Chapter 15

Saturday December 6, 1997

Randy's POV

Ugh. My head is absolutely pounding. My throat's on fire. All in all, I feel like hell.

I try to open my eyes. Nothing. I simply don't have the strength to.

'Randy, are you awake?' I can hear a voice ask.

Who is it? Who does the voice belong to?

I rack my already aching brain, and get nowhere.

It's mom! The voice belongs to mom!

'Mom' I try to whisper. It comes out more like 'mmm'.

'Don't try to talk sweetie. Let me go get the doctor' mom says quietly.

She leaves, and comes back a few minutes later. By then I've managed to open my eyes a little bit.

'Randy, this is Dr. Payne' introduces mom.

'How do you feel?' asks Dr. Payne.

'T-terrible' I say hoarsely.

'That's to be expected after what you've gone through' Dr. Payne says staring down at my chart.

'We ran a precautionary head CT, and that turned up something interesting. There are bullet fragments lodged in your skull. Randy, we'll have to perform a very invasive surgery to get those retrieved. Of course, you have to recover from your overdose first' says Dr. Payne.

'Surgeons have already operated on him to remove those. They couldn't get to them' mom tells Dr. Payne.

'Yes, but those were trauma surgeons. We'd be sending Randy to a neurosurgeon for this operation' Dr. Payne explains.

'Um, could I talk to you outside, Dr. Payne?' asks mom.

'Sure' replies Dr. Payne.

'Randy, I'll be right back' she says.

Luckily she leaves the door open, so I can eavesdrop on their conversation.

'How invasive would this surgery be? What are the chances of it even working?' inquires mom.

'It would be very invasive. Surgeons would be digging the bullet fragments out of his skull' Dr. Payne replies.

I can't hear any more after that, because mom realizes the door's open, and so she closes it.

After a couple of minutes, I hear screaming. It's mom.

'Yeah, you always have other patients to see! Does my son not count as a patient? Is he not worthy of the same medical care that your other patients get? You know what, I think I want a different doctor to be treating Randy from here on out, okay bitch?!' shouts mom.

Then I can hear Dr. Payne reply something. The only word I could make out was "bitch!"

Great, why does mom have to argue with the doctors?

Mom opens the door again, and comes back in. I pretend to be sleeping.

'I'm sorry for the excess noise Randy. And I'm sorry that that woman had to be your doctor. But it'll be better. We'll get you another doctor, and we'll get those bullet fragments taken care of. I promise you we will' mom says crying.

She then grabs a hold of my hand.


Jill's POV

As I grab a hold of Randy's hand, I start to whisper aloud.

'Tim, I really wish you were here. If you were here, I could at least have someone for support. I just feel so alone. Why did you have to listen to that man? You could've just told them no. You should've told them that you wouldn't testify. And now you're dead' I whisper through tears.

My next comments are directed to God: 'I just wish you would let me be able to have Tim back. And I wish you would let Randy be. Pick on someone else for a change. It just doesn't seem fair that it always has to be Randy getting hurt, Randy with the health problems, Randy with all of the suffering' I say, even though I know that God doesn't make deals, and that He/She isn't doing this to Randy just to be mean.

Now I just let it all loose. I just sit there holding Randy's hand, and cry until I can't cry any more.

A/N: For the record, I don't know if performing the aforementioned surgery on Randy would be possible or realistic, but in this fan fiction, we'll go ahead and say it is.

I would like to thank Colin Creevey for giving me the idea for this paragraph:

"'Tim, I really wish you were here. If you were here, I could at least have someone for support. I just feel so alone. Why did you have to listen to that man? You could've just told them no. You should've told them that you wouldn't testify. And now you're dead' I whisper through tears." That will definitely lead to something.

All in all, it's not looking like the Taylors will be having a very happy Christmas.

Please read and review if you want more chapters.

-Yours truly, Randy Taylor