Author's Note: Geez, Laura, you must read a lot of mysteries! How'd you know it was the soda? Anyway thanks to anyone who reviewed, it makes me work faster.
Duncan rushed to kneel by the boy's side, turning the boy over to look at Richie's face. The first thing he noticed was that the boy's skin was cold and clammy, wet with perspiration, and then Duncan noticed that Richie's lips were turning blue. He inspected the boy's fingers, noting that they were turning blue as well.
Duncan's only thought was that this couldn't possibly be happening again. He tried to wake the boy up, pinching him and rubbing his knuckles along Richie's chest, even shouting the boy's name. At that Richie's eyelids fluttered. There was something odd about the blue eyes though.
He moved one hand to keep the boy's right eye open, seeing then that the boy's pupils had constricted to pinpricks. Drugs, he thought. Richie must have been poisoned.
The immortal picked up the boy's limp form and placed him on the bed. Quickly Duncan moved to the open doorway and shouted for Tessa again. Movement caught his eye and he turned back to the bed in time to see Richie begin to convulse. The boy's limbs jerked uncontrollably, his whole body shaking. Returning to the boy, Duncan turned Richie on his side as the seizure continued.
A gasp from the doorway drew his attention. It was Tessa staring at the ghastly scene with wide frightened eyes. Duncan had a terrible feeling of déjà vu before Richie drew his attention again by vomiting out everything in his stomach.
"Call an ambulance, Tessa. I think he's been poisoned."
Duncan rubbed the boy's back soothingly even though Richie was unconscious. That was when he noticed how shallow the boy's breathing was. He leaned down further to listen, noticing now how Richie labored for each slow breath.
His own heart almost stopped when during the second seizure, Richie stopped breathing altogether. Duncan had been ready to perform mouth to mouth, but the boy began breathing again once the convulsions had stopped.
When the paramedics arrived, their first question was what had Richie taken. Duncan didn't know, the only things the boy had eaten…he rushed toward the kitchen, grabbing the Sprite he had placed in the refrigerator earlier. Duncan could clearly see some sort of sediment at the bottom of the bottle. He took the bottle with them as the couple raced over to the hospital again.
Dr. Keiner was there at the Emergency Department to meet them, a furious scowl on her face. "What drugs did he have access to?"
Duncan blinked, surprised by the anger in the doctor's voice as well as the question. "Uh, Tylenol and aspirin I think."
The woman only scowled further. "His symptoms are like a narcotic, maybe an opoid, but if there was acetaminophen in it…" She seemed not to even be talking to Duncan anymore but more to herself.
He produced the Sprite bottle to get the doctor's attention. "I think it was in this, he must not have noticed it."
The woman seemed absolutely incensed then. "Teens often mix drugs in water or soft drinks to make them easier to take."
"He didn't do it. We found Valium in his drink the night of the first attack."
"He might very well have taken the drug to relax before attempting suicide. He has a history of using medications to attempt suicide. You haven't been watching him at all have you? I cannot believe…" Her brown eyes closed, obviously attempting to restrain her rising resentment.
"Tomorrow I'm going in front of the judge to have Richard Ryan temporarily committed."
"You can't do that!" Tessa's shocked voice rang out. Duncan opened his mouth to protest as well but he realized that there was no point. They did not actually have any proof that these were not suicide attempts.
Instead the immortal stormed toward the emergency room. Through the window on the door he could see someone inserting a tube down the boy's throat.
"What are they doing to him?"
"Richie will need a gastric lavage to clean out his stomach and they're going to administer the antidote for both the narcotic and the acetaminophen."
"But what's that tube they're putting in now?"
"The narcotic depressed his respiration, so they have to insert a tube to help Richie breathe. That's their main concern right now. Unfortunately we won't know if there's been permanent liver damage for at least 48 hours but hopefully most of the acetaminophen sank to the bottom of the drink."
Those were the last words that Duncan wanted to hear: 'permanent damage'. He had no idea what would happen when Richie became immortal if he had permanent liver damage.
Eventually he let Tessa lead him back to the waiting room. Faced with another sleepless night, the immortal was not comforted by the knowledge that Richie's night was worse. The boy he had sworn to 'watch over' was in pain and there was nothing he could do but wait.
Exhaustion overtook him and Duncan slept with his head leaned back against the wall of the waiting room until Tessa woke him just before dawn.
"They're moving him to another room now," she said quietly.
Groggy and still exhausted, Duncan followed her to the elevators. They entered another washed out looking room where Richie, once again breathing on his own, had already been tucked into the bed.
Despite that, Tessa immediately went over to smooth the sheets and blankets that covered the boy and brush back the curls from the freckled forehead. The look on the Frenchwoman's face was both tender and sad, and Duncan wondered if the look was mirrored on his own face.
But Duncan's mind also raced with plans. In a couple of hours, he would call their lawyer. Not that there was probably anything the woman could do.
He believed Richie, but Dr. Keiner had awakened those stubborn niggling doubts in Duncan's mind. But he could not believe that the boy would have been able to sit at the table with them while drinking a fatal dose of medicine.
But where could he find proof?