Enjoy!
Family Chapter 5
Gibbs rubbed a hand over his bristly chin. He sighted and reached for his coffee cup, grimacing as he swallowed the lukewarm liquid, then he threw the Styrofoam cup into the trash. It had been about two hours since Tony had woken and talked to him. Shannon had gone home to Kelly and Gibbs promised he would come home after he'd talked to Tony again.
He shifted uncomfortably in the chair and pressed the heels of his hands into the over-strained eyes. He looked over to the bed where Tony laid, his right eye was still swollen and the newly rewrapped bandage around the boy's head was holding the nasal cannula in place. Tony's brow furrowed and his plastered hand grabbed the blanket and squeezed tightly. Gibbs put his hand on Tony's and squeezed gently.
"Hey Tony wake up" He called softly. When Tony didn't react he squeezed a little bit harder.
"Hey kid wake up" Gibbs said and looked worryingly at the sped up heart monitor. He pressed the call button and patted Tony's leg.
"Tony wake up!" He said with a stressed voice, an alarm set of from the heart monitor and Gibbs pressed the call button again. He stood up and put a hand on Tony's shoulder.
"Dammit, I need a paramedic in here know!" Jethro shouted. Dr Ryan came running into the room followed by two nurses. One of the nurses began to read Tony's chart.
"Blood pressures to high" She said and injected something into Tony's IV. Gibbs was pushed aside as Tony opened his eyes and began to look around in the hospital room, obviously confused.
"Tony can you hear me?" Dr Ryan asked gently and took Tony's hand in his.
"'erree' mm ei'" Tony slurred; he began to fight Dr Ryan's hold but soon lost the fight as his energy ran out.
"Can you squeeze my hand Tony?" Dr Ryan asked. "He's not responding on commands" Ryan continued when Tony didn't react on is order.
"I 'otta 'ee ou' o' 'errre" Tony slurred.
The boy squeezed his eyes shut and began to roll his head from side to side.
"Tony, are you in pain?" Ryan asked.
"Hurs, is' hurrs" Tony moaned.
"Damnit give him something for the pain" Jethro said angrily. But before they could do anything Tony began to vomit. The nurses quickly pulled him up into a sitting position, and put a bowl under Tony's chin to puke in. Dr Ryan began to loose the breaks on Tony's bed.
"Take him down to radiology" Ryan said and uncoupled some wires. Tony's bed was rolled out of the private hospital room. Gibbs grabbed Dr Ryan's arm before the doctor followed the nurses out.
"What's happening?" Gibbs asked worryingly. He shifted on his feet and released the hold on Ryan's arm. The doctor raked a hand through his short hair and sighted.
"Headaches, slurred speech, vomiting" Ryan said and walked out from Tony's room and into the corridor, towards radiology. Gibbs followed with the fast walking as Dr Ryan continued talking.
"Disorientation, its all signs on subdural haematoma" He said and looked at Jethro. "Brain hemorrhage" Ryan explained when he saw the look on Gibbs's face.
"But I thought you did a CT scan" Jethro said angrily. Ryan stopped outside the door that led into radiology.
"We did, and we didn't find any signs of bleeding at that time. I'm sorry I have to go" He said and nodded towards the door. "I'll update you as soon as I can but it can take a while" He said and disappeared through the door. Jethro ran a frustrated hand through his brown hair.
He slowly began to walk towards Tony's room. He grabbed his jacket and cell phone from the chair in Tony's hospital room. A nurse came in and cleaned up Tony's puke. She picked up some wires from the floor and hung them on the machines they belonged to before she smiled a warm smile and left. Jethro felt his phone vibrate and fished it up from his pant pocket. It was a text from Shannon.
'How is he? Love you / Shannon.'
He needed fresh air. He walked out of the hospital and sat heavily down on a bench at the main entrance. He took a deep breath and dialled Shannon's number. He ran a tired hand through his hair before he pushed the call button.
"Shannon" She answered, her voice as sweet and soft as always. He hated to make her upset and he wanted her here. He wanted to be able to wrap her into a big comforting hug.
"Jethro, you there?" She asked, her voice now sounded worried.
Jethro cleared his throat and put his elbows on his knees before he answered.
"Yeah, I'm here Shan" He said quietly. He knew she would sense that something was wrong when she heard his shaky voice.
"What's wrong Jethro? Is he okay?"
"Shannon I want you to listen to me okay?"
"What happened Jethro?" She asked.
"They think he has brain haemorrhage and…"
"Oh my god" Shannon whispered. He heard how she pulled out a chair and sat down.
"They are doing a CT scan now, but he'll probably need surgery" Jethro said and stood up.
"Do you want me to come Jethro?" Shannon asked quietly.
"No, stay with Kelly. I'll wait 'til I get an update then I'll come home" He said and began to walk back into the hospital.
"You gonna be okay?" He asked his wife.
"Yeah I guess, call me as soon as you hear anything okay?" She said quietly.
"I will Shan, tell Kells that I love her" Jethro said and sat down on a chair in the waiting room.
"I will, Love you"
"Love you to honey" He said and hung up.
Shannon slowly got up from the kitchen chair after she'd ended the phone call with her husband. She hated feeling so damn powerless. Tony lay in the hospital fighting for his life and she couldn't do anything. She had barely known Tony for two days but she really liked the kid and wanted to help him and she knew that Jethro felt the same. When she and Jethro met the boy the day before she knew immediately that he needed help and that she was willing to do just that.
She slowly walked over to the counter and poured herself a cop of hot coffee. She took a sip of the warm liquid as she began to make her way up the stairs, towards Kelly's bedroom. She glanced at the pink clock on the wall in Kelly's room. Seven thirty p.m. Jethro had been at the hospital with Tony nearly 24 hours now. She carefully sat down on the bed beside her sleeping daughter. She pulled the covers up over Kelly's little form, careful not to wake her. She kissed Kelly's forehead and stroked her chin before quietly walking out of the room. She closed the door and went downstairs again. She walked into the kitchen and put her empty cup of coffee into the dishwasher before going back into the living room. She knew she wouldn't be able so sleep so she could as well look TV until she heard anything from Jethro.
Jethro was at his third cop of coffee when he saw Dr Ryan walking out of the ER doors and towards him. He glanced at his watch, ten thirty p.m. He rubbed a hand over his bristly chin before he slowly rose from the uncomfortable chair. Ahh his back was killing him, he really needed to go home and sleep in a real bed and not a chair. He stretched his limbs before he threw the Styrofoam cup into the trash can beside him.
"How is he?" Jethro asked worryingly when Dr Ryan had reached him.
"Well we did a CT scan and as I feared it was haemorrhage" Ryan sighted and moved to sit down on one of the chairs and Jethro followed him and sat down on a chair opposite from
him.
"Tony just underwent craniotomy to relieve his intracranial pressure, Dr James White did the surgery and he is specialized in this type of condition Tony's in" Ryan paused and took a deep breath before he continued delivering the news to Jethro.
"Craniotomy involves that you remove a piece of bone from the scull so you can access the brain. Then a brain surgeon inserts a catheter to help lower the pressure by draining excess cerebral spinal fluids, the surgery went as well as we could have hoped" Ryan said. "We placed Tony in a medically induced coma and right now he's being situated in ICU" Ryan took out some papers from his pant pocket.
"Before the surgery began, Tony had two seizures in a row so we are giving him anti-seizure medications" Ryan said and gave him the papers "Everything you need to know about the surgery, Tony's condition and medicine is on here" He said and pointed at the papers.
"Is he going to make a full recovery?" Jethro asked as he looked through the papers he'd been given.
"We can't know certainly until he wakes up, but what I can tell you is that he's suffering from posttraumatic epilepsy, PTE. This means that he will have frequent seizures about a week after he's woken up, but we're preventing this from happening by giving him anti-seizure medications. But the seizures can come months even years after the injury but everything you need to know is there" He said once again and pointed at the papers in Jethro's hands.
"Can I see him?" Jethro wondered. Dr Ryan simply smiled before gesturing in front of him. Jethro went as directed and quickly found himself, yet again beside Tony's bedside. But this time Tony looked worse. A bandage was wrapped around Tony's head tightly. His right eye wasn't swollen anymore but the swelling had been replaced with a sick blue and black colour. Under the left eye you could see a black circle, indicating that Tony's was tired and worn out. An oxygen mask covered Tony's mouth and nose and a dozen of wires were connected to his skinny body. Jethro pulled out a chair and sat down beside Tony's bedside. He smiled sadly at the kid in the hospital bed. He was a helluva fighter and a tough kid.
Gibbs carefully laid his calloused hand over Tony's soft, trying to avoid pulling out the IV and other wires.
"It's gonna be okay kiddo, just keep fighting" He whispered quietly and squeezed Tony's hand carefully before he rose from the chair and walked out of Tony's room. Towards the exit.
TBC
Hope you enjoyed this chapter.
Sorry for my bad English I'm from Sweden.