Chapter 40 - You owe Vince a 10 second car.
Leon was being bitchy with her, she thought, as they drove to the hospital. He was the one talking in one word answers to her questions now. She did know she'd put him into a bad position by asking him to take her to the hospital even though she knew she shouldn't go. She just really wanted to see Jesse.
"So, does Jesse look any better now then he did a week ago?" Nyssa again tried to get Leon to converse with her. It was a subject dear to Leon's heart and she was willing to bet that he'd talk to her about this at least.
"Well, yes and no." It was the longest answer she'd gotten out of him since he'd agreed to take her to the hospital.
"How so?" She wanted to know and she also wanted to keep him talking. It was either Jesse or Skylines and she didn't really want to talk about their cars right now.
"He's breathing on his own now, his color is more natural. But he still doesn't respond to anything. He doesn't blink when you talk to him or squeeze your hand when you hold his." Leon sighed. "The doctor still won't make any promises about him ever waking up either. They say the fact that he's breathing on his own is a good sign, but that some people's body's heal enough for that but their brains got too damaged from the low oxygen due to loss of blood and they never wake up."
"Jesse's gonna wake up Leon." Nyssa was just sure of it. Leon gave her a look like he really wanted to believe her, but he was still not sure.
"I hope so. But it gets worse. I wasn't supposed to tell you while you were confined to the house cause the rest of the team knew that if you knew you'd insist on going out to see Jesse and you were supposed to be quiet so they didn't want to worry you. But since you're up and out of the house, I guess you may as well know."
"What Leon, what's worse then knowing he still never woke up?"
"Well, one of the bullets came close to his spine and there's a chance if he wakes up he might not ever walk again." Leon looked at her out of the corner of his eye to gage her reaction.
"They can't tell that from some sort of test? Can't they test for that?"
"Not when the person is in a coma. He doesn't respond anyway, so they have no way to know if he's not responding because he's out of it or if he's not responding because he can't feel what they do anymore. He has to wake up before we'll know anything." Nyssa frowned; Leon thought she was on the verge of tears.
"This is so fuckin' unfair." Nyssa muttered.
"What is?" Leon thought a lot of what had happened lately was unfair; Nyssa was going to have to be more specific.
"All Jesse did was race someone, lose, and panic. I mean it was stupid, but not the stupidest thing that occurred that day. The rest of us did something far worse, that was illegal, that harmed others and we're all going to be as good as new. It's not fair that Jesse got hurt worse then all of us put together."
"No it's not, but it happened and we can't change that. We can just hope for the best." Leon didn't know how else to explain things to Nyssa. He didn't know if he could, if anyone could.
"I know, but it still sucks." She sat back in her seat with her arms crossed and pouted. Leon couldn't help himself; the way she was sitting and the look on her face was priceless, he started to laugh.
"You should see the look on your face. It's like you want to take on the whole world and kick their asses." She giggled. When he pointed out that her attitude wasn't helping anything she did feel foolish.
"I do want to take on the whole world and kick their asses over this. But I know I can't. I just have to hope for the best like everyone else. Or take up praying like Mia." The shared a fond laugh about that. Mia was a prayer, most of the team didn't join her in her religious fondness.
"There've been times over these last two weeks where I prayed. I don't even really know to what or who though. It's been a long time since I had any kind of religion." Leon admitted almost shyly. He wasn't a religious person, but when three of his team mates were in the hospital he'd picked a God and prayed.
"Me too." Nyssa admitted. She'd prayed with Mia a couple times under the assumption that anything that could help couldn't hurt.
They pulled up to the hospital and Leon made Nyssa stay put till he came around to the side of the car to help her out. He assisted her out of the car and even though she protested, held her around the waist on the way into the hospital. He wasn't taking any chances on her getting hurt. He was bringing her back to the house in the same state she'd left in, or he knew it would be his ass.
They walked in; Nyssa looked around constantly to make sure she could avoid her doctor should she see him. They made it to Jesse's room without incident and sat down beside his bed. Nyssa thought Leon was right. Jesse did look better. He had more natural color and he wasn't all pale. He still had sort of dark circles around his eyes and she saw they'd removed the ever present black nail polish off his fingernails. She sat down and took his hand.
"Hey Jesse. I guess you don't listen too good huh? You're still in the hospital, even though I thought I told you to hurry up and get better, not lie around here for weeks and take a break. I guess it's that short attention span. Every time you think about trying to wake up something else in your head takes your attention away from it." She giggled, picturing Jesse in his head thinking it was time to wake up and let them all know he was going to be fine, then a thought of a car or a girl taking his mind away from waking up and making him stay in his own world longer still.
Leon could so see Jesse doing something like that, that he roared in laughter. "She's right Dawg, you know you could be about to wake up then you'd think of some chick and you'd be right back out of it while your mind ran on to every other topic under the sun." Leon laughed.
"Besides that, you still owe my cousin a date, she was really looking forward to it and now here you are, letting doctors and nurses wait on you hand and foot and spoil you instead of waking up and coming back home, back to work."
"Yeah, and leaving me to try to pick up the slack at work." Leon mock growled.
"That and you know that Vince and Dom are starting to fix up your Jetta and you know it's not gonna run right if you don't come supervise them Jess. They can't tune a car like you can. " Nyssa laughed.
"Keep." Nyssa and Leon looked at each other in shock.
"Jesse, did you just talk?" Nyssa asked, excitedly, holding her breath.
"Keep them away from my car." Jesse croaked out and his eyes opened into slits.
"Jesse!" Nyssa and Leon shouted at the same time and hugged each other. They were scared to hug Jesse, he still had a lot of things plugged into him.
"I'm going to call the doctor!" Leon exclaimed and left the room.
"Jess, you had us so worried." Nyssa told him, but smiled while she said it.
"How long have I been out of it?" Jesse asked, his voice still hoarse.
"Like two weeks now." Nyssa was elated. Jesse was awake. "We were getting scared you weren't ever going to wake up."
"I kept trying, but every time I came close something would suck me back in or the nurses would drug me."
"You remember?" Nyssa was shocked, she remembered stuff from when she was out cold too, but she'd convinced herself that was impossible and had convinced herself what she remembered was dreams.
"Either that or I dreamed it. I remember you talking to me, about Vince's car. Was that a dream?"
"Nope, you remember stuff that happened while you were out of it. So did I but I thought I was dreaming too."
"Before Leon comes back, is Dom still really mad at me?" Jesse looked scared and upset.
"Jess, Dom was never mad at you. Well, maybe when you first took off, but never since then. He's been worried sick. We all have."
"Why hasn't he been to visit then?" Jesse didn't look convinced that Dom wasn't mad at him.
"He has been. Not as much as the other guys, but he's so busy, he hardly ever comes home from the shop even. And you know Dom, and Vince for that matter. They don't deal with emotions well and Dom was so upset about everything he likely didn't think he could keep his tough guy front. So instead he's just been working himself to death." Nyssa didn't want Jesse to think that anyone was mad at him while he tried to get better.
"You really don't think he's mad at me?"
"No Jesse, you silly boy." She hugged him carefully and he hugged her back. "No one is mad at you. We're so happy to have you back." She didn't want to worry Jesse so she didn't ask him if he could feel his toes or anything, but she wanted to. She figured Leon would be back with the doctor soon and they'd run tests. For now she just wanted Jesse to be secure in his place within the team. To know they all cared about him and he wasn't in any kind of trouble.
"I'm glad to hear that." Jesse still wasn't really sure, and he still planned on tuning the hell out of Vince's car. And fixing his own Jetta. Dom and Vince would never get it right. It had to be him and Leon.
"Once the Doctor gives the OK we'll call the team and have them come down." Nyssa smiled, a big, goofy grin. She couldn't help it. Jesse was awake. Leon returned with the Doctor. And it was the same kindly old doctor that had helped Nyssa. She cringed, waiting for the onslaught of his displeasure at seeing her out of bed.
"Hello young man, welcome back." The doctor opened with.
"Hey Doc." Jesse said, then looked at Nyssa and knew she wasn't happy to see the doctor.
"And young lady, I see you take orders well. Where is your young man?"
"Um, he's at work." Nyssa looked chagrined.
"I see. And I suppose he doesn't know you're here?"
"Nope." Nyssa blushed.
"Busted!" Jesse laughed, and she was so glad to hear the sound that she laughed too. "He can't get too mad at her, it was her yellin' at me for taking so long to get back to work that finally made me wake up." Jesse smiled.
"This is V Jess, he can get mad anyway." But Nyssa didn't think he would. Leon didn't look so sure.
"Well, if you two would kindly go wait in the waiting room the young man and I have some tests to go though and some things to discuse." Nyssa and Leon took the hint and left the room. They knew the doctor was about to test Jesse and tell him that he could be paralized.
AN: Dun Dun Dun. I felt like being mean, so cliff-hanger. All you people who wanted Jesse to wake up got your wish. However, will the mad scientist ever walk again? Who knows? Well, I do. You'll all have to wait. Lots of reviews may well make me wish to relieve the suspense faster. :)
Leon was being bitchy with her, she thought, as they drove to the hospital. He was the one talking in one word answers to her questions now. She did know she'd put him into a bad position by asking him to take her to the hospital even though she knew she shouldn't go. She just really wanted to see Jesse.
"So, does Jesse look any better now then he did a week ago?" Nyssa again tried to get Leon to converse with her. It was a subject dear to Leon's heart and she was willing to bet that he'd talk to her about this at least.
"Well, yes and no." It was the longest answer she'd gotten out of him since he'd agreed to take her to the hospital.
"How so?" She wanted to know and she also wanted to keep him talking. It was either Jesse or Skylines and she didn't really want to talk about their cars right now.
"He's breathing on his own now, his color is more natural. But he still doesn't respond to anything. He doesn't blink when you talk to him or squeeze your hand when you hold his." Leon sighed. "The doctor still won't make any promises about him ever waking up either. They say the fact that he's breathing on his own is a good sign, but that some people's body's heal enough for that but their brains got too damaged from the low oxygen due to loss of blood and they never wake up."
"Jesse's gonna wake up Leon." Nyssa was just sure of it. Leon gave her a look like he really wanted to believe her, but he was still not sure.
"I hope so. But it gets worse. I wasn't supposed to tell you while you were confined to the house cause the rest of the team knew that if you knew you'd insist on going out to see Jesse and you were supposed to be quiet so they didn't want to worry you. But since you're up and out of the house, I guess you may as well know."
"What Leon, what's worse then knowing he still never woke up?"
"Well, one of the bullets came close to his spine and there's a chance if he wakes up he might not ever walk again." Leon looked at her out of the corner of his eye to gage her reaction.
"They can't tell that from some sort of test? Can't they test for that?"
"Not when the person is in a coma. He doesn't respond anyway, so they have no way to know if he's not responding because he's out of it or if he's not responding because he can't feel what they do anymore. He has to wake up before we'll know anything." Nyssa frowned; Leon thought she was on the verge of tears.
"This is so fuckin' unfair." Nyssa muttered.
"What is?" Leon thought a lot of what had happened lately was unfair; Nyssa was going to have to be more specific.
"All Jesse did was race someone, lose, and panic. I mean it was stupid, but not the stupidest thing that occurred that day. The rest of us did something far worse, that was illegal, that harmed others and we're all going to be as good as new. It's not fair that Jesse got hurt worse then all of us put together."
"No it's not, but it happened and we can't change that. We can just hope for the best." Leon didn't know how else to explain things to Nyssa. He didn't know if he could, if anyone could.
"I know, but it still sucks." She sat back in her seat with her arms crossed and pouted. Leon couldn't help himself; the way she was sitting and the look on her face was priceless, he started to laugh.
"You should see the look on your face. It's like you want to take on the whole world and kick their asses." She giggled. When he pointed out that her attitude wasn't helping anything she did feel foolish.
"I do want to take on the whole world and kick their asses over this. But I know I can't. I just have to hope for the best like everyone else. Or take up praying like Mia." The shared a fond laugh about that. Mia was a prayer, most of the team didn't join her in her religious fondness.
"There've been times over these last two weeks where I prayed. I don't even really know to what or who though. It's been a long time since I had any kind of religion." Leon admitted almost shyly. He wasn't a religious person, but when three of his team mates were in the hospital he'd picked a God and prayed.
"Me too." Nyssa admitted. She'd prayed with Mia a couple times under the assumption that anything that could help couldn't hurt.
They pulled up to the hospital and Leon made Nyssa stay put till he came around to the side of the car to help her out. He assisted her out of the car and even though she protested, held her around the waist on the way into the hospital. He wasn't taking any chances on her getting hurt. He was bringing her back to the house in the same state she'd left in, or he knew it would be his ass.
They walked in; Nyssa looked around constantly to make sure she could avoid her doctor should she see him. They made it to Jesse's room without incident and sat down beside his bed. Nyssa thought Leon was right. Jesse did look better. He had more natural color and he wasn't all pale. He still had sort of dark circles around his eyes and she saw they'd removed the ever present black nail polish off his fingernails. She sat down and took his hand.
"Hey Jesse. I guess you don't listen too good huh? You're still in the hospital, even though I thought I told you to hurry up and get better, not lie around here for weeks and take a break. I guess it's that short attention span. Every time you think about trying to wake up something else in your head takes your attention away from it." She giggled, picturing Jesse in his head thinking it was time to wake up and let them all know he was going to be fine, then a thought of a car or a girl taking his mind away from waking up and making him stay in his own world longer still.
Leon could so see Jesse doing something like that, that he roared in laughter. "She's right Dawg, you know you could be about to wake up then you'd think of some chick and you'd be right back out of it while your mind ran on to every other topic under the sun." Leon laughed.
"Besides that, you still owe my cousin a date, she was really looking forward to it and now here you are, letting doctors and nurses wait on you hand and foot and spoil you instead of waking up and coming back home, back to work."
"Yeah, and leaving me to try to pick up the slack at work." Leon mock growled.
"That and you know that Vince and Dom are starting to fix up your Jetta and you know it's not gonna run right if you don't come supervise them Jess. They can't tune a car like you can. " Nyssa laughed.
"Keep." Nyssa and Leon looked at each other in shock.
"Jesse, did you just talk?" Nyssa asked, excitedly, holding her breath.
"Keep them away from my car." Jesse croaked out and his eyes opened into slits.
"Jesse!" Nyssa and Leon shouted at the same time and hugged each other. They were scared to hug Jesse, he still had a lot of things plugged into him.
"I'm going to call the doctor!" Leon exclaimed and left the room.
"Jess, you had us so worried." Nyssa told him, but smiled while she said it.
"How long have I been out of it?" Jesse asked, his voice still hoarse.
"Like two weeks now." Nyssa was elated. Jesse was awake. "We were getting scared you weren't ever going to wake up."
"I kept trying, but every time I came close something would suck me back in or the nurses would drug me."
"You remember?" Nyssa was shocked, she remembered stuff from when she was out cold too, but she'd convinced herself that was impossible and had convinced herself what she remembered was dreams.
"Either that or I dreamed it. I remember you talking to me, about Vince's car. Was that a dream?"
"Nope, you remember stuff that happened while you were out of it. So did I but I thought I was dreaming too."
"Before Leon comes back, is Dom still really mad at me?" Jesse looked scared and upset.
"Jess, Dom was never mad at you. Well, maybe when you first took off, but never since then. He's been worried sick. We all have."
"Why hasn't he been to visit then?" Jesse didn't look convinced that Dom wasn't mad at him.
"He has been. Not as much as the other guys, but he's so busy, he hardly ever comes home from the shop even. And you know Dom, and Vince for that matter. They don't deal with emotions well and Dom was so upset about everything he likely didn't think he could keep his tough guy front. So instead he's just been working himself to death." Nyssa didn't want Jesse to think that anyone was mad at him while he tried to get better.
"You really don't think he's mad at me?"
"No Jesse, you silly boy." She hugged him carefully and he hugged her back. "No one is mad at you. We're so happy to have you back." She didn't want to worry Jesse so she didn't ask him if he could feel his toes or anything, but she wanted to. She figured Leon would be back with the doctor soon and they'd run tests. For now she just wanted Jesse to be secure in his place within the team. To know they all cared about him and he wasn't in any kind of trouble.
"I'm glad to hear that." Jesse still wasn't really sure, and he still planned on tuning the hell out of Vince's car. And fixing his own Jetta. Dom and Vince would never get it right. It had to be him and Leon.
"Once the Doctor gives the OK we'll call the team and have them come down." Nyssa smiled, a big, goofy grin. She couldn't help it. Jesse was awake. Leon returned with the Doctor. And it was the same kindly old doctor that had helped Nyssa. She cringed, waiting for the onslaught of his displeasure at seeing her out of bed.
"Hello young man, welcome back." The doctor opened with.
"Hey Doc." Jesse said, then looked at Nyssa and knew she wasn't happy to see the doctor.
"And young lady, I see you take orders well. Where is your young man?"
"Um, he's at work." Nyssa looked chagrined.
"I see. And I suppose he doesn't know you're here?"
"Nope." Nyssa blushed.
"Busted!" Jesse laughed, and she was so glad to hear the sound that she laughed too. "He can't get too mad at her, it was her yellin' at me for taking so long to get back to work that finally made me wake up." Jesse smiled.
"This is V Jess, he can get mad anyway." But Nyssa didn't think he would. Leon didn't look so sure.
"Well, if you two would kindly go wait in the waiting room the young man and I have some tests to go though and some things to discuse." Nyssa and Leon took the hint and left the room. They knew the doctor was about to test Jesse and tell him that he could be paralized.
AN: Dun Dun Dun. I felt like being mean, so cliff-hanger. All you people who wanted Jesse to wake up got your wish. However, will the mad scientist ever walk again? Who knows? Well, I do. You'll all have to wait. Lots of reviews may well make me wish to relieve the suspense faster. :)