A West Village Tragedy Part II.
The events in the West Village street had been witnessed by two other pairs of eyes that Monday morning. One of them was small and furry, disturbed from his sleep by the sirens, and he had stalked to the window to miaow at the source of the din, observing the scene with disdain. Then the noise had stopped, and he decided that he should return to bed, thinking that his Uncle Mike was running late with the next batch of food supplies that morning; he had been in with his breakfast just after 6am, but now he was needing a snack.
The other person that had theoretically witnessed everything had actually managed to walk through the whole scene without even connecting the dots. He had walked past Seth's place, oblivious to what was going on just a few feet away. Flint was on a bit of a mission, as Beats had asked him to check on his place whilst he was away, and although it was still early, it was the time that suited him best. He had not missed the ambulance, but it was parked on the other side of the street, so he had assumed that its business was over there and given it no heed. He was barely inside his best friend's front door when the patient was wheeled out, and was still there when Dex and Kitty emerged.
The former had headed inside his own home, and Kitty had literally just stepped into Mike and Tina's home to collect her daughter when Flint emerged. The former Warbler momentarily considered popping in to see Seth, but then his cellphone rang, and he saw it was Izzy. He answered it, to hear her asking how long he was intending to be, as given that they both had a holiday as it was Easter Monday, she thought they could take Aaron to Central Park and have a picnic; if he agreed, could he pick up a few things on his way home? As a result, Flint walked past without stopping, and failed to see Mike and Mason moving around inside Seth's home, finishing their tidying up…
As soon as Seth was delivered to the hospital, Ollie began his tests, the first of which was a scan to see if he could spot any important issues. Seth was still completely unresponsive, although his pulse had improved a little on their way from his home. He suspected that the key centres of his brain had reacted to a major crisis elsewhere in his body by shutting things down and placing him into a comatose state. In doing so, it would help those areas to recover, but shutting down everything that wasn't vital to staying alive really wasn't useful to a doctor. He had attached Seth to monitors in the ambulance, and now had confirmation of a slow heart rate and low blood pressure, which kind of fitted in with his state…
After the scan, he had taken blood samples, rushing them off for analysis, but there was nothing untoward to be seen in them. He had tried poking and prodding, looking for the involuntary reactions he expected; he got most of them, but none of those pokes shocked his patient back to wakefulness…
Then he got the brain scan result, and finally he had something. There had been a slight but definite change in the activity in Seth's brain. It confirmed the hypothesis of the cause of his comatose state, but did not give any more information on what had caused it. Then he received the result of the second, whole body scan, and the information was there. It was now clear that both of Seth's legs were in the same condition; useless. There was the reason for his fall; his good leg had suddenly failed, and he had nothing to support him and keep him upright. His brain had probably shut down, so he would have lost consciousness as he plummeted, meaning that he was not able to break his fall, and banged his head hard as a result. That second source of pain had deepened the coma, and also explained the slight swelling that he could see in his head…
Eventually Ollie knew that it was time that he made the phone call he was slightly dreading to his little brother in Ohio; in all honesty, he had done all of the tests that were possible whilst Seth was still unconscious, and he had the results. He knew that what he was about to say to his brother was going to break a few hearts, but he was a doctor, and it had been drilled into him since birth that he had to be as detached and unemotional as possible at all times. Regardless of who it was before him, they were just a patient, his father had always said as a mantra, and he had a keen memory of that kind of glacial attitude being in place when his younger sister Marcia had broken her leg. There had been no words of comfort from her father, and the few that had come had been from a young nurse; even those had been delivered well out of their dad's earshot…
For him, however, Seth was different. He had come to like and admire the young man in his care, and even to see him as a friend; the fact that he was close to his younger brother didn't help matters. A glance at the clock showed him that it was almost noon, and he knew that meant that the lunch break would be in full swing at Dalton Academy. He was about to dial his little brother's cellphone when he suddenly thought the better of it. He called it for fraternal chats, and this was not that by any chalk. Instead he called the school's main number, and asked the secretary that answered if she could get his little brother to call him on his office number as a matter of urgency. He sat back down at his desk, and within a minute, his phone began to ring.
"Ollie, what is going on?" said Thad the moment he answered, without even letting him speak. "You never call me at the work number, never in school hours for anything good. So, please tell me that little Thad is okay…"
"He is, don't worry. However, I do have bad news to impart. I hope that you are sitting down somewhere, in private…"
"I'm in my apartment… Oh, God, it's Seth, isn't it? He's not…"
Ollie shivered a little at the catch that he had heard in his younger brother's voice, and replied as softly as he could, "No, he isn't, but he is in a coma. It isn't looking good right now, little bro, not by any stretch of the imagination…"
He listened to the sound of Thad breathing on the other end of the line, not speaking, and he knew that he was composing himself before he spoke. "You had better tell me all you know," was what Thad said in a matter of fact tone when he did reply.
Ollie proceeded to do just as he had asked, telling his brother what they supposed had happened, and then all about the tests he had just run. "Basically, it all boils down to this," said Ollie in conclusion. "Once the swelling on his brain goes down, there is a very good chance that he will wake up, but until he does I can't say with any certainty that his brain functions have not been impaired. Nor can I say what his mobility is going to be like with any kind of certainty. What was his working leg now resembles his other on all of the scans though, so based on that alone, he is going to be unable to go anywhere without the chair; the use of a crutch will be out."
"To be blunt, we are essentially at the moment when he needs to come back to Ohio, and allow Skylar and Julia to take care of him on a daily basis. He is not going to like that idea at all, but we have to be frank with him, and tell him that he really doesn't have any other option any longer."
"Pretty much, unless we found him a full-time carer here, then he could possibly stay where he is for a little while. Right, I take it that you will spread the news to your fellow Warblers? Mike Chang says that he will call Nick for you, and take Jeff off your shoulders; that will leave you with the hardest call of all to make first."
"Yes. I will have to call Skylar first, although to be honest, I think that my next call, to the Carmichaels, will be every bit as traumatic. In fact, it might be worse, as it is the one I should do face to face, given that they are right here, and for Mrs Carmichael, this is going to bring back so much heartache of her own… I take it that you will call Mike, and tell him what you just told me? If so, thank him profusely for stepping up and calling Niff. I owe him on that one, because I am certain that Jeff will basically fall apart…"
Having ended the call to his brother, Thad took a moment to breathe. He began to wonder if he should ask Skylar to come to Dalton, and then tell him the news face to face too. He realised almost at once that was a bad idea; Skylar would know it had to be about Seth, would get emotional, and that was not conducive to safe driving. In the meantime, Mike would be getting the same news he had, and would go on to tell Nick and Jeff, and the whole story might leak out from there before he had a chance to even speak to Skylar. No, it had to be on the phone, and it had to be now. He knew that his friend would be at work, but that could mean that he was out on a site visit rather than in the office. Nonetheless he took a leaf out of his brother's book, and called the switchboard of the architect's practice where Skylar worked. It transpired that Mr Willetts was in the office, and before he could give his name, his call was being put through…
"Skylar Willetts office. How can I help you?"
"Skylar, it's Thad."
"Thad, why are you… What's happened to him? Please tell me that he is okay!"
"I'm afraid that I can't; it is not the worst case scenario, but the news is not at all good. He is in a coma, and Ollie is of the opinion that it will soon be time for him to come to Ohio for good. I know that this news is the last thing that you wanted to hear, but he is still with us, and he is a fighter. He always has been…"
"A coma! How on earth….? I need to go and see him, Thad… If I leave now, I could be there before midnight…"
"Possibly to find him sitting up in bed, without a care in the world, wondering why on earth you are there. He is not at death's door, Ollie was certain of that much. There is no point whatsoever in you running to New York today; the best thing that you can do is set in motion all of the plans that you have to make him comfortable at your place. You can phone Ollie yourself if you do not believe me, but he will tell you the same; running to his bedside will not make the blindest bit of difference to the situation. I know that you instinctively feel that you should be there; trust me, I feel the same, but it will not help. There is enough time to do so much more when he comes out of his coma."
"And if he doesn't?"
"That sort of negative attitude helps no-one; not Seth, and not you. He will come out of this. We have to stay positive, for our own sake and his. Ollie will keep us both informed. If things do deteriorate, if he does get worse, then you and I will go together. I will not leave you to face this alone, okay?"
"I will hold you to that. I will not let him suffer alone, or with only strangers for company…"
In the end, all Thad could do was commiserate with Skylar, and when he eventually ended the call, he knew two things. One, his brother would be getting a call from Skylar at this very moment, asking for details, and two, he now had to face a very difficult conversation with the Carmichaels…
Thad decided to put out his message to the other Warblers first before he went to seek out the Carmichaels. He was again conscious of the fact that his brother had been intending to call Mike immediately after he spoke to him, and he did not want the rest of the group finding out what had happened once the word had begun to spread to freely. It was a simple enough task for him to write the words; he guessed that he had mentally rehearsed them for some time. However, seeing the truth in black and white made it all the harder to accept.
With the message sent, he headed off on the short walk to the house within the school grounds in which the former Principal and his wife still lived, situated right at the heart of the school, and once the appointed home of that generation's headteacher. However, times had changed, and Principal Lefevre preferred to live off campus. A part of him hoped that he would find the house empty, as it would allow him to put off the terrible moment, but their car was parked in the driveway as he turned the corner, indicating otherwise. He wasn't entirely sure how he was going to broach the topic with them, knowing just how hard Mrs Carmichael would take the news of another step in Seth's decline….
As so often happened at the most difficult moments, Thad suddenly heard Wes' voice inside his head, as clearly as if his angelic husband was stood at his side. "There is no easy or kind way to break this news to her; she will know more than anyone else exactly what this latest development means for Seth. She will rally though, and deal with it in the way that only she is capable of, and that is down to having witnessed these things before. She will be more concerned for your welfare and that of Skylar than she will be for her own."
"How do I even start this though, Wessie?" Thad asked the air around him.
"I think that your face will immediately indicate that there is an issue, and when they ask, you just have to tell them the truth, whole and unembellished. I mean, I will be watching, just in case you need help, but honestly, I believe that you can handle this alone…"
As Thad rang the doorbell of the house in Dalton's grounds, Mike was sitting in New York, wondering how he should break the same news to two people on the other side of the world. He had taken the call from Ollie on speakerphone, so that Tina and the still visiting Kitty could hear the facts from him at the same time. The full severity of what had happened shook them all, none of them having anticipated that what had occurred could be so bad as to force Seth away from the city. After Ollie had ended the call, they had all sat in silence for a moment, contemplating what they had heard. Then Kitty broke the silence.
"I'm not the only one that is thinking that this is definitely the beginning of the end, am I? He is so young, and that is what gets to me the most about all of this; he is my age…"
"I am hoping that when he wakes up, they will be able to run the tests again, and will find that it isn't as bad as they fear," said Mike determinedly. "Only once he is awake, and can tell us all exactly what happened, can we predict the future with any sort of accuracy." Kitty nodded, but Mike could see from her expression that she didn't have his faith.
"It doesn't look at all good though. I mean, what if Mason hadn't been around? What if for some reason Dex had not made his morning visit and he had lain there longer? And if he does stay here, then what? What if next time something like this happens he has something on the stove, and it starts a fire? He is going to need a full time carer, and that will be much easier and cheaper to organise for him in Ohio."
Mike and Kitty both just stared at Tina after her words, both knowing that she was correct, but still hating the fact and the forthright way she had just expressed her opinion. Changing the subject a little, Kitty said, "Then of course there is Mason. This has to have hurt him too. I mean, I knew that he and Seth were friendly, but until today I did not realise that they were quite so close."
"I think that on their first Thanksgiving here in the city, both of them had their plans go wrong, and they kept each other company for most of the day; otherwise they would have been alone for the entire day and miserable. So to have found him the way that he did…" answered Tina sadly. As she and Kitty discussed that, Mike sat and stared at the cup of coffee in front of him. He had an onerous task in front of him, but checking his watch, he realised that it was still a little too early to make his call; it was barely 5am in Auckland…
Instead he made a call to Mason, to appraise him of the news, which had thrown his plans for the day into a spin. He waited an hour, saying goodbye to Kitty as well, before retreating along the street to feed Caleb, who welcomed him as if he had been starved for a decade. It was in the silence of Nick's study that he made the call carefully to the number of the hotel in Auckland. Nick had given him the number for the most dire of emergencies only, and he wondered if this counted as such as he waited for the call to connect…
The receptionist that had answered had been polite and helpful, and instantly dismissive of his apologies for the early hour of his call. She placed him on hold whilst she called Niff's room, and only connected him once she knew that there was an answer. "Hello?" came Nick's voice in a groggy tone, one which Mike recalled from living with them, and the days when Nick had been woken too early.
"Hey, it's Mike. I am sorry to have woke you up…"
There was a pause, then a slightly more normal Nick replied, "It's alright, I was up, just not fully awake. Okay, so I am sitting down and have nothing in my hands. Tell me what has happened…"
"It's Seth," said Mike, realising there was no point in prevarication. "He took a turn for the worst yesterday, but unfortunately it happened just after Dex left for the night, and as a result, it was about 14 hours before anyone found him. He is in a coma this time Nick, and well, the prognosis is that he will be living in Ohio with Skylar sooner rather than later, as he will not be able to live alone any more…"
"Of all the times for us to be literally half the world away," remarked Nick with a sigh. "I think you and I both know that this is going to upset Jeff a heck of a lot; he might well want to come home right away, but there is no way that he can change the tickets. On the plus side, he is going to live? Ollie gave no hint that he might not make it?"
"He didn't, thankfully, although it is only once Seth wakes up that Ollie will be able to make a full assessment of his condition."
"However, that could be right now, or in a month's time… Okay, so Jeff is stirring, so I am going to go and break it to him. Wish me luck…"
Nick rang off before Mike could answer, and it left the young man sitting in New York to imagine the scene in New Zealand. There would be tears, and there would be recriminations from Jeff, but from Nick would come only love and affection. Even more so than the rest of them, Niff were in a position of helplessness. There was nothing that anyone could do until Seth woke up, and none of them had any idea of when that would be…
There were indeed tears in Auckland that morning; Jeff's face had crumpled the moment that Nick had told him, and he had no choice but to allow his husband to sob in his arms, gently stroking his hair. His tears had woken Wes in the adjacent room of their suite, and he had cried too, although Nick was pretty certain that his son did not quite understand what the meaning of comatose was, and was really crying because his papa was. In the end, the tears subsided, and Nick was able to get his son to go and wash his face before he turned to his husband.
"There is nothing that we can do about this, my love, and more importantly, there is no-one to blame here. Something in Seth caused this to happen, and it would have done so even if you had been sitting there at his side at the time."
"I know that, Nicky, but it still feels awful; he is lying there in a hospital, possibly in pain as well as unconscious, and we are here, on the other side of the world, enjoying ourselves…"
"Hmm… A series of meetings in a windowless conference centre, stretching on for over ten hours, with the same timetable tomorrow, followed by a formal dinner with speeches? I would not exactly class that as fun, Jeffie; worse still, you have to come to the dinner tomorrow night, when half of the people present will be desperate for an introduction to the great artist in their midst… I am going to be honest here; I think that Seth would not like it one bit if we failed to take advantage of our time here because of what is happening to him. That is why today, as I am stuck indoors listening to speakers droning on, and answering all kinds of interminable questions, I want you and Wes to go out and explore Auckland. It isn't as old and historical a city as Wellington, but there is still so much for you both to see and do. I have a trip pencilled in for you to Maungawhau, which is the highest point in the city, and an old volcanic cone. It is a park, and you can draw the view whilst Wes plays. After that, I thought that you could head up the Sky Tower, which according to the guidebooks is the tallest freestanding building in the Southern Hemisphere…"
"I could do some sketches from up there, and so could Wes for that matter; he likes drawing buildings. It does seem a shame to waste the warm, sunny weather, given that it is technically fall here. You are right about Seth, but someone needs to keep us up to date about how he is, okay?" As if in cue, a ping indicated the arrival of a message on Nick's phone, which turned out to be an update from Thad. Jeff hastened for his phone, and switched it back on, and received the same ping. It was a comfort to know that even though they were thousands of miles away on the other side of the world, they had not been forgotten….
Thad's meeting with the Carmichaels had proved a less tearful one that he had expected, at least in public. The moment that he had told them the news, the former Principal had bowed his head, whilst his wife had stood frozen to the spot the moment that he had uttered the word coma, and quickly excused herself when he stopped speaking. Thad had watched as she walked away, wondering what he should do; then her husband had spoken.
"When my young brother-in-law was inflicted by this brutal condition, he remained fully conscious at all times, although I do wonder now if that was altogether a good thing… However, when Jamie fell ill, he lapsed into a coma, and he never emerged from it. My wife sat by our son for over a week, barely leaving his side for more than five minutes, holding his hand the entire time, talking gently to him and praying… Of all of the things that she dreaded when she heard that Seth was stricken, I think that him not having the chance to say his goodbyes was what she dreaded the most; that we do not have the opportunity to bid him farewell properly would devastate her, and indeed, all of us…"
"Ollie is hopeful that he will wake up though."
"Unfortunately, those words were exactly what we were told by the doctors about our son, my dear boy. That he would hear us, and eventually respond to us being there. He did not, and since then, my wife has been rightly sceptical of the promises of the medical profession, even the words of good, kind doctors like your brother." Thad nodded, thinking how much worse the pain of losing their only son had to have been because he just slipped away…
The news spread quickly once Thad had sent out his message, and sent shockwaves through the small group. Ethan made a point on his return home that evening of stopping off to call in on Dex and Lawrence, the former still blaming himself in part for the tragic turn of events. Ethan's insistence that it was nobody's fault seemed to fall on deaf ears, and Lawrence looked at him, pleading for him to do something to stop his big brother spiralling into a depression. To that end, he placed a call directly to Ollie, and the doctor made an exception to his usual rules; he placed a direct Skype call to Dex.
On screen, he set out all of the facts in simple layman's terms, and found a knowledgeable backer in Lawrence. Even as a freshman, the young medical student seemed well versed, and between the two of them, Dex finally listened to what his brother had been saying all along… Ethan had just headed off when the other four young men that lived in the house had returned home, a little earlier than planned, subdued by the news that had come from the street, and anxious about their housemate and friend.
That evening, as Ollie headed for home, Roderick headed with purpose to the room in which Seth now lay, carrying a couple of takeout meals, and two cans of soda. He entered, and took a seat next to Mason, who had arrived in the early afternoon and was keeping vigil for a little while. His intention was to stay with him for a little while, and then coax him out of the room, and back to Jane. He sat in silence as he handed Mason the bag of food, fully prepared to speak out if his best friend failed to eat. However, the food was taken, the bag opened and inspected, and then started upon. Roderick was glad that he could still recall Mason's favourite Chinese dish, and had obtained it from a highly praised restaurant nearby.
"There is a part of me that thinks that I should sit here, 24/7, until he wakes up," began Mason, making Roderick worried, before continuing, "but I don't think Seth would approve of that one bit. He is in the best of hands here, surrounded by medical staff and watched over by the angels. They will ensure that if the worst did happen, he would not pass away alone… Not that he is going to, because if this was the end, they would have told us by now, so Skylar could get here…"
Roderick nodded, but in his heart he wasn't exactly sure that if Seth was indeed slated to die, their angelic friends would be allowed to tell them, however much they might want to…
When Seth was still unconscious on Wednesday night, Mason began to worry more about the future. He had come to sit at his friend's bedside every day, not that he was alone in doing so; most of the other former Warblers had dropped in, chatting away to him as if he was wide awake, as that was what you were supposed to do when someone was in a coma. Dex had been there every day too, still wracked with guilt that he had not been there, and unable to fully accept that he wasn't to blame even in a small way for what had happened. Kitty had made a couple of visits, just sitting with him and holding his hand.
Meanwhile, Ollie had received a call for an update at least twice a day from Skylar in Ohio, whilst Mrs Carmichael had called the department that Seth was located in at a similar frequency; then they had called each other to share the news that there was no change… Julia meanwhile could only watch as her husband became more and more distracted, agitated as his fears for his best friend began to grow. As a result, she knew exactly what her his next step would be long before he knew himself…