Time seemed to stand still and Ryan had no idea how much time passed since he last fell asleep.
Was it hours, minutes, seconds?
He had no idea. All he knew that when he woke up the pain wasn't as bad as before and the nausea was receding. For a moment he feared that he'd led on his foster parents making them think that he was sicker than he was, that was until he felt the feverish chills wrack his body, making his eyes all blurry and his head all fuzzy.
There were no doubt that he was sicker than he first thought.
People were swarming around him like bees to honey and they were talking to him. He had a hard time figuring out what they wanted but he could hear Sandy's booming voice and Kirsten's gentle one, but suddenly there were two persons that he didn't recognize talking too. His head felt like it was going to explode from the strength of open his eyes, yet he forced himself to do so only to become dizzier than he'd been before. Shit this was a bad movement.
It seemed as if everything was going in slow motion and it was all so surreal. That was until he felt himself being lifted and the dizziness was back with a vengeance, as was the nausea that had been lurking in the back of his throat like an animal waiting for it's pray. Moaning Ryan tried to say that he didn't want to get lifted since it made him feel even sicker than before but all that came out was a strangled grunt.
"What did you say honey?" Kirsten asked as she leaned in to hear what her foster son wanted.
Too weak to repeat what he had meant to say Ryan swallowed hard and then choked out, "Don't."
To his dismay no one listened and he was being moved onto a stretcher. Once again the teenager did his best to make his voice heard and this time the person that he didn't recognize leaned in to listen to him.
"What are you trying to tell me?" he asked as he was checking Ryan's pulse.
"It hu...hurts to move," Ryan gasped as another searing pain struck his body.
"I know buddy but we try to be as gentle as we can." The man looked a bit apologetic. "I'm Frank," he said when Ryan blinked several times in an attempt to recognize him.
"And this is Mike." He pointed to his black colleague. "We're here to take you down to Newport Hospital so that they can fix you up in no time." He grinned, "Ain't that right Mike?"
"Yup." The black man stuck a needle into Ryan's vein and then secured the IV bag safely on a pole. "There you are, ready to go to the hospital."
Suspicious over what they were doing the teenager asked, "What's all that for?"
"You need fluid into your body and this will help you feel better," the dark man answered while he did the last thing to set up the IV.
Ryan nodded, too weak to say anything. He could hear Seth talking to him in the background but everything hurt so much and he had a hard time focus on anything at the moment. His stomach felt so strangely full and he felt it was best to tell these two men this.
"I feel full," he mumbled, hoping that they would catch onto what he was talking about.
The man called Frank had just put on a pair of gloves and he'd lifted up Ryan's t-shirt when the teenager's words took him by surprise. "You feel full?" he asked.
Ryan nodded. Was that bad?
"Okay," the ambulance man said, "I'm going to do a quick examination of your belly. Just to see that everything is alright."
"Alright?" Seth interrupted him. "Of course everything's not alright. He's sick and puking his guts out."
"Seth!" Ryan could hear Kirsten scolding her son and if he hadn't felt so bad he would at least have given up a grin, this time however he had to concentrate on lying still since moving made him feel carsick.
The Ambulance men felt Ryan's stomach carefully, yet it felt strange and the teenager bit his lip so he wouldn't cry out loud or lash out and give the man a punch. There were some serious prodding going on and meanwhile Mike was scribbling down figures on a note pad.
"His whole abdomen is tense," Frank concluded while he prodded the stomach area with careful moves. "I don't like this," he mumbled when he touched the spot where Ryan had guarded all day.
"How is he doing?" Sandy wanted to know when the examination had went on far too long.
"His stomach is distended and hard and I'm afraid that there might have been an appendix rupture already."
Ryan's whole body tensed up hearing this news. He wanted so bad to ask if this was dangerous but Seth beat him to it.
"Isn't that dangerous?"
"It can be," the man muttered as they lifted Ryan into the waiting ambulance. "Especially if his abdomen will be filled with puss."
This comment didn't exactly help matters and Ryan felt panic starting to set in. His stomach screamed for his attention again and the fear of having to travel alone in the ambulance made him feel claustrophobic.
He didn't want to go to the hospital alone.
"Can...Can anyone come with me?" The words came out as a mere whisper and to his relief he heard Kirsten telling him that she would ride with him in the ambulance. Sandy told him to just hang in there and that they would follow with the car.
Satisfied that he wouldn't be all alone with this hell Ryan closed his eyes again and drifted off into another restless sleep.
"Come on buddy!" A male voice urged him while he felt a hand slapping his face gently. Feeling as if he didn't want to wake up Ryan closed his eyes even tighter only to be annoyed again by the male who kept bugging him.
"Leave me alone. I wanna sleep," he mumbled while trying to fight off the intruder that was so persistent in making him wake up. Whatever drugs the ambulance men had given him made him feel good and the fierce stomach ache was as good as gone, if you didn't count the burning feeling that replaced it.
"No Ryan, you have to wake up." Hands were shaking him and he wanted to yell at them, tell them to take a hike when he heard Kirsten's soft voice.
"Sweetie, I know that you feel bad and just want to sleep but you have to wake up. They want to do an examination before it's time for you to go to surgery."
The word surgery did it.
His blue opened up only to see a man in a white coat hovering over him as well as a couple of nurses. Kirsten were standing there too, a deep frown on her forehead.
"Hi Ryan," the men in the white coat said. "I'm Doctor Reynolds and I'm going to look at you, do a quick examination of your stomach." The doctor didn't waste any more words than necessary and soon he went to action.
Whatever drugs the ambulance men had provided him with seemed to ware off especially when Doctor Reynolds pressed on his stomach. It hurt like a bitch and this time Ryan didn't care that he was yelling out obscenities. He would apologize to Kirsten afterwards.
"Try to calm down," the doctor said when Ryan had squirmed long enough on the cot. "You will only hurt yourself if you keep bouncing around."
"But...but it...it hurts." The tears were very close by now and the blonde had to do everything in his power not to break down and cry. There were no immediate response and to Ryan's demise the doctor kept on examining him.
"How long have you felt sick?"
"I...I don't. don't know," Ryan mumbled, suddenly too exhausted to answer any questions. Beside it was the truth, he had no idea how long since the whole day had been nothing but a blur to him.
"Let me rephrase it," the doctor said with a sigh. "How long have you had the stomach ache?"
Ryan thought for a moment while trying to ignore the burning feeling in his side. "Since...since yesterday I think...or...or was it the day before?"
To be frank he had no idea how much time had passed and that it was yesterday that he'd been at school seemed like an eternity now.
"That's the truth," Kirsten filled in. "I knew that Ryan wasn't feeling okay the day before yesterday but I thought that it was more a case of an upset stomach."
The teenager blushed. It was embarrassing that Kirsten had figured out that the reason for his sudden bathroom breaks was because he had a case of the runs, to put it mildly. Sometimes he wondered how her hawk eyes could see everything. His own mom had been blind as a bat. The boys could have been nearly passing out in front of her but she wouldn't notice it at all. Kirsten however took in everything, sometimes even more than he wanted her to see. Seth had once told him that it was because her mind was set on the "mom's radar". Something that Dawn definitively lacked!
The prodding went on much too long for Ryan's liking and when he thought that he couldn't stand it any longer the doctor said, "I'm afraid that your situation has been a bit complicated due to the fact that your appendix has already burst."
Kirsten let out a gasp but Ryan already knew that it was the truth. He could almost feel the puss swishing around inside of him. Gagging the thought of this made him feel nauseous and before he could count to two he found himself heaving over a curved metal bowl.
The burning sensation grew even worse than before.
"Oh honey try to take a slow deep breath," Kirsten cajoled him when the dry heaving wouldn't stop and he was panting for air. Slowly Ryan was coming to his senses again and following his foster mother's advice he did his best to calm down. The nurses were by his side now too and while they helped him to lay down he heard Kirsten barking out to the doctor.
"This boy needs surgery. What are you waiting for?" She sounded annoyed.
"We need to do an X-ray first of his abdomen so we know what we're dealing with," the doctor calmly explained while he was scribbling down something on a paper. Then he told one of the nurses, "Take this note down to lab and bring me back these tests. STAT."
The burning sensation was getting worse by the second and Ryan felt it was best that he told them how bad he felt, just in case they thought about getting on his hair for hiding his symptoms.
The news wasn't as good as he'd hoped for and soon he heard the doctor say, "I don't have time to wait for the X-rays to be done. We need to get this patient to surgery right now."
After that last sentence something happened and Ryan felt himself being whisked away in such hurry that Kirsten had a hard time keeping up. Turning his head he saw that she was running after him in the corridor and he stretched out a hand to reach for her. If there was one thing he needed right now it was someone by his side and Kirsten was the best he could think of.
"Ryan hold on." Kirsten called out to him as they whisked him away on the stretcher towards the surgery. It was all happening so fast that once again it felt as if he was in the midst of a dream. It was all so surreal.
"I'm sorry mam but you can't go in there. It's a restricted area for personnel only."
Two big doors opened up for him and the orderly pushed him inside. Ryan could hear someone telling Mrs Cohen that she wasn't allowed to come into surgery and he wanted to yell to them that he needed her. Yet he kept quiet. He wasn't a baby after all.
Two strong orderlies lifted him onto a cot and soon he saw Dr Reynolds face come into view. "I'm sorry Ryan that you had to wait so long, but it's really busy over at ER tonight." He gave him a gentle smile. "Anyway were going to perform surgery on your stomach and then you will feel better in no time."
The burning sensation was starting to get to him and Ryan fidgeted restlessly on the coat. He felt so sick all of a sudden and he was sure that he was going to throw up. A metallic taste filled his mouth and before he could follow what was happening his stomach revolted once again and a thick substance poured out from his mouth.
"His throwing up. Turn him to the side... NOW!"
Ryan felt hands grabbing him, rolling him over to the side. The taste was making him want to choke but it was nothing compared to the words that followed.
"His throwing up blood!"
"Shit! Come on people...We have to open up this kid... asap..." The surgent barked out orders in such a speed that Ryan got dizzy. He felt something being placed over his mouth and soon there were a strange smell and a warm tingling sensation while his body and mind drifted off into oblivion.
With that Ryan passed out; completely dead to the world.