"Hrro," Kendall tried answering his cell phone but instead of putting it up to his ear he dropped it. "Pucks!" He leaned over almost falling out of bed and retrieved his phone from the floor of the hotel room. It was the middle of the night and he had been trying to sleep.
Once visiting hours in ICU were over for the day the group decided to get hotel rooms. Mrs. Knight and Katie had arrived, so they shared a room with Alexa. Kendall, James, and Logan took the adjoining room with Logan on a cot. Officer and Mrs. Garcia got the room across the hall.
"Kendall Knight?" He could hear the person on the other end repeat over and over as he sat up and successfully put the phone to his ear.
"Yes?"
From the other queen bed, James groaned.
"I'm calling to inform you that Carlos Garcia is being rushed into surgery. We discovered some internal bleeding from his surgically repaired liver and doctors are working to clean it up now."
"Bleeding?"
"Yes, sir."
"Bleeding?" Kendall heard Logan repeat.
"H-how bad is it?" Kendall asked.
"I don't know. I'm just here to relay information."
"Thank you."
"You're welcome."
With that Kendall hung up his phone. James sat up and turned on a light to reveal that Logan was also sitting up wide awake in his bed. Before Kendall could tell them the news there was a quick banging on the door connecting them to the other room. He climbed out of bed and answered it.
"I-I heard your phone ring and well, I'm not able to sleep and…" Alexa said all in one breathe. Kendall looked beyond her and saw Katie with her eyes on him.
"Mom, you might as well hear this, too," he said.
"I'm not awake," she answered.
"That was the hospital. Carlos is currently in surgery to repair the excess bleeding of his liver."
Kendall reached for Alexa who looked like she was about to pass out. Mrs. Knight jumped out of bed and threw on her robe.
"I'll tell the Garcias." She ran out of the room and began pounding on their door.
"I have to get to the hospital," Alexa managed to say.
Kendall looked over to see James with his head down and his eyes closed. His lips were moving so he wasn't asleep. He must be praying.
After he finished he jumped off the bed and declared, "let's go to the hospital."
"You're in your underwear." Logan, half-dressed himself, tossed James his pants.
"Let's get dressed and then go to the hospital."
"How long is this supposed to take?" James asked. They'd been in the waiting room for roughly thirty minutes. Everyone was tired, but no one slept. They all sat lounging around casually. Kendall had a magazine in his lap and he flipped pages periodically, but he wasn't reading it. Mrs. Knight sat with Katie flipping channels on a TV until they finally decided on a black and white rerun of The Dick Van Dyke Show.
"It's only been an hour since they called Kendall," Logan responded. "I'm sure it's going to take a lot longer than that."
"I'm gonna go get some coffee. Does anyone want anything?" Officer Garcia asked. It was five AM and the hospital coffee shop had finally opened.
"I'll go with you," Mrs. Garcia said.
"Coffee," James, Logan, Kendall, Mrs. Knight, and Katie said.
"Katie…" Mrs. Knight scolded.
"Hot chocolate," Katie said sheepishly.
"Are you sure you don't want anything?" Kendall asked Alexa. "Not even a water?"
Alexa shook her head.
"You sure?"
She nodded.
"If you don't mind, I'll join you." Mrs. Knight stood up and grabbed her purse.
No one was watching the TV so Logan began channel surfing. He stopped on E! when he saw a picture of Carlos pop up.
"E! News learns Carlos Garcia, member of the boy band Big Time Rush, has been admitted to the hospital earlier today for injuries sustained in a skateboarding accident. The band is currently on hiatus in Colorado after their successful summer tour. While we do not know the extent of his injuries, we believe they are not life threatening. Please stay with E! News for further updates." Across the bottom of the screen the message "Update: Garcia suffers concussion and has undergone surgery to repair liver."
"Not life threatening," Logan muttered shaking his head.
"Hi," a little boy said tapping Kendall on the knee. He could not have been more than four years old.
"Fredrick!" His mom shouted for him.
"It's okay," Kendall said. "Hi," he said to Fredrick.
"My daddy's gettin' a new liver," he said excitedly. "Is your daddy gettin' won, too?"
"My friend, Carlos, is having surgery to repair his liver."
"He shou' getta new won like my daddy."
Kendall laughed politely. "Maybe."
"Fredrick! "His mom called again.
"Bye!" He waved to Kendall and then ran back to his mom.
"Is Carlos gonna have to get a transplant?" Katie asked. Kendall shrugged.
"No," Logan replied.
"What if they screw up in surgery and…" James began before Kendall back handed him in the chest. "Ooph! Hey!" Kendall gave him a look telling him to shut up. "Sorry," he mouthed.
"We're back!" Officer Garcia announced. Mrs. Garcia, Mrs. Knight, and Officer Garcia carried eight Styrofoam cups and a small paper bag filled with cream, sugar, and stirring straws. Everyone grabbed their drinks before anyone had a chance to spill.
"I got you a coffee." Mrs. Knight placed a steaming cup on the table next to Alexa. "You don't have to drink it if you don't want to, but I thought you might want it even though you think you don't."
"Thanks," she replied softly.
"Honey, everything's going to be okay." Mrs. Knight sat down next to her and stroked her hair.
"You don't know that." Alexa looked at her with tears in her eyes.
"No, but I do know Carlos and he is a fighter."
Alexa nodded sadly.
"Carlos Garcia?" A doctor came out almost an hour later. It wasn't Dr. Bonilla. It could have been Dr. Ruffin. They hadn't actually met him.
Everyone sat up straight and looked expectantly at the doctor, even James who had been lying on the floor.
"I'm Dr. Jung, the surgeon who worked on Carlos this morning. He is currently in recovery, resting. We are working on getting him back to his room in ICU."
"Can we see him?" Officer Garcia asked.
"Is he okay?" Logan asked.
"You can all follow me. If you promise to be quiet you can visit him in recovery. He's still sleeping, but you can see he made it through just fine. It took longer than we thought, but the surgery was a success. We had to reattach his liver and sew some stitches that had pulled loose. I don't expect another incident, but he does have to stay in ICU until he can go 24 hours without any problems."
Dr. Jung opened the wooden doors to the recovery area. Carlos's bed was located in the corner nearest the doors. Still wearing the neck brace, he lay on his back asleep. An IV was sticking out of his right hand connected to a bag dripping a clear liquid. His chest was almost bare except for the bandage wrapped around the lower part of his rib cage where he had been cut open. His skin was pale with a tint of yellow, almost like he had jaundice.
Alexa slowly walked up to him and reached for his left hand. She stroked his fingers. He jostled a bit but was not ready to wake up.
"He should make a full recovery," a female nurse said to the group. "His surgery was very much a success. We don't expect any more complications."
"I bet you say that to all your patients," Officer Garcia replied gruffly.
"Only the ones who deserve it." The nurse gave him a look as she checked on Carlos's vital signs. "I'm not one to give false hope." She turned to Alexa who was still holding Carlos's hand. "The effects of the anesthesia should be wearing off shortly and he should be waking up."
As soon as the nurse headed to the next patient Carlos's eyelids fluttered. He opened them, closed them, then opened them again.
"How ya feelin', buddy?" James asked, standing at the foot of the bed.
Carlos groaned in reply.
"Are you okay? Do you feel sick? Do you need anything?" Alexa rattled off questions.
"Sh, it'll be okay, Bebe," Mrs. Garcia comforted stroking Carlos's cheek. "You feel cold. Do you need an extra blanket or anything?"
Carlos carefully shook his head which was not that much due to the neck brace. He grimaced in pain.
"Is something wrong?"
Carlos pointed to his neck brace.
"I wish I could let you take it off," Alexa said.
"I know," Carlos managed.
"It is just a sprain," Kendall spoke up. "It's not like moving his neck would cause any more damage, right? It would just hurt."
"Well, he might have torn a ligament or a tendon. It's best not to do anything until he talks to his doctor," Logan said. "A neck sprain or strain can involve muscles, tendons, ligaments, and/or nerves. It's really not something we should mess with if we don't know the details."
The group chatted about nonsense stuff from a song James heard on the radio to Katie thinking her mother had a boyfriend ("I do not!") to someone's birthday coming soon (Kendall's) to a funny incident Officer Garcia was involved in on the job the other day just to get Carlos's mind off his neck brace. As soon as the elder Garcia finished his story the nurse came to move Carlos back into his room in ICU.
"Looks like you got some people thinking about you," she said as she locked the hospital bed into place. "Flowers, fruit, and looks like someone sent you a basket of your favorite goodies."
"Get well soon! We miss your light and fire. Love, Kelly Wainwright and Gustavo Rocque," James read the card attached to the bouquet of yellow and white flowers. "Love? I'm betting Gustavo didn't write that."
"I think it's sweet," Mrs. Garcia commented.
"Gustavo does love you boys even if he is afraid to say it," Mrs. Knight said.
"Get well soon, Arthur Griffin." Katie pulled out the small card attached to the basket full of oranges. "Lovely."
"Oranges," Kendall sighed.
"I like oranges," Carlos said.
"Look at this." Logan peered into the other basket. "Corn dogs, Fruit Smackers, smoothie mix—just add milk, all your favorites. I wonder who sent this."
Kendall reached around Logan and took out the attached card.
"We love you, Carlos, and hope you recover quickly. We miss you around the Palm Woods! Your friends, Camille, Lucy, and Jo."
"Where's my phone?" Carlos's eyes searched the room landing on his cell phone lying next to his new helmet on the bed side table. "I need to thank them."
So, I'm a Survivor fan. Well, next season is Brains vs. Beauty vs. Brawn (or whatever order they had it) and it had me thinking. What if you were a combination of two? Then it hit me, like James Diamond. "Jeff, I'm both beauty and brawn. I've got the looks and the muscles." "James, which do you identify with better?" "Well, there's my face and my hair, but there's also," lifts shirt, "my washboard abs."
(actually, I think James would fit on the beauty team).
You want to know what the hardest part about writing this and the last chapter? Keeping Carlos out of it! I kept thinking of things that could happen in the waiting room and attributing them to Carlos and realizing nope, he's the one they're waiting on. There are cute things I thought of him saying or doing that just don't fit with the other guys. Darn it. Ah, well.