Where would we be without Cyclone Carly Corinthos weighing in with her perspectives on the situation?
For the Love of Family
Chapter 44: Acting on Impulse
Back in Kyle's hospital room Scott had returned to reviewing for his case. Faith had needed to leave to meet her cousin Keesha. Hearing a moan he turned his eyes back to his friend who had opened his eyes again but from the glassy look he had Scott could tell he wasn't really himself again.
"My tummy hurts," Kyle whined.
"I know, I'm right here ok and I'm going to rub you're tummy. Does that feel a little better?" Scott said realizing he sounded like he was talking to a five year old.
"I feel weak."
"Yeah but that's ok because you can just rest, just lie back and think about a nice peaceful day," Scott said wiping his face and neck again.
"What's wrong? I feel sick and hot really hot,"
"Yeah, you're running a fever but it's ok, just lie here and rest. You're going to feel better and you're not alone," Scott promised.
Kyle's eyes had started to drift closed again and Scott figured he'd be back to sleep in a few minutes, well until the cyclone blew through.
"What do you think you're doing?" came a shrill scream from the doorway. Kyle's eyes snapped open in alarm and Scott turned to see Kyle's half sister Carly Corinthos standing in the doorway.
"Carly, please don't scream, we're trying to be calm so your brother can go back to sleep," Scott said.
"Like h—l, what are you doing?" she asked coming closer to them.
"What do you mean?" Scott asked.
"People like you are just sick taking advantage of him like this or maybe he likes it I don't know but my boys will not be exposed to this filth," Carly fumed.
"Stop screaming, he's in a lot of pain with a high fever and you're just making things worse. " Scott said starting to stand to direct her from the room. As he pulled his hand away Kyle winced and then started crying. Instinctively Scott stroked his head, "Hey it's ok, you're ok, just take some nice deep breaths,"
"I'm sorry," Kyle wailed.
"Yeah you should be, carrying on like this. You're twenty seven not seven you don't need someone rubbing your stomach or whatever he was doing," Carly said.
"I think you should leave Carly," Scott said.
"Not a chance, someone has to keep Kyle from dragging down the family name, perhaps you should leave," Carly insisted.
"I'm sick," Kyle panted.
"I'm sorry Mrs. Corinthos but you're going to need to step out so I can examine your brother," Dr. Alan Quartermaine said from the doorway. He walked past her into the room.
"Why does he get to stay?" Carly asked.
"Because he's not upsetting him right now and he's the power of attorney," Alan said.
After Carly had flounced out, Scott turned to Alan, "Thank you."
"It's not a problem," Alan said picking up his stethoscope and working through the exam.
He frowned as he palpated the abdomen, noting the marked tenderness in the right lower quadrant. "He's really tender which we don't commonly see with just cramping. We should get a CT but I'm worried he may have an acute abdomen," Alan said.
"So he would need surgery?"
"In most cases yes," Alan agreed.
Scott tensed at those words. "Do you think he's in shape for that?" he asked uneasily.
"Well no, but if he's got something acute then it may be a situation where we do surgery or he doesn't make it so that changes things. Listen let's get the CT and see what that shows. We can discuss this after we've done that."
After they had taken Kyle down for the CT Scott dropped his head down into his hands for a moment and prayed. He heard the commotion in the hallway and poked his head out to see Carly and Liz arguing.
"Your brother isn't even in the room Mrs. Corinthos, he went down for a test," Liz said using her upmost restraint.
"But he's my brother and I should be the one making the decisions about what happens," Carly insisted.
"Your brother filled out paperwork designating a medical power of attorney in case he wasn't able to make his own decisions. He didn't list you as that person. We really can't give you anymore information about his condition. Now you need to calm down because you're disrupting other patients as well," Liz said.
"I'm not going anywhere," Carly insisted bursting through the door.
Scott watched Carly lean back against the wall still looking extrememly ticked. He could sort of understand her feeling that she had been shut out. But at the same time he knew Carly and Kyle were not close and he had witnessed the way she had torn into him at their father's funeral. Kyle had told him that she was grieving and upset and Scott knew that Kyle had become rather close to Carly's sons in the months that had followed. Given everything he knew he didn't think it was his place to tell Carly about Kyle's diagnosis, although from the words that had come from her mouth he wondered if she knew. How she knew he wasn't sure and he really hoped that Kyle's personal life wasn't going to be spewed on the front page of the Port Charles Herald. So they sat and stood in silence waiting for Kyle to come back.
After fifteen minutes Liz came back, "Dr. Quartermaine is on the phone he's down in radiology looking at the CT and he needs to talk to you," Liz said.
Carly started to charge for the phone but Liz held it from her grasp and handed it to Scott who listened as Dr. Quartermaine explained that it looked like an acute appendicitis. They would need to operate. Reluctantly Scott consented and handed the phone back to Liz to witness that. Liz hung up the phone. "Dr. Quartermaine also said they would bring a consent up for you to sign," she said looking at Scott.
"Ok this has gone on long enough, my mother is the nurse director of the OR and I'm calling her," Carly fumed.
"Actually we already called her Mrs. Corinthos and she's on her way. I thought you might need a ride home," Liz said sweetly.
Carly was ready to throttle Miss Muffin Face. How dare she talk to her like that, plus although her last name still technically was Corinthos as she and Sonny hadn't finalized their third divorce she knew that Liz was calling her that to goad her. "Now let's get one thing straight right now Miss Muffin Face," Carly said geting into Liz's face and wagging a finger.
Just then Bobbie Spencer arrived on the unit. "Carly what are you doing?"
"Just trying to get some information about my brother, Miss Muffin Face here seems to think I don't deserve to know," Carly said.
"What are you talking about Carly? Lucas is fine, in fact he's waiting in the car. we just came from his road test," Bobbie said.
"You're forgetting I have two brothers. My straight brother Lucas and my gay brother Kyle," Carly said.
Bobbie's jaw dropped at her daughter's revelation. She had never known that Kyle was gay, although it was also the first time that she had heard Carly refer to him as a brother. Technically Kyle was her half brother as they shared the same father in John Durant. Of course, Bobbie realized, Lucas was also her half brother because they shared the same mother or at least from an adoptive standpoint.
"You know what forget it! If Kyle wants to carry on like this then screw him! Let's go mother," Carly burst out heading for the hallway to take her to the elevator. Bobbie hesitiated a moment. before following her daughter.
"What just happened?" Scott asked after they had left.
"I'm not really sure, I'm guessing that Carly somehow discovered Kyle's problems and jumped to the incorrect conclusion that meant he was gay. It's ignorant but well this is Carly we're talking about," Liz said.
"But he isn't, not that if he was it would be worthy of condemnation but Kyle likes girls and loves Faith," Scott said.
"Yes but he has a disease that closed minded people think only affects gay men. It feeds their denial that they couldn't possibly be affected," Liz said.
"Which is really wise since the group with the most new cases of HIV are heterosexual women," Scott said.
"Hey as my Grandfather would have said you're preaching to the choir. I'm not Carly Corinthos," Liz said.
"I'm sorry I just get really frustrated by the ignorance and insensitivity sometimes," Scott said. "But more importantly how do you think that Carly found out about Kyle's diagnosis?" Scott asked.
"Well her mom does work here," Liz suggested.
"Her mother has no medical reason to need to know, and even if she did telling her daughter majorly violates not only HIPPA but some of the privacy sanctions in this state," Scott said.
"For what it's worth I don't really think Bobbie would say anything. But maybe she thought that since Carly was his sister I don't know," Liz said.
"Kyle went through this before and it nearly destroyed him. Personally I think we need to get to a point where saying someone has AIDS doesn't evoke different sentiments than saying someone has cancer but I know we aren't there yet. I am not going to let him go through what he went through before here,' Scott said adamantly.
