THE MISTAKE, chapter ten
Wow. two years! I suck! I've been working on this story for FIVE YEARS, lol. I still get reviews trickling in, and I hate leaving stories undone so I'm going to try very hard to update.
"What's wrong with my brother?" Eric demanded, trying to break through the barrier that two policemen had created.
"We need you to stay back. We don't know anything right now-" An officer started but Jonathan had climbed out of the ambulance and reached the trio.
"He just stopped...He was acting sick so the daycare called me and I came and picked him up...Picked Morgan up...Got here and he started getting sicker and sicker. I was getting him ready to take to the emergency room when he just went limp. I called 911, obviously...They don't know what's wrong. They're getting ready to go now, hurry up and get in the car. Shawn, go get Morgan, she's up in the apartment. We've got to hurry..." Jonathan was babbling by now, talking to himself at times and to Shawn, Eric and Corey at times.
It took Shawn less than a minute to run into the apartment and up the stairs and grab Morgan. They piled into the van and flew to the hospital, trying to keep up with the ambulance's wailing lights.
"Has Josh been sick a lot before..?" Jonathan asked Eric.
"I mean, just some normal preemie stuff--but he seemed to be okay, he hadn't been sick since a month after he was born. This doesn't make sense, babies don't just collapse!"
Corey was silent in the backseat as he held Morgan's hand. Shawn stared at the window, hoping that Josh was okay. He knew that Corey couldn't take anything else.
"What if he dies?" Corey anguished more to himself than anything.
"Don't even think about that! Corey, god, shut up...You're going to upset your sister!" Jonathan snapped without thinking, immediately regretting it but not having the mental energy to apologize.
The ambulance finally turned into the hospital and Jonathan whipped the van into a parking spot as the five flew into the hospital. He told the four kids to stay in the waiting area as he went to fill out paper work.
It seemed like mountains of paperwork. "I really need to fill all of this out for you guys to treat my so-Josh?" Jonathan asked, frustrated as she scribbled out answers.
"Josh is being taken care of, but this paperwork is necessary for legal reasons, sir," the receptionist responded, not in the least bit interested in what was going on outside of her filing her nails.
As Jonathan struggled to fill out the endless sheets, he slowly realized how little he knew about Josh. He knew that he was thirteen months old. He knew that he was born quite prematurely--he remembered being in the hospital, watching Amy and Allan cry over the doctors telling them that their child would likely die. He remembered sticking his finger in the baby's hand, and feeling a weak grasp for the first time.
But, he didn't know much.
Though Corey was his student and he talked to the Matthews regularly after he became Shawn's temporary guardian, he never really asked the simple questions-how Josh was progressing, how Morgan was doing in school. And now, more than ever, he regretted that. He couldn't even tell the hospital if Josh had ever had simple childhood ailments yet.
"I need to go talk to someone to help me fill out these papers," Jonathan mumbled, rising and not meeting her eyes. He went to the waiting room and got Eric to help him with Josh's medical history.
"You're suppose to know that stuff, you know," Corey remarked snidely, looking outside a window, "that's what parents do. My dad would know everything."
"Cor, shut up. Dad also was there for this stuff," Eric rolled his eyes. He was getting tired of Corey's moodiness-everyone had lost Amy and Allan, but everyone else was trying to make the best of it.
"You shut up, Eric. He wants to be our dad when it comes to discipline and and what we can and can't do, but he doesn't know if Josh has ever had an ear infection, for Christ's sake!"
"I never claimed to want to be your father!" Jonathan screamed, standing up and striding over to Corey. "Never once have I asked you to call me dad. I'm sorry I wanted you to do your best in school, Corey and I'm sorry I asked you to be back at home at a decent time. That's not fatherly, that's just someone who cares!" Corey looked to the side, trying to decide whether to interrupt him or just leave. "I'm not your father. I can never replace your father, or your mother. But I can do the best I can to love you guys," he softened his voice.
A doctor walked in as Jonathan was finishing.
"Jonathan Turner?"
"Yeah?" Jonathan turned around.
"Josh is doing fine. We stabilized him and they are performing a cat scan right now. I think he had some sort of heart condition, pre-existing. Whatever sickness he's had has finally triggered it-which, believe it or not, is good. Some people never discover these things until they're adults when it's too late."
Jonathan thanked him and accepted the doctor's offer to go in the back for when Josh was done.
As the doctor walked away, Jonathan quickly turned back to Corey.
"I'm going to see your brother. I can't do this anymore. I can't take care of five kids. It's not fair to anyone," he said, his voice faltering as he saw Corey, Eric and Shawn comprehend what he was saying.
"After we figure out what's going on with Josh, we'll figure out what we have to do next."