A/N: I get a little graphic. READER BEWARE
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Kirsten was instantly on her feet and dragged Ryan with her, she handed him a tissue from her purse as she pulled him up to the window. There was a line now. An elderly couple were in front of her, hounding the receptionist with questions. Ryan was so pale, Kirsten was worried he might faint any moment.
"I'm sorry..." He whispered, as they stood there. He was shaking. Kirsten wasn't sure if it was fear or his illness.
"Ryan... Shhh... It's okay." Finally the elderly couple moved away, and Kirsten came forward, thrusting the half-finished paperwork back at the attendant.
"You haven't filled out..." The attendant started, but Kirsten interrupted her.
"Please, my son is coughing up blood. He needs a doctor now!"
The woman looked back and forth between the stressed out looking woman and the teenage boy who was swaying on his feet and didn't look like he would be able to stand for much longer. She paged a doctor. Kirsten was standing there, anxiously waiting as the doctor was paged, holding Ryan's hot body to her own, when suddenly the body went limp and Ryan collapsed onto the floor.
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Everyone was moving so fast. Bright lights. Questions. He heard himself trying to formulate responses, but every thing was moving too fast, and people were out of focus. He was glad he was lying down now. He was lying down right? He didn't remember lying down... He felt someone squeeze his hand.
"Kirsten?" He said weakly. There was no response. Not from Kirsten. Other voices were talking. To him? He wasn't sure.
"Ryan? Ryan can you here me? Stay with us okay, buddy?"
"Yeah, M'here..." He muttered to the disembodied voice. A face came into view. Gray eyes hovering over him, then a light flashed over him. Numbers were called out. He felt something prick his hand. Then there was an mask being lifted over his face. A mask? They were trying to put him to sleep. He didn't want to go to sleep. He wanted Kirsten. She would tell them not to do that.
"Patient's becoming combative..." A voice said.
"Ryan sweetie, calm down... They're trying to help you." Kirsten... She was there. He stopped struggling, besides... Fighting was too much effort.
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A/N: GRAPHIC CONTENT AHEAD:
Kirsten paced back and forth outside of the hospital room where they had taken Ryan to give him an ice bath to try and lower his fever that was frying his brain. They had given him something too to stop the coughing. Then they would do a X-ray to try and assess the damage in his lungs followed by a few tests for lung function.
They told her that the bleeding was probably the least of Ryan's problems, as horrific as it was to see her son's lips stained with blood. Judging from the chest sounds, it was only a minor bleed, he had probably just ruptured a blood vessel from all his coughing, but the x-rays and then possibly a CT scan would tell them more. Unfortunately, until they brought down his fever, there would be nothing they could do.
Kirsten had been invited inside the room where they were giving Ryan his ice bath, but Kirsten didn't think that he'd appreciate her seeing him "unclothed" once he had recovered. Also they had given him some sort of light sedative to help with the coughing, and Kirsten guessed, the struggling.
Finally, the doctor's reappeared with Ryan, on a stretcher, his upper body slightly raised. His eyes were closed, he looked like he was sleeping, but when Kirsten gently brushed the inside of his wrist, his eyes slowly opened. "Hey... Welcome back..." she said, when he looked up at her with recognition in his eyes. They had replaced the oxygen mask with a tiny nose one.
"Thanks..."
"How are you feeling?" Ryan shrugged as well as he could in his position, lying against the gurney. He was wearing a hospital gown now. Kirsten wondered what they had done with his clothing.
"His temperature's down to 103." A doctor or a nurse or maybe an attendent informed her, "but we need to get moving on these tests. Figure out what's wrong so we can make sure it stays there."
"Right..." Kirsten said, stepping away from the bed so they could keep moving, but she could see Ryan's eyes watching her as he was moved away from her.
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It seemed like hours. Days. Until Ryan was finally returned to her. She had been shown to a small curtained off area in the ER area, and told to wait, until finally the bed with Ryan on it reappeared. A nurse was with them, she took a quick read off the monitors, took his temperature, injected something into his IV and then left after assuring them that the doctor would be with them shortly. At least he was finally allowed to sit upright. In fact, it was declared that he was not allowed to recline. He had oxygen in his nose, and another tube in there as well, and Kirsten assume it was for extra oxygen.
"How are you feeling?" Kirsten asked gently, taking Ryan's hand.
"Crap." He said, honestly, his voice was hoarse and painful to listen to. The pain of speaking had to be even worse. Another nurse appeared, holding a bucket of ice chips.
"Hungry?" She grinned, placing the bowl on the swiveling table near where the bed was parked. Ryan eyed the bowl suspiciously. "They'll feel good to suck on," She said, smiling.
Kirsten shrugged, picked up the spoon, and pulled out an ice chip, and offered it to Ryan, "Wanna try one?"
"I can do it..." He said, his pale face flushing slightly, as the nurse and Kirsten watched him.
"Alright tough guy," The nurse winked, as Kirsten handed over the spoon. Ryan had lost his appetite for ice chips. He let his arm drop to his side, and did his best Atwood glare at the perky nurse. Under normal stances he might have found her cute, right now, he just found her annoying. She seemed to take the hint, because she told him to use the call button if he needed anything and then disappeared.
Kirsten gently took the spoon from Ryan's limp grasp and offered him another ice chip. This time Ryan accepted it, without fighting, but he was still glaring. And it did make his throat feel better, it felt like someone had gone up against it with a sandblaster. He sucked on the chip for awhile, until it was gone. Talking hurt to much, so Ryan decided to just give in to his based instincts and just opened his mouth slightly to indicate he wanted another one. It was humiliating, and his face burned as he did it. Tears pricked at his eyes. This situation was just so... But he was too tired to fight, and it did hurt a lot to talk, and Kirsten acted like it wasn't bothering her one bit to have Ryan, lying there helplessly, like some baby bird, opening his mouth when he wanted food.
He was on his sixth ice chip, when the doctor appeared. "Hi Mr. Atwood, I'm Dr. Perterson." He held out his hand for Ryan to shake. With as much energy as he could muster he lifted his arm to shake the big, blond doctor's hand. "Mrs. Atwood,"
"Oh, I'm Kirsten Cohen," She said, but she shook his hand.
"Alright, Mrs. Cohen."
"Call me Kirsten," She said smiling, as she moved her chair closer to Ryan, her hand unconsciously running up and down Ryan's arm to sooth him in case the doctor's news was less than good.
"Well, you can call me Dr. Josh," The doctor smiled, then looked down at his charts, "Well Ryan, you gave us quite a scare. That was some fever. Fortunately it looks like we got it down in time, doesn't seem to be any permanent damage up here," He pointed to his head. Ryan thought he looked like a clown leading a game of simon's says, with his big lopsided grin. "We've got you on antibiotics now, which should keep your fever down. So, that's the good news." He smiled again.
"Bad news?" Ryan croaked. He knew there had to be bad news.
"Well kid, it looks like you got quite a bit of congestion in those lungs of yours. We're going to have to let that clear out a bit more," He motioned to the tube going in Ryan's nose. Ryan felt a wave of revulsion as he thought about what was now being sucked out of his damaged lungs. He glanced at Kirsten to see if she felt like he did, but she was nodding her head and looking attentively up at the doctor. Her hand had found Ryan's and she squeezed gently.
A/N: GRAPHIC CONTENT OVER- you can open your eyes now
"Can't...home?" Ryan asked, he was sure he had said the word go, but came out without a sound.
"Not yet, sorry. I think we're going to have to keep you overnight for observation. You did come in here coughing up blood," The doctor said, as if Ryan needed a reminder. Of course, a part of him had been trying to pretend that the blood he had seen had all been a part of his feverish brain playing tricks on him. Like the penguin that had helped him into the ice bath. It was still wearing it's stupid pink bow tie. He really hoped he hadn't addressed the penguin out loud, but he was afraid he might have.
"So, what happened?" Kirsten asked, they were treating him, but for what?
"Pnemonia, pure and simple. Probably been brewing for awhile, maybe you had the flu?" The doctor suggest, "Bronchitis?"
"Was fine..." Ryan managed.
"He only got sick two days ago!" Kirsten burst out, "Yesterday!" She felt like a terrible mother after she let Ryan go downhill so fast. Why hadn't she been paying closer attention?
The doctor shrugged, "Well, I'm a little surprised it got so bad so fast, but it can happen... Are you a smoker Ryan?" The doctor asked.
Ryan avoided meeting Kirsten's eyes, "Quit..." He said.
"Well, better sooner than later, but pnemonia is fairly common with patients who smoke..." He eyed Ryan. Wondering if the kid was telling the truth about quitting. He had seen the cehst x-rays, the kid looked like he had been going through at least a pack or two a day for quite a few years. An addiction like that wasn't so easily kicked. His mother was looking at the kid intently and slightly surprised, like she had no idea he smoked.
"Mrs. Cohen..." He decided to revert to a more formal address for this next question, "Can I see you outside for just a moment?"
"Okay..." She glanced at Ryan, who looked suddenly panicked.
"I'll only be a minute," The panic didn't leave his face. Once beyond the curtain, Dr. Peterson moved them down the hallway, and out of Ryan's earshot.
"Mrs. Cohen... I'm sorry to ask... and Ryan's not in any sort of shape to be asking a lot of questions... But I think you should be concerned about your son's smoking habit."
"He said he quit," Dr. Peterson had to be careful, he didn't want to break doctor-patient confidentiality, but he also believed that in the case of a minor, if there was something this wrong, a parent needed to know. Especially these OC parents who seemed so clueless about the sort of trouble their kids got into.
"Yes... But... His lungs... The damage is pretty severe. In my experience, it is very difficult for heavy smokers to quit." Kirsten's mind instantly flashed to Dawn.
"What about second hand smoke?"
"Are you a smoker?" He looked at Kirsten's perfect skin, not the skin of smoker who smoked often enough to give off the kind of smoke that had devastated that boys lungs.
"No... But..." She paused, "His mother is,"
"Oh." The doctor looked confused.
"I'm his legal guardian." Kirsten explained. "His mother was a fairly heavy smoker. Is it possible...?"
"Yes, I'd say it's quite possible." Dr. Peterson nodded gravely. "If he's been exposed to second hand smoke in a confined space for years... Well..." Kirsten suddenly imagined Dawn in the car with Ryan, windows rolled up to keep in the AC, smoking a cigarette. The smoke-choked air entering Ryan's developing lungs.
"Well... Then I think we've found our culprit." Dr. Peterson put a gentle hand on her arm. "I'm sorry I doubted you... And Ryan."
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A/N: Okay, I swear I didn't mean to turn this into an anti-smoking rant, but well, I felt like I needed to justify Ryan's severe pnemonia after not enough days of being sick. I don't even know if the events I described are possible, I'm not a medical professional. But I am an ex-smoker.
