Chapter 6 – He's just a kid.
The drive home went by quietly and quickly. Gabriella and Chad had managed to fall asleep in the backseat leaving Lucille and Jack some time to reflect on the eventful night. Not many words were spoken. Just being able to spend some time being grateful for their son pulling through surgery was enough. They quietly pulled into Chad's driveway. His mother and father, best friends of the Bolton's came out to meet them.
They both climbed out of the car as silently as possible trying not to wake the kids. Mr Danforth walked up to Jack.
"Hey Jack, I'm so sorry about what happened. How is Troy?" he asked putting his hand on his friend's shoulder.
"Well he, um...just woke up not long ago. The surgery lasted about 12 hours, but they've got him stabilized now. He's in a lot of pain though." Jack said trying to sound as strong as he could.
"He's a strong kid, he'll get through it!" Mr Danforth replied, giving as much encouragement to Jack as possible.
"Did they catch the guy?" asked Mrs Danforth, who had been around the other side of the car with Lucille.
"Yeah the police have him in custody and have charged him with attempted murder." Jack replied
"And he's admitted to it, so Troy and the kids won't be dragged into the court proceedings thank goodness." Lucille added giving a weak smile across the car to her husband.
"Well thank God for That" Mr Danforth said.
"We're just so glad Troy is going to be ok. How are the others?" Mrs Danforth asked looking into the back of the car.
"They seem to be holding up pretty well considering. All though it has already become a challenge getting these two away from the hospital, even to sleep!" Jack said as the four of them observed them sleeping.
"Well I suppose we'd better get our boy to his bed so we can let you guys keep going" Mrs Danforth said as her husband gently opened the car door and gently shook Chad awake.
Soon the Danforths were standing by the car saying goodbye to the Boltons and Gabriella who had managed to stay asleep the whole time.
"Get some sleep Chad, and we'll see you a bit later" Jack said.
"Will do Coach! Thanks!" Chad said waving as they reversed out of the driveway.
The Boltons made their way over to Gabriella's house. Before Mrs Montez even had a chance to get out the front door, Jack had scooped a sleeping Gabriella into his arms and was walking towards the house.
"How is she?" Her mother asked as Jack walked towards her.
"She's fine, just worn out, she hasn't slept all night. I'll take her upstairs" Jack said as Mrs Montez nodded and motioned him forward.
"Thanks so much from dropping her off. How's Troy?" She asked Lucille as she gave her a hug.
"He's stable. They've got him in ICU for now until they move him to a ward." She said quietly. "Gabriella wouldn't leave his side."
"You know, that doesn't surprise me, they seem to love each other so much." Mrs Montez said smiling.
"Well when he woke up, all he was worried about was apologizing to her for not protecting her enough" Lucille said
"But she's fine; he's the one in the hospital"
"That's was Gabriella said" Lucille laughed "They care so much for each other. Don't be surprised if when she wakes up she wants to go straight back to Troy".
"I'll keep that in mind, thanks" Mrs Montez said as Jack came back outside to the car.
"Well she's all tucked up in bed, sound asleep so we should get going too. We need to pick some things up for Troy before heading back to the hospital." Jack said as he gave Mrs Montez a hug.
"Give my love to Troy" she said as the Boltons got back into their car. "And if there's anything we can do, don't hesitate to ask."
"Thanks, will do!" Jack spoke out the window as he put the car into reverse. "See you later."
"Bye."
It was almost 8am when the Boltons finally walked through the door of their house. Jack went to make some coffee while Lucille immediately went to the hall closet to get one of Troy's bags.
"I'm just going to go and put some of Troy's things in a bag. I'll be done in a few." She told her husband as she turned to make her way to her son's room.
"Okay" Jack said as he sat down at the kitchen counter with the coffee he'd just made.
Five minutes later, Lucille appeared from Troy's room with a neatly packed bag.
"I've packed him some clothes, pyjamas, his toothbrush, clean underwear etc as well as a couple of photos to make him feel a bit more comfortable" she said as she placed the bag at the door and went to join her husband at the counter.
"Good, although, he may have some trouble wearing the pyjamas at the moment" Jack said looking down at his coffee.
"Yeah I know, but at least it will all be there when he's ready" she said pouring herself a cup of coffee and taking a sip.
They sat there in silence for a while, Lucille noticing how quiet Jack seemed.
"Honey, he'll be ok, he'll get through this. We'll help him" she said placing her hand upon his.
Jack let out a sigh before answering.
"I know, it's just...I mean, he's still just a kid. This shouldn't be happening. He should be out there enjoying life, hanging out with his friends, not stuck in a hospital bed having just had major surgery. What about his basketball? The recovery time alone will set him back a long way. Not to mention the fact that it's not certain whether he'll be able to play again. Lucille, it would devastate him if that were to happen." Jack said looking up from his coffee into his wife's eyes, tears slowly making their way down his cheeks. Lucille stood up and put her arms around him.
"Shhhh" she said trying to calm her husband. "We'll work it out. It's not fair I know, but these challenges are given to us to make us stronger and I know Troy. He'll get through it. We just need to stay strong for him." She said kissing him lightly on the head. "Now come on, we'd better get some sleep, so we can get back to Troy. He wouldn't be very happy if he saw how tired we looked right now" she said trying to lighten the mood as she and her husband made their way to their room to catch up on some much needed sleep.
Troy woke up to an immense amount of pain all through his body. He could sense someone else was in the room with him but he had yet to open his eyes and see who it was. He let out a groan when he realised the pain was not subsiding anytime soon.
"Troy...Troy can you open your eyes for me sweetie?" the voice said as it came nearer the bed.
He slowly opened his eyes, squinting as the brightness in the room hurt his eyes. It had still been dark when he first awoke at 6am so he didn't notice it.
"There we go. Can you tell me where you are Troy?" The woman standing by his bed asked him.
"Hospital?" Troy said slowly noticing the type of room he was in.
"That's right, you were a bit out of it the last time you woke up so I just needed to check" she said as she checked his IV and moved to the notes at the end of his bed. "My name is Julie and I'll be your nurse this shift. Now on a scale from one to ten, ten being the most pain you could imagine how bad does it hurt?" she said noticing Troy was very uncomfortable.
"Um....about a nine." He said quietly, still suffering from a dry and croaky throat. "What time is it?" He also asked scrunching his face up as he moved slightly.
"It's almost 10am" she said as she wrote down some notes. After a minute or two she looked up at Troy. "Ok Troy, here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to see if the Doctor can up your morphine a little to take a bit more edge off the pain. Unfortunately it won't get rid of it completely but it should help, just remember to keep pressing that button we gave you whenever you need it ok?"
Troy just nodded his head not wanting to speak much as his throat was still sore and the oxygen mask was still on his face. Realising how annoying it was Troy moved his hand up and began to pull the mask off his face. Julie stopped him, gently placing it back where it belonged. Troy groaned.
"I'm sorry Troy but you need to keep it on for a little bit longer, we'll see about changing it over to a nasal cannula in a few hours when we move you to a ward. In the mean time I'll get you some ice chips to suck on to help ease that throat" Julie said as she picked up Troy's notes and left the room.
Troy continued to lie in bed listening to the steady beep of his heart monitor until Julie came back. In the ten minutes that she had been gone, he has pressed his morphine button twice...thankfully the pain was starting to subside a little. Julie finally came back with a cup full of ice chips.
"Here we go, just suck on them for now, it should help." She said as she passed him the cup full of ice. Troy tried to sit up but was stopped by both Julie and the pain that was now increasing from when he moved. "Woah there Troy, Don't try to move, you have quite a lot of injuries. Try and lay still. Here I'll put the bed head up a little" she said as she moved to the head of the bed and pressed the button to slowly make it rise.
"Thanks" Troy mumbled as he removed the mask to put some ice in his mouth. Replacing it back where it was, Troy laid his head back sighing.
"Hey..." Julie said coming back around to face Troy. "I know it hurts a lot right now, but we are going to do everything we can to get you better, it's just going to take some time." She said smiling sweetly back at him.
"Now the Doctor has agreed to give you some more pain killers but it will make you sleepy. I'll give you some now and see how we go when we move you" she said as she injected some more pain killer into Troy's IV.