Okay, I had to get this out today because I'm going to camp tomorrow until Friday. Anyway. Here's the next chapter and I hope you enjoy it. You finally get to see what's going on with Nathan.
Chapter Nine-
Bedside Encouragement
"Welcome to Boston, Massachusetts. I hope you enjoy your stay here. The local time is ten fourteen in the morning," the pilot's voice said through the intercom as the plane approached the gate.
Casey looked out the window. It was sunny and bright outside contradicting Casey's tear stained cheeks and bloodshot eyes. She'd gotten on the midnight flight in Portland and had to rush to get to her connecting flight in Chicago. Now she was there, under the worst circumstances, but she was there.
Everyone stood and Casey grabbed her backpack from under the chair in front of her. She hadn't slept at all, too concerned with Nathan's health than her own well being. She reached into her bag and retrieved her cell phone, turning it on. The screen turned blue and Casey opened it.
One missed call.
She pressed a button that brought her to voicemail and waited. "7:01 am, from phone number," the woman said. Casey groaned and missed half the number.
"Hey, Casey, it's Todd. I just got here and the board says your flight will be getting here in fifteen minutes. I'll be waiting at your gate. Talk to you soon."
It sounded that Todd was close to tears and Casey couldn't handle it. It had to have been bad for Nathan's parents to get Todd and her to come. Todd came from lacrosse camp, something he'd been dying to go to and couldn't stop talking about. Tears began to flood her eyes once more.
"Have a nice trip," the flight attendant was telling the people in line ahead of her. She smiled sympathetically at Casey. "I hope your friend's okay."
Casey had told her everything and the flight attendant had been nice. She sat in the vacant seat beside the crying girl for a while. The flight wasn't that full, so her coworker took over passing out the sodas and pillows. Casey nodded to her before just about running through the tunnel that led to the terminal, her eyes searching for Todd.
She found him sitting in a chair. He didn't look much better than her. Casey shook her head, wondering what Nathan would have said if he were there. Todd stood from his seat and wrapped his arms around her.
"Come on, Nathan's dad is here."
The two walked out and looked around. There was a man who looked a lot like Nathan. He had blond hair and the same blue eyes that Casey found herself dreaming about during class. He was wearing shorts and a t-shirt, looking like he hadn't gotten much sleep.
"I'm Rick Hillier, and you must be the famous Casey Bolton," he said, a faint smile appearing on his face. He turned to Todd. "And Todd Bryant. Nathan's talked very highly of both of you."
Casey and Todd frowned, hearing the man's voice crack at his son's name. They followed him out of the airport silently, the only time they spoke being when he asked if they needed to get any luggage from the luggage claim.
They sat in the back of his car and Casey looked out the window, watching as Boston filled her view. She was beginning to like the scenery. On her left was a park and a river.
"The River Charles," Rick said when Casey asked what it was. "You can watch some wicked fantastic fireworks - the Boston Pops - in that park come forth of July."
Casey looked at the seat. It was the first day of July.
"How long will it take to get there?" Todd asked, his eyes not leaving the window.
The light Rick had been stopped at turned green and he started the car. "Oh, not long in this traffic. They helicoptered him to Mass General for treatment, which is close by here. We're almost there."
Rick hadn't been kidding. Within five minutes, they parked the car outside a large building. Casey looked up and saw a helicopter. She knew that Nathan wasn't in there, but she had never seen one stop on the roof of a hospital before. In fact, she'd never really been to a hospital before.
Todd grabbed her arm and pulled her away. It was very clean and neat, making Casey wrinkle her nose. She had never liked the smell of cleaning materials all that much and at the moment they were reminding her of why they were there.
The elevator was packed. There were medical students, visitors, and one doctor staring at a chart. They only had to go to the fifth floor or so and they stepped out. Casey was shocked. The waiting room was full. Teenagers sat in chairs, tears streaming down some of their faces. One boy looked up and gave them a smile. Casey suddenly felt like an outsider.
Why had she rushed out? She and Todd had only known Nathan for a few months, these kids had grown up with him. The boy who had looked up walked toward them, his head bowed. He had on a red sox hat and a t-shirt that looked like it'd seen better days.
He held his hand out to Todd. "Hi, I'm Stephen."
"I'm Todd and this is Casey."
Stephen nodded his head. "Yeah, I know. Um, before you guys go in there, I just wanted to tell you how much he talked about you." Stephen held tears in his eyes but he continued to talk. "He was saying stuff about the two of you. I used to be his best friend. I haven't seen him this happy in a long time."
Casey felt herself smile though her tears. "Can you tell us what happened?"
Stephen looked away and then back at the two, as if he was a doctor telling two parents that their son was dead. "You know Nathan, the daredevil." Todd nodded and Casey looked away. They both did. "Well, he was doing some sort of trick on his jet ski and he went flying."
Tears were now flowing down his cheeks. "He hit his head on Big Rock, this rock we named, and he was floating there in the water. We thought he was dead. We called an ambulance and we rushed him to the shore and he was barely breathing."
Casey stepped forward and placed her hand on Stephen's shoulder. "It's okay. We get the gist of it. You can stop."
He shook his head. "When I was pulling him out of the water, he muttered something. It might have been my mind playing a trick on me, but I thought for sure that he said your names. That's when I called your cells from his phone."
"Thank you," Todd said.
"Casey! Todd!"
They looked away from Stephen. Natalie was running to them. The seven year old jumped into Todd's arms, tears in her eyes. "Mom and Dad won't let me see him!"
"It's okay, Nat, he's going to be fine," Todd told her. Nathan's mother walked from where her daughter had come from. She took Natalie from Todd and smiled sympathetically at them, nodding her head toward at door down the hall.
"516," she said quietly.
Casey nodded and they walked down the hallway. The two stood outside the door for a moment before pushing it open. Casey knew they were in the ICU by the way the doctors rushed around and how the walls to the rooms were basically windows.
An intense amount of machine's filled their visions. Loud, beeping noises were heard and the loud hiss of a ventilator pushed away any other sounds. Laying in the bed was Nathan, as they expected. They hadn't thought about the tubes that would be connected to him. His skin was pale, his eyes closed.
Casey collapsed on the floor. He looked so dead.
"Hey, Case," Todd said, helping her up. "You know Nathan, he's strong."
Casey just shook her head. "This is all my fault."
"No it's not," Todd told her firmly.
"Yes it is!" she yelled, huddling in a corner. Visions of Cale rushed through her mind. She had wanted to stay there, with him. I can see Nathan in the fall. Her words replayed over and over again in her brain. "I shouldn't be aloud in here."
Todd wrapped his arms around her. "Yes, you should. He loves you and you love him."
She shook her head. "I betrayed him."
Picking her up, Todd brought her to Nathan's bed. He put the unconscious boy's hand in hers. "Hey, Nathan, it's me, Todd. We need you, kid." Todd was finding it hard to talk. "Remember you were going to be Superman and save our pathetic soccer team from another losing season?"
All the sound that they heard in response was the hiss of the ventilator and the beeping of the machines. "Casey's here too, dude." He turned to her. "Say something, so he knows you're here."
"Nathan," Casey said, talking through her tears. "I love you."
Casey felt his hand flinch in hers. She looked up hopefully at his eyes, but the ocean blue orbs were still hidden by his eyelids. She brought his hand to her lips and kissed it. "Nathan, please. I can't lose you," she whispered. "I can't lose you like I lost Dylan."
She let her eyes follow the tubes connected to his body. She looked long and hard at the biggest one, the one down his throat helping him breathe. Suddenly, she gasped, making Todd look at Nathan's face as well. His eyes were open, staring at them with a longing she'd only seen one time before in Dylan's eyes they day before he went back to college for the last time. She knew what it meant, and she wouldn't let that happen.
"Nathan! No. You're going to be fine!" She hit the nurse call button and they were immediately swarmed and pushed out of the room.
"What? What happened?" Todd asked frantically. "What did you see?"
"I looked in his eyes," Casey told him quietly. Todd nodded, knowing that he had seen his eyes open as well. Casey sighed. "I saw defeat."
Oh, dear. Well. Tell me what you think!
Review!!
