Warning: The author has noted that this contains the highest level of violence.
Background
A fight for survival, a struggle for faith.
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See book synopsis in author's notes
End of previous segment:
Hook-Nose interrupted, "This isn't your case, Dr. Kitman. You're here as a courtesy."
She stood, turned to face him and squared her shoulders. "And I'm trying to be courteous. To you, Neil. You asked me to come and deal with the family. That's exactly what I'm doing. I have another five minutes before I have to be back downstairs. If you want my help, you need to shut up."
Neil the neurologist. That has to bite. He thought about how much Cody would like that. He hoped he could tell him later.
"Jack." Cody's voice, barely a whisper, cut through his brother's anger like a machete. Jack dropped to his knees beside the bed and took Cody's hand. "What is it, buddy?"
"Hey, Jack, you ... you sound just like ... Coach White." Cody tried to smile, tried to focus on Jack as he thought of the over-bearing, obnoxious man from their past.
Jack turned the corner of his mouth up slightly, tightening his hold on Cody's icy hand. He tried to cover it with his to warm it.
"Remember him, Jack? Always ... yelling at everybody. Loudest guy I ... I ever knew." Cody coughed and grimaced.
"Yeah .... Made up for being short by being loud."
"And you're ... not short." A shiver racked Cody as he finished the sentence. .
With his free hand, Jack rubbed his eyes. They burned, they were so tired. "Yeah. You're right. Sorry about that, man."
Cody looked up at him. "She can't do what she can't do, Jack," he whispered. "She's stuck. Like you and me ... have been stuck--" He coughed again, moaning as he caught his breath.
"You're right, Cody. You're always right, aren't you. Have a way of putting me in my place, too." Jack looked up at the doctors. "I'm sorry," he said. His anger disappeared, replaced by hopelessness and a cold knot of fear. He wished he could pray like he had the day before. But it was gone, that spark of hope and faith that had lit his heart so briefly then. Today ... Today he couldn't find it.
The tiny brunette stood beside him, staring down at Cody. "Jack, I'm not on this case anymore, so you can call me Abby. I'm designated to a trauma team in the emergency area."
Jack looked up at her.
"These gentlemen will be Cody's primary care. You met Dr. Kreitz yesterday. He's the neurologist who came down to the emergency room."
Jack nodded. "Yeah, Neil the neurologist."
Hook-Nose looked irritated.
"And this is Samuel Lockwood, our leading cardiologist." She paused. "They are excellent doctors, both top of their field. If it were my brother in this bed --"
"Do you have a brother?"
Abby shook her head. "No. Let me amend that. If it were my father in this bed, I'd trust these men to save him. They lack quite a bit in bedside manners, but their records are exemplary."
Jack hated it. He didn't like Hook-Nose or the other one. Jack looked him over, trying to think of a terrible nickname for hm. All he came up with was Top Hair and that didn't seem bad enough. He didn't have a choice, he knew, but he wished the little trauma doctor could stay."I understand," he finally said.
As if on cue, Top Hair turned to the nurse. "He'll need to be restrained --"
"You're not restraining my brother," Jack interrupted harshly.
"Detective McClellan, it's for his own good. He could injure himself more severely during a seizure."
"You're not restraining my brother. I'll take care of him. I'll make sure he doesn't."
Hook-Nose took a deep breath, obviously struggling to keep calm. "The hospital--"
Jack stood again, shaking his head. "I don't really care what the hospital policy says, and I don't really care what you say, lady. You're not using restraints. I'll take care of him." He could feel adrenaline-filled blood pounding in his temples and realized he was still too ready to fight. He forced himself to relax his jaw and unclenched his fists. Drawing in a deep, shaky breath, he refused to look away from the doctors across the room from him.
"I don't have time for your crap," Top Hair said after a pause. "I am more than willing to call security and have you removed from the room. And the more of our time you waste, the more you reduce your brother's chances of survival. Now, which is it? Restraints or removal?"
The nurse retrieved restraints from a closet in the room and Jack stepped aside.
"I do have a brother," the cardiologist said. "I can't imagine what you're gong through, but I won't do anything to compromise the care of a patient. That includes your brother, sir." He offered his hand. After a pause, Jack took it.
"I have a call in to a toxicologist I met at a convention last summer --- a brilliant man, someone I think can help." Abby turned to leave the room. "I'll touch base with your mom and then harass his answering service again." She put a hand gently on Jack's arm as she walked to the door.
Jack sat and leaned his head against the rail of the bed, suddenly exhausted. He closed his eyes, not sure if he was going to pray or sleep, not sure that either would come.
Twenty-four minutes had passed since the doctors left the room to find answers. Cody endured two more attacks of pain, each slightly longer and more intense than the last. In between, he lay nearly lifeless on the bed, eyes half closed, breath coming in shallow gasps. Each spasm of pain eroded a little more of his energy. His breathing became increasingly labored and erratic. The nurse kept a close eye on the heart monitor but could do little else. Jack became a clock-watcher. If he were right, another seizure was due.
The door burst open and Rachel practically ran into the room. "Laine is here with Michael," she said in a rush. "I couldn't stand not being here. I saw one of his doctors in the hall and he thinks I need to be with him, too." She lowered the bedrail as she spoke, carefully sat on the edge of the bed and lifted Cody's head into her lap, stroking his hair, kissing his forehead.
Cody breathed in the sweet scent of his mother, felt the cool gentleness of her fingers. He seemed to relax in the few seconds of her caress, seemed to draw comfort from her nearness. For a minute he was little again, curled in her arms, waiting for her to make everything better. "I love you, Mom," he whispered hoarsely.
"I love you, too, baby."
Cody cleared his throat, trying to muster strength and conviction. "Jack, make her leave."
Rachel looked at Jack, hurt, but with the same steel-hard determination he'd seen in her face on a hundred occasions. He never won against that look. He knew very few people who had. "It's bad, Mom," he said.
"That's why I need to be here."
"You can't do anything."
Rachel sat tall on the bed. "I can hold him."
Jack hesitated, uncertain whether it would be worse on his mother--to see Cody in such pain or to be denied what could be the last few hours of his life. He knew that, if it were Travis in this bed, he'd die rather than leave his son.
"I left yesterday, Jack. I saw him for just a few minutes and I thought he was going to be all right and I left." Rachel swallowed hard, trying to remain calm. A tear broke the boundary of her pale eyeliner and coursed down her cheek. She closed her eyes, squeezed them for a second and looked up at her oldest.
"He was the most beautiful baby you can imagine, Jack. All smiles. Into everything, but so wide-eyed about it that you couldn't do anything but laugh." She looked down at him, lying still in her arms and more tears began their descent. "And he thought you hung the moon. He tried to do everything you did. For such a long time he thought you were right up there next to God. You got him into more messes..." She smiled sadly and sighed. She looked up at Jack and her expression changed suddenly. "I saw him through every fever and flu and held him when he cried at night. I won't leave him now."
"This isn't the flu, Mom."
"I've never left either of you when you needed me, Jack. Until yesterday. I won't leave him again. Not now. Not until I know for sure he's going to be all right. Or that he won't be. You'll have to pick me up and put me out of this room, son. And you won't do that."
Jack watched his mother, remembering her strength when their dad died, and in the days after Pam's murder. He nodded. He knelt beside his brother's bed and touched his face. "Sorry, Code. She stays."
The brief moment of calm passed. Cody convulsed forward, the pain sudden and consuming. Rachel flinched backwards, unprepared for the severity of the attack.
"Jack," Cody gasped as the pain grew in his chest, becoming something alive, "I can't ... again ..." He sucked in lungs full of air. "Momma! Momma ... "
Jack froze. He looked at Cody's face. There wasn't a spot on it not already bruised or cut or scratched. He couldn't.
Rachel pulled Cody close to her, trying to hold him as he fought the pain. He looked up, crying, "Oh, God ... please!"
Rachel looked at Jack, frantic for something to do to help her son. Jack swung upward, hitting Cody in the jaw. The blow knocked him back into his mother, causing her to lose her balance and fall back into the far bedrail. She caught herself and looked at Jack, horrified. Cody lay limp in her arms.
"No, God," Jack breathed the prayer, suddenly afraid, "don't let me have killed him." He checked for a pulse. He noticed his hand shook.
"Jack, how could you?" Rachel was as close to screaming as Jack had ever heard her.
He found the pulse and closed his eyes. "Mom, how could I not?" He tried to control the shake in his hands, and in his voice. "That guy could have killed him so easily, Mom."
Rachel frowned and looked away from Jack, blinking tears.
"He didn't want to do that; not just that. He wanted Cody to suffer. He couldn't take anymore, Mom. Neither could I. And I couldn't let you ..."
"Right idea, Detective McClellan, although that was a rather indelicate way to achieve it." Hook-Nose startled both Jack and Rachel, who'd been so intent on Cody that they missed his entrance.
Jack stood. "What'd you find?"
"Not enough," the doctor admitted. He looked at Jack, drew a deep breath and pointed to the chair beside the bed. "Things are not looking hopeful." he started. "His pulse is erratic, we can't stabilize his blood pressure and his body temperature is dropping. There's already some evidence of damage to his heart. It may not be permanent at this point, but if we don't start controlling the other problems, it won't matter."
Jack looked at the floor, squeezed his eyes shut and took a slow, shallow breath . He couldn't believe what he was hearing--didn't want to believe it. It occurred to him suddenly that the doctor so far addressed all the information to him and wondered why Hook-Nose was not talking to his mom. He looked at Rachel. Her face, pale and resolute, seemed stone. And he knew. The doctor had already spoken to her out in the hall, before she came into the room.
"To make things worse," Kreitz continued, as if he thought things could get worse, "we don't have a definite breakdown of the toxin. It's progressing quickly. But we're all in agreement--the tox lab and the neurologists that I've contacted---that putting Mr. McClellan into a drug-induced coma will greatly improve his chances."
Jack asked, "Why?" as Rachel said, "No."
"Mrs. McClellan," Dr. Kreitz turned his attention to Rachel, "I know it sounds frightening, but it would allow us to be more in control of his physical situation."I truly believe it's his best chance."
Rachel shook her head, eyes wide.
Jack rubbed the side of her neck gently. "Our dad was in a coma for a little while before he died." He didn't look at the doctor. "Lung cancer."
Kreitz knelt on the floor beside Rachel. "Mrs. McClellan, listen to me." He took Rachel's hands in his, his eyes bright and intense. "This is not the same. Your husband was dying; his body giving up a little at a time. This isn't the same situation. I'm talking about giving your son's body a chance to fight; a chance to survive. He needs to be able to focus all his energy on getting past this. He can't do that if he's dealing with the effects of the pain. You saw what he's going through. Jack was right just a minute ago--he can't take much more of this. The specialists I've consulted all feel like this is his best chance." He shifted uncomfortably. "Perhaps his only chance."
Rachel looked at him, eyes shining, searching Kreitz's face.
"I'll take care of him," Neil the neurologist promised quietly. He didn't alter his gaze.
Rachel studied the doctor's face, riveted by the strength in the man's eyes. "All right, then." She raised a hand and quickly brushed tears from her cheeks. "Do it."
Author Notes
Again, critical over kind, please. :)
Appreciate you reading even though the chapter ending is long, but I hope engaging.
It's getting close to time to start thinking about publication, so let me know any thoughts you have on that matter.
Appreciate Y'all!
Synopsis: Two years after the murder of Cody McClellan's wife in a robbery, his older brother decides it's time to take Cody on a camping trip to reconnect. Upon arriving at the state park, the brothers set up camp and Jack decides to take a nap. Cody goesgoes on a 'photo safari', looking for great shots of nature. Hearing someone crying, he jogs to the top of a hill, where he stumbles into n assasination-in-progress.
He is shot. The intended victim runs into the dense woods and the shooters chase him.
Hearing the shot, Jack searches frantically for his younger brother, finds him and begins the arduous journey out of the park, fully aware that the hitmen will be hot on their heels.
The pair stumble upon a father and son who are setting up camp. They are hustled into the family's car as the assasins catch up to them, narrowly escaping.
Once at the hospital, Cody crashes. The doctor prepares to call time-of-death but Jack prays, begging God for his brother's life. The prayer works, and Cody's heart begins to beat again.
The next day, however, one of the hitmen shows up at the hospital, dressed as an orderly. He puts a syringe full of poison into Cody's IV. Jack again manages to rescue his brother with the help of an FBI agent, who is interested in the case.
Characters
Jack McClellan: mid 30s, police detective, husband and father of Travis (12). Jack is struggling with faith in God
Cody McClellan: early 30s, private investigator, widowed, father of Michael (12) and Katie (7)
Rachel McClellan: mother of Jack and Cody
Laine McClellan: Jack's wife, kindergarten teacher
Pam McClellan: Cody's wife, killed in robbery two years before this segment of story
Abby Kitman; head of trauma team that treated Cody in ER
Frank Aulers: FBI agent
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