CHAPTER 41

As Miguel was rushed to hospital, Johnny sat in the corner of the ambulance, watching petrified as the medics circled around Miguel, slapping an oxygen mask around his head and cleaning up the various burns and scrapes around his body. Miguel clearly had severe head trauma but they couldn't do anything until they reached the hospital. They finally made it to the hospital 10 minutes later, and Miguel was immediately whisked away by awaiting nurses. He was quickly wheeled into the hospital on a stretcher and Johnny ran after them. However, as they made it to the Trauma Surgery room, Johnny was held back by one of the nurses.

"I'm really sorry, sir. You can't come any further." The nurse said.

"What are you talking about? I'm his father!" Johnny exclaimed. The nurse shook her head.

"He's being prepped for surgery as we speak. No visitors past this point. He's going to be in surgery for a couple of hours. I'm not going to lie, it's going to be a long night."

Johnny nodded and sat down in the waiting room, his head in his hands. What had he done? This was all his fault! This whole karate mess… It started with him. After Johnny finished filling out all of the hospital forms he was given, he called Carmen, who answered the phone.

"Hey, Johnny." She said. She heard Johnny take a deep, shaky breath and she was immediately nervous.

"Carmen…" Johnny whispered, his voice on the brink of tears.

"Johnny, what's going on?" Carmen asked, getting more and more scared as she heard Johnny's tone.

"Carmen… you need to come to the hospital. It's Miguel…"

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Carmen made it to the hospital soon after, and the Larussos, Robby and Hawk all joined them. The big group sat in silence for around 5 hours. There was quiet music being played in the waiting room, not happy music, not somber music, just… music. None of them were paying attention to it though. They were all bone-tired but none of them went to sleep due to their worry about Miguel. At any moment, a doctor could walk out of the surgery wing and tell them that Miguel had passed away. It was a terrifying thought, and that thought kept them up as they sat in the waiting room.

The sun was starting to rise the next morning when a doctor finally came out of the trauma surgery wing and into the waiting room. Everyone's exhausted eyes shot up when they saw the doctor, and Johnny and Carmen stood up nervously.

"Okay, listen up folks." The doctor said, his voice extremely exhausted. "When the ceiling came down on Miguel's head, he suffered a massive brain trauma injury. His brain started swelling massively. We had to perform a craniectomy surgery on him which means that we had to remove a small part of his skull to relieve pressure in the area where his brain swelled."

"He's going to be okay though, right?" Johnny asked, nervously, taken back to almost exactly a year prior, when he was asking the exact same question in the exact same location, about the exact same person. It was a horrific deja vu for them.

The doctor took a deep breath before answering.

"Well, that surgery had nearly ⅓ mortality rate but he seemed to pull through okay so that's great news. However, his body is in a vegetative state now, not dissimilar to last summer after his back injury. There's nothing we can do to wake him up other than sending thoughts and prayers his way. It's a big ask for his body at his age to recover from an injury this severe, but it isn't impossible. I'm really sorry. You can see him now if you want. He's in trauma recovery. Follow me."

The whole group followed the doctor into the trauma recovery center, and they all piled into Miguel's room. When they saw him, tears came to all of their eyes. Miguel looked in even worse shape than after his back injury. His hair had all been shaved off for his head surgery so the scar was extremely visible. He had burns up and down his arms and legs, and he had bruises all over his face.

After a couple of minutes, seeing him there was too much for them. They all left the room together and then turned to one another. There was another long, awkward silence before Carmen broke it.

"Okay. It's been a VERY long day. I think we should all go home and get some rest. Miguel will still be here tomorrow morning." Carmen said. Everyone nodded and began to split up. Hawk left first. The Larusso family left next. Soon, it was only Robby, Johnny and Carmen left in the hospital, and Johnny turned to Robby.

"So where are you staying right now?" Johnny asked him.

"Um… I've just been crashing with a friend." Robby replied. "I'm just going to go there now."

"Come stay at my place tonight." Johnny said, suddenly. "Please. I'd feel more comfortable. We don't know where Kreese is. He could come after you."

Robby slowly nodded, unsure.

"Are you sure? I wouldn't want to be a burden." Robby said, mainly to Carmen. He wasn't talking about a physical burden. He was mainly talking about being an emotional burden. After all, despite quitting Cobra Kai and helping Miguel out of the fire, he was still the guy who had broken Miguel's back. The guy who had terrorised Miguel for the past year. He completely understood if Carmen and her family wanted Robby as far away from them as possible.

But, to his surprise, Carmen didn't seem repulsed or angry at him at all. She nodded and smiled faintly.

"No burden at all." She replied. Despite everything, she knew that Miguel would definitely not be alive today if not for Robby carrying him out of the flames. Besides, from the looks of the boy in front of her, she could immediately tell that he wasn't a bad person. He had just had a really rough life so far.

Robby smiled faintly, relieved but his worry about Miguel preventing him from smiling more.

"Thank you so much."

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Robby walked into Johnny's apartment for the first time in a year and when he looked around, it was hardly recognisable. It was a lot brighter for a start, and it looked a lot homier. There were pictures on the shelf, a proper living room with a couple of beanbags on the ground, and it was spotlessly clean. Robby walked over to the shelf where the pictures lay, and he immediately spotted one that was of him in his soccer uniform from when he was 10. He couldn't help but smile. He couldn't believe his father had kept it. Along with the picture of Robby, there were quite a few of Miguel and Johnny together. He picked up one of Johnny and Miguel at the UFC event and he looked at it. They both looked so happy. They looked like an actual father and son. More so than Robby and Johnny ever had anyway.

"You went to the UFC together?" Robby asked. Johnny turned around and saw the picture Robby was looking at and he nodded.

"Yeah, um… we went about a month ago." Johnny replied. The two of them attempted to make small talk for a couple of minutes before Johnny addressed the elephant in the room.

"Look, Robby, I'm so sorry." Johnny said. "Sorry doesn't even begin to describe how bad I felt about our relationship. I should've made way more of an effort. I used Miguel as an excuse for myself for not being a part of your life."

"Dad, you shouldn't have to feel bad for loving your stepson." Robby murmured. Johnny shook his head.

"No, I didn't just love him, I used him as an excuse for me not being there for you, and that was the only way I was able to sleep at night. Especially when you joined Cobra Kai, because that's when I needed to be there for you most. Maybe if I reached out from the beginning, you could've been there sooner and… and things wouldn't have gotten this far. I'm so sorry, Robby. I'm so sorry."

"It's okay, Dad." Robby replied. Johnny knew that Robby didn't completely forgive him yet - that might never come - but it was definitely a start.

Robby looked at one of the other pictures of Miguel and Johnny. This one was of them at a concert of some kind, and Miguel was in his wheelchair. Robby felt a steel grip on his chest and he closed his eyes.

"I was such a jerk to him. I became such a bad person. I became broken. Can I even come back from that?"

Johnny chuckled and nodded.

"I know for a fact you can." Johnny replied.

"What makes you so sure?" Robby asked.

"You're forgetting, I was also manipulated by Kreese for years when I was your age. I was far more broken than you could ever imagine. And look at me now. So trust me, you have nothing to worry about. It's going to be tough, but with the right people around you, you can do it."

Robby nodded. He knew that it was Miguel who had inspired Johnny to make change, and he looked again at the numerous photos of him.

"I never got a chance to apologise to him for the school fight." Robby whispered. "For breaking his back. His shoulder. All of it. I'm going to have to live with myself knowing that he never got to know that I was sorry."

"He would have forgiven you." Johnny stated, confidently. "If Miguel was anything, it was forgiving. And besides, why are we talking as if he's dead? He's going to wake up. I know he is. You and him… you two are the strongest people I know..."

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But despite Johnny's confident words, Miguel didn't wake up for the next 4 days and with every passing day, everyone lost more and more hope that he was going to wake up at all. This injury wasn't a spinal injury like his last one. As bad as that one was, this coma was worse as it was a head trauma induced injury.

Around 5 days after Miguel first went into the coma, Sam finally managed to pluck up the nerve to go and see him. After that first night, she had locked herself in her room pretty much every minute since. Her parents had tried talking to her, but neither of them really knew what to say to help her. What would you say to someone whose love of their life was in a coma and would likely die? Seconds, minutes, hours all droned on excruciatingly slowly for her. As she watched the second hand on her clock dart around the circular frame in her room, she knew that everytime it moved, Miguel's chances of survival grew thinner and thinner.

Sam walked into the hospital that afternoon, her purse in one hand and Senor Octopus in the other. Last time Miguel had been in a coma, Sam had left the octopus at his bedside as a good luck charm and it had clearly worked, so she would be doing the same again.

She forced herself to stay calm and not break down despite the tears threatening to well up inside of her. She couldn't. She needed to be strong, at least until she got home. She walked down the hospital corridor and turned into Miguel's room at the end of the hall. To her surprise, Johnny was sitting in the corner of the room. He looked up at her when she walked in, and he nodded at her.

"Hey." He grunted.

"Hey." Sam murmured. "Any updates?"

Johnny sighed and shook his head.

"Sam…" Johnny started, and from his tone, Sam could tell it was bad news.

"Johnny, what's going on?" She asked, nervously.

"The hospital… they told Carmen to call the priest. He's going to bless Miguel in case he… you know."

Sam nodded. She did know. It was in case the EKG machine connected to him flatlined and his heart stopped beating.

"Oh. But that could mean anything, right? That doesn't have to mean that he's going to die." She said. Johnny looked down and she could tell he was holding something back. "Right?"

Johnny took a deep, shaky breath.

"Let me put it this way. Last time, they had planned to do that if Miguel had been in the coma for more than a month. This time… well, this time the hospital is suggesting it after only 5 days."

Sam put her head in her hands. She wanted to cry. She wanted to scream. She wanted to curl up in a ball in the corner of the room and die there. Despite being only 16, she knew she had found the love of her life. The person she wanted to be with for the rest of her life. They had 6 blissful months together this year before they broke up, but even after, she knew that she still loved him. And now Miguel might die not knowing how she felt.

"So what is this thing with the priest exactly?" Sam eventually asked as she gathered her thoughts. Johnny shrugged.

"Um… I don't know much. The priest is supposed to bless him and his family pray for him. It's in case he's on the borderline of heaven and hell, to boost his case for heaven. It's kind of useless for him though. There would have to be some serious paperwork fuckup up there for him not to be in the highest place in heaven."

Sam nodded.

"That's right." She replied. Johnny only then noticed the stuffed toy in Sam's hands, and he raised an eyebrow.

"What's that all about?" He asked, pointing to it. Sam looked down at the Senor Octopus and she couldn't help but smile faintly.

"Oh, um… he won this for me on our first date last year. It's kind of become a good luck charm for us." She murmured. Johnny chuckled.

"I remember that day. He was SO nervous for that date. I had my All-Valley hearing that day to get Cobra Kai reinstated. We both knew that things would've been so much easier if we switched personalities for the night."

"Well, I tell you, no offense but if Miguel had your personality, I probably wouldn't have kissed him that night." Sam remarked. Johnny laughed.

"Fair. But it was my idea for him to take you to Golf n' Stuff so I get half a point for that." Johnny replied. "I remember when he ran into the dojo that night afterwards. He was so happy. Life was so easy back then. I wish things could go back to how they were back then."

"I don't." Sam replied. Johnny looked at her, confused. "Look, don't get me wrong, I want more than anything I've ever wanted for Miguel to wake up. But if we turned back to last year, I wouldn't have gotten to spend those 6 months with Miguel. Miguel would be just your student and not your son. With the bad this year came a hell of a lot of good."

Johnny nodded and smiled faintly.

"That's a hell of a Miguel way to think about it." He remarked. Sam beamed and nodded.

"Who do you think I learned it from?" Sam asked. Johnny nodded. He looked at her and he remembered how happy she made Miguel. Despite her surname, that put her in his good books.

"He really loved you, you know?" Johnny told her, pointing to Miguel. "Even after you broke up, he never stopped."

Sam smiled faintly.

"That makes two of us." She responded. They both looked at Miguel in silence for several moments. However, suddenly, the silence in the room was broken when the previously still Miguel started seizing and shaking rapidly. Johnny and Sam's eyes widened and they were immobile in shock. Luckily, the EKG machine, that had started beeping faster and faster, had triggered a silent alarm that alerted the nurses and doctors. They ran into the room moments later, but before they could inject Miguel with a stabilizing drug, the worst sound they could possibly hear rang out through the room.

BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP!

The EKG machine flatlined, indicating that Miguel's heart had officially stopped beating. As Sam and Johnny watched from the corner of the room in shock and horror, the nurses frantically grabbed a defibrillator from the side and hovered it over Miguel's chest.

"Ready… CLEAR!" The doctor shouted, and the nurse electrocuted Miguel with the defibrillator, trying desperately to restart Miguel's heart but with no success.

"Again! Ready… CLEAR!" The doctor yelled, more panic in his voice. THUD! The defibrillator zapped Miguel extremely hard but that did nothing to speed up the flatlining EKG machine. Tears filled Sam's eyes and Johnny put an arm around her. He was in shock. He couldn't believe what he was watching. He looked up at the ceiling, praying to the Gods above. He was not a religious man - he didn't even believe in God - but in the off-chance that there was anyone up there, he begged them for a miracle.

"Ready… CLEAR!" The doctor shouted, even more desperate. He knew from experience that his patients who didn't revive after 3 zaps all were gone.

THUD!

The defibrillator hit Miguel's chest one last time, but with no success. The defibrillator kept steady with one flat beep. The doctor slowly shook his head and turned to a devastated and panicked Sam and Johnny.

"I'm so sorry. He's go…"

The doctor never got to finish his sentence. Suddenly, out of the blue, the EKG Machine started beeping once again as Miguel shot upright in his bed, panting heavily and thrashing around.

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!