Disclaimer: Same as chapter 1
Author's Note: Sorry if the medical info is inaccurate, my knowledge of it is limited to TV and Wikipedia. I'd like to thank everybody who's actually read this and apologize for the shortness of the chapter, I wanted to spend more time on my other story which is why I didn't upload this till now. Well anyway enjoy and please review!
Nick forced his gritty eyes open to peer around him. He was in a hospital, he realized and felt relief he was alive, particularly when he saw his family slumped around on hospital couches, even Lulu. Nick smiled to himself and noticed he had a weird mask on his face, Nick felt a jolt of terror that he couldn't move his right hand, panicked he looked at it. It was encased in a cast, Nick groaned inwardly, it felt like it had been buried in cement! At least it was still there, he thought as he surveyed the rest of his injuries.
His other hand was bandaged, but not buried in cement luckily, he also had some bandage on his head and around his shoulder. He probably had other injuries that the morphine was killing the pain for, but were unnoticeable from this view. Vaguely he wondered if this counted as being high. He discovered he could still move his legs and then grew bored, he had nothing to do and was worried about Laurie and those others. He hoped they were okay and longed to ask but didn't want to wake his Dad or Lulu, he had no idea how long he'd been out.
"Dada! Dada!" Nick looked and saw Anne bouncing up and down in the new stroller, Nick smiled at her recognition and wondered if she was as bored as him being the only other one awake. Nick removed the oxygen mask with his new favourite left hand to tak to her.
"Hi, Annie," Nick was surprised at how hard it was to breathe, but still rasped out the words and realized he was thirsty. Anne giggled and drooled at the mention of her name.
"Dada! Dada!" she squealed louder, delighted at his reply. He shushed her but it was too late. Burton and Lulu were already waking up. On seeing him she grinned from ear to ear, she was so beautiful when she smiled.
"How ya doing, Nick?"
"Do you really want me to answer that?" he gasped, making a mental note to think in short sentences for the time being. Lulu looked concerned.
"Do you want to put the mask back on? It should help you breathe until your lungs recover or something," she smiled again, "I stopped listening after he said you were alive,"
"Water first," Nick motioned to the water cooler beside the door, Lulu quickly poured him a drink and went to hand it to him. He tried desperately to grasp the cup but it was too heavily bandaged so Lulu got a straw from the baby bag, put it in the drink and moved the cup closer to Nick so he could drink. Nick smiled gratefully as the cool refreshing drink soothed his throat, he still felt stupid having to drink from a straw like that. Hopefully it was only temporary, Nick pondered what question to ask first.
"Laurie?" he managed to gasp then reluctantly put back on the mask.
"She's fine as far as I know. So are those others you saved, I'll check for you if you want. The only person who didn't make it was the pilot, apparently he was drunk out of his mind-"
"Nick! Your awake, thank god," Nick turned to see his Dad's delighted eyes smiling at him, he must've woken up, "you had us worried there son, really worried,"
"I'm sorry," Nick mumbled from behind the mask.
"Glad to see your awake Mr. Fallin," Nick turned to see the new speaker who'd entered the room.
"I'm Dr. Alexander Greyson, pleasure to meet you," he seemed nice enough, Nick decided, for a doctor. He'd never admit it aloud but he always resented that doctors hadn't saved his mother.
"He saved your life and your hand, Nick," Lulu was saying.
"It was an honour to save a hero's life," Nick was puzzled by this, him a hero?
"Although it was the paramedics who ultimately revived you," that confirmed his suspicions, he had died for awhile anyway. Probably why Lulu and his Dad had been so worried. Dr. Greyson questioned him on how he was feeling and poked him a couple of times then told him to rest for awhile. He injected something into Nick's IV and he felt himself drifting into sleep...
