Warning: Very dark chapter ahead.
25.
Jem did not get better. When one chest tube failed to reinflate his lung, the doctors had to insert a second one. This worked, but he then picked up an infection and his body was unable to fight it off. The doctors pumped him full of medicines and did everything they could. But he slipped into a coma and could not breathe without the help of a machine pumping oxygen through a tube in his neck.
Elias refused to leave his side. He had set up camp on a chair beside the bed. He had a cold compress applied to Jem's forehead constantly in an attempt to bring down the fever. Two days passed agonisingly slowly. Lijuan came on the third day to say that the verdict had been passed. Luo was found not guilty and would walk free. Elias had been so angry that he broke the plastic cup he was holding.
Will spent as much time as he could in Jem's room. Rationally, he knew there was nothing he could do, but he felt like he had to be there, even if all he could do was think positive thoughts.
Poor Colette was left with the job of making sure the two of them were fed, watered and rested. It was not an easy job. She got into frequent arguments with Will over returning to the hotel every night, and she was in despair over getting Elias to eat or take a break. She would buy food for them, but if she wasn't there, most of the time the food was left uneaten.
"Elias, you can't go on like this," she finally said. "Do you think Jem would want you to kill yourself here? You need to sleep. In a proper bed, so you can rest properly."
"It's like history is repeating itself," Elias said in a hollow tone. "No, I have to be here, Colette."
"I'll stay," Colette insisted. "He won't be alone, I promise."
"It's not that," Elias countered. "It's… Six years ago, I sat here, in this very hospital, and waited for Jem to wake up. He was on oxygen too, like now. I left to go somewhere, I can't even remember where now. When I came back, I saw someone whom I thought was a doctor adjusting the equipment. He left as soon as I came in. Immediately afterwards, Jem started to turn blue. That person had switched off his oxgen supply."
"Someone tried to murder Jem?" Will asked in shock.
"I don't know. Perhaps. The other doctors managed to save him and there was no lasting harm. Everyone thought it was an accident, so I didn't pursue it. I never told Jem about it. I was more concerned with getting him better and out of the country as soon as possible," Elias explained. "It's not safe for him here in China."
"Now I understand," Colette said. "You're guarding him."
"I can't lose him, Colette," Elias said softly. He gently stroked Jem's hair. "He's all I have left of Jonah. And, he's my boy."
"And mine," Colette said. "I'll watch him. I promise. I won't let anything happen to him."
"No! I need to be here," Elias insisted.
Colette put her arms around him. "Elias, you're not thinking clearly. Go back to the hotel, get some sleep. I will stay with him. I won't let anyone hurt him," she assured. "You can't help Jem if you're exhausted."
Eventually, Elias gave in and took a cab back to the hotel. Will was allowed to stay with Colette, as a condition to the agreement. The TV was on, though neither of them could understand the Chinese programme. They just turned it on so that the room would not be so quiet. Colette got into the bed with Jem and carefully cuddled him.
"So that he doesn't feel like he's alone," she explained when Will looked quizzically at her. "You know, Will, he's told me about the things you do to try and cheer him up in the hospital."
"I don't think the nurses here would appreciate my methods," Will said. He paused for a very long time then asked: "Colette, is Jem going to die?"
"I hope not," Colette said. She kissed the top of Jem's head. "I really hope not."
Will joined them on the bed and squeezed in next to Jem. He lay down and put his head on Jem's lap. "I don't want him to die," he said. "I already lost a sister. I don't want to lose my brother too."
Colette put her hand down and ran her fingers comfortingly through Will's hair. "Let's not talk about this. Bad luck, in a sick room."
They stopped talking and Will fell asleep. When he woke, Lijuan was there talking softly to Colette. They looked grave. "What are you talking about?" he asked.
"I was just telling Auntie Lijuan what Elias told me. About someone trying to kill Jem six years ago," Colette informed him. "I thought, maybe, it could help in the trial. It's new evidence, after all."
"And I talked to the hospital's security department," Lijuan added. "They're retrieving the CCTV footage from that time. Maybe there will be something we can use. Don't worry, I will do everything I can to convict Luo. This is personal."
They heard nothing about the trial for the next few days. By then, seven days had passed since Jem was hospitalised fell into a coma. He was moved into the intensive care unit and monitored day and night. His condition did not improve. Eventually, he was put on life support.
Will was laying on the bed in the hotel room that evening, after Colette made him leave the hospital. It was hard for him to accept that things had changed so much in one week. Just seven days ago, he and Jem had been laughing over chocolate cake. Now, Jem was fighting for his life. Will couldn't understand why these things happened. It all felt unreal.
Someone knocked on the door of Colette's room but Will did not bother to get up to see who it was. He sighed, rolled over onto his back and stared at the ceiling. However, when he heard a familiar voice speaking, he jumped up and ran over. "Dad!" he exclaimed in surprise.
"Will," his father greeted, taking the few steps towards his son and pulling him into a hug. Usually, Will considered himself too old for childish gestures like hugs, but this time, with the events of the last week overwhelming him, he felt glad to let his father hold him and to feel protected like a child again.
When he broke away, he cleared his throat self-consciously and asked: "What are you doing here, Dad?"
"Elias called me…" his father began before Will interrupted.
"If he wants you to take me home, I'm not going," he said firmly. "I'm not leaving until I know Jem's getting better."
Mr Herondale shook his head. "I didn't think you would," he said. "That's why I'll be staying."
"Maybe he could use Jem's bed," Colette suggested.
"No!" Will burst out. "It's Jem's bed! He'll need it when he comes back."
The two adults exchanged a significant look. "All right," Mr Herondale gave in. "I'll see if there's an empty room in this hotel."
The next day, Mr Herondale took Will down for breakfast at the hotel's restaurant. Having his father around made Will feel a lot better, as if everything was going to be all right. He ate his fried rice, bacon, eggs and pancakes with a good appetite that he had not had in days. After breakfast, the father and son went for a walk along the river. Will poured out everything that had happened to his father, telling him all about the trial and its terrible aftermath, and the days spent in the hospital after that.
"I can't believe someone would have wanted to murder Jem," Will said. "He's the most harmless person I know."
"Oh, I don't know. Didn't you say that he once threatened a gang of bullies with a sword?" his father asked.
"It was an epee," Will corrected with a grin. "He wouldn't have hurt them, not really. He has too much restraint."
"A trait that you haven't quite learnt from him yet, given your frequent fights with your sister and her friend Gabriel."
"I don't trust Gabriel; he's a low down cad," Will asserted. "Cecily needs protecting from him."
His father laughed and moved on to other topics, such as the things Cecily was getting up to at home while Will was away. The day passed quickly in that manner. The two went all over the city – looking at museums, parks and even doing some shopping for Cecily and his mother.
It wasn't until they were queueing up to buy fried dumplings for dinner that Will realised he had barely spent any time worrying about Jem that entire day.
The dumplings were famous in Shanghai and there was a crowd of tourists also buying them. Mr Herondale bought a dozen and he and Will stood by the roadside, spearing dumplings with their chopsticks and laughing as the soup inside squirted out.
As they were eating, they ran into Lijuan's daughter Hanyun. She greeted them and then offered to take them to for dessert. It turned out to be a shop selling Chinese dessert soups, jellies and sweet dumplings. The shop was small and full of locals sitting on backless wooden stools at wooden tables. The whole place was decorated to look like Shanghai of the olden days. There were even sephia photographs decorating the walls showing scenes of the city in colonial times.
Hanyun ordered for them in flawless Chinese. Soon, three bowls of black sesame soup with milk pudding arrived. Will took a tentative spoonful and instantly felt like he was transported to heaven. The pudding was smooth, sweet and so delicious.
"Auntie Wen Yu, Jian Ming's mother, used to bring us here," Hanyun said conversationally. "She and Mama would talk, and me and Jian Ming would eat. We'd stay here for hours and try everything on the menu." Her voice trembled. She poked at her soup. "This was his favourite. He could eat this all day. He would've loved to have just one more bowl." She suddenly burst into tears and ran out of the shop.
Will stared in surprise and was about to go after her when his father put out a hand to stop him. "She's local. She knows her way around," Mr Herondale reasoned.
"But what happened? Why did she suddenly start crying like that?" Will asked in bewilderment. "Okay, she and Jem were probably best friends once, but that was years ago. What did she mean that he'd like to have one more bowl…?" Will suddenly had the feeling that something was wrong. Things were going too well. He was enjoying himself too much. His father was far too calm. "What's going on, Dad? What don't I know?"
His father sighed hard. "I told Elias you'd find out," he muttered to himself.
"Find out what?"
"William, I won't lie to you; you know that," his father began. "But it's going to be hard, and you may not want to hear it."
"How will I know if I want to hear it or not if I don't know what it is?" Will asked, partly in exasperation and partly in anxiety. "Is it Jem? Something happened to him?"
His father nodded. "Elias and the doctors have decided that it's time to let him go."
Will felt like the floor was pulled out from underneath him. He could not believe what he was hearing. "What?" he stammered in shock.
"Jem's not going to wake up, Will," his father explained. "Even now, the machines are breathing for him and keeping his heart beating. He's not going to recover. The merciful thing to do is to let him go."
"That's why you're here, isn't it?" Will asked, forcing himself to stay calm. "To distract me? Were any of you even going to tell me?" His father's silence was deafening. "I want to go to the hospital. Now."
"Will…"
Will got to his feet. "We can go together or I'll hail a cab and go myself. Either way, I'm not going to sit here, eating dessert while they kill Jem!" His voice rose louder with each syllable.
Mr Herondale gave in and took Will to the hospital. Will ran up to the ICU faster than he had ever run, praying that he was not too late. He burst in to Jem's room and yelled: "You can't let him die!"
Elias was on the bed cradling Jem. Colette was next to him, holding Jem's hand. Even Lijuan was there, holding Jem's other hand. All three looked up when Will came in.
"You can't let him die," Will repeated frantically, tears starting to fall. "You can't… you just can't."
Elias didn't say anything. He just buried his face into Jem's hair and held his nephew tighter. Colette, however, got up and went to Will. "Will, Jem is suffering. He's said before that he did not want to be kept alive on machines. This is what he wants," she said sadly.
"No…" Will gasped. "He can't… This can't be…"
Colette put her arms around him. "Oh Will, I know this is difficult. But we have to do what's best for Jem now. We shouldn't force him to carry on if his body can't function any more. It's hurting him."
"Can't we just wait a while longer? Maybe he'll get better. People wake up from comas all the time," Will pleaded.
"It's been seven days. He hasn't gotten better. In fact, he's been getting worse all this time. You know this, Will," Colette reasoned.
"But, you haven't… done it yet, right?" Will asked, indicating the machines. They looked like they were still on and the room was noisy with the sound of the pumps and hiss of oxygen. "So, we could wait a while longer."
Colette lowered her eyes. "Tonight," she said. "At nine o'clock. That's when Jem usually goes to bed when we're at home."
Will fought to keep control of his emotions. "That's just less than two hours more," he pointed out. His voice cracked. "It's not enough time."
"We didn't want you to have to go through this," she said. "You should go, Will. You shouldn't have to see this."
"He's my brother!" Will cried. "Were you going to just let me blissfully play the tourist and then tell me Jem died when I got back? Were you going to tell me he died because you pulled the plug on him? I love Jem too. I have a right to be here."
"Let him stay," Elias adjudicated in a voice that was gruff and hoarse.
Will took a chair and placed it right next to the bed, where he could reach out and touch Jem's hand reassuringly. Mr Herondale sat by the window. Lijuan began singing something soothing in Chinese. It sounded like a lullaby.
Will thought of the times he and Jem spent together, right from the first moment they met – when Will was standing on the railing of Blackfriars Bridge and contemplating jumping off it, fun days they had swimming in the lake in Wales, playing games in Will's attic room in London. Jem bandaging Will up after he got into fights or accidents from attempting to do stupid things. The numerous slices of chocolate cake they had shared. He did not know what his life would have been like without Jem. Most likely, he would have been dead or a juvenile delinquent. He owed Jem so much.
His face screwed up and his heart felt like it was being torn into shreds. But even as tears clouded his vision, he refused to look away. If this would be the last time he would see Jem alive, then he wanted to remember it. He wanted to burn it into his memory for all eternity.
All too soon, nine o'clock came round. A doctor and several nurses came into the room and stood discreetly by the door. Lijuan got up first. She bent over Jem and kissed him, caressing his face tenderly, before leaving the room. Colette did the same and went to stand by Elias, her arms around his shoulders in a show of support. Elias nodded mechanically at the doctor, who came round to the machines by the bed.
Will felt frozen to his chair. His father came up to him. "Will, it's time to say goodbye," he said.
"I can't, Dad," he said in a tight voice.
"Think of Jem," his father urged. "You know he'd want you to be brave for him." His father gently but firmly pulled him to his feet and to the side to give the nurses space to work.
Will followed, but as soon as he saw the doctor put a hand on the life support machine, he yelled: "No!"
The doctor was so startled by the sudden outburst that he stopped and stared.
Will's control broke. "No! You can't do this! You can't give up on him! He's not dead! You're going to kill him!"
Elias ignored Will but Colette entreated: "Will, please don't! Please don't make this any harder than it is."
"NO! This is wrong! I won't let you do this. He's alive. He's going to wake up. You just need to give him more time!" Will bellowed hysterically, struggling as his father tried to wrestle him out of the room. "Jem! Jem! Wake up! I know you can hear me! Please, get up! JEM!" A nurse now tried to pull Will away, saying something in Chinese. Will was having none of it. He kicked out and just barely missed injuring the nurse. "Let go of me! Jem! You can't die! You've got to get up! Jem! You listen to me right now! WAKE UP!"
Colette then let out a scream. A hand was pressed to her mouth but the other was pointing at Jem. Everyone turned to look.
Weakly, but unmistakeably, Jem's eyes had fluttered open, and he was looking at Will.