Flow (5)
They waited, pacing, sitting, flipping through worn magazines and seeing nothing but Cameron, unconscious in the corridor. The ambulance taking forever to arrive, the medics so practiced and calm as they took vitals, took information, took Cameron away.
Psych hold. She'd heard it countless times before, but never had it been so jarring. Truthfully, the doctors were first seeking a physical cause for his collapse. But she and Mike had reported everything, listed off the behavioural aberrations one by one, and the ER attending had made copious notes and indicated a psych consult would be needed, and conscious or not Cameron wasn't going anywhere.
"I don't get it," Jordan said, tossing aside a dog-eared copy of Popular Mechanics. "I saw Cameron yesterday and he was fine."
"He wasn't fine," Gunter spat. "That monster Stein did something to him, that's for sure. He got in Cam's head."
Dina stood up and paced slowly around the waiting area. "I don't know about that," she murmured.
"Dina?" Kay prompted.
Shaking her head slightly, Dina picked up the magazine Jordan had discarded. She stared at the cover for a moment and then dropped it back on the table. "I don't know," she said, turning back to Kay. "But something's been off about Cameron for a little while now."
"Are you talking about a few days ago, when I came to pick him up for the case?"
"Yes," Dina nodded, settling back down next to Gunter. "We were talking and Cameron…snapped at me. It was over nothing. I asked if he was going to see Jonathan and he just went off." She shrugged helplessly. "I've never seen him act that way, even under stress. Even during Jon's trial, after the conviction, he's always been…gentle. It's who he is."
"Family of Cameron Black?"
They turned as one to see a tiny, genial looking physician with greying hair tied in a neat bun. She smiled at the group. "So you're all 'family'?"
"Yes," Kay replied. "We're all family."
The doctor nodded. "Alright then. I'm Dr. Gina Singh. I've been examining Mr. Black." She motioned down the corridor. "Can we speak?"
Leading the way into a small consult area, Dr. Singh placed a file on the table and turned to the group. "Mr. Black came to us after collapsing and losing consciousness."
"Yes," Kay nodded. "We were there when it happened." She shot a reassuring look at Mike.
"And you described physical and behavioural symptoms over the past several days."
"He's had a headache," Jordan offered.
"He's been tired as well," Dina said, garnering nods from the team.
Kay hesitated. "He's also been…different."
"Restless, irritable, erratic?"
"Yes. All of those things." Kay grimaced. "He reported being followed, hearing strange noises in his home…like someone was after him."
Dr. Singh nodded. "But no one actually was."
"No. We checked into it and…no. And when we went to his place this morning…."
Mike cleared his throat. "He fought us," he said softly. "It was like he didn't realize who we were. We had to restrain him." He looked anxiously at the doctor. "Did we hurt him?"
"No, I don't believe you did," Dr. Singh reassured. "Your intervention probably saved his life. Mr. Black has a traumatic brain injury, and he's had it for weeks."
"What?" Kay blinked and shook her head. "A brain injury. From what? How do you know?"
The doctor's smile was practiced, speaking to long experience in calming fearful people. "We diagnosed the injury quickly, due to Mr. Black's specific symptoms. The headaches and personality changes you mentioned, and of course the loss of consciousness. Our diagnosis was confirmed with a computed tomography scan – a CT scan – of his skull. It's like a fancy X-ray." Opening the file, she pulled out the scan and held it up for them, tracing one finger down a light grey mass inside the white line of cranial bone. "This," she explained, "is a subacute subdural hematoma. A head trauma can cause small bridging veins on the surface of the brain to rupture and slowly bleed. The blood collects between the surface of the brain and the skull, as you can see here."
Kay stared at the image. "That shape…that's all blood?"
"Yes."
"Jesus," Gunter murmured. "Stein didn't do that."
Dr. Singh frowned. "I'm sorry – who?"
"Our case," Kay said. The doctor had laid the scan down on top of Cameron's file, but she couldn't take her eyes off it. The smooth bulge of blood – it seemed impossibly large.
"Agent?" Dr. Singh prodded.
"Sorry." She sucked in a breath and focused. "We've been investigating criminal activity that included some gas-lighting, mostly manufactured noises. I think we assumed that what Cameron saw and heard was connected to that. But it wasn't, was it?"
"I can't determine what Mr. Black may or may not have perceived in connection to your investigation, but I can say that the symptoms you've described occur in a significant number of these injuries." The doctor referred again to her scan. She curled her hand into a fist that neatly covered the mass, and then flexed it to simulate distention toward the darker space of cerebral tissue. "There may be few or no signs of injury at first. As blood pools over days or weeks, it begins exerting increased pressure on the brain. Common symptoms include headache, dizziness, sleep disturbances and problems with movement. Patients may also experience depressive or psychotic symptoms, hostile behaviour, delusions, hallucinations and eventual loss of consciousness."
"A lot of that sounds right," Mike said. "But how did this happen? Cameron's been fine."
Dr. Singh referred to the file notes. "He was brought in about a month ago after having been locked in an airtight vault, correct?"
Kay nodded. "Uh, yes. He nearly died." She remembered their pervasive worry over Cameron, the auction house, the Mystery Woman's arrogance. Of course. "He'd been knocked out," she said.
"At the time," the doctor continued, scanning rows of transcribed notes, "it appears that the ED personnel focused on Mr. Black's breathing, as he had been deprived of oxygen. When brought in he was fully conscious and didn't report pain or show initial signs of head injury, so although it was noted that he had been struck, no follow-up was ordered."
"Was that a mistake?" Dina asked, her voice low and even.
"It was not an unreasonable course of treatment at the time."
"So what now?" Kay asked.
Dr. Singh smiled again. "Now we make him better."
….
To be continued
Note: Thanks for reading!
Second Note: I was over on the Save Deception petition the other day, and I heard there is actual SWAG being put out to convince ABC or some other entity like Amazon or HBO to pick it up. Mugs. T-shirts. Who knows what else. That gave me a chuckle. I went back to the ABC programming page and asked how they can possibly ignore swag. :)
