Obviously, I don't know the details of Ryan's injury and recovery beyond what he has shared with us, but I do know a lot about brain injury recovery as a whole. I'm a physical therapist and worked for several years in an inpatient brain injury rehabilitation unit, so I saw many patients awake from comas and move through various stages of their recovery, from mild to very severe injuries. Some of the things you'll see in this story may seem strange to you, but I assure you they are common occurrences in brain injury units all over the world. There will be parts of this story where you may think I've mistaken Ryan's personality, but I've seen what I'm writing happen dozens of times.
Anyway, on to the first part of my story! Please let me know what you think.

Raymond Kelly sat at his brother Ryan's bedside in the Intensive Care Unit of a Belfast hospital, reading. It was late at night, and quiet, only the sounds of monitors and nurses moving about. He'd spent most nights of the last 3 weeks here, watching over his much-younger brother. Ryan had fallen down the stairs at his home, hitting his head so hard on the wall that he'd fractured his skull and caused bleeding on the surface of his brain. The doctors had had to do surgery to remove the blood clot, which was putting pressure on Ryan's brain. They had put Ryan on sedation to keep him unconscious, telling the family that this gave Ryan the best hope for recovery - but they could not guarantee that Ryan would not suffer permanent and possibly severe brain damage. At one point they were not even sure he would survive. Fortunately, Ryan was now showing signs of recovery and the drugs keeping him unconscious were being weaned off.
Raymond looked around the room and sighed. These late night vigils had been easier in some ways a week ago, when Ryan's bandmates from Celtic Thunder had been able to be with them. The doctors had been reluctant at first to allow the other band members to enter the room, as non-family members were usually not permitted in the ICU - but Ryan's family had unanimously declared that the other band members might as well be Ryan's brothers and insisted they be let in. From that moment on, the other lads had taken it in turn to stay with the family day and night, providing emotional support, making sure that the family ate and drank and got away from Ryan's bedside once in a while. They quickly endeared themselves to the hospital staff by taking orders for drinks and snacks whenever they went to the cafeteria and stayed out of the way when they needed to. They became even more welcome when, during one of many instances when Ryan's vital signs had become unstable, Keith had subconsciously begun singing - a habit of his when he was under stress. The nurses were surprised and pleased that Ryan's vital signs stabilized on their own. They didn't make the connection until the same thing had happened several more times - Ryan always stabilized or stayed stable if Keith was singing. The other band members tried it and found that their voices worked as well - and they could only assume that Ryan could hear them and was comforted knowing that they were there. At one point the family tried using the Celtic Thunder CDs, but that experiment was quickly stopped when they realized that Ryan became more unstable when his own voice was playing. From that point on there was nearly always music in Ryan's room, and he had begun to recover more quickly and with fewer setbacks.
But now the other lads were gone, not without protest - but a contract was a contract, and they had a two-week gig in Atlantic City to perform. They had each made recordings of themselves singing and left them with the family, and called daily for updates. But the family missed their presence and support, none more so than Raymond who was usually alone at night. He'd insisted that his sister Colette stay with their parents at night in the nearby hotel, knowing that the stress was difficult for his parents to handle and worrying that something might happen to them as well.

A movement next to him drew Raymond's attention, and he smiled a little as he saw Ryan turning his head and moving his hands. Ryan had only started making these small independent movements yesterday, and the doctors said it meant that he was beginning to awaken. Raymond was just glad to see him moving on his own. For the first week Ryan had been here, his arms and legs had been very stiff, especially his left, his fists curled up on his chest and his feet pointed like a dancer's. The doctors said this was due to the pressure and swelling in his brain. Physical and occupational therapists quickly made splints for his feet and hands to keep them stretched out so they wouldn't stiffen in unusable positions, and had come daily to stretch Ryan's muscles, while the nurses changed his position every few hours. Thankfully, as the pressure in Ryan's brain had decreased, so had the abnormal muscle tone and they had been able to stop using the splints. Now he was moving all four limbs on his own, which was a good sign that he had escaped any serious paralysis.

Raymond yawned, and decided he'd better go get a cup of tea if he didn't want to fall asleep in the chair. He wouldn't be gone long, and Ryan was doing well.

As Raymond returned to the room, he quickly set down his cup and looked at Ryan in dismay. He wasn't just randomly moving anymore, but almost thrashing around. Was it one of the seizures they'd been warned might happen? He hoped not. Maybe it was the next stage of Ryan waking up? The doctors had told them that it was almost inevitable that Ryan would go through a period of intense agitation when he first woke up, as his brain struggled to cope with the sensations that he hadn't experienced since he'd been unconscious. Because the part of the brain that would tell Ryan whether he was behaving appropriately or not would not really kick in until later, they'd been warned that his personality might be very different as he first awoke - irritable, angry, and potentially aggressive. It would be complicated by the fact that Ryan likely would never remember the accident, and most likely would have trouble remembering when he was told about it for a while as well - it was very difficult for newly-awakened coma patients to form new memories initially. Raymond couldn't imagine Ryan behaving that way. The doctors said he could pass through that stage in a few days, or get stuck in it for a prolonged period.

Raymond stepped over to the bed. "Ryan? Ryan, it's Raymond. It's OK, calm down." Ryan turned his head towards Raymond and fought to open his eyes. He looked very confused.

In a very low, very hoarse voice, Ryan said, "Ray? What...?"

"You had an accident, Ryan, and you're in the hospital."

Ryan closed his eyes, then opened them again, looking no less confused. He started to reach towards his right arm, where an IV line was inserted. "Hurts".

"What hurts?"

"Arm..." By now Ryan's fingers were starting to scratch at the IV. "Hey, don't!" said Raymond. "You need to leave that alone." Raymond took Ryan's hand and moved it away from the IV line. He was surprised when Ryan yanked his hand free and reached for the IV again. Raymond grabbed his hand and held it, saying, "Ryan, you can't touch that. It's an IV drip, you need it."

Suddenly, Ryan was growling words that Raymond didn't think he even knew, calling Raymond every name in the book, and his right arm came up in a wild swing at Raymond's head. "Hey, Ryan, settle down! Nurse!" Raymond yelled.

Rapid footsteps came closer as Raymond struggled to keep Ryan from pulling out the IV line. "What's wrong?"

"He woke up out the blue, trying to pull the drip out and saying his arm hurts!" Raymond panted, working hard to keep Ryan from grabbing, hitting, or banging into anything.

"Can you hold him? I'd rather not upset him any more by getting more people he doesn't know in here to hold him down. Just long enough for me to get a good look at his arm."

"I'll try", Raymond said and held on, trying to catch Ryan's gaze. Their eyes locked and he softly said, "Ryan, it's OK, the nurse is checking your arm. Just relax and let him see what's wrong, OK?"

"OK", Ryan said weakly, already exhausted from the struggle. He laid back limp against the pillows.

"No wonder he was upset", the nurse said, "The IV line shifted and the fluid's been going into his arm instead of his vein. It's like having a bad bruise with a lot of swelling, with a needle in the middle of it as well. I'll pull the line and we'll let him settle down before we try to put another one in". He quickly pulled the needle out and covered the spot with a bandage.

"Better, Ryan?", asked Raymond. "No", Ryan said rudely.

"The swelling should go down on its own shortly", said the nurse. "The fluid will absorb into his body, there's nothing in it that will cause a problem. I'll be back in about 10 minutes to check on him, OK? Let me know right away if he gets agitated again."

"Yes, thanks," Raymond said. He pulled a chair to this side of Ryan's bed and sat down, still holding Ryan's left hand. Ryan looked up at him.

"Ray, where am I? Why are you here?" Ryan's voice was quiet, and even more hoarse from trying to yell.

"You're in the hospital in Belfast. You had an accident."

Ryan suddenly looked worried. "Is Neil OK? Was he hurt?"

"Neil's fine," Raymond said, confused. "He wasn't with you."

"I was with him", Ryan insisted. "Doing our ABC tour. If I was in a car accident, he must have been, too."

"You were already back from the tour, you'd been home for a couple of weeks" Raymond said. "Neil was in Dublin when the accident happened. It wasn't a car accident, you fell down the steps at home."

Ryan looked puzzled. "I don't remember being home, last thing I remember is the tour..." he muttered sleepily.

"Don't worry about it now, Ryan, just go back to sleep. It's really late at night." Raymond watched as Ryan's eyes closed and his breathing slowed and evened out. He sat back in the chair and let out a rush of air. That had not been fun at all, and he was really glad his mother hadn't been there to see it. He knew he'd have to tell her about it in the morning, though. His phone buzzed in his pocket and he checked the caller ID and smiled. It was Neil, calling to check in.

"Hey, Neil, wish you'd called a few minutes ago" he said.

"Why?"

"You might have been able to talk to Ryan for a minute and convince him you're OK." Raymond smiled as he heard Neil say, "WHAT?"

"Ryan woke up about 10 minutes ago, cursing like a sailor and trying to tear the drip out of his arm, tried to take my head off with a swing as well when I stopped him. The nurse came and figured out the needle had shifted and was hurting him, so she took it out. Once he settled down he asked why he was here, and when I told him he'd had an accident he was convinced that the two of you had had a car accident on the ABC tour and that you must have been hurt as well. He doesn't even remember being home. He was exhausted from all that and fell right back to sleep a couple of minutes ago."

"Ryan tried to hit you?" Neil said incredulously. "I can't believe it. And he was cursing?"

"Yeah," Raymond said tiredly. The adrenaline rush was gone and he was exhausted, too. "The doctors told us he might be agitated when he woke up, remember?"

"Yes, but I didn't expect something like that!" Neil said.

"Nor me, mate," said Raymond. "I hope it doesn't get any worse before it gets better."

"I hear you," said Neil. "Well, I'll pass the news on and get the crew praying for him to get through this fast. At least he's awake, and knows you, and can talk, right?"

"Thanks, Neil", said Raymond, smiling. "You just gave me the silver lining to that cloud, you know? Good night."

Raymond leaned back in the chair, his eyes closing. Neil was right. Ryan had woken up, had most of his memory, and was able to talk clearly. It was almost more than they'd dared hope for. For the first time, he felt optimistic about the whole situation, and fell asleep in the chair with a smile on his face. He didn't even wake up when the nurse came back and was able to get the IV into Ryan's other arm without trouble.