Officer Hopper, Henry and Robert walked in the hospital, although, it was more like Henry ran in. He went through the hospital lobby in the Intensive Care unit and went to the front desk.
Henry barely glimpsed at the receptionist working the customer service desk before he said in a panic, "Where are they keeping Winter Callaghan? I need to see her."
"Are you a relative?" the woman in the blue cardigan asked.
"No, I'm her boyfriend. I need to see her."
Officer Hopper and Robert walked up behind Henry
"You couldn't wait for us, huh?" Jim turned his attention to the receptionist, "We're here to see Winter Callaghan."
Since Jim was a cop, she didn't ask anymore questions. She pulled up the name on her computer and skimmed through the file. "One moment, I need to call the doctor over." She picked up her phone and dialled the doctor's number.
Henry bit at his thumb like he did when he's nervous. "Why can't she just give us the room number and let us go on our own?"
"They need to treat her, Henry," Robert spoke up, nervous at what the news could be. "She just got here."
"Yeah! Yeah, thanks for the brotherly advice!" Henry snapped at him.
"Henry!" Jim spoke up, "I'm tired of this attitude you've got going on! He stayed here for the week from out-of-state for you, and he was there for you today! You should thank him for it!"
"So..." the lady at the reception hung up the phone receiver. She looked at Officer Hopper as she spoke as the frustrated look in Henry's eyes made her feel uneasy, as it did for the other two. "The doctor is coming over to see you. You can have a seat."
Henry smacked the desk frustrated as he turned around to have a seat. Robert followed behind him.
Officer Hopper looked apologetically at the receptionist, "Sorry about him, he's had a rough few days. We appreciate the help."
As Jim went over to his nephews to sit with them, a middle-aged man with brown hair in a white coat showed up from the doors leading to the Intensive Care.
All three of them got onto their feet.
"Hi there, I'm Doctor Martin. I'll be the doctor treating Winter," he shook all three of their hands and kept eye contact while he shook them. He noticed in Henry's eyes that there was a spark of uneasiness, but he kept himself professional.
"What's the news, Doctor?" Jim asked, nervous of what he may say.
"Well, Winter just arrived about twenty minutes ago. She had a lot of blood, dirt and sweat on her so the nurses just got her out of the showers. We just wanted to shower her first incase the bacteria from the sewers was still on her, and we didn't want them making her more sick than how she is now. The shower was also helping bring her fever down as it's at a dangerous level. She came in with a fever of 106F, and that's dangerously high," he spoke and looked to each of them in their eyes.
Jim stroked his beard as he listened, "Is there any idea what she might have?"
Doctor Martin shook his head, "We know for sure that her cuts have been infected and that is making her more sick. We still need to take bloodwork and see if she might be contagious at the moment and see what Ms. Callaghan is actually dealing with. We have all the nurses taking care of her right now, because she is in a very bad state. The fever has caused her to have seizures, she's been throwing up and she hasn't even eaten anything in days, and she's really confused from the fever and the trauma. She doesn't know that she's in the hospital. She's seeing things that aren't there and it's causing her to panic. We also want to take an X-Ray of her lungs because her chest is swollen, she has a really bad cough and is coughing up some blood, and she can't make much sound when she tries to speak. I haven't confirmed anything yet until we do tests, but it looks like we may be dealing with a type of Pneumonia."
Henry combed his hands through his hair at the thought of Winter suffering from Pneumonia. His family had a friend who was sick with Pneumonia and she almost died from it. The thought made his heart pound fast in his chest and he could feel his skin turning hot from panic.
"Can I see her?" Henry asked, panic in his voice.
Doctor Martin looked at him, "I don't think you'll be able to see her until we get the fever down and we confirm whether she's contagious or not."
Henry's eyes went wide, "No, I don't care if she's contagious. I'll take my chances. I need to see her!"
"Henry!" Jim shot him a look that told him to shut up.
Robert rubbed at his own arms as he watched Henry start to pace with panic. "Do you know when the fever will be down enough, and say if it is a contagious form of Pneumonia, can you ball-park when the contagious stage will be done? My brother just really cares about his girlfriend."
"I can't say right now. From what I can tell, if she was found just an hour or two hours later than when she was found, she probably would have been dead. We need to do all we can right now to bring her fever down, treat the infection, and treat whatever type of viral conditions she has right now."
Henry stopped from his pacing and his stomach turned with anxiety at the thought of them not finding her on time. He could feel the tears building behind his eyes at the thought of her dying; "She's not going to die though, right? She's here now. You guys are making her better. She's going to be okay?"
Doctor Martin sighed, "I can't make promises. She's a young lady and was found just on time. But again, we need to get the tests back from the lab before we know what's happening for sure."
Henry's eyes couldn't hold back the tears anymore, "No, no, that doesn't answer my question! You can't let her die! She is the most wonderful, amazing, person in this town - on this planet! You got to watch her every minute and make sure she's okay... I just..." he couldn't keep it in anymore, the tears exploded out of him, "I just need to see her!"
Robert grabbed Henry as he began to panic and wrapped him up tightly in a brotherly hug, "Henry, it's okay... It's going to be okay. She doesn't even know where she is right now. She probably thinks she's still in the sewers. You got to give it time, man..." he said soothingly.
Henry cried out, "I just want to see her, man! If she sees me, it might help her realize that she's okay!"
"I know. And you will see her, but they need to look after her first, okay?"
As much as Henry sometimes didn't enjoy Robert hanging around his family, he gave into the hug. He had never cried that much in his life, and he needed his older brother at that moment.
Jim looked over at his two nephews, happy to have Robert back in the family for Henry's sack, but sad that Henry had to go through all of this. Jim turned to the doctor, "I guess she's on Intravenous right now? Life support... so that mean's she's on twenty-four hour watch?"
The doctor nodded, "She is, and we are also giving her Antibiotics for the infections. We have her on a sedative right now, as well, to relax her. Like I said, the trauma and fever is making her see things that aren't there and it's causing her a lot of panic. We need her to sleep as much as possible until the fever dies off. We also have her hooked up to a ventilator to keep her breathing normally. Just because her lungs are in really bad shape, we also have a wind tube through her nose. If the fever continues to spike up, we're going to move her to the showers again to bring it down."
Jim looked over to his nephews again. They were both looking at the doctor as Henry was wiping his wet eyes, his face was bright red, but he had calmed down. Robert had teared up a bit as well, feeling sorry for his little brother and his girlfriend.
"Doctor..." Jim turned back to the doctor, "I don't want to take up anymore of your time since I know you need to be with Winter, but would you be able to get her clothes for me? I just need to take it to the evidence lab at the department so we can test the blood on them."
"Yes, of course."
"I'll let her parents know everything you told me, and that they won't be able to see her for a few days until we get the okay for visitation," Jim nodded and weakly smiled. "Thank you for the update," he shook his hand.
"It was nice meeting you three," the doctor said before he disappeared into the Intensive Care unit.
Jim turned to Henry and Robert, "Well, I guess all we can do now is wait until they call us and let us know the update."
Robert nodded and patted Henry a quick reassuring pat on the shoulder.
"I'm not leaving," Henry said with his arms folded. "I'm staying until I'm allowed to see her."
Jim rubbed his face with frustration, "Henry, you've got to go to school and let your parents know you're okay."
"You or Robert can let them know I'm alright. I'll go back to school when she's getting better. I can't even go to school now and concentrate with her in here. I need to stay here and be here the moment she's better." He looked over at his uncles concerned look, "What would you do if you had a wife and she was in this situation?"
Jim cleared his throat, "Probably the same thing you're doing..." he punched him lightly on the shoulder, "You're a strong kid."
"I'll go to Henry's school at the end of the day and get his school work for him." Robert looked at Henry, "You'll probably need it as a distraction while you're in here."
Henry nodded and wiped his nose quickly.
The doctor came out with Winter's clothes in an air-tight bag to keep whatever could be contagious on them in the bag, and not have them exposed incase it was air-born.
"Thanks again, Doctor..." Jim took the bag, "Also, Doctor, my nephew, Henry, is going to stay here until Winter is allowed visits. He's been looking for her with barely any sleep for the past three days, so he's insisting that he's going to stay. Whatever updates you have about her conditions, please let him know."
The doctor looked over at Henry's red upset face and smiled reassuringly, "No problem. There's a cafeteria in the next building over and there's a sleeping area for visitors too in the same building."
Henry nodded.
"Henry, don't be rude to anyone, okay? Be polite. They're trying their best to bring Winter back to how she was before," Jim said seriously.
"I'll be good," Henry said as he sat down in one of the lobby chairs.
"I'll bring you your blanket from home, Henry," Robert said as he waved bye to his brother.
