Fortunately, David Munro did agree with George's assessment that the level of singing they were doing in Ryan's room wouldn't hurt them. He also pointed out to Sharon that emotional stress could do more damage to the boys' voices than hours of quiet singing would, and advised her to let them do what they needed to do for themselves and for Ryan.
Over the next two weeks, Ryan made astonishing progress in his recovery. The tightness in his limbs decreased and finally vanished, making the splints unnecessary. A repeat brain scan, done with some of the boys' recordings playing through Ryan's Ipod, showed that the swelling in his brain was decreasing and the shift of his brain to the left that had been caused by the blood clot was correcting itself. Dr. Reilly had the respiratory staff begin weaning Ryan off the ventilator, at first having him breathe on his own for a few minutes, and then for increasingly longer periods, until after the end of the two weeks, he no longer needed it at all, although they kept him on oxygen to help keep the oxygen levels in his blood higher to help with the brain healing.
Although no one in the Celtic Thunder family had breathed a word about Ryan's injury, somehow the fans had figured out that something drastic had happened to him, and were sending prayers and good wishes around the clock, organizing prayer groups and masses. Somehow they even found out about a special Mass that was held at Ryan's church in the Moy and masses all over the world were timed to coincide with it. Realizing that the fans were worrying, but supporting Ryan in the best way they could, Mr. and Mrs. Kelly finally agreed to let some information be released - only that Ryan had had a serious accident and was in the hospital, but was now recovering. This also freed Sharon to introduce Colm to the fans prior to the AC shows. Colm was astonished at the wave of support that immediately came his way, which he certainly needed as he was still trying to get visas sorted to fly to the States, and it was starting to look like he'd be lucky to get there before the first show.
Meanwhile, as Ryan improved, the natural good humor of the rest of the boys began to return. Each improvement allowed them to relax a little more. They had too much sense to prank each other in the ICU, but small pranks were starting to happen at the hotel, giving everyone some much needed laughs. The ICU staff had become used to their presence and to the music in Ryan's room, but new staff were still surprised by the situation.
One evening Fiona was orienting a new nurse, Shauna, who would be working the night shift that night. As she was explaining procedures, she noticed that Shauna kept glancing towards Ryan's room as if something was distracting her. Fiona stopped talking for a minute and listened, realizing that Neil was singing - she had gotten so used to the sound that she almost didn't notice it unless it stopped. Shauna blushed, thinking that Fiona had caught her not paying attention.
"I'm sorry," she said, embarrassed. "It's that recording coming from the second room, there. Do you know who it is?"
Fiona laughed. "That's no recording," she said. "We've gotten so used to it that it's part of the normal sounds for us. That's Ryan's brother, Neil, singing to him. His brothers have been singing to him for 2 weeks straight."
"Really?" Shauna said, surprised. "How many brothers does he have?"
"Four that sing," Fiona said. "Ryan's a singer himself, and we found out a few weeks ago that when they sing to him, he stays calm and rests - before that he was fighting his ventilator and the meds and everything. We almost lost him one night until Keith started singing, and they've been singing non-stop ever since. Well, not quite non-stop lately since Ryan's recovering now, they can stop for a while."
"Wow, now that's dedication," Shauna said, impressed. "And what an amazing voice. I don't know that I've ever heard a man sing with that range, I wasn't sure at first if it was a man's voice or a woman's voice."
"I know," Fiona said. "All the boys have amazing voices, but Neil's is really special. I've heard recordings of him singing, but there's something about his voice live that doesn't get picked up on recordings. My jaw almost hit the floor the first night I heard him singing in here." She jumped as a laughing voice came from behind her.
"Hey, now, love, you're going to make me jealous if you keep going on about Neil's voice like that," Keith said, coming up behind her and poking her in the back. Keith's impishness was coming out full force lately and he'd taken a particular liking to Fiona, as she was always ready to flirt back. Shauna's eyes had gotten huge.
Fiona turned around and smacked him lightly on the shoulder. "Good evening yourself, Keith," she said. "Should have known you'd be up here bugging me soon, it's almost midnight. Ready to take over for Neil?" She turned back to Shauna. "This is Keith, the next singer on duty. Keith, this is Shauna, she's new, so be nice to her, OK?"
Keith's eyes went wide with an exaggeratedly innocent expression. "When am I ever anything but nice?" he said, grinning. Shauna couldn't help but giggle. "Nice to meet you," he said, looking at her. "Heard you talking about Neily-boy's range there, he's not anywhere near the top of it yet. That's mid-range for him."
"Oh come on," Shauna said. "I sing myself, and that's awfully high for a man."
"Want to hear him go higher?" Keith asked, a mischievous gleam in his eye. "I can make him jump up a lot higher without getting anywhere near him."
"You're on," Shauna said. "I don't believe you can do it."
"It's easy," Keith said, "especially since he's not paying a lot of attention right now." He took a deep breath and joined in with what Neil was singing, matching him note for note, his eyes twinkling as Shauna looked at him in surprise. Neil, unconsciously responding to the new voice, spiraled up to a harmony at least an octave higher, pure and sweet, singing along for a few notes before he realized what was going on, and then coming over to the door of Ryan's room to look out and glare at Keith. Shauna and Fiona were doubled over, laughing, and everyone else in the ICU had stopped to listen. For all the fierce look on Neil's face, the same pure sweet voice kept coming out of his mouth until they reached the end of the song.
"Thanks a lot, brat," he said, laughing. "You actually made Ryan smile, though."
It was Keith's turn to look stunned. "Seriously?" he said.
"Just for a second," Neil said. "Just when you tricked me, I swear the right side of his mouth twitched up, almost before I realized what you'd done." Neil's mood had lightened considerably over the last few days, although he was still the only one of the boys who hadn't returned to posting on Facebook or Twitter - he had been too concerned and focused on Ryan to think about anything else, so he simply hadn't posted anything for fear of letting something slip.
"Now THAT was amazing," said Shauna. "Good thing I didn't actually bet you anything, Keith, I'd have lost. How did you know how to do that?"
"We do stuff like that to each other all the time," Keith said, shrugging. "Even on stage. Change a harmony, switch a few words around and make the others try to catch up with us. Keeps us from getting bored." He pointed at Neil. "That guy right there is the worst, he can pull off anything with such a straight face that he has the rest of us laughing so hard we can't sing."
A beeping came from Ryan's room, not the harsh alarm that had signaled the earlier episodes of skyrocketing pulse, but a more gentle sound that was a warning that his pulse rate was rising. Neil turned his head back into the room. "Oh, hush, Ryan," he said. "Keith will be in soon. Give us a minute, will you?" To everyone's surprise, the beeping stopped. "I swear he's using that to communicate," Neil said.
"After everything else that's happened since you guys came in here, it wouldn't really surprise me much," said Fiona. "You watch," she said to Shauna, "These guys can even make Dr. Reilly smile when he's grumpy."
"Now that is a miracle," Shauna said. The beeping started up again.
"All right, Ryan! Man, if he remembers any of this when he wakes up, he is going to be soooo spoiled," Keith grumbled, but he was grinning at the same time. Tilting his head back, he sang the first few lines of Heartland, in the clear tenor call that was, Fiona privately thought, her favorite of his many voices. The beeping stopped again, and he laughed as he strolled into Ryan's room. "Hi, Mrs. Kelly," he said, giving her a hug, grinning again to see her laughing at his and Neil's antics. "Raymond should be in any minute, and then you can get some rest."