A glance at Brad implied he was in similar thoughts, his eyes fixed on his hands folded in his lap, his brow furrowed. Tony wondered what was going through his mind, he had never been able to relate to Brad before, he always viewed his as some stick from Division. He smiled to himself as he realised Brad was far from that, and he too had a past; imagine that.
The nurse wandered into the room just over the ten minutes she's promised Tony, and a large framed man in his late fifties stepped in behind her with a brown file under his arm, Tony assumed it was Jacks. Once the introductions were out of the way Tony moved to stand against the wall, anxious to hear the doctors words. Brad stayed seated but the doctor still held his attention too.
"We studied the head scans extensively, and found nothing, not even an area of bruising from the fight."
Tony let out a shaky breath but reminded himself if this was his heart the situation would be much, much worse.
"The area of concern was his heart, as you know, due to earlier damage, so we were very cautious there. However, once again we found nothing to implement what knocked him out. As you imagine, by this point we were very concerned." He broke off to relieve some of the tension, Tony's face looked as though it would crack, his teeth and fists repeatedly clenched in sync. He was worried sick.
"After a general assessment we realised that Mr. Bauer had a simple case of dehydration, with extensive exhaustion. We've already taking care of one of those, were pumping fluids into him as we speak; and the exhaustion can only be cured if he allows himself to rest."
"So what was the problem?" Brad asked, glancing at Tony who still hadn't taken his eyes from the doctor. Brad didn't think he had even blinked since the man entered the room.
"Well, see this is the problem. We knew something must be wrong, we haven't had to sedate him throughout any time since he arrived, he is still unconscious. That raised a few flags. I spoke to my friend Mark who studied the brain scans, he suggested something I hadn't thought of actually, which made sense. When someone is in a very stressful situation, sometimes it can become too much, the pressure. It turns into fear, sometimes it doesn't. But there are many cases when one of these happens, and the brain tries to shut itself down, to protect itself from the pain and the fear the stress induces. Given my knowledge of Mr. Bauer's actions before he was brought here, I'd say its right."
Tony pushed off from the wall, he couldn't believe what he was hearing. "Your saying Jack had a mental breakdown?"
"No no no, not at all. In these rare cases, the patient can come around, once the brain removes its defences, and the patients are fine."
"So he is in a coma like state?" Brad asked, wishing the doctor would get to the point.
"I see why you may think that, but no, its similar, but not as drastic or worrying as a coma... Take an alcoholic, who drinks and then get depressed. Eventually this person would pass out from drinking right? Well the current theory is that this isn't induced by the alcohol at all, but the pain the depression causes. The brain shuts itself down and the person passes out to escape the emotional pain. The person would wake up fine the very next morning... Well maybe with a hangover," he added, getting a chuckle from the nurse.
"Right; so, he should come around when he has slept this off, and he will be fine?" Tony asked for reassurance, he didn't want false hopes.
"That's exactly it. Were expecting him to come around some time tomorrow once his body has had time to catch up on sleep and the brain sees there's no more threat of the stress."
Tony couldn't keep the grin from his face. "So can we see him?"
"I'm afraid not, sir. Given Mr.Bauer's case, we feel it better if he stay isolated until he comes around and we have given him a final assessment. We were given the impression that his shut down was induced by work, if this is the case, seeing co-workers could prolong his recovery or make things worse. I'm sure you can understand this," he added kindly, seeing the younger of the twos disappointment.
"That's fine, doctor, thank you. If you don't mind we will be using this room a little longer, then we will be out of your way. You have both of our cell numbers, call us when he is allowed visitors."
The doctor nodded then left, the nurse trailing behind him, a large smile still glued to her face. 'Occupational hazard,' Tony thought to himself cheekily, trying not to laugh.
Brad stood up and closed the door behind them, before sitting back down in his chair, not before dragging it over to the small coffee table. He began to start up his laptop as he spoke, "I think it's best we clear up this mess here, too many interruptions at CTU, and there's more chance of them finding out what really happened there, okay?"
"Sure," Tony replied, still smiling as he sat down, relief overcoming him. Jack would be okay, and he wasn't going to get dragged through the mud for his actions, it was better than he had ever expected it to turn out.
