Restart: All Through The Night
Hello everyone. Thanks for the reviews on the last chapter. I'm SO SORRY for the delay. I realize its been months. I've had a hard time getting the time to do the transcripts, my computer crashed, school got tougher, and this story was the hardest to update so I let it kind of fall to the backdrop. But luckily – schools out, my computer got fixed and I'm trying very hard to update more often. I promise not to let this go three months again. But I can't promise weekly updates or anything. It really depends on the response this chapter gets.
Though, as promised, this chapter is much longer than the other ones and as the chapter title indicates it's the rest of that night.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Ned's Gatehouse - Actual Dialogue
"I just – I ah – got a little dizzy out there. If you want me to do the breathalyzer again...." Ned offered. The two cops followed close behind him. Reginald had thankfully gotten AJ upstairs and out of sight. His whole story would have been blown if his drunken cousin with a DUI history were present.
The first cop shook his head and held out his hand in a clear stop gesture. "Not necessary, its negative."
"I haven't had a drink since my wife left, she's away on business." He explained. Which was true.
"Had Jason Quartermaine been drinking?"
"No, no, I'm sure not." He assured. AJ was the drunk of the family. Not Jason. Yet he was always the one to pay for it.
"Start from the beginning." The second officer started. He seemed to be buying everything Ned told them. "Tell us how the accident...Whose this?"
Reginald looked like a deer caught in headlights. Which he quickly covered up. He walked slowly and kept his mouth shut. It didn't take long for an employee of the Quartermaine estate to learn that you kept quiet at all times. He pointed upstairs. "I –uh- brought the extra quilt, sir, it's in the chest."
Ned turned to Reginald while speaking the next part. "Thank you Reginald. These men are here because my car slid off the road and Jason was hurt." Ned explained. He was sure that was all that Reginald would require to put two and two together and get the answer. It wasn't his car, it was his wife's, it wasn't him driving, it was AJ. "They've taken him to the hospital. In fact, you might as well stay here and ... and hear this so you can relay the rest of this to the...to the family. Reginald works at the main house."
Turing back to the cops, Ned started the performance of a lifetime. He needed to get through this and get to Jason as quickly as possible. "My cousin, Jason, and I were trying to find his brother AJ. I drove out onto the road. I turned right, all of a sudden a deer jumped out onto the toad. I hit my breaks, suddenly I was on some black ice. I tried to accelerate to get through it. I couldn't. I slid off the road onto the shoulder. Next think I knew we hit a tree. The air bag exploded I – I couldn't see anything." Ned stopped to gesture to his side, where Jason would have been in the car. "I thought that Jason was beside me. I climbed out of the car. I couldn't find him anywhere. Finally I found him over on the tree stump. We had the top down."
"So he was thrown over the windshield. He wasn't using his seat belt?" One of the officers asked him.
Shaking his head, Ned mentally asked himself the same question. Why didn't Jason put his seat belt on? But Ned knew that he had been far more preoccupied with getting AJ To pull over. "I guess not. I assumed."
"What about the brother?"
"I don't know." Ned answered easily. In truth, he hoped AJ was rotting in hell. But at the moment he was probably unconscious and blissfully unaware of the accident he caused. "Like I said, he took off on foot. I came back here, I dialed 9111. I ran back to Jason. That's when you and he ambulance showed up. Listen I got to get to the hospital." He was getting more and more worried. He gestured to the door. "Can I..."
"That about it?" The two officers asked each other.
The other nodded his head. But he left no sense of finality in the air. "For now. There was no one else involved?"
"No." Ned lied easily as he grabbed his coat from the door. He sent Reginald one last look before heading out the door and to Jason.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -Hardy House
"I'm so glad you're hear, sweetie." Audrey gushed.
Elizabeth herself didn't mind being there. Her favorite family member had always been her grandmother. Gram always seemed to take Elizabeth as her favorite. A fact that the rest of the family knew and did not like. Especially Sarah and their mother. "Me too Gram."
"Well, you just settle in the room that you and your sister would normally take. It's all yours now though. If you want to change anything around then feel free. We can paint it this weekend if you want. I doubt and artist like yourself would enjoy white walls." Audrey offered. Her Gram looked like a kid on Christmas.
She laughed, which only seemed to fuel her Gram's smile. Maybe Port Charles wouldn't be that bad. "Thanks. I might take you up on that."
Elizabeth kissed Audrey goodnight and hiked up the stairs. She opened the door to the room that her Gram had been talking about. She had spent at least a week each year there for as long as she could remember. It was exactly as it had been during the last visit.
Within seconds, with her shoes still on, Elizabeth was asleep on the bed. She was oblivious to the fact hat her life was about to get more crazy. But better at the same time.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Quartermaine Den – Actual Dialogue
Reginald and the two officers rushed in. Each family member was waiting to hear the inevitable, "AJ's screwed up again." But from the look on Reginald's face, it was far worse.
"Down on the road. Mr. Ashton and..." Reginald started. He could barely get the words out through his breathlessness without the family interrupting. But the Quartermaine way was not to wait for the information.
Monica jumped right in. "Was Ned hurt?" Alan stood directly behind her and they both looked concerned.
"No, no he was driving. He's alright. He sent...." Reginald tried again. But the cop who had been looking for a place to but in decided that it was the time to just come out with it.
"The injured man was Jason Quartermaine."
As his mother, Monica looked horrified. "Oh." Alan too had a look of terror on his face. How could his innocent seventeen-year-old son be hurt?
"Let's go." Alan told his wife as he gently nudged her arm. He looked back to the cops. "He's our son. We're physicians."
Alan pushed past one cop as the other called out to him. "He's being taken to General Hospital."
Reginald took another stab at getting the part he was told to relay to the family out. "Mr. Ashton's on his way there too." He tried not to look at Emily, who was looking scared. "He – he asked me to explain that his car skidded...."
"Well did you see Jason? Is he conscious?" Monica questioned. The doctor was trying to be rational and get the facts, but the mother couldn't get past that he'd been hurt.
The butler looked apologetic. "I wasn't actually there ma'am."
Edward quietly took in the scene with a worried expression. Lila and Emily sat in the back of the room by the doors.
"What about AJ? Did they find AJ?" Monica asked.
"They didn't find him. They took the car to look." He started.
But Alan would not wait to get to his injured son. "Look, we have to get to Emergency!" he shouted. Jason would need medical attention at the least. Hopefully he wasn't hurt badly and by the time they got there he would just need them as parents, not as doctors.
Alan and the cops left as Monica moved around Edward and over to Emily. "Emily, you stay here with Lila." She gave the young girl a hug "It's going to be alright."
She released her adopted daughter and raced out the door. "We'll call!"
Edward leaned across the table to speak with Lila. "We'll – we'll search the grounds for AJ."
He turned around and marched up to Reginald. His voice was harsher than it had been for his wife. But it always was sweeter for her. "And you will tell me everything you know about this incident."
"Yes, sir." Reginald stated grimly.
The head of the family started out the door and only his wife called back to him, "Edward, be careful!"
"Of course, my darling."
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Hospital – Actual Dialogue
Ned watched as the orderlies and nurses pushed Jason's stretcher through the doorway. Tony directed them and Steve Hardy held the door. His cousin had the oxygen mask still attached to his face and he hadn't stirred once since the last time he'd seen him.
Tony and Jason rolled down the hallway along with all of the nurses and others. Steve started to walk away, but Ned held him back. "Steve how is he?"
"We'll get some x-rays and a cat-scan." The older man informed him.
Ned started forward. "I'll go with you."
But a aging yet firm hand held him back. Steve stopped him and Ned was reluctantly moved back. "No, no wait. We'll take care of him."
"I want to be there when he comes to." Ned argued. At that moment, telling Jason that he was lying to the police was the farthest thing from Ned's mind. He just wanted to be able to see with his own eyes that his cousin was going to be alright.
Tony nodded his head, but was firm in saying no. "Well if he does we'll send for you. The best way to help out right now is to just keep an eye out for then family."
Both the doctors walked away and back to the room where Jason was. Ned watched them go. Bobbie, however stayed with him, "He's right you know."
"Bobbie, how bad is it?" Ned asked as he stopped her from walking away. The longer time went on from the accident the worse he was beginning to feel.
She sighed and took the stethoscope from her neck. "He has a head injury. That's all we know without tests. Are you sure that Alan and Monica were told?" she asked as she leaned in to Ned a little closer. "Do you want me to call them?"
Ned shook his head. "No, they've been notified. Police came right away."
Bobbie gave him a knowing look. "I'll keep a sharp eye on the news."
Her words made another thought dawn on him. Lois. "I have to call my wife."
The longtime nurse understood his line of thinking. "There's a phone in there you can use." She gestured to a room nearby, "Privacy. Go ahead, I'll wait for the family."
Ned went inside and started his call. Once the door was closed Alan and Monica raced towards Bobbie.
They both came to a stop once they reached her. Both were too afraid to ask her anything. If Bobbie told them that he was gone then their whole world would collapse.
But luckily she understood why they asked nothing and started right in with the facts that they had. "He's in x-ray. Tony and Steve are with him. He's still unconscious but he's breathing on his own. Vitals are okay."
"So it's a head injury? Police said he was thrown from the car." Alan volunteered. He didn't need Bobbie to tell him for him to know that head injuries were the hardest to predict the outcome of.
Monica looked horrified by Bobbie's speech. "Oh god Bobbie. Just tell me he's going to be okay?"
"Honey, we'll do everything we can for him." She leaned to give Monica a much needed hug. She hated seeing her best friend go through the same thing she had. She knew what it was like to wait and find out if your child was going to live or die. "I know, I really do."
The two women grasped hands and held on.
Both the cops from before marched down the hallway. All three of the halls occupants turned to look at the new arrivals. "No alcohol and a valid license. Every things in order. No restrictions."
"I told you." Alan stated. He knew that there was no foul play involved with Jason's accident. If Ned was driving then he wouldn't lie about it.
The person in question came through the door on the side of the hallway. He locked eyes with Alan and Monica before darting forward to hug Monica. "Oh god. I'm sorry."
The hug broke and Ned stepped away. "I'm so sorry. I'd give anything if Jason hadn't been in that car."
"Ned, its not your fault! It was an accident." Monica stated. Her voice held no anger for Ned.
The cops made themselves known again, "We're going to radio in a preliminary report. We won't be making any criminal charges against you sir, not at this time anyway."
With a final nod the two men were gone. Once they were out of earshot Alan started to attempt to get the full story. "Why the hell was Jason with you? And where'd AJ go?
"He took off on foot. I was giving Jason a ride so we could catch up with him." Ned explained. He hated lying to them. But he held firm with his reason why. All it took was one look at Monica's frightened face for him to know he was doing the right thing.
She was faced with losing one son, she didn't deserve to lose both. And they didn't need to know what really happened. Ever. They would be devastated.
"Well we have no idea where AJ is." Monica reminded.
Ned nodded, understanding her concern. There was no real way to assure her that AJ was perfectly fine. "He's safe, I'm sure of it."
"Well that makes one of us." Alan stated sadly. "I'm going to go check with x-ray."
Before Alan could leave Tony started closer to the group. His face looked grim. Which was the last thing any of them wanted to see.
Monica spoke before Tony did. She didn't want anything regarding her son's condition to be sugarcoated. "Tell us the truth, Tony."
"We'll this it's, um, its not good."
Alan held his wife as she turned around with her hand against her mouth. Their worst fears were being realized.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Outside Jason's ICU Room – Actual Dialogue
Jason was set up in the bed. He looked perfectly fine except for the white gauze surrounding his head. But other than that he merely looked to be asleep. Outside of his room was the smaller monitoring and waiting room type space. The double doors set it off from the hallway.
Alan and Monica stood with their backs to the window that was between the two rooms. Ned and Tony were opposite from them.
"The CT shows no hemorrhaging. Which means surgery isn't indicated. However, Jason does have general cerebral anima." Tony informed them in a slightly detached all purpose doctor tone.
Ned was trying to keep up with the medical speak. "Anima?"
"Swelling of the brain." Alan supplied without even tearing his eyes away from the doctor who held all of the answers on his son's condition.
The other doctor of the room didn't miss a beat either. Monica asked, "How critical?"
"Very."
Ned absorbed all of the information. The answer to the question he had hadn't been answered yet. The one question that truly mattered. "But he is going to live?"
"Honestly, I can't answer that question. I suspect it will take seventy-two hours for the maximum swelling to occur. And if we make it through that we'll have a better sense of his chances for survival and in what condition." Tony answered. He watched Alan and Monica's faces crumble a bit at his news and he wished it was better. But he wasn't going to lie to them. "The good news is that he is responding to painful stimuli."
The words good news and painful stimuli were ones that Ned thought should be together. It didn't make sense. "Why is that good?"
"It means his brain stem in functioning and the cerebral cortex is processing." Tony said.
Again, it flew right above Ned's head but Monica was there to help him out. "It means his brain is still responding."
"Well then he could be okay?" Ned asked. He wrung his hands back in forth in a nervous state.
Tony turned to him and tried to explain it best he could. "The trauma to his brain is severe, and there is no way of knowing how it will effect him"
"What is the worse case. I mean, other than him – than him not making it." Monica questioned reluctantly. Her heart felt ready to burst.
The doctor sighed, "Permanent vegetative state."
Monica took in a deep breath in the attempt to stall the tears. She could cry later. But at that moment her son needed her to be strong. And if not her son, then her husband.
"We are measuring the pulmonary artery pressure in his heart right now. We can also monitor the swelling inside the brain with the ICP." Tony continued on after giving Alan and Monica a minute to deal with their son's possible fate.
To his right, Ned was looking frustrated, "English would help, please!"
"Sorry." Tony quickly re-worded his last statement in non-medical jargon, "It's the Intra-cranial monitoring device."
Alan stared ahead, not quite focusing on Tony but not looking anywhere else. "That's why the bed is fixed at that angle."
"Right. Its twenty degrees and it needs to stay that way because the manometer, which is the device used to monitor the pressure, is calibrated at that angle." Tony explained. Ned seemed to have understood his explanations. Explaining the medical terms to a patient's family was a hard part of his job.
"How are you treating the swelling?" Alan asked in the same voice he'd been using since they got to the ICU area. He seemed lost in his own world. One that was being faced with the prospect of losing his pride and joy.
"Steroids and menatol."
To Ned those words didn't mean much. What did mean something was that no one could tell him if his cousin would live or day for three days. "Are you, are you saying that we won't dknow anything until another seventy-two hours have passed?"
"Unless the swelling abates sooner." Tony added.
Monica looked sad, but understood. "All we can do, Ned, is wait. As much as I hate it we don't have any other choice." She quietly tagged on to the end. She sat down on one of the chairs in the room as Tony made his final statement.
"You should also know we are doing as much as we can right now." With that he clapped Ned on the back and walked out of the double doors, leaving the three members of the Quartermaine family to thing about all he had said.
Ned sat down next to Monica and again started to apologize, "I'm sorry. I'm really sorry for my part in this."
Alan turned to look at the two of them, "We know that."
"Monica..." Ned spoke again.
"Ned, Ned, come on, don't blame yourself. It was a horrible accident." Monica stopped and looked up at Alan. A thought dawned on her and added more of a burden to her. "Oh god. AJ. He is not going to take this well when he finds out. If he ever shows up."
Her voice was lighter than usual, but she couldn't help but worry where he had ended up. She was right though, he and Jason were close. Jason was kind of AJ's saving grace. It would kill him to lose his younger brother.
Ned tried to ease her fears. He would bring AJ back with him next time he came. "Well, I think I can help you there. I'll go back to the house, see if I can find out anything."
With a last look at both Monica and Alan, Ned headed through the same doors as Tony. Taking the vacated seat, Alan lowered himself down next to his wife. The two didn't say a word.
Done! Finally. There were ten pages of written transcripts that went into this chapter. I have to make a small note though. For the medical-speak of this chapter, I tired my hardest to spell the words as I thought they sounded. And Word's spell check didn't catch all of them. Either I am way off (for some I think I hit the mark though) or the spell checker just doesn't do medical speak. I'm very sorry for all discrepancies that you may notice.
Please, everyone, I know its been a long time. But I cannot keep this story up if there are only a few people reading it. So let me know you're out there! Lurkers, this is your time!
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