Chapter 8: Analysis

"Keep breathing." – Sophie Tucker


She walked back to the room deliriously happy and gently sat down on the edge of Vaughn's bed. She carefully moved the oxygen mask down again and took a small ice chip and placed it in his mouth. She continued feeding him ice chips until he smiled and then she took a moment to just look at the man in front of her. Vaughn took a few more minutes to ready his throat and practiced the simple act of swallowing and then smiled at her again and said, "Hi…"

She couldn't help herself; she smiled back and kissed him again, her head lingering close to his face after the kiss. "I missed you so much, I'm so glad you're awake…" she let her thoughts trail off. She couldn't stop smiling.

Vaughn got serious for a minute and said weakly, "Syd, do you think you can help me open my other eye? I'd really like…" he stopped short of breath, "…to see you with both eyes."

"Yeah, I can try honey, but I don't want to hurt you…" She replaced the oxygen mask and went into the bathroom. She wet a cloth and brought it back to the bed. She laid the cloth over his eye for a minute and then used her fingers to gently try to pry the eye open. After several minutes of cautious prodding, the eye seemed to open slightly. She reapplied the cloth and then repeated her actions. When she looked down at him again, she looked into both of his beautiful green eyes.

He unsteadily moved the mask again and said quietly, "Thanks, that's much better. You look even more beautiful when I can use depth perception." She smiled again and replaced the mask. She realized that his breathing was still labored, and while she loved hearing his voice again, she knew the less he talked, the better.

They sat in comfortable silence just staring into each other's eyes and saying volumes without any words when Dr. Kerns entered the room.

"Well, Mr. Vaughn, it's nice to see you finally lucid! I'm Dr. Kerns, I was the emergency room doctor who examined you preliminarily." Vaughn looked in Dr. Kerns' direction, but brought his attention back to Sydney. She smiled at the doctor and noticed that Vaughn had taken her hand again.

"I'm sorry this has to be so soon after you've woken, but we should really check your wounds and make sure that you don't have any we missed." He moved closer to the bed and Vaughn seemed to grow uneasy as the doctor approached. His grip on Sydney's hand tightened and she saw what she could only describe as fear in those beautiful eyes.

Dr. Kerns began by examining Vaughn's head. He pulled a flashlight and had Vaughn follow the light, checking for any brain injuries due to the concussion. Vaughn allowed him to do this without much fuss, and Sydney thought that it was perhaps just nervousness that had caused his reaction initially. However, as the doctor continued his examination, Vaughn's breathing got more erratic. The doctor seemed to sense this too and risked a glance at Sydney but proceeded ahead anyway. He moved the blanket down and examined Vaughn's shoulder. "You let me know if I'm hurting you, all right?" Vaughn didn't acknowledge the statement and the doctor took that as consent to keep examining. Vaughn's shoulder didn't seem to be causing any discomfort, but the minute Dr. Kerns reached the first rib, Vaughn tensed, winced, and moaned all in the span of a second. He also moved on the bed which seemed to set off a whole new batch of pain. Sydney held onto his hand and tried to keep him as calm as possible. The doctor tried to be as gentle as he could, but stopped prodding after the fourth rib caused him just as much pain if not more than the first. He was concerned that Vaughn would injure himself further if he continued. Dr. Kerns brought out a stethoscope and listened to Vaughn's breathing for a moment as well, and then smiled, covered him back up and backed up a few steps. This seemed to ease Vaughn's tension and he settled into the bed a little more. "As we can plainly see, the rib area is causing you a lot of discomfort. Does it hurt if you're not moving?" he asked.

Vaughn shook his head yes.

"Ok, does your chest hurt as well?"

Again, Vaughn shook his head yes.

"Hmm…what about breathing? Does it hurt when you breathe?"

Vaughn affirmed once more.

"Ok, I'll get the nurse to come in and up the dosage of the pain medications. I want to let you rest for a few more hours, then we can try to wrap the ribs tighter. That should alleviate some more of the discomfort. We can also try elevating you; that also works quite well with rib and lung injuries. At some point, I'll need to come in and explain the extent of your injuries as well, but I'll let you rest some more before we get into that. Were there any other areas that I didn't cover that are causing you discomfort?"

Vaughn shook his head yes. He looked at Sydney and she removed the mask. He seemed to be having more trouble catching his breath now, but she figured it had to do with his obvious uneasiness with the examination. He croaked out between labored breaths, "right ankle." Sydney replaced the mask and Dr. Kerns moved the blanket from the bottom of the bed and gently lifted Vaughn's ankle while looking down at him. He rotated it slightly and Vaughn let out a yelp.

"Ok, we should get that x-rayed right away." He noticed the look that Vaughn gave Sydney and then added, "I'll send a technician in here with our portable equipment and we'll get a film on that to make sure nothing is broken." Vaughn seemed to like that idea much better.

"I'll leave you two alone for awhile, the tech should be in within the next half hour." He smiled at Vaughn and then looked at Sydney, "Could you come to the nurses' station with me for a moment, there are a few papers I need you to sign."

Sydney looked at Vaughn, kissed his forehead, gave him a reassuring pat and whispered, "I'll be right back." She then followed the doctor out of the room.

Once out in the hall, Dr. Kerns turned to Sydney, "There really aren't any papers, I asked you to come out here because I didn't think he really needed to hear this."

"That's what I figured…and he probably figured that out too, for the record."

Dr. Kerns smiled, "He seemed very uneasy with me in the room. His breathing became more labored and his whole demeanor changed. For lack of a better word, I'd say that he was scared of me…now, that could be for a number of reasons. One, it could be that he's just uneasy because he doesn't know me at all and has just been terrorized. Two, it could be that they employed some kind of doctors to do something to him, which would really put us at a disadvantage. Or three, he's still in shock and could be experiencing something similar to post-traumatic stress. He seems to be extremely comfortable with you, so I think it would be a good idea if you hung around. He seems calmer if you are there, I'd hate to see someone try to examine him with you not in the room. Let's give him a few minutes to rest and calm down and then let's see how he reacts to other people he all ready knows. I think there are still a few gentlemen in the waiting room, he knows them quite well, correct?"

"Yeah, that's right."

"Ok, I'll have them come in shortly and the you let me know how he handles it. We want to treat his physical wounds, but psychological wounds can make that job even more difficult, so…" Dr. Kerns let that thought trail off.

"I should get back to him…"

"Of course, I'll send in your friends in a few minutes."