Infectious Chapter 7
Obvious FYI: I don't own anything about the O.C.!
Thanks for reading and reviewing!
As Katrin walked home that afternoon she thought about what a situation she had gotten herself into. She was here technically illegally. Why hadn't they just waited for the visa? She had overheard a conversation that potentially could put her life in danger, not to mention the life of her best friend who was no longer talking to her. Katrin had meddled with a fire she shouldn't have. Katia was right. They should have no involvement in the situation. Now Ryan was not only still in danger of whoever Eddie was, but Katrin couldn't warn him in time and he probably wouldn't trust her anyways. She had no expectation for him to call like she had asked. Why would he? She had led him on, but only so he would believe her, not some random student nurse, when she told him the news. The thing was, she actually was starting to have a cute weak spot for him.
Victor was most likely going to go after Eddie, but not for Ryan's sake. Eddie had promised Vick he would do nothing with the car, yet there was poor Ryan in the hospital. It was only a matter of time. What could Katrin do?
When Katrin entered the apartment, Katia was standing by the kitchen table with her arms crossed, but she looked more scared than angry.
"K?" Katrin questioned, sensing the fearful expression on her friend's face.
"Victor called," Katia stated simply.
Katrin froze. "Your cell phone?"
"No, the home phone that we don't have connected," Katia said sarcastically. "Yes. My phone. He asked for you because you didn't answer when he called you."
"My phone was off…" Katrin replied slowly as she realized she never turned it back on after she left the hospital.
"What does he want, Katrin? You did pay him, right?" Katia panicked.
"Of course I did," Katrin spat back.
"Then what? What does he want with you, Katrin?" Hundreds of thoughts were running through Katia's head.
"I…I may have told him about Ryan," Katrin answered as she looked at the ground in shame.
"You did WHAT?!" Katia exclaimed. "I told you not to get involved! It was one thing to like Ryan or whatever you were doing, but Katrin. You told Victor?! Why would ever do that?" Katia slammed her fist on the table in frustration.
"I…I don't know," Katrin slumped down in the chair and put her head in her hands, still not looking at her friend. "I don't know, ok? I mean, Ryan seemed so sweet. Don't look at me like that! I mean in the sense that he doesn't deserve whatever the hell he's involved in."
"And why did you think telling Victor would help?" Katia replied, frustrated, as she sat down across from Katrin.
"I don't know, K! I went to pay him the money then I casually mentioned Ryan. But I didn't say we overheard the conversation. I just casually mentioned it like he was a regular patient, just to see Victor's reaction. But I didn't say anything about you. At all. I promise, K," Katrin finished quietly.
Nothing was said for a minute until Katia broke the silence.
"So what's going to happen now?"
Katrin shook her head. "I don't know. Did he ask for me to call him?"
"Yes," Katia nodded. "You probably should do it soon. Katrin I don't know what you got yourself into. Do you?"
Katrin started to cry. "I thought it would be easy to fix it. Now what? I have no idea how to get out of this," she finished as she let out a frustrated noise and leaned back in her chair.
"Look," Katia said softly as she pulled her chair around the table. "I know I haven't really been…around…to help you with this. I'm sorry. We're in this together, ok?"
All Katrin could do was cry harder and hug her best friend. They had been through so much together. There was no way this situation, though still dire, could tear them apart.
Kirsten paced the floor of the emergency room, the scene feeling all too familiar to her. The ambulance had come to rush Ryan to HOAG and Kirsten stayed by his side the whole trip, tears streaming from her face in confusion, fright, and sympathy. What did Ryan do to deserve this? He was just released from the hospital and not four hours later was now repeating last week's scene. Kirsten knew Ryan would draw a parallel to this. He had a momentary reprise then before he could feel the satisfaction, his life spiraled back down again. Kirsten had spent the last year convincing Ryan of the opposite. His new life change was permanent, no strings attached. Misplaced guilt settled on Kirsten when she considered the fact that had she not taken Ryan in, he wouldn't be in the hospital. She knew it wasn't right, but nevertheless, her new-found mothering conscience told her otherwise.
Sandy sat in an uncomfortable waiting room chair with his eyes closed and a weathered and worried look on his face. He was unconsciously picking his nails with one hand while the other rubbed his forehead. He would stare at the ground, and shake his head slightly, like he was having a conversation with himself.
Seth stared around the waiting area. He saw families with rosary beads, deeply embedded in their thoughts. There were others pacing like Kirsten, and then some people harassing the nursing staff for news on a loved one, but all the occupants in the room shared a mutual feeling of concern and hoped for the best outcome. Seth silently joined them in their vigil, wishing never to have the unexpected sense of fear again.
It felt like hours had gone by as they awaited news on Ryan's condition. The paramedics had trouble waking Ryan in the ambulance, getting limited reactions from him when they tried. He opened his eyes once, right before they arrived to the hospital, and his gaze seemed distant and unfocused like he was lost in a feverish trance.
Slowly but surely each family in the waiting room, from the rosary-prayers to the pacers, each received news on their relatives, some negative, some positive. Seth prayed that Ryan's update would reflect the latter. When a doctor finally emerged with answers for the Cohens, the clock was nearing five o'clock.
"Family of Ryan Atwood?" a caring doctor called as he entered the waiting room.
Seth, Sandy, and Kirsten stood up so quickly that Seth felt light-headed from his break in concentration.
"Yes! Yes, please. We're Ryan's legal guardians," Sandy responded quickly with a strong feeling of déjà vu.
"Lets go sit over here," the doctor directed the family to a smaller group of chairs where the least amount of people could over hear the conversation.
"How is he?" Kirsten shot out with haste before the doctor could explain his differential.
The kind doctor nodded in a way that only acknowledged her question. "We've been running every test possible to look for abnormalities."
"Abnormalities? You don't think there's anything abnormal about the fact that he passed out?" Seth couldn't help but exclaim.
"Seth," both Sandy and Kirsten scolded at the same time.
The doctor continued, "His white blood cell count is very high, and coupled with his fever signs point to infection."
Infection. Again. Great.
"Is it his arm again?" Kirsten asked, frightened.
"We've taken some x-rays and some irregularities appear on the films. We'd like to take him for an MRI to explored the area further. I have this consent form for you to sign allowing us to continue the testing," the doctor prompted as he handed Sandy the clip board.
Sandy didn't so much as skim the pages, knowing full well he should have at least versed himself in the procedure, but he knew no time could be wasted.
"What do you mean 'irregularities'?" Sandy encouraged the physician. "Not…not cancer or anything, right?"
Kirsten and Seth's faces paled.
"We are exploring every option at this point, but from here we are suspecting an infection in the marrow of the radius bone itself," the doctor continued. "This form here allows us to conduct a bone biopsy if needed. Although his arm is newly casted, we might need to extract a piece of the bone to decipher which bacteria has infected Ryan if that's the case."
Sandy quickly signed the second form.
"What caused this?" Kirsten questioned hurriedly. "I mean, he was fine when he left the hospital! What happened? Oh no," she suddenly paused. "It's my fault. I should have taken his temperature the minute I suspected something was wrong! We would have known sooner and—"
"Honey, this isn't your fault," Sandy comforted. "None of us saw it coming."
Kirsten shook her head. "What do we do now?" She asked the doctor.
"We'll put a rush on the tests and get some answers as soon as possible. He's holding steady which is a good sign. He does keep going in and out of consciousness, but each time he wakes he seems a little more coherent," the doctor paused. "As far as a diagnosis goes, osteomyelitis is our first thought, but there are many other theories. It is very treatable with antibiotics. As of right now, it looks like the life of the arm isn't in jeopardy which is good news. We're doing everything we can and he's keeping up," the doctor slowly finished and tried to offer an encouraging smile.
"Thank you," was all Sandy could reply. Thousands of questions came to his head as they entered the familiar territory of unknowns and waiting.
Seth watched as the doctor left with the signed consent forms. It was by far the worst summer ever.
I know I've kinda got two stories going on now with the Katrin ordeal and Ryan's new road block, but I'm trying to sort it out as best and as quickly as I can! Thanks for hanging in there! Keep the thoughts coming :)
