The Ransom of Dr. Dave
Part 48
A/N: Anything in bold italic is being spoken in Italian
Sophie: What do you mean, Rusty? Where have you seen him before?
Rusty: Not sure but I know him.
Sophie: Look Rusty, I know you're scared but please try to make this work, for me. You need to spend time with your papa and (coughing) Jing-Mei went to a lot of trouble for you. Try to make this work, huh.
Rusty: He's mean to me.
Sophie: He's just strict is all. You'll get use to him in no time and when he's no longer needed you'll miss him.
Rusty: No, I won't. Please I want to go home. (crying)
Sophie: Make a deal with you. You just try and hang in there for another month and when I come back for your birthday, if you're still unhappy then I'll bring you back home with me.
Rusty: But Aunt Sophie...
Sophie: Rusty.
Rusty(sighing): Alright, I love you Aunt Sophie.
Sophie: I love you too. Now, put Jing-Mei back on please.
Rusty hands Jing-Mei the phone and heads for the tv.
Jing-Mei: Is everything okay? Rusty seemed upset.
Sophie: He'll be(coughing) fine. He's just homesick and he misses me.
Jing-Mei: Maybe I should arrange to have him see Dave more often.
Sophie: That would be nice. How is Dave really doing?
Jing-Mei: Still jumping at every sound. They are going to take his bandages off soon and see how well the first of his plastic surgeries went.
Sophie: Maybe he won't need many more operations.
Jing-Mei: I hope not. But what about you? Are you in much pain?
Sophie: No, not really. The pain killers help a lot.(pause) I've got to go.
Jing-Mei: Sure. I'll talk to you later. Goodb....
Sophie hung up the phone without saying goodbye. Jing-Mei understood though. She knew that Sophie had to throw up. Despite what Sophie led Jing-Mei to believe she wasn't alright, the pain was getting much worse.
The next day at the hospital, Jing-Mei headed up to see Dave. She saw Kerry, Mark and Carter outside his room speaking with Dr. Vasquez.
Dr. Vasquez: Good afternoon, Jing-Mei.
Jing-Mei: Hi. Is something wrong with Dave?
Dr. Vasquez: I'm trying to arrange a time for Janice Carpenter, the speech therapist to meet with Dave.
Jing-Mei: That's good. I would like to be there for his first session.
Kerry: I think that would be up to Janice.
Dr. Vasquez: Listen Jing-Mei, I think maybe we should start looking for a rehabilitation center to transfer Dave to.
Mark: Do you think he's ready to leave the hospital.
Dr. Vasquez: I think I need to meet with his other doctors and discuss any necessary surgeries he still has pending.
Carter: Then what?
Dr. Vasquez: Well as long as the surgery is elective and not life threatening we can take our time and give him a chance to heal. In the meantime he can develop his physical, speech and mental abilities.
Jing-Mei: I'm going to make sure that Dave gets into the best rehab program in the country.
Kerry: Will his insurance cover that?
Carter: I doubt it.
Jing-Mei: Doesn't matter. I'll foot the bill as long as they help...
Just then the doctors heard Dave's machines going off. They raced into his room to see him trying to toss and turn and groaning.
Jing-Mei: Dave, Dave. What's wrong with him?
Mark: I'm not sure. It looks like he's having a nightmare.
The doctors walk over to him and Jing-Mei feels his head.
Jing-Mei: He's burning up.
Jing-Mei shakes Dave, trying to wake him up but he stays asleep. Dr. Vasquez orders the nurse to give Dave a sedative to calm him so he doesn't dislodge his ventilator tube or have another heart attack.
Carter: What do you think he's dreaming about?
Jing-Mei: Maybe about what happened to him in the hangar.
Kerry: Do you think he remembers something?
Dr. Vasquez: I'm not sure. Whatever it is has got him scare to death.
As the sedative begins to take effect, Dave's eyes open and he wakes from his deep, tormented sleep once again scared stiff. Jing-Mei grabs his hand.
Jing-Mei: Dave, are you alright? (pause, stroking his sweat covered head)Please look at me.
Dave turns his head towards Jing-Mei but the sedative weakens him and makes his eyes too heavy to hold open and they close. The doctors leave Dave to rest but Dr. Vasquez orders the nurses to watch Dave and let him know if he has another episode.
Outside, Dr. Vasquez picks up the phone and arranges the meeting between Dave and his speech therapist. Mark, Kerry, Carter and Jing-Mei head down to the ER where Mark says he can get Jing-Mei some information on rehab programs around Chicago. He hands her a bunch of printouts from the internet. Jing-Mei heads into the lounge and starts to make some phone calls.
Back at Jing-Mei's house, Mrs. Peterson has just finished making lunch for Rusty and Frankie and has now settled into the nursery to feed Antonio his pre-made bottle of breast milk. Taking a break from each other, Rusty watches some tv as Frankie enters the nursery.
Frankie: So what's his name.
Mrs. Peterson: Antonio Grant Malucci. He's named after his daddy and my son.
Frankie: Your son? You related to them?
Mrs. Peterson: No. Not really. But I think of them like family. We're connected.
Frankie: The kid says his father is in the hospital. His father a friend of your son.
Mrs. Peterson(suspiciously): Why all the questions.?
Frankie: Just interested. Like to know the family I'm working with.
Mrs. Peterson: No. Dr. Malucci has never met my son but if it weren't for my son, he wouldn't be here.
Frankie: How do you mean?
Mrs. Peterson: My son is dead. We gave his kidney to Dr. Malucci.
A surprising look comes over his face as Rusty runs in the room. He starts to pull Mrs. Peterson by the arm into the other room. She lays Antonio in his crib and goes with Rusty to see what has him so excited. He shows her a commercial for an X-BOX video game. And then starts yelling and pointing.
Rusty: Birthday. My birthday.
Mrs. Peterson(shaking her head): I don't understand.
Frankie: He's telling you what he wants for his birthday.
Mrs. Peterson: Ohhhh! (looking down at the little boy) We'll see.
Frankie translates and Rusty starts to smile as Frankie guides him back to his lessons. Antonio starts to cry so Mrs. Peterson goes back to feeding him as Frankie makes a phone call.
Vincenzio(in the phone): What do you want?
Frankie: Nothing new from the kid but something from the babysitter.
Vincenzio: What? This had better be good.
Frankie: Depends. How's the fact that the babysitter is the mother of the boy who donated his kidney to your fucking kid.
Vincenzio: Good. Real good.
Frankie: How do figure that?
Vincenzio: I was starting to get worried when I heard they removed my kid's remaining kidney. Now, that he's got himself a new one, I can breathe again--cause if I ever need another transplant I know where there's a spare matching kidney at.
They both laugh then hang up while Frankie goes back and tries to get more info out of Rusty.
In the lounge, Abby walks in and sees Jing-Mei busy on the phone. She waits until Jing-Mei hangs up before she speaks.
Abby: Carter told me you were looking for a rehab center for Dave.
Jing-Mei: It took awhile but I finally made an appointment to see the director of the Chicago East Rehab Center. It's the best one in the state. I really didn't want to go any further. Dave needs to stay close with us.
Abby: When's the meeting?
Jing-Mei: Tomorrow. I'm going to ask John to go with me. I don't want to do this alone.
Abby: Good Luck. By the way, Dr. Vasquez called down here hoping you were still here.
Jing-Mei: What's happened?
Abby: He said to tell you that Janice is evaluating Dave right now.
Jing-Mei: I better get up there now. Excuse me.
Jing-Mei heads up to Dave's room and runs into Janice coming out. They chat briefly until Janice is called away for a phone call. Dr. Vasquez approaches Jing-Mei with Kerry at his side.
Jing-Mei: Kerry, what are you doing here?
Kerry: I just want to be kept up to date on one of my residents' medical condition.
Jing-Mei: I knew you did care about Dave even though you try to hide it.
Kerry: I just want to know when he's coming back to work or should I replace him permanently.
Jing-Mei(hearing the sarcasm in Kerry's voice): Yeah right.
Dr. Vasquez: So have you spoken with Janice yet.
Jing-Mei: For a couple minutes. She had to take a phone call. Janice said something about Dave refusing to speak.
Dr. Vasquez: No, Dave isn't refusing to speak. He can't speak. It's an entirely different medical condition altogether. My best guess is that Dave hears the words but he can't put them together in the right order. He can't organize the letters to say the words. The words become jumbled in his mind.
Kerry: And that would effect his speech then.
Dr. Vasquez: Definitely. It's like dyslexia. If he can't figure out what the words are then he can't pronounce them correctly. He wants to talk but he just can't.
Kerry: That is certainly not like Malucci that we all lov...tolerate.
Jing-Mei: Can I see him?
Dr. Vasquez: Not now. I want to examine him. Give us about an hour.
Jing-Mei: I have to get home. I'll be back later tomorrow.
Kerry: If you'd like, I'll come up on my break and sit with him.
Jing-Mei: Thank you Kerry.
Jing-Mei leaves and heads for home. She stops by Dave's old neighborhood "Little Italy" to see Mr. Santini. She lets him know about Dave's progress and that he may be moved into a regular room and out of ICU, so he and some of the other tenants can come by and visit him. Then she continues home.
She enters her house quietly, being careful not to wake Antonio up. Rusty spots her and runs over to her. He hugs her and she enters the nursery. She sees Mrs. Peterson singing softly to Antonio as he sleeps in his crib with his mobile playing.
Jing-Mei: How's my angel?
Mrs. Peterson: Precious as always. I just fed him a little while ago and he finished the entire bottle and he's been changed.
Jing-Mei: He's got his daddy's appetite.
Mrs. Peterson: How's Dr. Malucci?
Jing-Mei: Getting better. He's going to start speech therapy and he may be taken out of ICU soon. In fact, I have an appointment tomorrow with a rehab center.
Mrs. Peterson: That is good news. Listen, this Frankie he's been asking a lot of questions.
Jing-Mei: Questions about what?
Mrs. Peterson: About who I am. What's my connection to the family? Did Dr. Malucci know my son, Grant?
Jing-Mei: And what did you tell him?
Mrs. Peterson: He said he wanted to know about the family he was working with. I don't know. I just don't trust him. Well, his answer seemed genuine enough, so I told him about the bond between Dr. Malucci and Grant.
Jing-Mei: Don't worry. His concern is understandable. He comes to work in a house that is completely surrounded by guards. I'd be a little curious too. The guards are always around so please just try to relax.
Mrs. Peterson: I'll try. Incidentally, did you know that Rusty had a birthday coming up soon?
Jing-Mei: Yes, I think it's in three weeks.
Mrs. Peterson: Be prepared. He already hinted to me that he wants an X-BOX video game system.
Jing-Mei: Okay, thanks for warning me.
Jing-Mei heads into the other room as Frankie and Rusty are finishing up.
Jing-Mei: Well Frankie, how's he doing?
Frankie: Not bad. I've taught him the alphabet and a few small words. Hey brat, show her what you learned.
Rusty starts to recite the alphabet with a little trouble and says a few other words.
Rusty: Hello Mama Jing-Mei, my birthday, my birthday. I love you.
Tears formed in her eyes. She thanked Frankie for teaching him those last words. Frankie smiled, knowing he only did it to get on Jing-Mei's good side and with what happened next it obviously worked.
Jing-Mei: Frankie, tell Rusty I want to take him to visit his papa tomorrow.
Frankie translated and Rusty's face lit up. He then ran into the living room and turned on the tv. Jing-Mei looked at Frankie.
Jing-Mei: Frankie, would you like to come with us and meet Rusty's daddy?
Frankie(with an evil grin): You bet!!
To be continued. Please read and review.