The aftermath
I woke up from a nap surrounded by the rest of my family, all of them crying profoundly in each other's arms. The only ones not present were the ones who spent the night in here. When I faintly whimpered for Monica she gasped and the others looked to me in shock.
"Oh thank god", she says, bursting into tears on my shoulder. I try to contain it, but she hears the whimper of ache and pain in my throat and she's back to crying on Katia, who looks totally stripped of sleep. Jenny stands by Aiden with a long face as he tries to contain himself. Despite totally accepting his feminine qualities, he absolutely acts like a man with sadness. If present, it's beaten down until it's out of sight. This is a losing battle for him.
I'm taken out of my trace on his red face when he looks up and a doctor appears. This doctor is middle-aged and in a professional state. When he sees me looking back at him he smiles weakly. "Hello Miss Foster, I'm Doctor Holland and I have been assigned to your case, or was. I'm only here to announce that you are being discharged".
"What about my friends"?
"I am not a part of your friends cases, but your friends are aware of last nights' occurrences. I figured it would be best to hear from those you care for rather than me" he states, looking at the clipboard in his hand, "now, for you to get out of here, a buddy needs to sign this for you. When you get out of here, do nothing. No brain activity, no electronics, not even a coloring book. Sleep, eat, do whatever a brainless person could do. That is how to heal brain injuries best. Visit doctors periodically to determine progress. That is all, it's been a pleasure. Good luck Miss Foster". Then Doctor Holland is gone as soon as he arrived.
I look to my friends, now all standing in a row at the foot of my bed. "So", I poke, "what's going on".
"What do you want to hear first?" Katia asks gently.
"How is Demi?"
"Concussion, a bad one. The glass is out of her, not too many stitches were needed but she's really sore. Demi is also conscious, which the doctors said was a miracle, but all she calls for is you and painkillers", Katia replies.
"What about everyone else?"
"We don't know much about Dylan, they've been doing a whole lot of tests. They think they found something beyond the accident. He's got two cracked ribs, a bruised lung, a fractured arm and head trauma. All on the right side. They say he will most likely be ok when he gets out of here", Monica says.
I nod, and wait for more that never comes. "And Nate?". The room falls silent. The buzzing of the lights are a white noise as heads go down and tears fall.
Only Aiden stays with his head up. The mention of Nate seems to enrage him. His fists clench like is jaw as silent tears fall freely. The silent ones are always the most painful, I find. "Nathan is dead. He died during surgery while trying to get the metal bar out of his intestines. He bled out after about half an hour through the surgery. He wouldn't have made it even if nothing had gone through him. A weight hit him hard enough in the head that caused his brain to bleed, but the doctors didn't know until later, after he died. He didn't speak coherently to tell them something else was wrong." Aiden was vibrating as his voice went unusually low and tense as he went on and and Jenny too his hand to squeeze. "He's gone, Natalie. Nate isn't coming out of here. He isn't going home". His voice weakened as he hunched over, heart wrenching cries were overwhelming with pain and sorrow as he let it out. Aiden no longer cared about being manly, he wanted his friend back. He wanted to see a sense that that calming presence would remain, but it won't.
We will never know what he wanted to say but never did. We wouldn't know his final words. No heroic end. No glorious way of saving the day. Nathan Paul Everett died with a hunk of used junk sticking him like he was a marshmallow. I never thought I'd miss the awkward pats on the back, but I will. I'll miss Swing and all his ways. I started to cry too, with Aiden. I stood and walked with my machine to him and hugged his hunched back. My stomach hurt from how heavy they were, round after round. Every minute without him was another stab to the chest.
Demi was also discharged today it turns out, because she's in the waiting room with her eyes closed as she leans her head on her palms. I shouldn't, but when I see her I run, shouting her name through the hallways to be caught in a tight and secure hug at the end. She cries, I burst into tears.
"Nate died". She he'd me tighter and cried harder, and for a few minutes that's all we did. Then we sat in a row, Aiden was on the end with me, Demi on my other side. There was a log period of time where the only movement was an itch, just constantly going through old memories and current feelings. "He didn't deserve to die".
"No one deserves to die", Demi says, looking down.
"The good die young", Katia nods.
"Then he shouldn't have died like this. He hadn't even been giving the chance to find himself alive, how is he gonna find it dead, there's nothing to find. The most decent of people die in the least sparing ways". I hunched over and cried again, and Demi's slender hand rubs my back as she whispers reassuring thoughts into my ear until we're called into Dylan's quarters.
Walking down the hallway, none of us were sure what to expect, so most assumed the worst. When we got into his room, he was bandaged on his right side as a doctor say on his left to give him better view.
"Hello, I'm Doctor Quincy. You must be the 'family' Dylan was telling me about", the Doctor say, standing and shaking our hands. "Im sure you've heard about is physical injuries. The brain tests are still being developed. Other issues however, I'm going go cut right to the chase, Mr Gordon here contracted human immunodeficiency virus a few months ago, which is reasonably late in its progression in this stage. Currently, we are unsure of where to turn."
"What does that mean?" Monica asks.
Dylan looks at her and smiles weakly, looking over at all of us and stops at me, signing.
"I have HIV, and I will most likely get AIDS before it can be stopped".
The worst one possible one. The incurable disease is within him. We don't know how or when, but like Nate, he will be dead too.
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Hate me all you want. I'm sorry