Days had passed since there had been a significant change in Kyle's condition. The doctors still couldn't work out why he had a sudden change after no signs suggesting he'd wake up. His family had barely left his side since finding out, not wanting to miss the chance of Kyle waking up. They took it in turns resting up, someone being on watch at all times, mainly the brothers taking charge to let the girls rest.
It wasn't until Nate walked back in with the results of the last lot of test results that everyone woke up. Kyle's kidneys weren't getting any better, having started to fail, so Nate had made the decision to place him on dialysis to slow it down while they looked for a kidney. They had all been tested to see if they were a match but would need to wait a while for the results to come in, so were waiting to see how well the dialysis machine would work in the meantime.
Northern Districts Hospital - Day 21
"How much longer do you think we're going to have to wait?" Casey asks, having expected Kyle to wake up by now, but something else got in the way of that.
"I'm not sure. Nate said his vitals were getting better each day, so that must be a good sign." Brax says. "We just need to wait and see what happens with this dialysis."
"Hey, did Kyle have that wheeze before?" Ricky asks.
"I'll get the doctor." Blake says, walking out to find him.
"There's a rash here." Emily frowns as she looks at Kyle's arm not having noticed it before. "Something's wrong." She says as Blake walks back in with Nate.
"Blake said Kyle's been wheezing." Nate says.
"He's also got a rash here." Emily says, gesturing to it.
"Okay, I'm going to need you to wait outside." Nate orders as he calls more nurses in.
"Why, what's happening?" Brax asks.
"Brax, wait outside." Nate says, a lot firmer, Brax reluctantly walking out with his family.
"What do you think that was about?" Lucas asks.
"Do you think we'd be standing out here if we knew?" Heath snaps, getting stressed out over what was going to happen next. "Sorry, I just thought things were starting to look better after…"
"It's okay." Lucas mutters, Heath pulling him in for a quick man hug as an apology.
They all became silent after that, waiting for Nate to come back out with answers. They couldn't understand how Kyle was fine one minute, and then taking a turn for the worst the next. It felt like hours to them all over again, they just wanted some sort of answer for when they could go back to some sort of normality with their life, and they wanted Kyle to be alive with them.
"Nate, how's Kyle doing?" Heath asks the second Nate walked out of the door.
"Kyle's doing okay now. He had an allergic reaction to the dialysis but we managed to reverse the effects." Nate says.
"But you said Kyle needed the dialysis to slow the kidney failure down. Can he go without it?" Brax frowns.
"I did say that, but we weren't to know that Kyle would be allergic to dialysis. Kyle is going to need a kidney transplant now, and we won't have long to do it. Luckily I've already had the results back and there's a match." Nate says with a smile.
"Who is it?" Heath asks.
"Brax, Tyler and Lucas. All three of you are a match, so you would need to decide between yourselves who would be willing to donate their kidney." Nate says. "I can go through the procedure and answer any questions you have about it if you want to know more about it."
"Can we have some time to talk about it between us first?" Lucas asks.
"Sure. I'll be around here if you want to talk." Nate nods as they all walk back into Kyle's room.
"There's nothing to talk about, Lucas, I'm doing it." Brax says.
"You can't make that decision for all of us. We're a match as well." Lucas says. "I'm his triplet, I should be able to do it."
"Oh, so because I wasn't born with him, that doesn't give me a right?" Brax scoffs, shaking his head.
"I didn't mean it like that. I want to do it, I want to donate my kidney to Kyle." Lucas says, knowing he should have worded it better.
"It's not happening, Lucas, you're not doing it." Tyler says. "I can't let you do it, you've got too much riding on it. I'll do it, it's the best option."
"How?" Brax asks, wanting to hear his input on it.
"I've got nothing to lose." Tyler shrugs. "You both have a strong bond with Kyle that I never had, so if something went wrong, no one would miss me like they would you."
"That's not true." Lucas frowns.
"It is. Just please let me do this. Let me prove that I can do good for this family, that I can be a good big brother to Kyle despite all the bad stuff I've done. I need to give my kidney to Kyle." Tyler says, pleading with them all to agree to it.
"I don't think it's a good idea. I should be the one to do it." Brax says, needing to be the one to save Kyle's life so he didn't feel like a failure at something else.
"I agree with Tyler." Ricky says. "He's the best person to do it."
"I'm with Ricky." Casey says, Heath and Bianca also agreeing.
"I don't care, as long as Kyle gets a kidney." Emily says. "But I don't think you should do it, Brax. I know where you're coming from but Kyle's going to need you just as much as the rest of us once he's woken up. But Tyler, I don't agree that you've got nothing to lose. You're still their brother, you've got a strong bond with Kyle, you just can't notice it. Can someone just please make a decision so we can get Kyle a kidney?"
"Fine." Brax mumbles, glancing over at Tyler. "You can do it on one condition."
"Which is?" Tyler asks.
"You don't ever make out like you're not part of this family, not after all of this." Brax says, gesturing to Kyle.
"Okay." Tyler nods. "So I can tell Nate I'll do it?" He asks.
"Yes… You can tell him." Brax says, not happy about the decision but he was too tired to argue with anyone anymore.
"I'll go and tell him now." Tyler says, walking out to do it.
"I'm proud of you, you did great letting Tyler do this." Ricky smiles as she hugs Brax.
"I'm done with fighting." Brax mutters, Tyler walking back in with Nate.
"I've told Nate I'm going to be donating my kidney to Kyle out of us three. I thought you might all want to hear what's going to be happening." Tyler says as he notices their confused faces.
"Sure." Heath nods. "When's the surgery going to be?" He asks.
"We've got an available space tomorrow morning which I'd like to get it booked in for. The sooner we do this, the sooner Kyle's condition can start improving more." Nate says.
"Tomorrow?" Lucas questions, glancing at Tyler.
"Is that going to be a problem?" Nate asks.
"It's our birthday tomorrow, will Kyle wake up after the surgery?" Lucas asks.
"We won't be able to tell until afterwards, but it gives him a much better chance." Nate says just as his pager goes off. "I'm sorry, I need to take this. I can get another doctor to talk to you if you have any more questions?"
"No, that's it for now. Thanks Nate." Tyler lightly smiles.
"So you're really doing this?" Casey asks.
"I guess this is just a birthday present from me to Kyle making up for the 20 years we missed out on." Tyler jokes, although he was starting to freak out over having the surgery, but knew it would be worth it. "It's going to happen, you have my word that I'm not going to back out."
"You'll be fine, and at least you know good is going to come from it. This could be the thing that causes Kyle to wake up." Heath says.
"You really think this could help?" Tyler asks.
"Nate's hopeful. I can't see what worse it could do, Kyle needs a transplant either way and if yours doesn't work, he's got us as a back up." Brax says.
"I think yours would probably work better, being a triplet and all." Lucas says, thinking to himself. "That means mine would as well but still." He says, them all laughing at him.
"You're so cute." Blake smirks.
"I am not!" Lucas mutters, going red as they all focus on them. "You wouldn't even be here if Kyle didn't tell you."
"He didn't tell me, we both worked it out from how you act." Blake says. "I think he'd be happy to know I didn't mess around and put it off for longer." He says before they all go back to talking to Kyle in the hopes he might wake up sooner, even though they knew it might not happen until after the kidney transplant.