You're Not Broken (15 page)

              “…wuzthat?” Kat murmured sleepily as she squinted awake. She looked around, confused by the settings and momentarily unsure where she was.

              She felt Jason’s large hand against her lower back. “Hmmm…?” he said, his eyes still closed.

              Kat suddenly remembered the night before and felt a blush run all the way down her back. Her body was deliciously sore and thoroughly used and she couldn’t be happier.

              The ringing continued.

              “I think it’s my phone,” Kat said trying to get her wits about her. “Or yours.”

              Jason opened an eye. “That’s not mine,” he said after listening to the ringtone.

              Kat looked around the floor till she found her phone flung near a booth. It must’ve fallen out in the undressing from last night. Kat bit her lip in wicked delight thinking about what had come after all the undressing.

              Quickly she picked up the phone and looked at the screen.

             
Malcolm.

              Probably wondering what the heck she was thinking, not coming home the night before.

              Preparing herself for his nagging, Kat swiped to answer the call.

              “Hey Malc—”

              “Kat! Kat!” Malcolm’s frantic voice interrupted her.

              Immediately all the sleep from her eyes vanished. She sat alert and awake on the diner floor. “What’s wrong, Malcolm?”

              “I just got a call!” Malcolm cried out. She could tell how panicked he was by his shaking voice. “I got a call from Dr. Saunders at the hospital! Dillon fell into a coma!”

Chapter
Twenty

“WHAT!”
Kat cried out, immediately feeling her blood turned cold.

              A shadow fell over her as a naked Jason kneeled down beside her, a concerned expression on his face. He put a hand on her shoulder, steadying her.

              “They said his fever spiked suddenly last night and then this morning, he fell into a coma,” Malcolm said, his voice breaking. She could hear him swallowing his tears. “W-We are supposed to hurry over as soon as we can.”

              Kat looked up at Jason, feeling her world crumbling around her as she frantically tried to grasp at the fraying ends.

              Keeping her eyes locked on the one thing keeping her feel grounded and steady, she said quietly, “Malcolm, I’m going to head to the hospital right now. Don’t worry. I need you to come to the diner and open it for the construction crew. We’re starting the dining renovations today and someone should be present.”

              “But Kat!” Malcolm cried. “If…If Dill…If Dill dies—”

              “No!” Kat shouted. She closed her eyes, taking in a deep breath. Having Malcolm at the hospital too was too much like a family’s final farewell. He needed to be here, maintain some form of normalcy so he wouldn’t fall apart. She didn’t want him to see Dillon comatose.

              “No,” she said again more calmly. “No. Come to the diner. Dillon is going to be fine. I promise.” She swallowed. She forced herself to believe she wasn’t lying. “You know how much he’d hate all of us fussing over him.” She swallowed her own growing tears. “Dillon is going to be fine.”

              “Kat,” Malcolm said, his voice strained with fear and pain.

              “Malcolm,” Kat said, hoping at least a note of reassurance was coming through. “He’s going to be fine. I promise. So come to the diner.”

              Malcolm’s heavy breaths crackled through the line before he finally replied, “Okay.”

***

              “It’s a bad infection. A real bad one,” Dr. Saunders said as he walked with them in a hurried pace towards Dillon’s bed. They rushed past the other beds in the ICU ward.

              “His fever was going up and down and we thought it would break soon,” he continued. “But it shot up suddenly last night and we immediately transferred him to the ICU before he slipped into the coma.” The doctor turned to Kat. “It’s kind of the body’s defense mechanism. It was helping to protect him from the harm of the infection.”

              They stopped at the last bed in the ward.

              Kat felt all the breath in her lungs evaporate in an instant.

              There in the bed was her skinny, gangly, sick brother.

              “Oh Dillon,” she whispered. “Dill.”

              She collapsed into the chair next to the bed. She took hold of his hand, bony and frail. She kissed his sharp knuckles. “Dilly, I’m here,” she said, her voice tight and harsh with unshed tears. Her eyes stung fiercely as she held onto his hand. She watched his slow and steady breathing as his chest rose and fell.

              “Dillon,” she whispered before traitorous hot tears finally own her cheeks unheedingly.

              Even through her grief, she felt Jason’s presence. He stood solidly at the end of Dillon’s bed, gripping the rails. Deep lines of worry were etched into his face. She could tell he knew exactly what it felt like to watch someone you loved be hurt or sick or…dying.

             
No! No,
she screamed at herself quietly. She would not let such thoughts come into her head.

              “Doctor,” Jason said, his deep voice rich and somehow soothing in the stingingly clean hospital. “Will this hospital have the right resources to treat Dillon?”

              Dr. Saunders’ brows raised in surprise. “Well, that was exactly what I wanted to talk to you about today, Miss Ryans,” he said. “With Dillon’s chemotherapy treatments and the treatments necessary to battle such a severe infection, we feel that he would be better treated in a larger hospital with more specialists. He is in a very delicate condition and needs more help than I can provide.” The doctor looked down humbly.

              Kat sniffed, unsure what to ask next. Her mind was completely scattered. A tornado of fear and worry was tearing through her brain and she was standing clean in its way, feeling every sharp cut and brush of its winds.

              “Does this hospital have a helipad?” Jason asked, his expression clearly focused on some kind of plan that was still beyond Kat.

              The doctor nodded. “We’ve notified Roseton. They are three hours south of us but they have a much larger hospital and a very well-respected oncology specialist is also there. We think Dillon will have the best fighting chance there.”

              Kat looked up between the doctor and Jason. “What?” she said, trying to whip her wits together. “Helipad?”

              Jason nodded. “They can helicopter Dillon to the bigger hospital. It’ll be faster than driving,” he explained in a steady voice. He seemed to know just what kind of whirlwind she was experiencing.

              Kat looked at Dillon’s pale face, so thin and gaunt against the white and blue hospital sheets. Dillon was almost as tall as Malcolm, certainly taller than her, but in the bed, he looked so frail and small.

              “Is it safe to helicopter him in his condition?” she asked.

              “It’s the best hope he has for a real fighting chance,” Dr. Saunders replied.

              Kat stared at her baby brother. She remembered when he had been born. She remembered holding his tiny swaddled baby body in his arms, falling madly in love with this tiny creature. She had changed his diapers, bandaged his scraped knees, and had been the one to rent him his prom tux.

              This was her little Dill.

              She couldn’t lose him. Not after losing mom. And she had never had her dad. And she had just lost her beloved Uncle Do.

              She couldn’t lose Dillon.

              She looked up at Jason, her eyes shining with her fierce love.

              “You won’t,” he said firmly. “You’re not going to lose Dillon.” He gave her the benefit of a good hard look that somehow gave her spine a little more courage. “You won’t.”

              Kat drew in a shaky breath.

              Finally she nodded. “Okay,” she said. “And how do I get to the Roseton?”

              “With me,” Jason answered immediately. “I’ll drive you. We’ll follow right behind the chopper.”

              Kat gave Dillon’s hand another good squeeze. “Be brave, Dilly,” she whispered. “You’re going to get better. I know it. Just be brave for a little longer.”

              And after giving him a soft kiss on the forehead, Kat stood up and followed Dr. Saunders so she could sign the forms to give consent to have Dillon moved to Roseton.

Chapter
Twenty One

              The entire drive to Roseton had been a quiet one. Although the roads had been relatively free of traffic and Jason had done the driving, Kat felt like she had just run a marathon. By the time she reached the large hospital, her legs felt like jello and her shoulders were aching from being too tense.

              And all the while, Jason had driven with precise speed. He hadn’t been reckless but he hadn’t dawdled either. He made sure they made it to the hospital in record time. Sporadically through the drive, a soft buzzing sound echoed from Jason’s pocket.

              His phone.

              Kat wanted to tell him to take the calls. It was probably his workers needing his input on something. But Jason ignored every call and instead focused completely on driving as quickly as he could to Roseton.

              Throughout the drive, Kat had stared out the window, not seeing anything that passed by. Her hands were fisted on her lap, her fingers so numb, she could hardly feel them.

              Jason reached over and had enveloped one of her cold fists with his large warm hand. He gave her a small squeeze while keeping his eyes on the road. Nothing was said but no words had been needed.

              She knew he was there.

              And that was all she needed to know.

***

Car parked, Kat had rushed into the emergency room.

“Ryans, Dillon,” Kat had blurted out to the first nurse she saw. “I’m looking for Dillon Ryans. He was brought here by helicopter from Peytonville General.”

Jason and Kat were soon led to the Roseton ICU and were introduced to Dr. Greene, a man in his late fifties with dark gray hair and frameless glasses.

After Kat made sure Dillon had been properly situated in his new hospital bed, she followed the doctor out into the wide and sterile hospital hallway.

“Miss Ryan, I want to assure you that we’re going to do everything possible to fight this infection,” Dr. Greene said. He was not a smiling man but she could tell he was a compassionate man. His words held a true conviction of a doctor hell bent on making sure his patients get the best care.

“How long…” Kat swallowed, not letting her eyes stray towards the ICU door. “How long before he will wake up?”

Dr. Greene pressed his lips together, thinking. “Well, I’m sure Dr. Saunders has told you that the coma was his body’s own defense mechanism kicking in. We need to help him fight this infection so his own immunity can restore his bodily functions.”

Kat nodded, understanding yet not comprehending. Adrenaline was still coursing through her.

“What can we do in the meanwhile then, doctor?” Jason asked, taking up the questioning. Kat felt grateful that he was able to ask the truly important question she knew she had wanted to ask but her mind had seemed incapable of asking.

The soft buzzing came again from Jason’s pocket. Kat looked down at his pocket, where a dim light shone through his jeans and then looked up at him, eyes questioning why he wasn’t picking up.

Dr. Greene had heard it too but Jason gave his head a quick shake, indicating he was not interested in any calls right now.

“Right now, your support and love is the best thing for Dillon,” Dr. Greene said in a quiet but warm voice. “I know it’s hard standing by but you’re doing so much for his health by letting him know he is loved and worried over. You’d be surprised how much that kind of knowledge in a patient helps his recovery. He’s in a coma but that doesn’t mean he can’t hear.” He paused and gave Kat a serious look that meant for her to believe him. “He knows you’re here.”

Kat felt hot tears fall at his words.

The doctor gave her a rundown of the medication they would be giving Dillon. Right now, they had to watch him carefully since his immunity was already weakened by his chemotherapy. This treatment would be a balancing act between medication to fight off his infection and sterility in keeping his compromised immunity safe.

“Thank you, doctor,” she said.

Dr. Greene gave her a warm handshake before quickly heading down the hall towards his next patient and his next case.

Jason and Kat went back into the ICU. The hushed room was full of soft shuffling nurses and cold, mechanical whirs and beeps.

Kat took a seat next to Dillon’s bed, immediately reaching for her brother’s hand. She kissed the back of his hand and whispered, “Hey, Dill. I’m here.”

She waited for a moment, knowing it was impossible that he could reply but half hoping he would.

But all she heard was the steady beeping of his heart monitor and the whirs of his intubation.

Kat turned towards Jason who stood behind her. “Jason, you don’t have to stay,” she said. “Thank you for driving me but I can’t keep you from—”

“You think I’m going to leave you and Dillon in a hospital miles away from home?” he replied, brow raised as if daring her to think so. “I’m not leaving this hospital until I’ve seen Dillon give you a good whine about missing the experience of riding a helicopter.”

Kat’s lips trembled as she smiled. She had wanted him to stay. God, she had wanted him to stay but she couldn’t ask more from this man when he had already done so much. He had almost singlehandedly saved her town, for heaven’s sake! Could she really ask more from him?

“He really will be disappointed about that, won’t he?” she asked, thankful to be talking about his recovery as if it was an inevitability.

Jason grinned. “Pissed, more like,” he said.

Kat gave a shaky laugh, something the walls of the ICU ward very rarely heard.

A soft buzzing echoed again.

Kat looked at his glowing pocket. “You should take it,” she said. “It could be the guys at Doughy’s.”

Jason’s lips pressed together as if debating whether he should in fact take the call or not. Kat was surprised. He was usually a very diligent boss and was always on hand for his men.

He finally nodded. “Okay,” he said. “I’ll be right back.”

He pressed a kiss on her forehead before stepping out into the hall.

Kat turned back to Dillon.

“Wake up,” she bribed, “and I promise you can ride the helicopter back to Peytonville.”

Kat closed her eyes, imagining Dillon fighting valiantly against the invading germs to win that chopper ride.