Chapter 26

“Has it been quiet in there, Charlotte?” Dr. Shannon asked one of the nurses sitting at the workstation directly across from JC’s room. He had just returned from his rounds that had taken him longer than he had originally expected them to take.

The nurse looked up from her paperwork and cocked her head to the side. “We haven’t heard a peep from anyone, Dr. Shannon.”

“That’s good. My rounds took longer than I had expected.” The nurse glanced at the clock hanging on the wall and saw that the doctor had been gone for more than an hour longer than it normally took him to do his late night rounds.

“It does look like your half hour rounds turned into almost two,” she commented with raised eyebrows as she pulled off her glasses and looked up at the doctor. “What happened?”

“A new patient had family staying the night in his room that had flown in from Portland, Maine. They weren’t here during my first rotation so I wasn’t able to speak with them until now.” Dr. Shannon walked behind the desk and entered a small break room to pour himself a cup of coffee. “Want some?” he asked over his shoulder.

“If you don’t mine…I could use a warm up,” Charlotte answered, raising the cup that she had already poured for herself not 5 minutes earlier.

“Where are the others?” Dr. Shannon asked as he walked out of the break room and topped off her coffee cup.

“Susan and Mike are taking vitals and Sherry and Jessica are taking their break…which should be over in about 5 minutes,” she added, looking back up at the clock.

“Oh.” Dr. Shannon re-emerged from the room and the two chatted quietly for a few moments before the doctor glanced at his watch to see that it was time to leave.

“Well, I’m going to look in on JC and company,” the doctor said taking a sip of coffee.

Charlotte chuckled at the remark and watched the doctor walk across the corridor to Mr. Chasez’s room, before returning her attention to the small mound of paperwork lying on the desktop in front of her.

With a slight smile, Dr. Shannon quietly pushed open the wooden door leading into JC’s large hospital room. He had fully expected to see at least one or two of the room’s occupants still awake but, instead, he found all but one of the cots being occupied by a sleeping figure. A quick glance around the room answered the question as to who had not made it to bed yet…Lance was the guilty party.

With a slight shake of his head, the doctor saw that Lance had fallen asleep, but not exactly where the doctor had intended him to. He could see that Lance had fallen asleep with his head on JC’s bed. Instead of going directly over to JC’s bed to get Lance up, the doctor decided to first check on Justin and then to take a quick check to see how everyone else was resting before going over to check on JC and Lance.

The scattered cots made a small obstacle course for the doctor to wind his way through. The dim light over JC’s bed did little in the way of guiding the doctor through the maze, but he managed not to bump into any of the 5 small beds. When he had finally reached the other side of the room, Dr. Shannon found that Chris had unknowingly created his own little barrier to Justin’s bed. Before going to sleep, Chris had pulled his cot within inches of Justin’s, leaving the doctor no access on one side and barely just enough on the other due to the wall standing there. As the older man stood there, weighing his options, Chris seemed to sense his presence and slowly woke up.

“Hey…what’s up doc?” Chris whispered with a slight grin on his face.

The doctor didn’t even skip a beat with his dry answer. “The ceiling…the sky…”

Chris rubbed his eyes with one hand and covered his mouth with the other in an effort to contain his laughter.

“I’ve been around you and the others far too long,” Dr. Shannon quietly said with a small smile, watching the young man nodding his head as his silent laughter slowly began to die down. Dr. Shannon waited a moment longer then whispered that he was going to move Chris’s cot slightly over so that he could more easily get to Justin. The doctor scooted the cot over enough so that he could shuffle his way in between the two.

“You made it just a little difficult for me here, Chris,” the doctor whispered, as he sat down on the edge of Chris’s bed.

“I kinda planned it that way doc,” Chris quietly commented with another evil grin. With a slight grin of his own, Dr. Shannon softly cleared his throat, then reached into his coat pocket and pulled out his stethoscope and blood pressure cuff.

“Sh…let me do my work,” he whispered before returning his attention to the task of checking Justin’s vitals.

The humor and laughter left Chris as quickly as it had come. Dr. Shannon was paying to much attention to what he was doing that he did not notice the change in Chris’s demeanor until after he had sat back up, pulled out a small note pad and made some notations on it. Dr. Shannon slipped all of the items back into various coat pockets and ventured another look in Chris’s direction, not expecting the _expression that he saw. The look on Chris’s face was almost pained. Dr. Shannon quickly reached out and wrapped his hand around Chris’s left wrist then brought his other hand up to Chris’s forehead.

“Are you okay Chris,” he asked quietly as he concentrated on the young man’s pulse rate and watched his watch. He felt Chris’s head slowly nod beneath his left hand. Dr. Shannon mentally noted that Chris’s pulse rate was rather rapid, but not much outside normal ranges. He looked up and saw that Chris was looking intensely over at Justin. The doctor then understood, slightly, what might be going on. The doctor slid his left hand down to Chris’s right hand and gripped it firmly. Slowly, Chris brought his gaze up to meet the doctor’s. The look on the doctor’s face told him that he needed to just go ahead and tell what was bothering him.

“This is so hard doc. I just want everything to be back to the way that it was, but I know that that won’t happen. I know that it can’t happen,” Chris whispered. He gripped the hand holding his tighter and brought his free hand up to wipe over his face.

“You’re right Chris,” the doctor admitted, quietly. “Things will never be quite the same again.” Dr. Shannon paused for a moment and searched his memory for something that JC had said to him earlier in the week. “It’s like what JC told me in my office earlier this week.”

His words got Chris’s attention. He brought his free hand down from his face and sat up straighter in anticipation to what JC had shared with the doctor.

“Remember…he came to me on Monday evening?”

“Yes sir.”

“We were talking about how he had changed since the accident,” Dr. Shannon looked at Chris and saw that there was understanding written on his face. He cleared his throat and continued with what he was saying.

“JC said that ‘you can’t help but be changed after getting a second chance at life.’” Dr. Shannon watched Chris, as his words sank in. Chris closed his eyes and lay back on his bed and all was silence in the room, save from the slight hiss of the oxygen being supplied to JC.

Dr. Shannon broke the silence after several minutes. “Things will never be quite the same again Chris…and that’s okay. Things will never resemble the normalcy that you once had…and that’s okay too.” The doctor gently released Chris’s hand and stood up from the bed.

“You know,” Chris said softly, “I majored in psychology and I understand what you’re saying…it’s just that now that I’m having to live it, all of the knowledge just went out the window.” Chris smiled and shook his head. Dr. Shannon nodded his own head in understanding then looked at the coffee cup that he had placed on the floor. He picked it up and looked back down at Chris, who was staring at the ceiling, deep in thought.

“Want a cup of coffee and we’ll talk about it?”

Chris looked up at the doctor and a smile slowly formed on his lips. “Sure doc.” Chris’s small smile faded though, when he looked over at Justin.

The doctor seemed to sense what Chris was thinking. “Don’t worry Chris…Justin won’t be waking up for at least another 6 or 7 hours. He was pretty worn out when I gave him that shot.” Chris seemed to consider what the doctor had said and then swung his legs over the side of the cot and grabbed his shoes from underneath.

With a smile of satisfaction and relief, Dr. Shannon spoke. “Let me check on JC and then we’ll go get that cup of coffee.”

The doctor threw the empty styrofoam cup into a nearby trash can then made his way over to the other side of JC’s bed, not wanting to disturb Lance.

Chris, having finished putting on his shoes, joined the doctor and watched as he quickly completed his check.

“Do we need to move Poofoo?” Chris asked, looking at the top of Lance’s head.

“Poo who?” Dr. Shannon asked in confusion, as he put his stethoscope back into his pocket and returned the wall unit blood pressure cuff back to its basket on the wall.

“You’ve never heard of how our Lance got his nickname?” Chris asked incredulously. 

“I have a feeling that this is something that Lance would not want me to know about,” the doctor said.

“But you won’t let that stop me from telling you,” Chris added, with a slightly evil grin spreading across his face.

“I’d never dream of stopping you.”

The pair quietly wound their way through the maze of cots and walked out the door, never hearing the slight movement and mumbling coming from the side of JC’s bed.

Lance moved in his sleep as he became wrapped in a nightmare.

Lance found himself running from something…looking over his shoulder for the invisible pursuant…not seeing anything or anyone…just knowing that he had to run or be caught by something terrible. Looking around as his legs swiftly carried him, Lance realized that he had no idea exactly where he was…there was only darkness all around him, hiding what clues there might be to his location. He continued to run blindly until he ran face first into an invisible barrier. He literally bounced off the unseen barrier and crumbled to the floor in a heap. It was several minutes before he came to his senses. Looking around in confusion, Lance slowly stood up, rubbing the knot that had formed on his forehead. Tentatively, Lance reached out with both hands to feel that the barrier not only was in front of him, but also was also on either side and behind him. A slight wave of panic hit him, causing tears to spring to his eyes. He wiped at the tears that tracked their way down his face, not realizing that their flow was beginning to increase…he was too busy trying to find a way out of the enclosure. He carefully slid his hands up and down the glass in hope of finding some sort of seam that could possibly be a doorway, but gave up after several minutes of searching yielded nothing. He stood silently, leaning his back against one of the walls as he looked up to see a ceiling above him with a multitude of holes that were at least an inch wide in diameter. Lance took a small step away from the wall and heard a small splash. Lance looked down in amazement, realizing that there was about an inch of water standing on the floor. Then, in further amazement, he realized that the water was slowly rising.

“Where is that water coming from?” Lance asked himself aloud as he dropped to his knees in search of the water’s source so that he could stop it progress. As he was in his stooped position, he saw little ripples forming each time a drop hit the surface of the ever-deepening water in the enclosure. Lance stood up and found that the water level was now up to his knees. He began to beat upon the glass as he screamed for help, but realized that there was no one there to hear his hysterical cries. He frantically searched the ceiling of the enclosure for the source of the drops, but found nothing. He could hear the steady drip…where was it coming from. He glanced down again at the rising water…it was now up to his waist. He felt tears begin to fall from his eyes in earnest as the fear of his drowning hit him full force. The dripping sound increased as did Lance’s panic…where was the water coming from…gotta stop it…gotta stop it! Lance’s eyes flew wildly around the enclosure as the water reached his chest…then it suddenly dawned on him…the water…it couldn’t be. Lance brought his wet hand up to his mouth and tasted it…salt…salt…my tears! His fear had come true…the tears would come and he wouldn’t be able to stop them…oh no…oh no…

Lance squeezed his eyes shut in an effort to stop the tears, but they continued to flow from his eyes. The water’s depth steadily increased…pushing him toward the ceiling of the enclosure. He shoved his fists against his eyes, but could still feel the tears steadily seeping out from behind the dam he attempted to create.

“I’m gonna drown…can’t stop them…I’m gonna drown…make them stop!’ he screamed as he began to beat his fists harshly against his eyes in an effort to end the tears.

With ragged breaths, he quickly dropped his hands when he realized that he needed to move his arms and legs to remain afloat in his tears. Moments later, in wide-eyed terror, he felt the top of his head brush against the enclosure’s ceiling. He pressed his face against the ceiling, knowing that he only had one or two more minutes left to live. His thoughts were wild…without direction. Mama…Daddy…Stacy…Justin…Chris…Joey…JC. His thoughts suddenly ended when he felt water seeping into his nose. He opened his mouth to scream, but was only met with a rushing flow of water instead.

“No air…no air…can’t breathe!” his mind screamed in desperation.

With a sudden start, Lance awoke from his nightmare and shot up out of his chair. With a short scream, he lost his balance and crashed head first into the nightstand that was between JC’s bed and the wall. Almost immediately, Lance felt strong hands gripping his shaking shoulders. The hands pulled him against a warm chest and he could feel the vibrations of a voice, although he could not yet make clear what the voice was saying as strong arms encircled his trembling body. He leaned heavily into the strong arms and slowly blinked his eyes, wincing at the harsh, bright lights that suddenly invaded the dark.

A face hovered within inches of his, but recognition was not immediate. Lance slowly blinked in an effort to bring the face into focus and after several seconds, he realized that it was Joey’s. He then also became aware that he was being held in Joey’s arms and, for some unknown reason, they were on the cold, tile floor.

“How…” Lance began as he struggled to sit up.

“Don’t move,” Joey whispered calmly. “You’ve hit your head and you’re bleeding pretty bad.” 

Lance brought a shaky hand up to his head then brought it away to see that he was indeed bleeding. With wide eyes, he looked back up at Joey’s concerned face.

“What happened?” he quietly asked as a wave of dizziness washed over him causing him to close his eyes as it steadily continued to grow in intensity.

He heard Joey speaking but the dizziness temporarily washed away all comprehension of what was being said at that moment. With a few deep breaths, Lance was able to regain a small portion of his toehold on what was going on about him.

From the other side of the room, Lance could vaguely hear voices…Dr. Shannon’s voice speaking with concern and others that he knew, but just couldn’t readily match with a name in his state of confusion.

The voices continued in scattered waves as the dizziness and darkness began to gather up their stronghold against the clarity that Lance was struggling to gain. Gradually, Lance slowly began to realize that he could no longer make complete sense of what was being said by those around him.

He somehow knew that Joey was talking by the vibrations that he felt as he continued to rest his head against his older friend’s chest. The sentences that he heard were becoming clipped…incomplete…distant.

“…happened…did…hear anything?” That was Dr. Shannon’s voice. He felt the doctor’s large hands lifting his head up from Joey’s chest.

“…no…looked like….having…nightmare…fell…hit head…”

The word nightmare caused Lance’s eyes to suddenly fly open as the memory of the dream hit him full force. He suddenly felt his stomach roll and the next thing that he realized was that a trashcan had been thrust in front of him as he became violently ill. There was a lot of movement all around him as someone wiped his face with a damp cloth while another hand pressed something firmly against the side of his head. The pressure against his head caused a white flash of pain to suddenly burst before his closed eyes. He could hear someone painfully crying out, not realizing that it was his own voice he was hearing. He heard voices speaking in hushed tones, causing him to suddenly cut off his cries. In its place, he heard a familiar groaning coming from above him.

The last thing that Lance’s clouded mind could comprehend was JC’s voice groggily asking what was going on and what had happened, before darkness closed in around him.

Twenty-Seven