Brian smiled as he walked down the hall towards Nick’s room. He tried to keep a positive outlook for Nick as well as AJ about the progress, especially since the Carter’s had faxed their permission for Nick to be assigned Dr. Garcia as his main physician.
True to Dr. Garcia’s words, once the fax was received, Nick was moved out of ICU and into a private Neuro step-down room. She had scheduled a host of tests and physical stimuli to be started immediately.
Walking into the room, Brian found AJ sitting in a chair next to the bed, Mtv blaring on the television and Nick laying in bed, both men had their eyes closed. Brian reached over and turned the volume down on the tv, waking AJ.
“You had it on a bit too loud,” Brian apologised.
“Nicky needs loud noises,” AJ defended.
Brian grinned. “True, but you don’t need to make him deaf!”
AJ shrugged his shoulders. “I dunno, I’m just doing what Dr. Garcia said.”
Brian patted AJ on the shoulder. “Yeah, I know, we all are trying to do what’s best for Nicky. Anything new happen while I was gone?”
“Nope,” AJ sighed. “He seems to wait until you’re in the room with him alone to do anything.”
“AJ, come on, it just happens that way,” Brian rolled his eyes and then nudged Nick on the shoulder. “Right Nicky?”
“You have to yell to get his attention,” AJ pointed out.
“Oh for the love of God, would you knock it off?”
“Where’s Kev and D? I thought they were gonna stick around,” AJ wondered aloud.
“They went back to the hotel, I told Howie he was starting to smell a little gamey and that freaked the dude out,” Brian grinned.
AJ chuckled. “Oh you know better than to do that!”
“Couldn’t help it, I knew that would set him off. It literally freaked the poor guy out and I had a hard time telling him I was joking. It was so funny, you should have seen his reaction!”
“God, you’re cruel Littrell,” AJ laughed. Slowly easing his body from the chair, he stretched his arms and groaned. “I’m gonna go grab a cup of coffee, you want some?”
“Sure,” Brian replied as he reached towards his back pocket.
AJ waved him off. “I got it, be back in a few.” He stopped and looked at Nick’s face. “Nicky, if you do anything while I’m gone, I’m gonna start to develop a complex about this!”
“Would you like me to go down to the cafeteria just in case Nick decides to wake up?”
AJ shook his head. “Nah, it’s okay, I’m just hoping he actually does something new today.” As an after thought, AJ leaned towards Nick’s face. ”Staring at the walls is getting a little old Nick!”
“That was mean!” Brian snapped as he looked at Nick.
“I’m sorry, I’m just getting a little punchy I guess,” AJ apologised.
“Don’t apologise to me, you need to apologise to Nick.”
“Yeah, sorry dude,” AJ sighed. “Okay, black, right?”
“AJ, let me go get the coffee, you sit tight,” Brian offered as he stood up.
“I’m going right now, I need to get away from here and grab a smoke too, I’ll be back in a few, alright?”
Brian nodded and took the seat next to Nick. “Take your time.”
He grabbed the television controller off the stand next to Nick. “Let’s see what’s on. I think I’ve had enough of Mtv to last a lifetime.” Scanning through the channels, he stopped on the Today Show and settled back into the chair, propping his legs on the side of the bed.
A young girl from the cafeteria entered the room, holding a breakfast tray and sat it ontop of the bed stand. She blushed when her eyes met with Brian’s.
“I think you’ve made a mistake,” Brian suggested.
She glanced at Nick nervously and then at Brian’s face. “I have the orders right here. Oops, um, that patient probably was discharged and they must have forgot to cancel the order cause he certainly isn’t Bertha Peterson.”
Brian looked at Nick. “Nope, he’s not Bertha.”
“You might as well eat this breakfast otherwise it’s gonna go to waste. It’s alright,” the girl offered.
“Oh, I don’t know about that,” Brian scoffed.
“No, seriously, you should,” she pressed and then smiled slightly. “I know Nick probably would if he had the chance.”
Brian grinned at the thought. “Yeah he definately would.”
“Then you should for Nick, and tell him how good the food was,” she replied, flashing a toothy smile at Brian. The smile slowly faded. “Is he getting any better?”
“Better than he was yesterday,” Brian said, sighing. He wasn’t certain how to rate Nick’s progress and he didn’t want to have anything shared with the media.
“That’s good, well you have a nice day and please, just eat the breakfast, I’d be hurt if I come back and find out that it’s been untouched.”
“Okay... okay, I’ll do it for you. What’s your name?” Brian asked.
The girl pulled her ID badge away from her flowered scrub top. “It’s Becky.”
“Thanks Becky, I’ll be sure to mention your name if I get busted,” Brian joked.
“You won’t get busted,” she laughed as she left the room.
Brian sat back in his chair and gave a sideways glance at Nick. He debated about the breakfast tray and figured as soon as he started eating it, someone would show up. Just as he started to stand up to check the tray out, Dr. Garcia entered the room.
“Good morning guys!”
“Good morning, Dr. Garcia.”
The young resident clamped a freshly washed hand on Brian’s shoulder. “Just call me Michelle, okay?”
Brian smiled.
Michelle looked at the cafeteria tray sitting on the bedstand. “They sent Nick a breakfast tray?”
“Actually it belonged to Bertha Peterson,” Brian grinned.
Dr. Garcia smiled and started out her task of checking Nick’s vital signs. “Well, you might as well take advantage of it.”
“I’d feel kinda funny about doing that.”
“Nonesense, it’s free food, go ahead,” she encouraged.
Brian just smiled, not making any moves toward the tray.
“I’m not kidding. From what I can tell, you’re not taking very good care of yourself since all this started, so I insist you eat that breakfast... doctor’s orders!”
“Alright, okay, I’ll do that after you leave then,” Brian replied with a grin. His stomach growled, and he quickly clamped a hand across it, looking at the doctor sheepishly. “Sorry.”
“Hey, it’s involuntary and besides, it’s saying ‘feed me please!’ No need to apologise,” she joked. She directed her attention to her young patient. “So Nick, how are you feeling this morning?”
Brian sat in silence waiting to see if there would be any response from Nick. He sighed when there was none. “He hasn’t done anything since yesterday, is this normal or is he getting worse?”
Placing her stethoscope around her neck, Dr. Garcia sat on the edge of the bed, facing Brian. “Coma patients have no preset guidelines, they pretty much do their own thing. Every case is different. Nick’s a pretty stubborn guy from what I’ve learned about him and that’s a good characteristic to have if you’re going to be in the medical situation he’s in. For any other patient, I would say that he was regressing back into a deeper coma, but with Nick I think this is purely temorary.” She reached out and patted Brian on the leg. “I wouldn’t read too much into this. I think Nick is going to do this in his own time, his own way.”
“Thanks, I wish I could believe it though,” Brian replied.
“It just takes time. Now, I want you to see how mad you can make Nick by eating this breakfast. Tell him about it too, he needs stimuli and the smell of breakfast is bound to trigger something, I guarentee it. I’ll be back later on this afternoon. I’ve ordered somethings for PT to do today for Nick, so we’ll see how this works.”
“Thanks doctor.”
“See you later.”
With that said, Dr. Garcia, took the clipboard and left the room.
Brian eyed the untouched tray and glanced over at Nick. “Well, let’s see what’s for breakfast, shall we?” He stood up and uncovered a plate. “Well, would you look at this Nick, scrambled eggs, bacon and soggy toast. I guess that’s from not eating it when it was served.” Brian paused and took a deep breath in. “Smells good though, don’t it? Apple juice looks good too, even though it’s in a can.”
“Oh well that figures,” AJ called out as he entered the room.
Startled, Brian spun around. “Huh?”
“I go and you get a breakfast tray?”
“It’s not mine, it’s Bertha Peterson’s.”
“Who the fu---”
“Just get over here and eat this with me, doctor’s orders,” Brian gestured. “We’re supposed to do this to see if we can make Nick mad. Just tell him how good the food is.”
AJ eyed the tray suspiciously. “Hospital food?”
“Lie, okay, just lie,” Brian grinned.
