For The Love of Daphne by Patrick Councilor
Daphne sat in the waiting room talking with John for a while about what had happened on the site of the accident. John spared her any details that might alarm her. She thanked him and gave him a hug. As John started to walk away, Martin thanked him for answering a few of their questions. John smiled back, "For the short time I've known him, Niles seems pretty cool."
Martin grinned. "He is pretty cool."
"Oh, your son gave this to me in the ambulance," John reached in his pocket and retrieved a rectangular, flat rock to hand to Martin. "I guess he thought this was his cell phone. He said something about 'she might call'. I think his strength to get him this far came from that little lady over there."
Martin nodded. "Thanks again."
"Sure." With that, John headed back down the hall.
The minutes crept into hours. Martin used Niles' cell phone several times to talk to Ronee and Daphne spoke with her to see how David was doing. Once the sun had come up, Martin called Roz. He filled her in on the situation and asked if she would pick up Frasier from the airport. Time was inching forward. They glanced over at the nurse's station when a man in his cap and gown stepped up to talk to the nurse. The nurse pointed over to Martin and Daphne. "Daph," Martin said to get her attention, but her attention was already focused on the man in green already approaching them.
"Hello, are you here in relation to the man brought in from the BMW accident?"
"That's right." Martin showed the doctor Niles' driver's license. "I'm his father Martin Crane and this is his wife Daphne."
The doctor took the ID. "That's our man alright. Do you mind if I have the nurse Xerox this for our records since he didn't have any identification on him when he arrived?"
"Sure, that's fine." Martin and Daphne followed him over to the nurse's station while the nurse made the copy for the medical record. The nurse gave the ID back to the doctor and he handed it back to Martin. "My name is Doctor Sapperstein. Shall we go somewhere where we can talk?"
The doctor lead them down the hall to a conference room on the right. He closed the door behind them and had them take seats at the table there.
"You may or may not know that Niles was in a car accident and was ejected from the car."
Daphne reached for Martin's hand and held onto it for support.
"He was fortunate enough to land in a soft wooded area, but the car landed on his right leg breaking his tibia, also known as the shin bone. The tibia bears much of the body's weight and also plays an essential role in movement and locomotion. Luckily, it was a clean break and we were able to reset it. He will be in a wheel chair for a while. Like I said, he was lucky. The weight of the car could have shattered the leg bones. Although this injury is serious, it is not the one that I am worried about. He suffered a head trauma. He needed four stitches. The results from the CAT scan reveal a bruise on the frontal lobe of the brain. It doesn't look too severe, however, we won't know the extent of the damage until he regains consciousness."
Daphne's voice was broken as she fought for the words, "When can I see him doctor?"
"He's in post-op now. Once they move him into his room, he'll be completely out of it. I'll have you notified. You can go in to see him one at a time, but be prepared. He will be hooked up to a few machines."
"What do you mean by 'a few machines'?" Martin asked.
"He'll have tubing in his mouth and down his throat for assisted breathing as well as some monitors. Once he wakes up, he'll try to pull the tubing out on his own which will indicate that it's time to have the nurse come in and have it taken out."
"How long do you think it will be before we can see him?" asked Martin.
"Somewhere between thirty and forty minutes. He was lucky, the other passenger is still in critical condition."
Daphne's eyes widened. "The what?"