Disclaimer: I do not own any of the original characters or places.

Collision Course, Chapter 40

Day 11, 6:49 AM

Kathy hurried into the ICU to get an update on whatever patients she might have today. She greeted Mary Proctor with a smile. "Good morning Mary. How was your night?"

A weary appearing Mary answered "Very long."

Kathy approached Mary and glanced into the room that had been Officer Boscorelli's when she left. "What's he still doing here? I thought he was moving to the floor." She questioned when she saw that Bosco was still in the room.

"He was supposed to go yesterday, but his white cell count was a little too high and Dr. Poole wanted to watch him another night." Mary began to explain. "Bosco was certainly not happy about that either. He did everything he could think of to drive me crazy last night. I thought I would strangle him before he finally fell asleep. He had a low-grade temp around midnight. Then he was restless all night. He kept dreaming, pulling at things, and kicking the covers off with his good leg. I don't know who is more exhausted this morning, me or him."

"Has Dr. Poole been by?" Kathy questioned.

"He just left a few minutes ago. He ordered blood and urine cultures. So he's not going to the floor today either." Mary reported.

"What about his kidney function? They didn't dialyze him Sunday, right?" Kathy asked.

"No, but they did yesterday and should again today. His urine output has picked up some, but not enough." Mary answered.

"Ok, I guess I can take it from here. Go home, Mary, and get some rest. Are you off tonight? " Kathy questioned.

"No, unfortunately I'm working four in a row." Mary replied.

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Kathy was glad to see the 10:00 visiting hour finally arrive. In three short hours, Bosco had worn her down. No matter what she did, she couldn't please him. She saw his mother approaching with a middle-aged man Kathy had never seen before. "Hi Rose. How are you this morning?" She asked.

"I'm doing fine, Kathy. How is Maurice?" Rose questioned.

"He's not in a very good mood this morning. He has a low grade fever and I don't think he's feeling very well." Kathy answered.

"Oh" was Rose's reply, as she looked at the middle-aged man beside her.

"Maybe I should come back another time." Anthony Boscorelli suggested.

"No, Anthony. We already decided that you would visit him today. There's no use in putting it off." Rose replied.

Slowly they made their way into the room, only to be stopped by Bosco's cold glare. "WHAT IS HE DOING HERE?" He practically shouted.

"He just wanted to see how you were doing, Maurice. Calm down." Rose answered.

"Like he cares. He probably just saw my picture on the TV and thought he could capitalize on my misfortune." Bosco spat.

"Maurice. That's not so." Anthony corrected him. "I'm concerned about you."

"When have you ever been concerned about anyone but yourself, Dad? HUH?" Bosco scowled. "Get out."

"Maurice, you stop that this instant." Rose admonished.

"GET OUT!" he shouted. "I don't want him here." He said to Rose. Then looking back to Anthony again he shouted. "GET OUT! GET OUT RIGHT NOW!"

"Maurice, please." Rose pleaded.

"Its ok, Rosie" a dejected Anthony spoke. "I shouldn't have come. I'll go now and you visit." Anthony said as he turned to leave.

Rose followed him out of the room. "Anthony, I'm sorry. I don't know what's gotten into him." Rose apologized.

"No. Its ok, Rosie. I created this. And it's not going to just go away because I want it too. It's going to take time." Anthony replied. He bent down and gave Rose a quick hug. "I'll check back in with you later."

A heartbroken Rose turned back to the room ready to give Maurice a lecture. But when she saw his tear brimmed eyes as he played nervously with the sheet, her heart broke even further. 'Please God, help this family' she prayed silently.

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Kathy had been glad to see Tricia arrive shortly after the visiting hour with the dialysis machine. She would let Tricia occupy Bosco for a few minutes while she caught up with her charting. At least that had been her plan. But about 40 minutes into the dialysis, Bosco suddenly sat up in the bed and jerked the tubing for the oxygen off of his face. He then proceeded to sling his bed covers back with his good arm.

"Whoa, Officer!" Tricia half-shouted. "What are you doing?"

Kathy rose from her seat to see what was happening.

"I have to get out of here, get away from them." Bosco replied as he started trying to put the bed rail down.

"Get away from them? Who?" Kathy questioned as she put a hand on his shoulder.

"The wasps! Can't you see them?" Bosco questioned as he pointed toward his feet. "They're stinging me. Let me go." He insisted.

Kathy and Tricia gave each other questioning looks. Then Tricia looked up at the monitors, noticing that his blood pressure had dropped over the last few minutes to 85/50.

"There aren't any wasps in here, Bosco." Kathy assured him.

"Yes, there are. They're all under the covers. Let me out of here." He insisted as he grabbed for the bed rail again.

"You can't go anywhere Officer Boscorelli, until I get you unhooked from my machine." Tricia tried to calm him as she reached for a bag of IV fluids. She saw that Kathy had noticed the low blood pressure as well. "I'm going to give him a small fluid bolus and then stop the dialysis." She reported. Kathy just shook her head and turned back to Bosco.

"Just relax, Bosco." She instructed as she reached out to grab his hand that was on the bed rail.

When she did, Bosco jerked his arm away. "GET AWAY FROM ME!" He shouted. "LEAVE ME ALONE!" He continued, as he reached for the dialysis catheter that was projecting from the large vein in his right leg. He grabbed it and yanked on it just before Kathy could catch his hand. Pulling the catheter out, stitches and all, he slung blood across the room.

Tricia stood with her mouth open as Kathy tried to find something to stop the crimson flow of blood from Bosco's leg. Not satisfied with pulling the dialysis catheter out, Bosco now reached for the foley catheter.

Kathy abandoned her efforts to stop his bleeding and reached for his arm, managing to pin his arm down across his thigh just before he could yank on the foley. "NO!" She shouted. "DON'T PULL ON THAT!" Looking at Tricia she continued. "Tricia, help me! Go get some help."

As Tricia exited the room to find help, Bosco continue to struggle with Kathy. "Bosco, stop that! Be still! You don't want to pull on that! Trust me." Kathy exhorted.

"LEAVE ME ALONE!" Bosco shouted once again as he raised his casted left arm and swung it at Kathy.

Kathy managed to turn her head slightly to keep the blow from hitting her square in the face. However, the cast connected solidly just above her left eye. She and Bosco both screamed out in pain. Just as she thought she might pass out, she heard one of the male orderlies beside her. "Step back, Kathy. We've got him." The orderly said as he grabbed the officer's right arm keeping it pinned.

Another orderly pinned Bosco's upper body to the bed, as one of the nurses tied a restraint around his flailing right leg. Meanwhile, Bosco screamed at the top of his lungs accusing them of trying to kill him in one breath and cursing them in the next.

One of the other nurses finally burst into the room with a syringe. "I've got an order for Haldol," she reported as she quickly injected the medication through Bosco's IV. Bosco continued to fight for another few minutes, but then his motions gradually slowed. Finally his yelling subsided and he was reduced to pleading with them to stop. "Let me go. Please." He whimpered just before his eyes finally closed.

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Disclaimer: I don't own any of the original characters and places.

Collision Course, Chapter 41

After a few minutes, Kathy managed to compose herself. Looking into the mirror over the sink, she realized that she wasn't bleeding, although she did have a rather large angry lump forming above her eye. Reassured about her own welfare, she turned back toward her patient to make sure that he was ok.

Kathy could see that the Haldol had quickly taken effect. Bosco lay quietly, his right arm and leg in soft restraints. A makeshift restraint had been rigged to fit around his casted left arm to keep him from flailing it around. His blood pressure had been stabilized with a small bolus of fluids after he was off of the dialysis machine.

Linda, one of the other day nurses, was holding a gauze pad over Bosco's right thigh, trying to stop the bleeding. She looked up at Kathy with a soft smile. "You should go get some ice for your head. You're going to have quite a lump there."

Kathy shook her head. "I'm fine. I need to call Dr. Poole and tell him what's going on." Looking down at the blood soaked bandage, she asked, "Is it still bleeding?"

"It's almost stopped. If you'll get me some more gauze pads, I think we can put a pressure bandage on it and it should be fine. And don't worry about Dr. Poole. He's on his way." Linda replied.

When they finished dressing the catheter site, Linda helped Kathy clean Bosco up. Luckily, the bed pad under him and his hospital gown absorbed most of the blood. Once they had changed the bed pad and retied the restraints, Linda went back to her own patients. As Kathy changed Bosco's hospital gown, she realized that he felt very warm. And when she checked, his temperature was almost 102 degrees. Kathy sighed. "I can't even take a couple of days off without you finding trouble; can I, Officer Bosco?"

Kathy looked up to see Dr. Poole stop off at the desk to answer a page. After a brief conversation he turned and entered Bosco's room. "That was the Micro lab. The gram stain from his blood cultures is positive. Looks like he may have a Staph infection. That's probably why his blood pressure dropped." Tim shook his head. "Must have come from the IV lines or the dialysis catheter. But I'll ask Ortho to take a good look at his leg wound just in case it's infected. Poor guy. If it's not one thing it's another with him. We'll have to change his IV's out and d/c the dialysis catheter. I can place another one when it looks like he might tolerate it again."

"You don't have to worry about discontinuing the dialysis catheter. He already took care of that for us. Tried to d/c the foley too." Kathy reported.

"Yeah, I heard he got a little rowdy. How's your head?" Tim asked with a sympathetic smile.

"Luckily my head was harder than that cast." Kathy replied dryly.

Tim laughed slightly. "How is his blood pressure doing now?" he asked.

"It's been stable since the fluid bolus." Kathy answered.

"Good. It was looking as if his kidney was about to start to recover. I don't know if it could stand another blow." Tim moved forward and started to examine his patient. When he felt how hot he was, he gave Kathy a questioning look.

"102" Kathy reported. " I was just about to give him some tylenol."

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Rose called Mikey, Anthony, and Faith to update them on the change in Bosco's condition. Dr. Poole had explained to her that he had an infection in his blood. And because of it, he didn't tolerate dialysis. He had become confused and combative, and they had to sedate him. Now he was resting, but he had a high fever. They had changed his antibiotics once again.

Faith had assured her that she would let John Sullivan and the others know what was going on. Now Rose waited for the next visiting hour, wondering what she would find when it came. She wasn't sure how much more Maurice could take, or how much she could take for that matter. The long hours at the hospital and constant worry were taking their toll on her. She was almost ashamed to think that what she needed right about now was a good stiff drink.

XXXXXXXX

The next few hours remained uneventful. The Orthopedic surgeon had examined Bosco's leg wound and said that it was healing nicely. It didn't appear to be infected. Bosco's blood pressure had remained stable, although he still had a fever. He mumbled incoherently at times, occasionally pulling on the restraints. As the visiting hour approached, Kathy awaited Rose's arrival. Dr. Poole had decided that only immediate family should visit for now.

Kathy greeted Rose when she entered the ICU and updated her again on her son's condition. Rose, noticing the dark purple lump on Kathy's forehead asked, "What in the world happened to your head?"

"Oh, that's nothing." Kathy replied. "Maurice hit me with his cast during all the confusion earlier."

"Maurice hit you?" Rose asked in astonishment. "I'm so sorry." Rose muttered.

"Well, he didn't actually hit me on purpose. I don't think he knew what he was doing." Kathy answered.

"Oh dear, Maurice would be horrified. He can't stand to see anyone hit a woman." Rose exclaimed.

"Well, there was no real harm done. Fortunately, I have a very hard head." Kathy tried to reassure an obviously shaken Rose.

Rose cautiously approached the hospital bed, noticing the restraints that subdued her son. Although his eyes were closed, he tugged against the restraint on his right arm and shook his head back and forth as if saying 'no' to something. Moving closer, she could hear him mumbling something about getting 'them' away from him. She watched as he kicked at the covers with his right foot.

"Maurice" she whispered, as she placed her hands over his struggling arm. She was shocked to feel how warm his skin was. "Maurice, it's ok. Just relax, baby." She coaxed. He shook his head again and mumbled something about 'the snakes.'

Seeing him again kicking at the covers, Rose moved to the foot of the bed and pulled the top sheet back. As he struggled against the restraint on his right ankle, Rose noticed the large wrinkle in the sheet that was just under his heel. She quickly pulled on the sheet, smoothing the wrinkle out. Then she patted her son's leg as she reassured him. "There now, baby. It's all gone. There aren't any snakes in here." Bosco immediately calmed.

Rose replaced the top sheet and once again approached his side. She took a damp cloth that hung over the bed rail and wiped Bosco's brow as she continued to whisper comforting words.

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Maritza Cruz stood outside of the ICU waiting for Rose to exit. She had been coming by at 2:00 on most days and Rose was usually nice enough to let her go in for a few minutes. She was actually expecting Bosco to be in a regular room today. And the longer she waited on Rose, the more concerned she became. When Rose finally did exit the ICU, the look on her face didn't offer Cruz any relief.

"Is something wrong, Mrs. Boscorelli?" she asked quickly.

"Oh hi, Maritza. I didn't know that you were out here. They are only letting immediate family in right now." At the confused look on Cruz's face, Rose questioned, "Didn't Faith call you?"

"No, Yokas didn't call me. What's going on?" Cruz asked, the urgency in her voice increasing.

"Oh, I'm sorry, dear. I assumed that Faith would call you along with Maurice's other coworkers. He's had a little setback. Apparently he has an infection in his blood. He has a high fever and has been confused. That's why they wanted to limit his visitors." Rose explained. "Are you ok, dear?" Rose asked the now silent Cruz.

"What? Oh, yeah. I'm fine, Mrs. B. I'm just a little surprised I guess. I mean he was doing so well." Cruz replied.

"I know." Rose said sadly. "I'm really worried about him." She admitted.

"Bosco's tough, Mrs. B. I'm sure he'll be fine." Cruz reassured her. 'A lot better than Yokas is going to be when I get through with her.' She added silently.