Disclaimer: I do not own The Day After Tomorrow or any of the characters.
Author's Note: This is my first The Day After Tomorrow story, and I hope you like it. Please review and let me know how you felt about it. I have several other stories written, and I need to know if I should post them or not! Thanks and enjoy!
Summary: Sam, Brian and JD had been running from the freezing cold of the eye of the super cell. But, instead of them all making it back just fine, Sam breathes in the incredibly cold air, and gets very sick. Laura wakes up to see him dying, but awake, and they share their feelings while the others rest. Will Jack make it to them in time to save his son? PG-13 for mild language and tense scenes
Review Responses: Thank you all so much for your reviews. They mean more than you know to me!
Taryn-Thank you so much for the review, it was my wakeup call to post more. Here's your next chapter!!
I am sooo sorry that I haven't posted again sooner…and I'm not going to give you all excuses because there are none. I am going to try to keep up my posting frequently, but I think the story is almost done. Probably about 5, maybe 6 more chapters in it after this one. But don't worry, I'll be writing more!
CHAPTER 11: The Reason?
LAURA
I took a deep breath, and nodded. "Yeah, I think I just need some rest. Seems like all this craze is getting to me. Lets just get this over with so we can get back to Sam." I looked up at the woman that had beckoned me into her office, and she gestured for me to get onto the table. JD helped me up, and then backed out of the woman's way.
"Can you tell me what happened, how you got this…" she questioned softly, examining my wounded leg. I winced slightly when she touched it with a gloved hand.
"My name's Laura. Uh…well…it happened when the streets started to flood really bad…and there was a French woman and her baby girl in the backseat of a taxi, stuck. The driver didn't know French, so I went to help her. I hit my leg on something under the water as I made my way over there, but I didn't pay any attention to it. Later on, I started to get sick, and eventually really sick. They found out I had blood poisoning and ended up getting me medicine for it," I explained, biting my bottom lip to suppress a gasp when she started to wipe it down with alcohol. JD moved over, and took my hand comfortingly.
"Where were you located?" the doctor questioned, looking up at me apologetically.
"New York," JD responded after a moment of silence from me. The pain was making my head spin, and I couldn't form my words. I was grateful to JD for his help.
"And you made it all the way here from there?! It's a miracle." I nodded slowly, as did JD. The doctor, Dr. Ellis as I saw on her badge, finished cleaning up my cut and wrapping it. She stood and stepped back a little. "I'm going to get you some morphine, that will help with the pain. I have to stitch this up, and you'll be fine. Good as new in a few weeks." I nodded curtly, and tightened my grip on JD's hand. His free one was placed on my shoulder.
Dr. Ellis left the room, then returned a few minutes later with a wheelchair and a small IV bag. She took the wrap off the needle, and felt the back of my hand gently for a vein. When she found one, she inserted the needle carefully. "Now I want you to hold on to this, squeeze it a little bit if the pain gets too much, and come back here when the bag is empty. It should take about a day or so for that to happen. Be careful not to jar this hand too much. The wheelchair is for you to sit in, of course. The morphine might make you drowsy. I don't want you to roll yourself around, understood? Be careful now." She smiled warmly. I returned the gesture with as much gratitude as I could muster.
"Thank you so much for this, you have no idea how much this means to me," I murmured. She took my good hand gently, with a smile.
"Good luck, Laura. I hope your boyfriend gets better soon." Tears filled my eyes a little, and she squeezed my hand before letting it go.
"Thank you," JD stated. He helped me into the wheelchair, and rolled it out of the room. We found the room that Sam was in as quickly as possible, and I sighed when I saw what was going on inside of it.
BRIAN
I turned when I heard a sigh from the doorway, and saw Laura in a wheelchair, her leg wrapped in a white bandage, and JD behind her, concern in his eyes. I glanced down at Sam one last time, then stood to join them. "How'd it go?"
Laura never took her eyes from Sam, tears forming in them. "It'll be fine. What is going on?" Her voice was wavering. Only then did she look up at me, pleadingly.
I took a deep breath, glancing from her to JD. "The doctor needs to treat Sam with a machine that isn't very common. He knows its somewhere in the hospital, but he doesn't know where, and he's running out of time. He's fading really fast. At the moment, he's trying to blow warm steam into Sam's lungs, but its hard to do without his throat closing up. So he had to insert a rod in his throat to keep it open while he continued to blow in hot steam. He's showing Jack what to do now so that he can go find the machine." I looked down at Laura, and saw her sigh heavily. I noticed the IV in her hand. "What's that?"
"Morphine, for the pain," she replied simply.
"You know, we're probably going to have to get checked over completely once they get Sam better, and Laura's leg's healed. I mean, we went, what, a week without a lot to drink or eat? We're all dehydrated and hungry," JD pointed up. I looked over at him, and nodded.
"Yeah, that may be so, but right now Sam is our main concern," Laura snapped. I could see the pain in her eyes, probably from her leg, but the fear and worry was more evident. JD rolled her over closer to Sam so she could take his hand. The doctor stood and rushed out quickly.
Lucy looked over at Laura while Jack concentrated on the steam that was being blown into Sam's throat by a small fan-like device. "How are you feeling?" she questioned softly. Mrs. Hall seemed to understand Laura's pain. I had no doubt that she could see the love that Laura had for her son.
"A little drowsy, but okay," Laura responded numbly. A closer look at her showed me that she was getting pale. She was probably really tired by now. I certainly was.
"You should rest."
"No!" Laura snapped quickly, tightening her grip on Sam's hand. JD and I glanced at each other nervously. She was going to make herself sick all over again. But the love she felt for Sam was too strong to let her relax, and I could relate, in a different way. Sam was the best friend I had, and the fear of losing him was nearly paralyzing.
Mrs. Hall nodded slightly. "You're the girl that Sam joined the team for, aren't you? He never told me about you directly, but I could tell that he joined because of you. He never joined any clubs before he met you."
A ghost of a smile passed over Laura's lips, and she nodded. "He told me that I was the reason he joined right before I got sick" A frown suddenly marred her beautiful, yet pale face. "It's my fault this happened to him…I'm the reason he's…dying right now." A single tear fell onto her cheek. Lucy gasped.
"Oh, sweetie, no. It's not your fault," she soothed, stroking Laura's hair gently. The young woman-because that is what Laura had become while we were trapped in the library, a woman-shook her head stubbornly.
"Yes it is. It's because if me that he joined the team, and it's because of stupid me that he went out into the cold, just like Brian and JD. It's all my fault." She broke down in tears, bringing her hands up to cover her face. The IV bag of morphine started to slide off her lap, so I grabbed it and knelt down next to her, hugging her gently.
"It'll be okay. He's going to make it."
"How can you be so sure?" she questioned in a sob. I pulled her hands away from her tear-stained face, and smiled reassuringly at her. JD rubbed her back comfortingly.
"Because Sam's a fighter, and if anyone can survive this, it's Sam." Laura sobbed again, and threw her hands around my neck. Careful not to pull her needle out of her hand, I returned the hug too, and just let her cry into my shoulder. I felt Lucy's hand on my back as well.
"I need to take Sam to a different room for this procedure. Could you please bring him with me?" the doctor questioned softly, announcing his presence to us abruptly. Jack nodded, and lifted his son into his arms and followed the doctor out. I handed Laura her Morphine bag, which she squeezed a little. She had been trying to hide it from us, but I still saw it, and looked into her eyes.
I leaned in and whispered in her ear, "you don't have to hide your pain from us." I straightened up and gave her a meaningful look. She blushed slightly with embarrassment, and nodded sadly. JD turned the wheelchair and rolled Laura out after Lucy. I followed behind all of them. Silently, I was praying that this procedure would work for Sam and he would be okay, for his sake, and everyone else's. Especially Laura's.
