Long time coming... but someone (Dizzy) decided should not write another "coma" patient named Tom Hanson. Sooooo... after pulling my hair out and starting a new story... here is chapter 21, so you better like it or I'll go mad and cry a lot... then I'll get over it and write some more, LOL!
Chapter 21
Hanson was struggling to breathe as he was loaded onto the back of the Waylon County Volunteer Fire Department Ambulance. He fought desperately against the people trying to help him.
"Doug… Doug… please…" He was starting to spike a fever and was barely audible while he spoke. Sweat beaded across Hanson's battered face. A hand pressed solidly on the bleeding wound in the soft skin of his stomach while another set of hands lifted his eyelids and checked his pupils for reactivity. Hanson drew another labored breath when an emergency medical technician looked up at the monitor.
"Step on it Gus! Hurry, were loosing him…" The voices became barely audible as he felt the pain that had dominated his body for the longest part of the day slip away. He was floating… He felt different… warm. He thought he was looking at himself, but the young man lying with his eyes closed was black and blue. He looked… dead. His face and chest were covered in lacerations and various bruises. There was a tube in his mouth with someone continuously squeezing a bag while another pushed desperately on his chest. Where were Doug and Dennis? Who were these people with him? It was in another instant that he was floating higher. Through the clouds, past the moon… what was going on?"
"Tommy…" A voice it was so familiar. There was a large warm hand on his shoulder. He looked up. He gasped out loud. There were tears streaming down his face as he felt a feeling of warmth and love he had never felt before.
"D-Dad…" Hanson stuttered. He rubbed his eyes with his fists. It been such a terrible week, he was sure his eyes were lying to him. Dad has been dead since he was seventeen… there is no way…
"Yeah son… it's me…" Tom took a step back in disbelief. The man standing in front of him looked like his father, but… no… it couldn't be.
"No… dad, you-you're… dead…" Tom took a deep breath as the words fell out of his mouth. "That means…"
"Tommy, we need to talk." He wrapped his arm around the shoulders of his son. "Tommy, you look so good to me. I've been waiting for you and your mother, but this isn't your time." Hanson's father smiled down at his son. "There is a whole lot of work left for you. Your friends, Doug, Dennis, Harry, Judy and Adam… They need you. Your mother… how I miss her… she needs you too."
"Dad… I just… I mean…" He could feel tears pricking at the corners of his eyes as the older man leaned over and kissed the officer on the cheek. The elder Hanson stood up straight again and touched his hand to Tom's youthful face. "I miss you dad… I love you…" He stumbled and fell to the ground as the pain consumed him again. "Dad!" He screamed reaching out to his father as he started drift swiftly away.
"I love you too son." Tom heard the words out of a distracted corner of his mind as the pain returned with a vengeance. Hanson drew a ragged breath into his burning lungs.
"He's registering a rhythm!" A female's voice stated excitedly.
"Doctor, I think he's with us!" Came a second male's voice.
"Thomas… can you hear me?" A mature man's voice cut into his racing thoughts. His chest ached as the result of being pounded with numerous hands during CPR. He felt a burning sensation on his side and his chest. He could not speak as he had a tube going down his throat. He wanted to answer yes but all he could do was move his fingers and toes. "Thomas, if you can hear me squeeze my hand." Tom felt a cold gloved hand touching his left palm. Slowly, one finger at a time, Tom wrapped his fingers around the hand and offered a short but deliberate squeeze to the hand. The doctor standing over top of the badly beaten officer let out a deep breath as a slow smile spread across his face.
Hanson felt like he was going to cough but the plastic tube in his throat prevented anything. He lifted his hand and started to claw at his throat. The doctor caught his hand and put it back at his side. "Nurse, let's get this tube out of him, get him cleaned up, into a gown and then into a room for the night. I don't know what just happened or why it happened, but he's going to be fine. He's breathing on his own. Thomas, I'm going to talk to your uncle now. You are going to be just fine."
Hanson coughed and gagged violently as the long plastic tube was pulled from his throat. Once the unpleasant detail was complete, Tom rolled his head to the side and his eyes fluttered open. He looked at the young kind faced nurse attending to him. She was adjusting the drip on an IV. The movement out of the corner of her eye caught her attention and drew her eyes to the handsome young officer in the bed next to her. She smiled at him and finished attending to the IV dripping from a bag and into the long tube which ran to his arm.
Once completed she turned her attention to the man beside her, she smiled at the officer as she checked the bandage on his head and then the much larger bandage along the bottom of his stomach.
"You've been through quite an ordeal." Her voice was gentle and soothing to the officer who tried to sit up. "No, no… let's not do that. You have a couple bruised ribs and twenty stitches inside and on the outside of your stomach."
"Twenty…" Hanson asked, his voice was hoarse and almost a whisper.
"Yeah, you're sort of a miracle patient right now. The knife missed all of your vital organs." She shook her head in disbelief as she spoke. "It's almost like you had an angel with you."
Hanson laid his head back on the thin surface of the pillow. She covered him back up with a blanket and went to the edge of the curtains to excuse herself.
"You still have a bit of a fever, but you'll be fine. Don't move around a lot, you don't want to rip your stitches out. I'm sending Greg in here to take you to your room and get you cleaned up. I'll be along shortly to check on you. So, take it easy." She smiled as she winked at the officer and then turned to walk out.
"Hey…" Tom called quietly to her.
"What's your name?" He asked. "I mean..."
She smiled back at the young officer. "Tiffany… no more talking… you need to rest up. I'll send some water in with Greg."
Hanson laid his head back on the pillow again and closed his eyes. He had so much to think about what had happened, how is it possible a knife to the stomach which is nearly always fatal not kill him, and did he really see his father. He really needed to rest his throat was on fire and his head pounding. The pain in his chest was unquenchable, probably a bruised rib from the continuous thrusts of CPR. What a day it had been…
Thanks for the challenge, This story deserved it:-) Let me know how you truly feel:-) LOL!! Thanks for reading and I'm not done with this yet!