Thanks for reading and reviewing! Yes, cliffies are mean, I guess I was just in the mood for one after watching the finale : )
The whole cracked rib/coughing thing is based on a true story, it happened to someone I know. However, I added the coughing up blood as another symptom : ) It's fun to have drama.
I also changed one of the scenes. Take a guess at which one heehee
Enjoy!
Lucas was still hunched over, gasping and trying to catch his breath.
"Don't worry…you'll be fine…I need some help! Coughing up blood over here!" Nathan shouted.
"Follow me." A medical intern said, running over with another doctor and helping Nathan to pull Lucas up.
"I need a towel or something!" The intern called, taking one from the nurse.
"Here." She handed it to Nathan.
"What is this for?"
"In case he coughs up anymore blood."
Lucas weakly reached out for the towel, and closed his eyes tight as he coughed some more.
"Hang on Luke…" Nathan said, helping him to sit.
"Uh huh…" Lucas mumbled.
"Okay…fever of 101.1…shortness of breath?" The doctor asked.
Lucas nodded.
"And you woke up coughing?"
Lucas nodded again. He didn't want to talk much in case he had to cough again.
"Okay. Your symptoms indicate pneumonia. We will run some tests to make sure."
"He's going to be okay, right?" Nathan asked the doctor, placing his hand on Lucas' back.
"I believe so. Once we run tests, we should be able to prescribe antibiotics."
"But why the blood?" Lucas asked.
"It seems scary yes, but it's really just another symptom."
"So I'll be okay?"
"Yes, I want to run tests to make sure."
"Did he break his rib or what?" Nathan asked.
"It seems like he did crack it, probably from the strain of the coughing. We'll have to do an X-ray."
"It's weird though, isn't it?" Lucas asked, wincing a little.
"It is a bit on the unusual side, but it's not unheard of." The doctor assured him.
"Okay. Can I go home after the tests?"
"I don't see why not. Just make sure you rest."
Nathan glanced at his brother, sensing he wasn't up for much more conversation.
"What should we do besides rest? I mean for the rib?"
"I'm afraid there's not much else one can do except to let him rest."
"Okay." Lucas sighed.
"Well if you feel a more intense pain, give me a call, I could prescribe some painkillers-"
"No. That's okay." Lucas said firmly.
"Alright then. Just keep me updated in a week or so. Now Lucas I want you to just lie down and rest until I come back. You're going to be fine, but that was a lot of stress on your body and we have to think about-"
"My heart?" Lucas guessed.
"Yes." The doctor said.
"Okay. Thanks." Nathan said.
"I'll be right back for some tests." The doctor said, and left.
"I'm freezing." Lucas said, shivering.
"Here. Better?" Nathan said, picking up an extra blanket from across the room and gave it to Lucas.
"Better." Lucas nodded sleepily
"Good." Nathan said, sitting down a chair nearby.
"I want to go home."
"I know, we will soon."
"Okay." Lucas sighed.
"Try to take it easy."
"I'm fine."
"You're not fine. You were coughing up blood."
"Not the point."
"It has to be part of the point."
"Nuh uh."
'Yeah huh."
"Nuh uh."
"You're mean when you're sick."
"I know. Last time I just took it out on your car though."
"Lucky me."
"This is nice…a weekend away." Dan said as he and Deb got ready for bed.
"Definitely. So do you think we'll have a house when we get back?"
"Well they did go to the beach house so we'll at least have the main house." Dan pointed out.
"Good point."
"Speaking of which." Dan said as his cell phone flashed Nathan's number.
"Dan." Deb scolded gently.
"What? We left the boys alone for the night." Dan pointed out as he answered his phone.
"Good point." Deb said again.
"Wait, Nate…okay I can hear you now."
"Good. Um, were on our way home from the doctors. Lucas has pneumonia."
"What? How do you know?"
"Well he was coughing like crazy, and he cracked a rib."
"What? Is that normal?"
"The doctor said it isn't normal, but it isn't unheard of."
"Okay, we'll be home in about an hour and a half."
"No, no it's fine. We're just going home and going to bed. I'll take care of it."
"Nathan…"
"No. Don't worry, he'll still be here when you get back tomorrow afternoon. We'll be fine. I promise."
"You're sure?"
"I am. Talk to Luke, he's being bitchy."
"I am not." Lucas said as he took the phone from Nathan.
"Nathan says you are." Dan teased.
"He just keeps making these sudden stops and I'm in pain." Lucas whined.
"But you're okay? Do you want us to come home?"
"Nah, I'm okay I just want to go to sleep."
"How on earth did you get pneumonia?"
"I guess from being out in the rain?"
"Oh. Jeez."
"Yeah…"
Nathan sat in a chair as Lucas slept. The doctor said several times he would be fine, but he had seen his brother cough up blood. He was worried.
The phone ringing jolted Nathan out of his trance.
He quickly got up and got the phone, so he wouldn't wake up Lucas.
"Hello?" Nathan said quietly.
"Why are we so quiet?" Brooke asked.
"I'm just trying not to wake up Lucas." Nathan said, taking the phone into the next room.
"You two are so lazy, even I don't sleep until noon."
"Well we didn't get home until like 6:00 this morning."
"Out late partying? Without me?"
"Of course."
"Seriously though, what did you do last night?"
"Lucas woke up in the middle of the night, coughing like crazy. He could barely sit up, because he cracked a rib or something from the strain of it all."
"Is he okay?" Brooke gasped.
"Yeah he's fine, we just got really scared. Neither of us knew how to deal with pneumonia, and he like cracked a rib so it seemed pretty intense, and then when we were in the waiting room he freaking coughed up blood."
"What?"
"But he's okay. It just happens sometimes, the doctor said."
"Wow…"
"Yeah…so I'll just tell him to call you later."
"Okay. You sound tired too."
"I only slept for like 2 hours before we went to the doctors."
"You stayed up with Lucas?"
"I didn't want anything else to happen."
"That's sweet. Well, just tell Luke to feel better and I'll call him later."
"Okay. Bye Brooke."
"Bye."
Almost instantly, the phone rang again.
"Damn." Nathan sighed as he picked up the phone again.
"Hello?"
"Sup Nate." Jake said.
"Hey Jake."
"So word on the street is that your parents were out of town and you didn't even throw a party? Get Lucas on the phone so I can lecture you on what you do when parents are out of town."
"You know one time I had a party without parental supervision and I ended up in jail."
"Well that's unfortunate."
"Yeah."
"So anyways, you and Luke want to do something today?"
"I don't know…Luke is still sleeping."
"Sheesh."
"We didn't get home until early this morning."
"Doing what?"
"Well we were at the beach house, and Lucas wakes up in the middle night, having some kind of coughing fit and he has this sharp pain in his side. Turns out the coughing made him crack one of his ribs."
"Seriously?"
"Yeah. So we get to the doctors and they make us wait forever. Meanwhile, Lucas starts coughing up blood, so that hurried them along a bit at least."
"He was coughing up blood? Is he okay?"
"Yeah…he has pneumonia or something, and apparently that happens."
"That's scary."
"Yeah, trust me, I was freaking out."
"Poor guy."
"I know."
"Nate?" Lucas called from the living room.
"Hey, I got to go, but you wanna come up here?"
"Sure, I'll be around in a bit. I might have to cover for someone at the café at like 2:00."
"Great. You can entertain us."
"I'll do my best."
"See you soon." Nathan said, hanging up.
"Hey." Lucas said quietly as Nathan came towards him.
"Hey, how are you feeling?"
"It hurts to breathe."
"That good, huh?"
"Absolutely."
"Hey, so Jake is coming over."
"Cool."
"And Brooke called. She said she'll call you later and to feel better."
"Okay." Lucas said, trying to sit up.
"Here, I got you." Nathan said, helping him up.
"I hate everything." Lucas complained.
"That's sad." Nathan laughed.
Lucas smiled too, then he leaned back on the couch.
"I'm beat." Nathan said.
"You didn't sleep at all did you?"
"Only the two hours before we went to the doctors."
"You didn't have to stay up with me."
"I just wanted to make sure you would be okay."
"Thanks, Nate."
"Anytime."
"I think he was awake for a grand total of 17 minutes before he crashed again." Nathan said, putting another blanket on top of his brother.
"Pneumonia sucks." Jake said.
"I bet." Nathan said, following Jake into the kitchen.
"So what should we do?"
"No idea. By the way, where's Jenny?"
"Peyton and Brooke took her out for the day."
"Cool."
"Yeah."
"You want a drink or something?" Nathan asked, taking a bottle of Gatorade out of the refrigerator.
"Nah, I'm good. You might want to try coffee or something."
"Huh?"
"You really need to get some sleep."
"I'm fine."
"Two hours of sleep, lots of stress…it isn't good Nate. Look if you're really worried, I'll keep an eye on Lucas if you want to get some sleep."
"I'll be okay, I just need to relax for the day. Luckily its Saturday."
"True…"
"I'll be fine. Here, go in the living room and put on MTV, and if it makes you happy I will make coffee."
"As you wish."
Lucas started to stir when Jake walked back into the room and sat down in the chair across the room.
"Morning sleeping beauty. Or actually it's 12:30, but you know what I meant."
"Uh huh." Lucas mumbled.
"Didn't sleep well?"
"You know, funny enough, I didn't? The breaking of the ribs and coughing up blood got in the way."
"Pesky symptoms."
"Exactly."
"So how you feeling man? Pretty intense stuff."
"Yeah…"
"You feeling alright?"
"Better…still hurts when I inhale. And exhale."
"That sucks, I'm sorry."
"It's okay. That's why I've been trying to sleep it off."
"Hey make sure your little brother tries that too."
"I told him to go to sleep, but he worries like crazy."
"I do not!" Nathan called from the kitchen.
"Do too!" Jake called back.
"Yeah whatever." Nathan said, handing Jake some coffee and sitting down beside Lucas with his own cup.
"Share." Lucas said, reaching out.
"Knock yourself out." Nathan said, opening the bottle of Gatorade he had in his other hand.
"Crap." Jake said as his cell phone rang.
"What's wrong?" Lucas asked.
"Jake hates ringing phones." Nathan joked
Lucas chuckled as Jake rolled his eyes and flipped open his phone.
"You need me when? Okay…yeah…uh huh…I'll be right there." Jake said and hung up.
"Jenny?" Lucas asked.
"No…I have to cover someone's shift at the café."
"Okay. Later man." Nathan said.
"Yeah. You two just chill for the day, okay?"
"We will." Lucas said.
"Bye!" Jake called as he headed out the door.
"I'm going back to sleep." Lucas mumbled.
"Okay. I'll be here."
"You sleep too."
"I'm fine."
"Sit here…if I cough up any more blood or break any more bones, I'll kick you. Alright?"
"But…"
"I'm your big brother, you have to listen to me."
"Fine." Nathan sighed.
A couple hours later, Deb and Dan came into the living room to find both boys fast asleep.
"Our house is still standing." Deb said lightly.
"Well apparently they were too tired to get into any more trouble." Dan said.
"Nathan?" Deb said, walking over and gently waking up Nathan.
"Huh?" Nathan yawned.
"We're back. Tired, huh?"
"Late night."
"You did good." Dan said, feeling Lucas' forehead.
"He's doing better I think."
"I am." Lucas mumbled.
"Still hurts?" Dan asked.
"Only when I breathe."
"But you want to sleep?"
"Yeah."
"Okay. You get some rest. Both of you." Dan said, glancing at Nathan.
"Oh, we will." Nathan sighed, closing his eyes.
A week later, Lucas went back to Karen's. Nathan led Lucas up the driveway to Karen's house.
"Ow! That would be where I have a broken rib Nate." Lucas said, trying to pull out of Nathan's grasp.
"Sorry. I'm trying to help you walk here, dumbass." Nathan laughed.
"It's okay."
"Bitch."
"I love you too."
"Uh huh."
"Oh Lucas, how are you feeling?" Karen said, opening the door before they could even knock.
"Better." Lucas said.
"Up or downstairs?" Nathan asked.
"Um…down, my mom wants to show me all the final stuff for the wedding."
"Just three weeks away." Karen said excitedly.
"Yeah." Nathan smiled.
"And you and your parents are coming?"
"Yeah…its nice that you wanted Dad to come too."
"He's trying now, I can appreciate that."
"We all can." Lucas smiled.
"We call can what?" Andy asked, walking into the room.
"Trust my dad's efforts." Lucas said.
"Right Andy?" Karen asked.
"I'll try." Andy nodded.
"Thanks." Lucas said.
"Of course." Andy said, then he stared at Lucas for a moment, who was still being held up by Nathan.
"I'm his crutches." Nathan explained.
"Interesting." Andy laughed.
"Okay…I have to get going." Nathan said, walking Lucas over to a chair so he could sit.
"Hot date?" Lucas raised his eyebrows.
"Yep. After hanging with you all week, Theresa and I are finally hanging out."
"Sorry for taking up all your time." Lucas smiled.
"It was good." Nathan said, patting him on the shoulder.
"See ya." Lucas said.
"Bye. Feel better."
"Thanks."
"Bye!" Nathan called to Karen and Andy.
"Bye!" They called as he left.
"How's he doing?" Dan asked as Nathan walked into the kitchen.
"Good. He was excited about all the wedding stuff."
"Oh. That's good."
"It's good that you're coming, Dad."
"Yeah…well…"
"Maybe you'll end up friends?" Nathan asked.
"We'll just see how the 26th goes, Nate. Then we'll go on from there."
"Okay." Nathan laughed.
"So what are your plans for tonight?"
"Date."
"With Theresa?"
"Yeah. Who else?"
"Well…I thought with that whole…incident…a couple weeks back meant that you weren't so sure about her."
"I like her. A lot. Haley dating again just threw me a little."
"You sure?"
"Yeah. I'm sure." Nathan said firmly.
"Okay."
"I have to get ready. I'm running late." Nathan said, glancing at the clock and running up to his room.
There we go. Longer chapter : )
Please read and review!