Chapter Two
Veronica had slept most of the night peacefully. There wasn't any real change in her vitals other than the fact that her heart rate was slightly higher than most nights but Alice didn't think it was anything worth calling a doctor in for. Besides, the doctors were going to come in first thing in the morning and do an assessment. They did it every single day and some days the would order tests other days they wouldn't say anything. The strange thing with Veronica was that everyone knew she suffered some kind of head trauma. When she was brought into the ER she had already been revived by the paramedics and had lost a lot of blood. That loss of blood as well as consciousness was a very bad thing for her. No one knew how long her car was in a ditch on the side of the road before someone spotted it and called 9-11 but what was even more strange was that all the MRI's in the world couldn't pin point what was wrong with Veronica. There were no spots on the MRI to show where there was brain damage but they all knew there had to be some sort of brain damage. Usually if you don't wake up from a coma within 72 hours people start to worry. How brain damaged is she, what type of functions will she have lost. Everyone was talking to Veronica as if she was going to wake up any minute and demand to go home and get dressed for a date with whatever guy she was actually dating. They were completely ignoring the doctors who were telling them that she could go home a vegetable or with limited speech. No one was willing to accept that.
"Any changes Nurse Alice," Dr. Stevens asked as he strolled into the room and picked up Veronica's chart scanning the past twenty four hours of vital signs. Everything looked exactly the same. "Guess not," he said answering his own question while giving a little frown. "Good morning Wallace," he said when he noticed him in the room as well.
"Mornin' Dr. Stevens," he said while moving away from the side of the bed in order to give the doctor easier access to his sister. "Keith noticed her eyes fluttering a lot last night," he offered hopeful. Out of everyone who visited Veronica he felt as if only him and Mac had a true understanding of what could possibly happen when Veronica woke up.
"Let's see if there is anything to that shall we," Dr. Stevens said as he picked a pen from his pocket and lifted the sheet from Veronica's feet. He dug the pen into her foot and Veronica moved. It was a good sign but a sign she had been giving for a long time. She would respond to pain so they knew she wasn't brain dead. But today she did something a little bit different, today she curled her toes towards her heel as if to protect her foot. That was something she never did. "Interesting," he said to Wallace, "She didn't do this yesterday did she," he said while flipping back a page in her chart to verify his information. The doctor shook his head when reviewing the chart. Yesterday Veronica was less responsive then she was today.
He moved up to her chest area and pressed hard against her sternum and once again Veronica moved, in fact she jolted and mumbled something. "Alice, call Keith, I think that we have some progress here." Dr. Stevens was beyond excited and Alice was thrilled with the idea of something actually happening other than watching her sleep.
"Actually can I call Keith," Wallace asked wanting to be the one to give the call to Keith. Seeing the hospital's number on Caller ID might freak out Keith whereas he'd think that Wallace was just checking in. Wallace excused himself and walked down the hall and used his cell phone to make a call to Keith.
"Hey Wallace," Keith said when he answered the phone, "Did you sleep well?"
"Actually Keith, I think you need to be here," he said ignoring the question about how he slept. He wanted to cut to the chase, "Veronica is responding to pain today in a way she hasn't before and she's actually like, muttering something," he said excited as a tear slipped from his eye. His sister was coming around and today was the day that they were going to find out how much of Veronica Mars was actually left.
"I'll be there in 10 minutes. I'll call your mom and we'll meet you there," he said sounding more thrilled than he ever remembered Keith sounding.
They hung up the phone and Wallace fiddled with his phone unsure of what to do next. Did he go back to the room and watch the doctor torture Veronica some more or did he let her wake up all alone with a strange doctor in a strange place? He decided to go back to the room but not before sending a text message to one of Veronica's suitors to give them a heads up about her condition.
"Mr. Mars will be here soon," Wallace said while stepping into the room and going to Veronica's side to hold her hand. As he put his hand over hers she stirred a bit and opened her eyes. Wallace's eyes widened as he looked at her big blue eyes that were darting around the room trying to place where she was.
"Veronica, do you know where you are," Dr. Steven's asked trying to test her brain function. Based on her reaction, the way she answered his question or the way her words were formed he'd be able to locate exactly where the brain damage was. "Veronica can you answer me," he asked trying to get a response out of her. He shook his head when she remained silent.
"Where in the hell am I," she finally said looking around the room which was cold and uninviting. The walls were white, the curtains were a disgusting shade of pink which probably had originally been really nice but faded over the years of being in the sunlight and washed and rewashed. There was a single bed in the room and she was in it and people were standing around staring at her as if she was a mutant with three eyes and five arms. It made her feel rather insecure. "And you would be," she asked waiting for someone to fill in the blank.