled at Nick and
left the room. From there, they raced
down the hall to find Jane and Bob and tell them the joyful news.
***