Chapter 4 Jake's Condition

Two hours into the operation, the Bakers still hadn't heard a thing. Kate was getting anxious. She started pacing the waiting room. After twenty minutes, Tom went over to Kate and put his hands on her shoulder.

"Kate, sit down," said Tom.

"No. I'm tired of sitting down," said Kate.

"Mom, please. You're going to worry yourself to death," said Nora, going over to Kate and Tom.

"I should have taken him to the hospital. Why didn't I?" Tom sighed. Kate was beating herself up.

"This isn't your fault," said Tom.

"I should have taken care of him. He's my son. I should have been a mother to him. I messed up." Kate started to cry. Tom helped her sit down.

In the operating room, Julia was watching the entire operation like a hawk. She had to make sure if there was a serious problem she caught it. Steven and another surgeon, Dr. Weaver, were sucking mud out of Jake's stomach.

"He swallowed a lot of mud," said Steven.

"Is it just mud?" asked Julia.

"Looks like it. But this is only the area around his liver. We haven't even started to look around the intestines," said Steven. Julia sighed.

"What does Dave hope to find at the canal?" asked Steven.

"Hopefully nothing. But if the boy did swallow anything harmful to him, we have to find out what it was and deal with it right away," said Julia. She gagged as the hoses made a loud, slurping sound.

"Grossed me out the first time I heard it too," said Weaver. Steven and Weaver finished their cleaning.

"We'll move these hoses before continuing," said Steven.

"What's left after the intestines?" asked Julia. The smell of blood and bodily fluids was getting to her.

"If we need to, we'll move to the bladder," said Weaver.

"Great," said Julia.

David leaned down next to the canal. The water looked dirty but he didn't see any sign of toxic waste. He found the spot where Jake had been beaten up. There was dried blood on the ground from when his lip had split open. David also found Jake's vomit. He let out a concerned sigh when he saw it. There was a hint of green mixed in with the black. To David, this could mean that Jake had possibly swallowed a large amount of toxic waste. And his insides might be slowly dying.

"How do you guys get used to this?" asked Julia, disgusted.

"Get used to what?" asked Steven.

"Digging through someone's insides," said Julia.

"It's just his intestines. It's not li-. Steven paused.

"I found something," said Steven.

"What?" asked Julia, peeking into Jake's open stomach. She groaned at what she saw.

"This kid is in a lot of trouble," said Julia. Part of Jake's intestines were burned. And to Julia, it looked like a chemical burn.

Jake was in surgery for two more hours. He lost two feet of his intestines. Steven went to talk to the Bakers. Julia found David waiting for him.

"He swallowed something. We just need to find out where the hell that st came from," said David.

"There's an industrial plant in town. Maybe we should start there," said Julia.

"How's the boy?" asked David.

"He's a tough, little guy. He made it through surgery fine. He's awake now and anxious to see his family," said Julia.

"We'll talk to them soon," said David.

Kate put a hand on Jake's cheek.

"Jake, baby," said Kate. Jake opened his eyes.

"Mom," said Jake, weakly.

"Yeah," said Kate.

"Am I OK?" asked Jake. He didn't notice that his family was around him.

"For right now," said Kate. Mike walked over to Jake's bed with Henry and Sarah behind him.

"Hey dude. How are you feeling?" asked Mike.

"My stomach hurts a little," said Jake.

"Well, duh, dude," said Sarah. Jake gave a weak smile.

"Hang in there, man. You'll get better," said Henry. He gave Jake a small high five.

"OK, guys. Let Jake rest," said Kate. Mike, Sarah, and Henry said goodbye to their brother and left. David and Julia walked in.

"Mrs. Baker, can we talk to you?" asked David.

"Sure. I'll be right back, sweetie," said Kate. Jake nodded. Kate followed David and Julia into the hall. Tom was there as well.

"Jake may be in grave danger," said Julia.

"There seems to be toxic waste in the canal he was thrown into. Now, Steven will probably be able to save him since we caught it early," said David.

"What do you mean probably?" asked Tom. David sighed.

"It's toxic waste, Mr. Baker. Jake could die in the next few minutes if he has a bad reaction to it," said David. Kate broke down. Tom comforted her as she cried her eyes out.

"We'll do everything in our power to make sure your son recovers," said Julia. Tom nodded and took Kate to be with the rest of her kids.

"Now what?" asked Julia.

"You take care of the boy. I'm going to make the sons of bitches who polluted that water pay," said David.

"How?" asked Julia.

"I'm calling in Chance," said David.

"Chance Connors? FBI agent Chance Connors?" asked Julia.

"Yeah. He's good at taking down evil companies," said David. Julia shook her head as David left to go call Chance.

"Breakfast up," yelled Chance Connors through his house. Ryan (yes, Jake's friend) came running down the stairs.

"Since when do you make breakfast?" asked Ryan.

"Oh, every once and while I'll make my world famous Belgian waffles," said Chance, handing Ryan his breakfast. The phone rang as Joan came down.

"Hello," said Joan, answering. There was a pause.

"Chance, it's your friend at the CDC," said Joan.

"Hey, Dave," said Chance, picking up the kitchen phone. There was a pause.

"Toxic waste? That is serious. What's the kids name?" Another pause.

"Jacob Baker. OK, I'll see you soon." Chance hung up. Ryan and Joan were giving him horrified looks.

"What?" asked Chance.

"What happened to Jake?" asked Ryan.

"Who?" asked Chance.

"Jacob Baker. The kid you were just talking about," said Joan.

"Dave says he was beaten up and thrown in a canal full of toxic waste. Why?" asked Chance.

"Dad, Jake is my best friend," said Ryan.

"Oh," said Chance.

"Finish up, Ryan. We'll go visit him," said Joan. She turned her attention to Chance.

"How bad is he?" asked Joan.

"I don't know. I just know that he had surgery to see the extent of the damage. Dave didn't go into details," said Chance.

"Open," said Julia. Jake opened his mouth so Julia could look inside.

"Seems OK," said Julia. Jake moaned.

"My stomach really hurts," said Jake.

"It's your first surgery. It will hurt for a little while," said Julia.

"Can I see my family?" asked Jake.

"Yeah. I'll send a few of them in," said Julia. She looked towards the doorway. Chance had arrived.

"Hey, Chance," said Julia. Chance walked into the room.

"Hey. Where's Dave?" asked Chance.

"He'll be here. This is Jake," said Julia.

"Yeah. My son's friend," said Chance.

"What?" asked Jake.

"I'm Ryan's dad," said Chance.

"Oh. Nice to meet you, Mr. Connors," said Jake.

"He likes to go by, Agent Connors," said Julia. Chance gave her a look. Joan and Ryan arrived.

"Oh my God. Jake," said Ryan, walking over to Jake.

"Hey," said Jake.

"What happened?" asked Ryan.

"Todd had a little talk with me," said Jake.

"That jerk," said Ryan.

"Chance, why don't you go after the punks who beat him up?" asked Joan.

"I can do that," said Chance.

"I was going to head over to the industrial plant by the skate park. I could use some FBI support," said David.

"Let's go," said Chance. David and Chance left. Julia went to get Jake's family.

"So how do you feel?" asked Ryan.

"Like someone rearranged my insides," said Jake.

"I'm sorry Todd beat you up. Now I feel guilty that I left you," said Ryan.

"Don't. He would have thrown you in the water as well," said Jake.

"How was surgery?" asked Joan.

"It was fine. I felt awful when I woke up," said Jake. Kate and Nora walked in at that moment. The rest of the kids were at school.

"Oh, Jake, sweetie, how are you?" asked Nora. This was her first time seeing Jake since the incident.

"I'm OK I guess," said Jake. As Jake was bombarded with question, Julia was looking over the latest test results. The news was not good. Jake's heart was starting to become effected. His spleen was so damaged that it would need to be taken out. And the worst of it was, Jake wasn't getting any better.