Author's Note: School has begun, so my time in between posts might be a little longer. Gonna try and keep up on it, but homework comes first.
Chapter 15: Complications
Peter and Micky pulled up to the garage of their pad and made their way inside. Micky told Peter on the way home that he was going to call Rose when they got back to the pad to meet them somewhere away from Mike so he could give her the bottle to test. Peter was still trying to give Heather the benefit of the doubt, but Micky knew his sister better than that. He had no doubt that there had been some sort of inhibitor in the bottle that she'd poured into the whiskey she shoved down his throat. His mind raced over reasons why she would be trying to get pregnant, but he couldn't settle on a definitive answer. When they walked in, they were surprised to find Sarah sitting impatiently at the table.
"Where's Davy?" Peter asked but Micky knew what the look on her face meant.
"What happened?" Micky asked.
"It's Mike," Sarah answered getting up and pulling him into a hug. He felt himself fill with terror as he realized something terrible must have happened. "Davy took him to the hospital."
"What?" Peter asked fearfully.
"He had a seizure or something," Sarah answered. "Davy heard him collapse in the shower and went to check on him. He had to call for help. They took him to the hospital about 15 minutes ago. I told them I'd stay behind to tell you what happened."
"We have to go," Peter said rushing toward the door. He stopped, however, when he realized Micky wasn't right behind him. It's not that Micky didn't want to rush head first out that door to join Davy in the hospital, but he couldn't leave Sarah behind alone and he couldn't bring her with him. He didn't know what to do.
"It's ok, Micky," Sarah said looking into his eyes. She'd always been able to read him. "I can stay here if you want me to. Or I can go. I'll be fine either way."
"I can't leave you here alone," Micky answered. "It's not safe. But if we take you, they might recognize you. You're an escaped patient still."
"What if she wore a disguise," Peter suggested.
"A disguise?" Sarah asked with a slight hint of disbelief in her voice.
"Yeah, we wear them all the time," Peter answered running to the closet. "We get in all sorts of weird situations where we need them. Never understood why or how. But maybe with a hat and a wig, you can fit in. Just keep your face hidden."
"It might work," Micky said, but a part of him didn't agree. He didn't want to risk anything.
"It's fine," Sarah smiled at him. "It'll work. I'll have you both to keep me safe."
"I'm going to call Rose and have her meet us at the hospital," Micky said. "Peter, make sure no one will recognize her." Peter nodded and pulled a wig and large sunhat out of the closet. Micky rushed over to the phone and dialed the number to the police department. When the receptionist answered, he asked to speak with Rose. He was transferred to her desk and she answered immediately.
"This is Detective Matthews," she answered.
"Rose, it's me," Micky said quickly. "I don't have a lot of time to explain, but I need you to meet me at the hospital. Something happened to Mike and I think Heather had something to do with it. I need you to take a look at the evidence I've got and tell me what it is."
"I'll be there as soon as I can," rose answered before hanging up. Micky hung up and looked over at Peter and Sarah. The hat hid her face fairly well and Peter had positioned the wig so it hugged her face to hide it even more. She looked a little ridiculous in such a large hat with a tiny body, but it would have to do.
"Are you sure you're ok?" Micky asked.
"Let's go," she answered following Peter to the door. They drove the entire way to the hospital in silence; they were all terrified of what was going to happen to Mike. When they got to the hospital 5 minutes later, Peter parked the car very quickly and they all jumped out. Once inside, it didn't take long to find Davy. They heard him before they saw him.
"I am sick of you idiots telling me to sit down and wait!" Davy yelled at a young nurse behind the counter in the waiting room. "I've been waiting 20 damn minutes and I'm tired of waiting! Why will no one in this whole bloody place tell me anything! I DEMAND to know what is wrong with my friend!"
"Sir, if you'll sit down and wait, someone will tell you what we know as soon as we know it," the woman said patiently as if she'd dealt with this kind of scene hundreds of times. "If you'd like, I can ask security to help you find a seat."
"That won't be necessary," Peter said running up behind Davy and pulling him away. "Will it, Davy?"
"They won't tell me anything!" Davy protested trying to fight Peter off. "He stopped breathing and his heart stopped 20 minutes ago!"
"Davy, calm down," Micky said firmly. Davy finally listened and stopped fighting. He allowed Peter to guide him to a seat with Sarah behind him while Micky turned to talk to the nurse. "I'm sorry about my friend; he gets irritated easily."
"I've seen it a lot," she answered.
"What can you tell me?" Micky asked. "Did they have to resuscitate him?"
"I told your friend that there was a code blue on Mr. Nesmith, but I don't know anything beyond that," she said. "They have a lot they have to do to keep him stable. As soon as the doctors are able, they will come talk to you."
"Thank you," Micky said and walked away to join Peter, Davy and Sarah.
"What'd they say?" Peter asked.
"They don't know anything," Micky answered. "Other than they're trying to stabilize him. If the code blue was called 20 minutes ago, he's still alive."
"How are you so sure?" Davy asked irritably.
"Because they wouldn't be working for 20 minutes to revive him," Micky answered simply. "And as soon as they stopped trying, they'd send someone out here to talk to us. That hasn't happened, so he's still alive. They must have been able to restart his heart, but they're doing a lot to keep it going. We need to let them do their jobs. We distract them and they'll fail."
"I just want to know what's happening," Davy muttered. "I don't know why he did that. He was on the floor and shaking. Then in the ambulance…"
"He had two seizures?" Micky asked when Davy trailed off.
"Yeah," Davy answered looking as though he were going to fight back tears. "I don't know why. What did she do to him?"
"I don't know," Micky answered with a sigh. "But I found a bottle in her drawer. I have no idea what was in it, though. I told Rose to meet me here so she can test it."
"So she did drug him?" Davy asked.
"We don't know for sure," Peter said. Sarah rolled her eyes a little and leaned into Micky to try and hide her face a little more. "It could have been anything in that bottle. And we don't know she put it in his drink."
"Davy, did you tell them anything?" Micky asked ignoring Peter.
"I didn't know what to tell them," Davy said. "I thought maybe you thought Heather drugged him, but I didn't know. And Sarah said it would be best not to get the cops involved until we know for sure."
"I'd rather not involve them at all," Micky said. "Word could easily get back to my family and his. Attention we really don't need."
"If she drugged him, we can't just let her get away with it!" Davy argued.
"Don't worry," Micky answered. "She won't."
"What does that mean, Micky?" Peter asked. Before Micky could answer, the double doors leading back to the treatment area opened and a doctor emerged with a chart. He looked at it for a moment and looked around at the throng of people in the waiting room.
"David Jones for Mike Nesmith?" he asked. The four of them immediately jumped up and dashed over to him.
"I'm Davy Jones," Davy said quickly.
"We're friends of Mike's too," Micky said when the doctor looked at the other three quizzically for a second. "We're all roommates. We're like brothers. Is he ok?"
"Follow me," the doctor said simply and turned back towards the doors. He led them down a long hallway and into a room. Micky's stomach dropped instantly when he saw Mike lying on the hospital bed in the middle of the room unconscious and hooked up to various monitoring and IV machines.
"Is he gonna be ok?" Peter asked rushing immediately over to Mike's side.
"We aren't entirely sure yet," the doctor answered. "It looks very good for Mr. Nesmith for now. But I worry about his future. Are you sure he didn't take any medication or drugs that would have caused a reaction like this?"
"Yes," Micky said before any of the others could answer. If Heather even got so much as interrogated for drugging someone, it would get back to his father and the aftermath would not be pretty. Even if they kept her name out of it, there would be no doubt Mike's dad would find out that he'd been drugged and would make sure Mike was keeping true to his word by staying silent. Mike's dad may be tempted to kill him to ensure Mike kept his silence. And there was no way Micky was going to risk that. If that meant he'd have to take care of this on his own to protect his friend, he would. "Mike doesn't do drugs and he doesn't need any medication. He's been under a lot of stress lately."
"Well, it appears he actually reacted to the anti-seizure medication the medics gave him during the second seizure," the doctor said. "That's what stopped his heart. We're running a tox screen to see what comes up. Until then, we managed to stabilize him, but we are going to keep him asleep to monitor him further in case he has any other seizures. Without knowing what's in his system, we can't say for sure what caused the initial seizure. They don't happen spontaneously."
"What happens then?" Davy asked. "When the tests are done?"
"We'll go from there," the doctor answered. "They should be back in a few hours. For now he's stable and I wouldn't worry too much. But if there's anything you want to tell me, do so now."
"Everything's fine," Micky reassured the doctor. The doctor seemed distrusting, but nodded and left the room nonetheless.
"Micky, maybe we should have said something," Peter said nervously. "If the meds they gave him stopped his heart, they should know she drugged Mike."
"Peter, I don't have any clue what she gave him for one," Micky answered making sure the door was shut all the way so no one would overhear them. "For two, we can't get the cops involved. Mike's dad is a prominent lawyer. No doubt he'd catch wind that his son was being drugged, freak out thinking maybe Mike might talk about the things going on in his house and decide to kill Mike just to make sure he stays silent. My dad finds out that Heather is being investigated for this, he'll come deal with her himself. The only reason he didn't do it before is probably because the offense was minor. This could go down as attempted murder or rape. I can't risk my dad coming out here, getting involved in this and finding me or Sarah and Rose."
"Well, if they find out what's in his blood, won't they know he was drugged?" Davy asked.
"I know," Micky said starting to pace nervously. "I can't let them find anything in that blood."
"What choice do we have?" Peter asked. Micky had no idea what they were going to do, but had to think fast. Before he could come up with something, there was a soft knock on the door. Micky opened it to find the nurse from the waiting room escorting Rose into the room.
"There really shouldn't be this many people in here for that long," the nurse said.
"I won't be long," Rose answered.
"Thank you," Micky said. The nurse nodded and walked away.
"What's going on?" Rose asked. Micky informed her about everything he knew about, even the blood test they were running on Mike. When he informed Rose about the poked out condom and the thought she might be trying to get pregnant, Davy's face fell.
"We have to do something," Micky finished. "We can't let them find out what's in Mike's system. It can't get back to the family. Mine or his."
"I know," Rose said casting a concerned glance at Mike's still sleeping form on the bed. "I think I have an idea how to get around that. But it won't be easy."
"I'll do whatever it takes," Micky said. "I can't let them hurt Mike."
"Come with me," Rose said. "And hand me the bottle." Micky handed her the bottle before following her outside. She peeked around to make sure no one was watching them too closely and led him down the hallway to a supply closet. The two snuck inside and she started looking around for something.
"What's your plan?" Micky asked.
"We need to switch his blood before they test it," Rose said. "I've dealt with blood tests before. It's probably sitting on the counter waiting to be tested. If we can switch his blood out for yours, they'll test your blood and won't find a thing."
"That's actually a pretty good idea," Micky said.
"You say that like you're surprised," Rose laughed.
"A little," Micky answered as she found a needle and vial.
"Roll up your sleeve," she said. Micky did as she instructed and trusted her to do draw his blood. She'd been taught about as much about medicine as he had growing up and knew exactly what she was doing. She tightened a tourniquet around his upper arm and found the vein in his arm. He winced slightly when she poked the needle in him.
"How are you going to get into the lab to switch it out?" Micky asked.
"I'm a cop, Micky," she said undoing the tourniquet to let the vial fill with blood. "My badge gets me almost everywhere."
"Almost?" Micky asked.
"Can't get into government places without clearance, of course," she smiled. "Don't worry. I'll deal with this. You just take care of Sarah and Mike. I'll drop this bottle off at our lab claiming it's evidence in a case I'm looking into and I need a rush on it. I should have results by morning. I have no doubt she drugged him, but you're right. He won't believe us without proof."
"The only thing I can't figure out is why she wants to get pregnant," Micky said as she took the needle out and pocketed the vial. Micky grabbed a cotton ball and held it against the bleeding puncture in his arm while Rose got the tape to cover it.
"She's sick, Micky," Rose said. "There may not be a reason. But you have to start thinking about what might happen if she does get pregnant."
"There's no way I'm going let her raise that baby if she does," Micky answered a little angrily.
"You have to be careful," Rose said seriously. "You can't kidnap someone else's baby. Giving up ours was one thing. This will be different."
"Ours?" Micky asked though he knew what she meant.
"You know that's how I have to think of it, Micky," she said looking down. "I can't accept that she was your father's or brothers. I just can't live with myself if I think that way."
"I know," Micky said. "Go, switch out those vials and get that test done on that bottle. We'll figure everything else out later."
"Hide that," Rose said pointing at the puncture on his arm. Micky nodded and they both slipped out of the supply closet unnoticed. Micky went back to his friends, but decided not to tell them the plan yet. Peter was never good at keeping secrets. Not that Micky faulted him for that. He just assured them that they had worked out a plan and Mike was going to be ok. Micky wanted desperately to just go confront Heather and deal with her right then and there, but he couldn't bring himself to leave Mike. And even though she was fairly hidden under the hat and wig, Micky wouldn't be able to forgive himself if he left and something happened to her.
He had no doubt that Peter and Davy would do everything they could to keep her safe, but he couldn't guarantee that their best would be good enough. He couldn't even guarantee his best would be good enough. But he had to stay. He knew she was leaving, but he'd figure out how to track her down in LA and make her pay for what she had done to Mike. But he couldn't leave Mike until he knew for sure Mike would be ok. So he relented to just sitting there with his friends until they learned more about Mike's condition.