"Ok, you can do this; you have to do it eventually." Rick took a deep breath and picked up the phone to call his mother and ended up dialing the police station. "Chicken!"
"Can I speak to Town please?"
"Hold please."
"This is Lieutenant Brown speaking."
"Hey Town, do you have any answers?"
"Um, they just put the report on my desk. No hit's from the prints on A.J.'s cup; just A.J. and the waitress. They did find traces of PCPP in the cup. They have more prints to run but, that will take a couple of days. How is A.J. doing?"
"Still stable," Rick didn't want to say more so he changed the subject. "Can you call Phoebe's parents and give them an update but, tell them not to talk to mom about what happened I want to be the one to tell her."
Rick hung up the phone and felt compelled to check on A.J. again before sleeping. He stood in the doorway to his room, watching the monitors.
"Rick," He jumped in surprise as he felt a hand on his arm. "If there are any changes at all, I will come get you." Diane comforted him, "Go rest. He will need to see a familiar face when he wakes up."
"Rick, Rick, wake up, it's time. The doctor stopped the drugs about an hour ago and we are starting to see some spikes on A.J.'s EEG." Diane said as she shook his shoulder. "It may take a couple more hours for him to wake up completely. But, I thought you would want to sit with him. The doctor should be back to check on him again in 5 or 10 minutes."
Rick walked with the nurse back to A.J.'s room. "He still looks the same to me. Just keep reminding yourself Rick, he will be fine, he will be o.k. Hold it together Rick; falling apart will do no good." Seeing A.J. in ICU made Rick feet like he was living in a nightmare. "The last time I had a nightmare that scared me this much, I ended up shot by A.J.'s look alike."
Rick pulled the chair up beside A.J.'s bed and squeezed his hand, hoping for a response. "I'll just sit here and try not to think until the doctor comes."
"Hey there Rick, I am glad to see that you got some rest. Let's check on our patient. See this." Dr. O'Daly showed Rick the EEG. "His brain is becoming more active. Let's turn this vent off and see if A.J. decides it is time to breathe on his own."
Rick tried to will his brother to breath. Nothing. The alarm on cardiac monitor went off as A.J.'s oxygen stats started to drop. Dr. O'Daly turned the ventilator back on. He turned and saw Rick's worried expression. "Don't worry, I didn't expect anything yet. I'll check back in another 20 minutes. Just relax and talk to him. It may help him wake up more quickly."
"I can handle that." Rick was glad to have something to think about. What story would he start with first? "Remember when you were 10 and I told you mom threw out your….." He was searching for his fifth story when Dr. O'Daly walked back into the room.
"Hi, Rick. I'm not going to take him off the ventilator this time; I am just going to change the settings. If he starts to take a breath on his own the vent will kick in to make sure he is taking in enough air. If he doesn't take a breath in time it will do all the work for him. He may appear to struggle some when the vent takes over but, it shouldn't bother him as he is still pretty sedated. His body has been through a lot so we don't really know how long it will take for him to fully wake up and what his condition will be when he does."
Rick frowned, "I thought you said he would be fine."
"Yes, we do believe that. I just don't have a timeline for his recovery. I'll be back to check on him again in about 30 minutes."
As the doctor left, A.J. nurse walked into his room. "Why don't you take a break and give me a chance to clean your brother up a bit. We want him to feel as good as possible when he wakes up. Besides, there is someone is the waiting room that wants to talk to you."
Rick was actually grateful for an excuse to leave his brother's room. It was difficult to remember that A.J.'s prognosis was good while a machine was breathing for him.
"Hi Town," Rick greeted his friend.
"I figured you could use some company but, they wouldn't let me back. I didn't realize A.J. was in the ICU. Has he gotten worse?"
"No, they had to put him in a coma to control the seizures. They are letting him wake up now. Once he is awake I think they will move him to a regular room."
"Is your mom here yet?"
Rick looked away with some guilt, "No, I just can't do it, Town. A.J. looked so bad when I first saw him. I know he is supposed to be fine but it is so hard to remember that when I am looking at him in that bed. I can't put her through that. I call her sometime after he wakes up."
"I talked to.. Oh, wait, here, I brought you a couple of chili dogs. Why don't you eat them and I'll give you a summary of what is going on with Phoebe."
"Thanks, I could use some good food." Rick smiled, thinking about how A.J. would respond to hearing Rick call a chili dog good food.
"I talked to Phoebe's parents. We can call the incident at the diner a kidnapping so I can put more cops on it. I can't compromise the investigation we already have going down there but, I have some people staking out the area you found her. They will grab her if they see her." Town gave a surprised laugh, "Wow, that was fast."
"I didn't realize I was so hungry. I should get back to A.J."
"Call the station if you need me and they will find me. I am hoping I'll be able to stop by and see A.J. once he wakes up tonight."
Rick turned before entering through the doors back into the ICU. "Town, thanks - really".
"He's going to be ok, He's going to be ok. I just have to keep reminding myself of that. Please wake up A.J." Rick scooted his chair to A.J.'s bed, took his hand and squeezed. "A.J. if you can hear me please squeeze my hand." Nothing.
"Rick, Rick, wake up!" Rick looked up and saw Dr. O'Daly. "A.J. is starting to open his eyes. Can you talk to him for me while I check him out?"
"A.J., come on open those eyes and look at me. A.J. slowly opened his eyes but closed them and went back to sleep. "A.J. wake back up," Rick looked at the doctor. "He's not responding to me."
"It's ok; it's just taking him a bit longer than we hoped for him to wake up. I am not happy that the ventilator is still doing most of his breathing, but I don't have a reason to be concerned about that yet. He just needs a little more time," The doctor encouraged. "His EEG shows that he is out of the coma so I am going to send him down for a CAT scan."
Had the doctor told him about that earlier? "Why does he need a CAT scan?"
"We don't think we will find any problems but, it is something we need to do, just to be sure. Any number of things that A.J. experienced today are capable of causing damage to his brain."
"Can I go with him?"
"You could ride in the elevator with him if you wanted to but that's as far as you can go so there is no real reason to leave the ICU. It won't take long and we will bring him right back. I'll be back here to talk to you as soon as he is finished." Dr. O'Daly left the room.
Rick felt like with every encouragement there was a piece of bad news about what could go wrong. "A.J. help me out here and wake up. I need a reason to stop worrying. Maybe it really is time to close up shop."
Rick heard footsteps and looked up to see Diane enter the room.
"You can stay if you want to. I'm just going to be getting him ready for his CAT scan. Dr. O'Daly said we can get rid of some of these wires. Let's get these inflatable leg coverings off first." Diane chatted as she worked so Rick would know what was happening to his brother. "He is starting to move around a bit. He also said he can get rid of this heart monitor. I'm just going to detach and cap the ng tube, which will stay in for now." Diane moved to A.J.'s head to remove the sensors attached to the EEG. "He will probably be reattached to the EEG when he returns. This is a portable vent and it will do all of his breathing for him. The doctor does want to see what he does if we leave it off for a minute while we are changing from one to the other. Do you want to stay for that?"
"As long as he breathes this time." Rick thought as he nodded at the nurse to go ahead.
"A.J. I'm Diane. Do me a favor and breathe for me." She turned off the ventilator and unhooked it from the tube going into A.J.'s mouth.
Diane raised her voice. "A.J. can you hear me, wake up and take a breath." Diane started to reach for the portable ventilator.
Rick couldn't take it. He put his face next to A.J.'s head and yelled. A.J. Simon wake up right now!" A.J. eyes popped open. "A.J. can you breath for me. Take a breath little brother" A.J. started to gag and struggle.
Diane stepped in, "Relax A.J. and try to breath for me. Take a breath. Good job. Can you take a deeper breath? A.J.'s eyes started to droop once more. "You did good A.J. go back to sleep." Diane hooked up the portable vent up and turned it on. A.J. eyes opened back up in surprise as the vent took over for him again. "It's ok A.J., go back to sleep."
Rick felt drained. Diane touched his arm, "You did great, Rick! Why don't you take a break; A.J. won't be gone long."
"I'm going to make a couple of calls."
"I'll let the doctor know to look for you in the waiting room when he returns."
Rick sat down in the waiting room and wearily dialed the number. "Mr. Glass this is Rick Simon. A.J. should be fine. Yes, I'll call mom soon. I am so sorry that we lost Phoebe. The police are looking for her and I will be back out to help them as soon as I can. If you hear anything from her, please call Lieutenant Brown and he will know how to get in touch with me. Yes, thank you, I'll let him know."
Rick thumbed thru the magazines to trying to find a distraction from his worry and thoughts about how angry his mom would be that he hadn't called. He glanced at his watch. 6pm. Was it really only 5 hours ago that A.J. had overdosed?