The Ransom of Dr. Dave
Part 44
A/N: Anything in bold italic is being spoken in Italian
Jing-Mei comes running back in and bangs into Luka.
Jing-Mei: Get a gurney!
Luka: Are you alright?
Jing-Mei: Yeah, I'm fine. It's Rusty. He's outside with one of the guards. He's not moving.
Carter, Malik and Mark head out to the parking lot with a gurney to get Rusty while the others exit the ER to search for other victims. The parking lot is engulfed in flames and filled with smoke. The fire engines can be heard in the back ground. Rusty is taken into a trauma room. Jing-Mei tries to enter but Haleh holds her back.
Haleh: Let them do their job.
Jing-Mei: I want to help.
Capt. Amos walks up to Jing-Mei and Haleh.
Capt. Amos: I have my men outside questioning anyone who was in the vicinity at the time that might have seen something out of the norm. Let's talk.
Haleh leaves Jing-Mei in Capt. Amos' hands while she helps the victims.
Capt. Amos: So what happened?
Jing-Mei: We were going to my car, Rusty ran ahead of me, when I realized I left my purse up in the nursery. I called Rusty back and as we started back to the hospital the car blew up. I went down on the ground and I guess I was dazed for a moment or so but I turned around to see what happened and I saw Rusty on the ground unconscious. His guard was getting up off the ground and I did a quick assessment on Rusty and when he didn't answer when I called his name, I told the guard to stay with him while I get help.
Capt. Amos: Did you see anything suspicious?
Jing-Mei: No, I didn't notice. I have to see how Rusty is. Excuse me.
Jing-Mei heads to the trauma room where Rusty is.
Jing-Mei: How is he?
Mark: He's still unconscious but his vitals are good. He's got a deep laceration to the back of his head that needs to be stitched and we're taking him down to have a CAT scan. You can come if you want.
Jing-Mei: I'll meet you there. I have to tell Sophie.
Jing-Mei heads up to the nursery to find Sophie. Sophie is standing by the window still holding Antonio and watching what is happening outside.
Jing-Mei: Sophie!
Sophie: What happened outside? It looks like the end of the world out there.
Jing-Mei: That's what I came to tell you. (carefully removing Antonio from her arms and laying him back in his crib). Sit down Sophie.
Sophie: What's wrong?
Jing-Mei: We were going to my car and I noticed that I didn't have my purse...
Sophie: You left it here. I was going to bring it to you at home.(handing her the purse)Where's Rusty?
Jing-Mei: Sophie, he's been hurt.
Sophie: What!!
Jing-Mei: He's down having a CAT scan done. He's unconscious but stable. I came up to get you and take you down there.
Jing-Mei and a shaken Sophie head down to CAT scan. They enter the observation room outside and watch along with Abby who accompanied Rusty down.
Jing-Mei: If anything happens to that little boy, I will never forgive myself.
Sophie: It's not your fault. It's whoever is doing this to us.
Jing-Mei: First Dave, then Jada, then Antonio and now Rusty. Who's going to be next?
Abby: They better find the son-of-a-bitch who is behind this and let him fry.
Carter exits the CAT scan.
Carter: We should have the results soon. We're taking Rusty back upstairs now so I can suture his head.
Sophie: What exactly happened?
Carter: The best that I can figure is that a piece of the car must have hit him in the head during the explosion.
Sophie: Is he going to be alright?
Carter: We'll know more when we get the results of his CAT scan back.
The foursome ride up with Rusty in the elevator and Carter prepares to stitch his head. After about 30 minutes, a nurse comes into Rusty's room and hands Carter the results of the CAT scan. Carter exits the room and confronts the still upset ladies.
Carter: Well, we have the results.
Jing-Mei: How is he?
Carter: The scan is negative. No brain injury.
Both Jing-Mei and Sophie breathe a sigh of relief.
Carter: His pupils are dilated and he's still unconscious.
Sophie: What does that mean?
Jing-Mei: He probably has a bad concussion is all.
Sophie: That's not serious?
Carter: Well, the longer Rusty is out the greater the chance that a delayed brain injury could be found.
Sophie: You mean he could have brain damage.
Carter: He could...
Jing-Mei(interrupting): Uh, he means that Rusty is going to just fine. Don't you John? (giving him a death stare)
Carter: Yeah, right.
Sophie: I want to see him, can I?
Carter: Sure, he's right in there.
Sophie enters Rusty's room as Jing-Mei hangs back with Carter.
Carter: Do you think it's wise to get her hopes up? We both know that there could be complications with a concussion.
Jing-Mei: She has too much on her plate to handle now. If there is any complications with Rusty, we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.
Carter starts drifting into thought when Jing-Me brings him back.
Jing-Mei: John, John! Are you alright?
Carter: I can't help but think that I was the original target and now whoever is responsible for all of this is coming after Dave and his family. What if I am still the target? What if the bastard behind this still wants me but is going through Dave to get to me?
Jing-Mei: I don't know who is doing this or why. I just wish that Capt. Amos would find them so we can go back to living a normal life. All I want to do is bring my baby and Dave home and take care of them. I'm sick of having guards follow us around everywhere we go and constantly looking over our shoulders and the phone calls are the worse.
Carter and Jing-Mei give each other a comforting hug. Then Carter goes back to work and Jing-Mei heads into Rusty's room.
Inside, Jing-Mei sees Sophie by an unconscious Rusty's bed holding his hand and crying. She remembers all the time she was sitting next to Dave's bed in the same position.
Jing-Mei(thinking to herself): God, this can't be like it was with Dave. Rusty can't be out for as long as his dad was.
She then walks over to Sophie as Sophie is talking to Rusty in Italian.
Jing-Mei: He looks so much like his father, especially now.
Sophie: Tell me the truth. It's bad, isn't it?
Jing-Mei: Maybe not. He's young and healthy and children are very resilient. You would be surprised. He's going to fine.
Sophie fell asleep with her head on Rusty's bed while Jing-Mei slept in the chair nearby. At about 3:00 in the morning, Sophie felt someone reaching for her hand. The movement woke her. She jumped up and saw Rusty's eyes opening.
Sophie: Rusty! Rusty, sweetheart!
Jing-Mei: I'll get the doctor.
Rusty: Aunt Sophie, my head.
Sophie: I know baby. You had a little accident. Do you know where you are?
Rusty: Mama Jing's.
Sophie: No baby. You're in the hospital.
Jing-Mei comes in with Rusty's doctor. The doctor looked at Rusty then shown a light in his eyes. Rusty squinted and start turning away from the light. The doctor instructed Sophie to tell Rusty to follow the light with his eyes. Sophie translated.
Rusty followed the light as he was told. The doctor did a few other tests and pulled Sophie and Jing-Mei to the side.
Sophie: Is everything okay?
Doctor: Yes, it seems like he's going to be just fine. We do want to keep him a day or so for observation and run another CAT scan on him and if everything turns out you can take him home tomorrow.
Sophie: What should we look for?
Doctor: He's probably going to be very tired for awhile. He may have some nausea and dizziness. Don't panic, it's normal.
Rusty: Aunt Sophie, Mama Jing. Don't leave me. Stay.
Sophie: Rusty wants to know if we can stay. He's a little scared.
Doctor: Sure, Jing-Mei just keep doing neuro checks on him every hour or so.
Jing-Mei: You got it.
Sophie sits by Rusty's bed and holds his hand. Jing-Mei settles back down in her chair and tries to get a little sleep.
Rusty: Head hurt. Head hurt.
Sophie: Doctor, is there something we can give him for his headache.
Doctor: I'll send the nurse in with some acetaminophen. That should help.
Rusty lifts his hand to his head and feels the roughness of the new texture.
Rusty: What's this. My head.
Sophie: You cut your head so the doctors had to bandage it.
Rusty: Just like papa's?
Sophie: Yeah, Rusty. Just like papa's.
Just like clockwork, Jing-Mei did the neuro checks on Rusty and he was responding fine to them. Sophie fell back to sleep with her head on Rusty's stomach as Jing-Mei slipped out of the room and down to the nursery in time for Antonio's feeding.
Later that day, the orderlies came in and took Rusty down to CAT scan. Sophie went up to sit with Dave. She entered his room. He was asleep and she sat by his bed and held his hand.
Sophie: Dave, how are you feeling? Jing-Mei told me about your second heart attack and what brought it on. As furious as I am at that nurse and orderlies, I am just grateful that you are okay.
Dave opened his eyes and started roaming the room with his eyes. He didn't seem to notice Sophie sitting next to him until he turned his head and was looking directly at her. His machines started beeping and a look of terror came over both their faces. Dr. Vasquez, Kerry and Jing-Mei who were standing outside Dave's room came running in.
Kerry: What happened?
Sophie: I don't know. I was just talking to Dave and his machines started going crazy.
The doctors came over to Dave's bed and Jing-Me noticed the terrified look on Dave's face.
Jing-Mei: Dave, Dave it's alright, sweetheart.
The more the doctors and Sophie stood around him, the more his machines would beep and the more terrified Dave looked. He tried to pull away but with limited movement he wasn't getting far.
Dr. Vasquez: Dave, calm down. This is your sister and your girlfriend. Don't you recognize them.
Dave blinked twice. (no) Sophie continued to stroke his sweat-covered head as he tried to pull away. He wanted to speak but with the ventilator tube still in his mouth that was impossible.
Sophie: What's wrong with him?
Dr. Vasquez: It's his memory loss. He doesn't remember you.
Jing-mei: It's more than that. He looks scared to death of us. He's tachycardia. (to Dave) Dave, you can't get upset. You have to settle down. Relax baby.
Dave continued to look scared as he tried to pull away from his visitors. Dr. Vasquez filled a syringe with a mild tranquilizer and injected Dave.
Dr. Vasquez: This should calm him down.
Sophie: Did you have to do that?
Dr. Vasquez: Sorry, but we couldn't risk him having another heart attack. He hasn't recovered from the last one.
The tranquilizer took effect almost immediately. Dr. Vasquez picked up the phone while Sophie, Jing-Mei and Kerry tried to comfort a groggy Dave.
Dr. Vasquez walked over to Dave's bed and spoke with the women.
Dr. Vasquez: When the tranquilizer wears off, I've arranged for several specialists to come up and examine Dave.
Sophie: What kind of specialists?
Dr. Vasquez: Ophthalmologist, audiologist, orthopedic. I think it's about time we knew just how well Dave can see, hear and his ability to move. There's also some other tests I think I want to run on him myself. We need to know what we are dealing with here. We have to access the degree of brain damage he suffered.
Sophie: Alright, but will you have the results by the end of the day? I leave for Italy tomorrow and I want to know exactly what is going on with my brother before I go.
Dr. Vasquez: We'll do the best we can, but we don't want to rush this. We need these results to be as accurate as possible.
While the doctors ran the needed tests on Dave, Jing-Mei went down to the nursery and sat with Antonio. Jing-Mei had just finished given him a bath and a treatment for his asthma when Sophie came back from checking on Rusty.
Jing-Mei: How is he?
Sophie: The doctor said his CAT scan results were still negative. We can take him home in the morning, barring any complications.
Jing-Mei: Don't even think that. We have had enough complications to last our lifetimes.
Sophie: Tell me about it. The doctor said that he needs to be watched for next couple of days for any signs of serious damage.
Jing-Mei: Don't worry. I'll keep an eye on him. I won't let anything else happen to Dave or his sons. Please try not to worry. You just take care of yourself when you get back there and keep in touch. I want to know everything that is going on so I can fill Dave and Rusty in on it.
Sophie: Of course. It's the least I can do since you're taking care of Rusty for me.
(looking down at a sleeping Antonio) How's he doing?
Jing-Mei: Sleeping soundly. He's still a little wheezy. Dr. Evans has set me up with an appointment with a pulmonologist in the hospital. He's going to put Antonio on a strict regimen to help control his asthma.
Sophie: Only in our screwed up family.
Jing-Mei: What do you mean?
Sophie: Don't take offense to that, Jing-Mei. It's just only in our family would Dave and both his sons wind up in the same hospital at the same time with similar injuries. Both Dave and Antonio have breathing problems and both Dave and Rusty have head injuries.
Jing-Mei: Like father, like sons.
Jing-Mei kisses Antonio and then places him back into his crib. She and Sophie head up to ICU to see if there's any news on Dave. They wait outside Dave's room for the doctors to come out. Mark, Carter and Kerry arrive. They watch as the audiologist removes the headphones from Dave's ears. Now, the ophthalmologist walks over to Dave's bed.
Carter: Kerry said that Dr. Vasquez is running more tests on Malucci.
Jing-Mei: Yes, they're still in there.
Sophie: Been in there for so long. I don't like that.
Mark: I'm sure that they are just being extra careful examining Dave so they don't miss anything.
Kerry: Yeah, they're just being thorough.
Dr. Vasquez and several other doctors exit Dave's room.
Dr. Vasquez: We've finished our assessment on Dr. Malucci.
To be continued. Please read and review.