Hey all! I'm back!! I know, I know... I left you all waiting for another chapter. BAD AUTHOR!! But as usual, I didn't want to hand you crap, so I needed to wait until I got some inspiration. Well here it goes. Enjoy. ********************
I'm not sure when exactly I fell asleep that night, but my best guess is around 4 am. So naturally, I was still sleeping at around 11:30 the next morning when my phone rang.
"Hello?" I mumbled sleepily.
"Is this Aaron Murphy?" an unfamiliar female voice requested.
"Uh-huh."
"This is Sandra calling from the County Hospital. A friend of yours...Zachary Danko asked me to phone you and ask if you would come."
"What is this about?" I queried.
"I'm sorry, sir, I not allowed to give that information over the phone... hospital rules. Should I tell him you're coming?"
"Yeah, I'll be there as soon as I can."
"OK, he's in room 18 of the ICU," she said before she hung up.
ICU?! I panicked. I threw on the closest shirt and shorts to my bed, and put on sneakers without any socks. That unsympathetic, ungiving voice kept playing in my head as I rushed to get out of the house. "Room 18 of the ICU." What the hell was Zack doing in the ICU?? I rushed down the stairs in desperate search of my keys. Now was not the time for a key hunt, I needed to get there. "Hey sleepyhead," my Dad joked. "Gimme your keys," I demanded. "What's going..." "The hospital just called. Zack's in the ICU. I need to take your car, I don't know where my keys are." My Dad quickly reached into his pocket, retrieved the keys and threw them to me." "I'll call you guys when I find out what's going on," I said as I flew through the door.
I began to tear up as I zoomed down the highway toward the hospital. I couldn't believe that this was happening. I had no idea what was going on, and for all I knew, Zack could be dead by the time I got there. I wasn't quite sure how to feel. I was confused by what was going on, devastated by the idea of possibly losing Zack, and irate at the women on the telephone who wouldn't tell me anything except to come to the hospital. Not to mention, I had just woken up. I'm certain I broke quite a few traffic laws on the way, but after what seemed like an eternity in hell, I finally pulled up in front of the hospital.
I flew through the doors and right past the security desk. I found my way to the ICU, and ran past the desk there as well, only the doors wouldn't open without someone buzzing me in. I ran back to the desk and told the woman that I was here to see Zachary Danko in room 18. "OK young man, what is your name?" I recognized her voice to be that of the same woman I had developed a deep hatred for in the matter of 5 seconds. "Aaron Murphy," I responded hastily. She glanced at a note with my name and telephone number on it, looked back up at me and nodded and said, "Go ahead, but no running, and stay quiet."
I walked into the buzzing doors and the whole way to the end of the hall to the room marked '#18'. I opened the door and saw Zack sitting on a chair next to the bed and his mother doing the same on the other side. He was crying as he looked up to see who had just came in. When he saw that it was me he stood up, came to the doorway and threw his arms around me. "I shouldn't have told them," he whispered in my ear. He started sobbing uncontrollably. "I never should have told them." Instant relief came over me as I realized that it wasn't Zack that was the one being hospitalized. It was his father. Obviously, this wasn't good either, but I had expected worse.
I took Zack out of room 18, to a small sitting room down the hall. I kept my arms around him, rubbing his back in an effort to calm him down. Finally, he got control of himself and started to speak. "They think he had a heartattack. They're not sure yet. We're waiting for the test results," he said as he took a tissue from the end table next to the sofa we were sitting on. "What happened?" I asked softly. "I told them about me. About us," he said. "My dad freaked, and started having a fit. He started breathing funny, then grabbed his chest, and in the matter of a minute he was lying unconscious on the floor. I guess I had it in my head that they might take it as well as your parents did," he blubbered wiping his runny nose.
I wasn't sure what to say to Zack. I wanted to console him and tell him that everything would be alright, but that just wasn't true. He went on, "So we don't know much at this point. The doctor says that it was most likely a heartattack, with all the stress of his job, his unhealthy diet, and this to top it off. He said the next 48 hours are crucial. We should have the results back in about 15 minutes or so." I kissed his salty cheek, and put his head on my shoulder. It was all I could think of to do to make him feel better. When Zack pulled his head off of my shoulder, he saw that there was a tear in my eye too. I told him about the confusion, and that I thought that he was hurt, or worse... dead.
We stayed there crying on each others shoulders for a few minutes, then went back to room 18 to see if the results were back yet. "Any minute now," Zack's mom said as we got back in the room. It was apparent that she had been crying too, but seemed to have composed herself pretty well. "Mom, I'd like you to meet Aaron." She stood up and met me halfway, as I walked toward her. We shook hands and she gave me a little smile. It didn't even seem to hit her that I was Zack's boyfriend. I smiled back, and released my grip on her hand. She sat back down, and I went to the other side of the bed, to stand behind Zack. The room became silent, but it wasn't an uncomfortable silence. We didn't need to say anything, we were all thinking the same thing.
A minute or two of silence had passed when the door swung open, bringing conscious thought back to the three of us. "Mrs. Danko, I'm Dr. Peters, the resident Cardiologist on staff here. Would you like to come to my office, or would you prefer that I give you the results right here?" spoke an attractive middle-aged woman. Zack's mom turned her head towards us, and back at the doctor, and replied softly, "No, it's alright. The boys should know what's going on too." The lab coat-clad woman nodded, and opened a metal clipboard, as she spoke, "Very well. Our tests show that your husband had a moderate coronary. We're going to need to do a double bypass. Without it, his chances are very slim of surviving beyond a year. However, we do need to wait at least until he is conscious to perform the surgery. Are there any questions I can answer for you?" Zack's mom shook her head in response.
With that, the doctor left the room. I thought maybe Zack and his mother needed a few minutes alone, so I said, "I'm going to go get some coffee. Does anybody want anything?" Zack's mom looked up and shook her head no, then mouthed the word, "thanks." I turned to Zack, who said, "Yeah, coffee sounds good."
I was glad to be alone. I needed a few minutes to think as well. So much had happened in just this one weekend, things were happening faster than I could process them. I was beginning to think that a little time away from Zack would be good for me, but at the same time, Zack might need to me to be there for him. I wasn't sure what I was going to do yet. Talking to Zack about it would be best, but I just didn't want him to feel like he couldn't depend on me to be there for him. I loved Zack. I had never felt that way about anybody before. Maybe we were just moving a little too fast.
I returned to the room, two cups of coffee in hand, to find Zack's dad awake. I felt incredibly awkward. I was part of the reason that he was laying there. Zack's mom took the initiative, "Honey, this is Aaron, Zack's friend." I didn't blame her for being so vague as to who I was. I'm sure he'd figured it out, but it would have just added to the intensity of the situation. "Hello Aaron," he said with as much of a smile as he could manage. "Why don't you guys take a walk," Zack's mom suggested, "I need to speak to your father alone."
I guessed that now was as good a time as any to have that talk. Zack and I were both silent as we made our way to the court yard in the rear of the hospital. We found it in gorgous desolation, flowers and trees everywhere, but not a soul in sight. We sat down on a bench beneath a tree. I took Zack by the hand and unsteadily began, "Look. Zack, I would completely understand if you need your space right now. I'm right here for you if you need me, you know that. I was just thinking that maybe having me around would complicate things for now, and I completely respect that, if some time away is what you need." Zack took a deep breath, "I need you right now, more than ever, Aaron. It's going to be awkward for a while, but we were talking while you were gone. The first words my dad said when he woke up were, 'I still love you.'" The expression on Zack's face was mixed, as though he wanted to be happy and assured that his father was going to make it, but he just couldn't be. "We're going to make it, Aaron. All of us, we're going to be OK." I was glad he said that, even if I could tell he wasn't quite sure of it. Somehow it just took a lot of the pressure off.
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