Chapter 10—

… As they walked into the hospital toward Jeremy's room, there was an uneasy calmness in the corridors. To Denise calmness was just before the storm. Denise did not know how, but something was about to happen, maybe not something right at the moment but something soon.

Denise and Frank walked into the hospital room and saw an empty bed, and Jeremy was no where to be seen. A colleague of Denise's was standing there. Carol, was the colleague, was writing something in Jeremy's chart, when she looked up. Carol smiled,

"Hi Denise."

"Hi Carol, I did not realize that you were on tonight. Where's Jeremy?" Carol was fantastic nurse, who specialized in rehabilitation, and was working on becoming a physical therapist.

"Relax, Steve from PT came and got him. Jeremy was on the PT schedule today for the knee. I hate to say this but Jeremy did not want to go to PT, and in fact he kind of fought with Steve. But you know Steve; he usually gets his way with the patients. And frankly, I could not blame Jeremy for not wanting to go, because it has been such a trying day, but as you know the sooner the PT starts the better off the patient is for getting the mobility. Oh, and Jeremy should be back at any time." Carol spouted all of that off very quickly. She may a fantastic and caring nurse but she certainly was a motor mouth.

"Oh where are my manners, Hi, I am Carol. I am not the night nurse assigned to your son this evening." She looked at Frank, and smiled.

Frank shifted the pizza box to his left hand and reached his right out to shake Carol's hand, and said, "It is nice to meet you."

By that time, Jeremy came walking in the room on crutches with Steve, physical therapist behind him. And Carol slipped out as the two were coming in. Jeremy did not look very happy, and frankly neither did Steve.

"Hi, Jeremy, how was PT?" Denise asked. And Steve just shook his head, and frowned.

"It sucked. I cannot see what I am doing and it hurts." Jeremy's frustration level was extremely high, and he was agitated. "And he does not understand how much it hurts." Said pointing at the wall, but everyone knew he was talking about Steve.

"Jeremy, I do know how much it hurts, I tore my ACL about 5 years ago, and when I was running a marathon I tripped and tore my ACL, and cracked my knee cap. It was very painful recovery, but the sooner we start the better mobility that you will have later." Steve was trying to be reassuring, but he knew that Jeremy was going to be a very difficult patient.

Jeremy response was something that Steve was expecting, "Why do I care about how much mobility I have with my knee. I cannot freaking see anything, so why not just leave me in a chair and rot, because that is all that I am going to good for."

"Jeremy, that's uncalled for." Frank snapped.

"Dad, I have failed as a son, as a soldier, why not fail as a person. Hell, nothing matters; maybe I should have just been left in Iraq." Jeremy was standing in the middle of the room trying to figure out where to go, hell he could not see anything. He tried to spin around, but he ended up falling flat on his butt on the floor. Steve and Denise rushed over to Jeremy to help him get up, but Jeremy refused the assistance. Finally with a lot of effort Jeremy got up, and Frank quietly pushed a chair for Jeremy to sit down.

"Jeremy, this is all going to take time to get used to, and it is going to take time for your knee to heal." Steve tried again to be reassuring.

"I wish people would stop saying that. Look Steve, I am sorry, this nothing personal on you, I just hate this. I hate trying to walk on the crutches and have no freaking idea where I am going." Surprisingly the fall had mellowed Jeremy's attitude a bit, but just a bit.

"Jeremy, I will be back tomorrow. We can try all of this again." Steve said walking out the door. Denise followed him out.

"Steve, wait a minute." Denise said.

"Denise, I know that he is in a difficult place right now! And I know that this will get better, but it is going to take effort on all of our parts, including Jeremy. He has to want to re-gain control of his life. Yeah, I know that this has been a difficult day for him, he is going to have to let people help him, and he is going to have to give it time." Steve said looking tired and frustrated.

"Jeremy, is a good kid, and yes today has been a difficult day for him. Finding out that he will probably never regain his sight is not something that anyone wants to hear, especially at nineteen years old. I am not saying to cut him slack, in fact, I ask you to be hard on him." Denise said, in her I am the nurse mode.

Steve smiled a little, "I think that you must be the first mother of an injured soldier who has told me to not to cut their child any slack. Denise, you are an interesting woman."

"Thank you, I think. But I want my son to be a capable individual, even with his limitations, and he will never get there if we coddle him. So please do not give up on him. "

"My plan was not to give up on him; we are too early in this process to give up on him, but he has got to want to help himself. It is just there is so much potential in your son, even with his limitations. I know how angry he is right now, but it just frustrates me as physical therapist to have to fight for everything I need to do to help him to regain mobility and independence." Denise completely understood the sentiment that Steve was relaying, and that is one of the many reasons why she had asked Steve what she did.

"Denise, I would like to talk to you more about this, but I am meeting my girlfriend for dinner, perhaps we can finish this tomorrow? And thanks, I think I needed the pep talk as much as he will. I will see you later." Steve said walking away.

Denise walked back into the room, where Jeremy was sitting on the bed and Frank was standing next to him, and the pizza box was opened. But the boys were not eating; it looked like they were in the middle of a very intense discussion, which was ceased when Denise walked in. Denise replied,

"Do not stop talking on my account."

"No Jeremy and I were having a discussion about attitude." Frank said in his stern military voice.

"And how is that going?" Denise's eye brow raised.

Neither of guys answered. Jeremy seemed a little calmer, but the underline hostility was still evident, but for the moment the hostility was being managed. Finally Frank answered the question,

"Jeremy and I are going to work on it, but that is between him and me."

"Ok then, if you two do not want to tell me more, fine, but I would suggest that we eat. Please hand me that salad." Denise curious as to the scheme that Frank had come up with to help Jeremy with his attitude. Frank just smiled at Denise.

They all finished dinner, and Jeremy announced that he was very tired, so Frank and Denise left. Denise thought it was odd that Jeremy was tired. She knew medically that his body had undergone a lot, but she thought that there was more to it than that, but admittedly she was tired as well. So they all said goodnight.

As Frank and Denise were walking to the car, Denise asked what the plan was to help with Jeremy's attitude.

Frank replied, "I was a little annoyed with his attitude with the physical therapist, and I let him know that. So I took the military approach… tough love per say."

"OK, what does that mean?" Denise's curiosity was peaked.

"I pretty much told him that I would not accept him not trying, nor would I put up with his negative attitude. And that his life was not over, just because he had serious and life changing injures. And some other things. But this is between Jeremy and me." Frank looked like a chestier cat, but Denise knew not to press any further.

"I do not know about you… but I am exhausted." Denise said as she yawned.

"Yes, I am too." Frank agreed.

They arrived at home about 1000 o'clock or in Frank's world 2200 hours. Frank and Denise headed off to bed shortly after they got home. Neither one said much to the other. They reached the master sweet of the house. The room was tastefully decorated, with comfortable furniture, nothing fancy but it was nice.

Frank and Denise slipped into bed and kissed each other good night. They both drifted off to sleep thinking about Jeremy, but they knew that nothing more could be or would be done tonight.

They had been asleep for about four hours when the phone rang. Denise assumed that it was someone from the Army wanting Frank to report somewhere as soon as possible. Frank answered the phone,

"Major Sherwood."

"Major Sherwood, This is Carol from the hospital, I am sorry to call you so late, but you and your wife should come down to the hospital. Umm… your son just had a seizure, and he is unconscious. I will have more details when you get here."