Hat Trick 3: Penalty Shot (18 page)

“And, I love you,” I said. “I’ll be here through it all. No matter what.” He awkwardly wrapped his arms around me as best he could. I kissed him on the mouth and then on the forehead.

There was a knock on the door.

“Come in,” we said together.

A guy in vibrant blue scrubs came in with a clipboard and an IV pole with fluid attached. He was followed by a woman, dressed in the same blue, who carried a tray of things that were covered with a towel.

“Mr. Miller,” the guy said, “I’m Nate. I’ll be taking care of your spinal tap for Dr. Bentley. This is Carly, she’ll be helping, too. Mr. Roberts, I’m afraid I have to ask you to step out.”

Alex locked his eyes on mine. Where’s a magic wand when you need one? I wanted so badly to just fix this.

“I’ll be back as soon as you are.”

I got off the bed so they could do their work, but Alex wouldn’t let me go.

“Can he stay a little longer?”

“I’m sorry,” said Nate. “It’s policy.”

“But, he’s my boyfriend. He won’t get in the way.”

“I know,” Nate said, continuing to sound comforting. “I know who you both are. I was at the game tonight and, believe me, I’m a big fan. But, we need to do our work and we can’t do that with visitors.”

I gently pulled out of his grip. “As soon as they’re done this is yours again.” I held up my hand. I leaned over and kissed him.

“I love you,” Alex said.

“I love you, too.”

I grabbed his phone off the bed and his pack from the windowsill. At the door, I blew him another kiss before letting the door close. As soon as it clicked shut, all my energy drained away and I slumped with my back against the wall. Part of it was the stress of what was happening, but part of it was that I hadn’t eaten since before the game. Usually we put away a good amount of food post-game, but two hours after the game I was running on empty.

I gathered my strength and walked down the hall to join everyone in the waiting room. The gathering had grown as a lot of the players had arrived. I plopped down in a chair next to Danny and across from Pete.

“What’s the news?” Danny asked.

“He’s going to get a spinal tap done. They’re prepping him now.”

“Damn, that was fast,” Pete said. “How’s he holding up?”

“He’s scared. No one expected this to happen. In fact it seemed to be getting better.”

“Shit. Not good, dude.”

“No.” I quaked, a combination of lack of food and emotions. “No, it’s not.”

“You okay?” Danny asked. “What can we do for you?”

I heard the a door open down the hall and I craned my head to see Nate and Carly wheel Alex down the hallway, away from us.

Please let him be okay, I said to myself. As soon as I thought it, everything that had been pent up over the past couple hours released.

Danny silently put an arm around my shoulders.

My phone vibrated in my pocket. I quickly pulled it out and saw Leo’s name on the display.

“It’s Leo.” I held the phone out to Hillary. “Can you talk to him please?”

“Of course.” I tossed the phone to her and she answered.

“Hey, Leo, It’s Hillary.”

Hillary knew our friend Leo from this past summer while he was visiting after camp. She could brief him while I was trying to steady myself.

“Yeah, we’re here at the hospital,” Hillary said. “He’s gone for tests and Simon…well…”

“Simon’s freaking out right now,” I said, hopefully loud enough that Leo heard it but not loud enough to irritate the nurses.

“Yeah. He’s only just now freaking, so he’s doing pretty good.”

“What can we do for you?” Mimi asked, sitting on the other side of me. She held my hand while Danny kept his arm around me.

“I need to eat. I haven’t eaten since before the game and I know that’s part of the problem.”

“I’m on that,” Pete said, bouncing up from his seat. “I’ll see what I can find.”

“What else?” Mimi said.

I sighed. “Just make him be okay.”

It was around six in the morning when I stepped out of Alex’s room. He’d been back from the spinal tap for a few hours and I’d been in there ever since. For a while I sat on the bed, then I moved to the chair. Some movement came back into his leg, and a nurse did some tests to see what he could feel, where he felt it and how much he could move it. It was better than not moving, but it certainly wasn’t what it should be either.

I left his phone where he could reach it so he could text me if he woke up. I also scribbled a note to let him know that I was in the corridor just stretching my legs.

The sight in the waiting room was surprising. Everyone was still there, mostly sprawled out in the chairs looking like they were asleep. Usually I’d wonder how they were sleeping like that, but given the positions I sorta slept in while next to Alex, I knew it was possible.

“You okay, Mr. Roberts?” the nurse at the desk near the waiting room asked. I hadn’t seen this nurse before. She was young, couldn’t have been much older than me. She reminded me a lot of Mimi with her petite frame and delicate features.

“Yes, just needed to stretch a bit after being in that chair for a few hours.”

“I suspect some of your friends will be up and around soon doing the same thing. Most of them have been out for a few hours now.”

“Is it okay that they’re here?”

“They’re fine. It’s nice to see you and Mr. Miller have so many friends. I see too many people who never have visitors, much less an army like this.”

“We do have good friends, for sure. Thank you, Ms.” I searched for a nametag.

“Katz. Naomi Katz.”

“Thank you, Ms. Katz,” I said with a tired smile, “for looking out for them.”

Pete and Danny were gone. They must’ve decided to get Pete back to his hotel. Hillary and Mimi were curled up next to each other. Trent looked ridiculously uncomfortable as did several other teammates. I paced around, quietly, stretching my legs and trying not to think too much. There were things I needed to take care of, like getting ready for Alex’s parents who would arrive in a few hours, and making sure someone got to Rainbow High’s practice.

Ms. Katz appeared at my side as I looked out a window. “I thought you’d like to know, Dr. Bentley’s started rounds.”

“Thank you. I’ll get back in there.” She gave me a nod and a smile before quietly retreating back to her post.

It wasn’t far to Alex’s room, but it felt like a hundred miles. I saw Dr. Bentley at the end of the hall consulting with another family. When I entered the room, I found Alex still asleep. The note and the phone hadn’t moved. The heart monitor made its soft beeps and the dim light from the fluorescent bulb over the bed shined down on his head and lit the wall behind the bed.

I put my hand on his and it flexed. His eyes fluttered open and he looked over to me before lightly gripping me.

“What’s up?”

“Doc’s gonna be here soon, making rounds. Thought I’d wake you up before he got here.”

He nodded. I leaned over the bed and gave him a light kiss on the lips, which he responded to. That was good. It meant he wasn’t in a complete funk.

There was a knock on the door. We broke the kiss and I stood up, but we didn’t break our hold.

“Come in,” I called out.

Dr. Bentley and two other lab-coat-dressed people entered.

“Good morning, Alex, Simon. I hope you were able to get some rest.”

“A little,” I said.

“A little’s better than none. This is Dr. Copeland, a student I’m mentoring, and this is Dr. Davis, another member of my practice.” Everyone responded with nods and hellos. “I understand you were able to move your left leg last night.”

“Yes,” Alex said. “It was a strain to do it. Like I was having to think extra hard to make it happen, but it moved. I felt all the pin pricks during the tests too.”

“Yes,” Dr. Bentley said. “I saw that in the chart.”

“That’s good, right?” I asked, trying to keep my eagerness in check.

He bobbed his head around, it wasn’t a yes and it wasn’t a no. It was annoyingly in the middle. “It’s good, but it’s also inconclusive. We’ve got a number of things we’re analyzing right now. I’ve sent the MRI images and spinal tap results over to a colleague at Holtom-Garrett to consult on. I’ve requested he review them first thing this morning.”

“So you don’t know what’s happening?” Alex asked. There was an edge in his voice.

“Neurological issues aren’t like fixing a broken arm, or treating appendicitis. We’re doing everything we can, as fast as we can, to get all the data we need.” Dr. Bentley must’ve heard the shift in Alex’s attitude because he shifted his as well to get his message across.

Alex nodded.

“I appreciate that you don’t like the waiting. I don’t like it either. We’re going to send you in for a full battery of neurological tests today. You’ll be tested on just about everything, from hearing and eyesight, to how your limbs react to stimulus. We’re going to get you some breakfast, food that won’t interfere with the tests, and then get you started.”

“It’s bad, isn’t it?” Alex looked between the doctor and me. The anger in his voice subsided.

“There are likely challenges ahead. No matter what the final diagnosis is, you’ll have some new things to adapt to in order to deal with the damage that we know is present.”

 The superhuman grip Alex had on my hand from last night was back, and I gripped right back so he’d know I was here. It was terrifying news. It confirmed, even more than what was said when the MRI was first discussed, that there was damage.

Alex nodded again. “Let’s get these tests going.”

“Agreed. I’ll be back this afternoon to share what we find. But, remember what I said, it’ll take a couple days to get everything together.”

“So I’m here until, like, Tuesday?”

“At least. We need to get your legs working again, or at least make sure you can get around. I’ll see if we can schedule PT to look at you today, too.”

“I’ve got classes, work, practice. I can’t put everything on hold.”

“You know that stuff will wait.” I was firm with him, hoping none of my unsureness crept in. “And if it’s only until Tuesday, that’s not long at all.” Alex sighed, glared at me, but said nothing. “Thank you, Dr. Bentley. We’ll do our best to be patient.”

The doctor nodded and squeezed Alex’s shoulder again. “If anything changes, everyone knows to call me.”

“Thank you,” I said again as the doctor and his crew left the room, leaving us alone.

The door hardly closed before Alex lashed out. “You’re really fucking calm about all this.”

He was angry, but didn’t release me.

“I’m scared out of my mind.” I kept my voice even, not wanting to make his agitation worse. “We need the doctors on your side though, so we should try not to bite their heads off or have crazy expectations about how fast things can happen.”

He turned and looked out the window, where the sun was coming up. The room faced east based on the way the light was streaming across the nearly cloudless sky.

“Sorry. I shouldn’t be taking it out on you either.” A few tears fell, and I wiped them away. “Did Pete get back okay?”

“Yeah, Danny took care of it. I woke up and walked a bit right before the doctor got here. They were already gone. A lot of the team stayed overnight.”

Alex looked at me. It was an expression I’d never seen before and I didn’t quite know what to make of it. “Are we going to be okay?”

Was he using the royal we, and mostly referring to himself? Was he asking about us, as in our relationship? I took a stab at answering.

“You and I will always be fine. Whatever this is, we deal with it. You’re strong. You’ll crosscheck whatever this is and life will go on.”

The tears dried up just as fast as they started.

“I love you,” he said.

“I love you, too. Always.” I leaned over the bed and kissed him. What started as a simple kiss on the lips, turned into an extended deep kiss. The kiss was urgent, but it was different than a kiss that would lead to sex. It was like he thought he might be kissing me for the last time.

Alex needed to be positive. Patients with positive outlooks always responded better. Granted, this thing was still new, but I planned to keep a close watch in case he stayed in a funk. If that happened, I’d get the right people in here talking to him.

A knock on the door brought the kiss to an end. I felt Alex’s reluctance to let it go. After we said “come in,” an overly smiling woman swept into the room with a tray of food.

“This was cleared by your doctor for you to eat before your tests,” she said, placing the tray on the bedside table with a flourish, and then wheeling it into position so Alex could reach it easily.

She also adjusted the bed so he was sitting up more. You could tell she did this a lot because she moved so quickly while getting things in place. Alex adjusted himself to get comfortable. It was the most he’d moved since he’d gotten back from the spinal tap. I wasn’t sure, but I even thought I saw both legs move more freely under the covers.

“I guess I’m kinda hungry,” he said, looking at the oatmeal and bit of fruit. He let go of my hand and arranged things on the tray.

“Then eat up,” the woman said with a smile. “Y’all have a good morning and God bless you both.” She was gone before either of us could say thank you.

“I’m not surprised you’re hungry. No food since pre-game last night.”

He nodded as he started to chow down. Some things never changed. This Alex I knew well.

It felt like Alex was gone forever for the tests. I was in the waiting area so I wouldn’t go crazy in his room. The crowd had changed up a bit in the daylight hours. Danny and Trent went with Hillary to run the Rainbow High practice, but there were still plenty of teammates here keeping tabs on the situation.

“So you’re going forward with the hockey theme for your project?” I asked Mimi. It was great talking about what she was up to rather than anything that was happening in the hospital.

“Totally. The video we captured was cool. Have you ever watched game playback in slow motion? It’s pretty great. The impact of a hit, the way people fall?” I shook my head. “I’ll have to show you sometime. I’m using your footage, plus looking at other hockey footage online, too.”