First, Best and Always
I'm All He Has
Chapter 41 I’m All He has
Duke University hospital was bustling, there always seemed to be someone going or coming. Chris sat there beside his brother watching the door intently, watching for any sign of Raven. Snoop was stable for the moment, but the doctors had already told Chris that they were really concerned about Craig’s kidneys. Craig was still unconscious, he hadn’t come to since he was brought in and Chris was beyond distraught. He’d been out well beyond the time of the surgery on his leg, he should have awakened by now, and the doctors were giving off an aura that Chris didn’t like. He wondered if they were being straight with him, if they were telling him everything. Legally Raven was their guardian, but they were both 18 now and he felt like they ought to be telling him everything, he could sense that they weren’t. He looked now to his brother,
“Until she gets here I’m all he’s got,” defiant now he rang for the nurse.
“Somebody’s gonna tell me somethin’ or I’m gonna raise hell like they’ve never seen.”
As Vin hung up the phone he braced himself for what he knew he had to say to Raven. He’d just spoken to Craig’s doctor, and it wasn’t good. His arm, leg and pelvis were injuries that had been immediately addressed, and although the leg had been in really bad shape they’d managed to save it and felt that, as they put it, ‘barring any further complications’, it would heal nicely. However, they’d had to remove his spleen and there had been considerable blood loss before and after they got to him. But even that wasn’t what concerned them. It was his kidneys and the head injury. He’d been unconscious too long, and they were monitoring a buildup of fluid around his brain. In the shape he was in, if they had to go in to correct it…they didn’t hold out much hope for his survival.
He sat blinking back the tears, ‘He can’t die,” he said to himself, “He can’t, he’s just a kid for Christ’s sake, he has his whole life in front of him….” He thought now of his earlier confrontation with Eric.
“Well now,” he thought, “It looks like the shoe really is on the other foot.” “I can’t tell her this, not after everything she’s been through already today, I can’t.” “He’s right, if I tell her it’ll push her over the edge, I’ll just have to keep my mouth shut and pray she forgives me for it later.”
Craig Scott lay still on the bed, he couldn’t see. “Where am I he wondered, and why can’t I open my eyes?” He could hear all kinds of sounds around him, lots of people, people he didn’t know, and he could hear Chris, he was saying something about “Just hang in there Snoop, she’s coming, and Vin will be here, did you hear me Snoop?” “Popi’s coming and everything will be all right, you’ll see,…”
“What’s he talking about?” Craig thought, “What will be alright?” “Why would Vin be coming here?” “Where is ‘here’ anyway?”
“Oh,” he jerked back mentally, “What was that touching his hand?” “Is that…Chris?” Panic was starting to take over, “Why can’t I see him…why can’t I open my eyes.” “Chris!” he tried to call out, but his mouth wouldn’t move…