“This is at least a kidnapping charge, right?” Chloe asked Ryder while Jeremy was holding her back from going inside the house.
Jeremy shook his head. “We can’t know that for sure. It’s possible Ethan went into the room on his own. It could simply be unlawful restraint. We won’t know unless Ethan wakes up.”
“What do you mean unless?” Chloe asked, pulling away from Jeremy. “Don’t you mean until?”
“Ethan has told me enough about shock and high fevers to know that it’s possible he won’t…”
“Shut up!” Chloe yelled at him. “Jimmy, tell your husband he talks too much.”
Chloe turned back around and grabbed Wayne’s hand to pull him back toward the car. She was less angry than she was scared though, and Jeremy just sighed before they went over to his car to follow the ambulance. They ended up meeting Carter at the entrance to the ER, where Lily, Dr. Lawson, and Dr. Irving were all waiting for them. Two of them helped the paramedics move the stretcher into the ER, heading straight back into a room.
Dr. Irving looked back at the group for a moment, taking in the sight. “I’ll allow two of you to come back, but you’ll need to stay along the wall and out of our way or I’ll send you back to the waiting room. Make your choice fast.”
Carter looked at the group, noticeably upset. “Mine may not want to be the first face he sees when he wakes up…”
Jeremy looked Carter over critically. Carter looked like hell, and like he hadn’t gotten much sleep since this all started. It wasn’t his place to tell Carter how Ethan felt about him, but he wasn’t sure Carter was thinking straight either. “I don’t know…even when fighting with Jimmy, if something had happened to me, and it did, he was the person I wanted by my side.”
Carter nodded. “I’ll go. My heart’ll break if I don’t, but if he doesn’t want me there I’ll come back out and give one of the others a shot.”
“That leaves either you or Jimmy then,” Chloe said to Jeremy. “I don’t think I can watch them work on him.”
Jeremy put his arm around Jimmy’s waist. “Can you work to calm down Chloe while we deal with stuff in there?”
Jimmy looked sideways at Chloe. “No. But I’ll try to help Wayne do it.”
“That’s fair,” Jeremy replied to him, kissing him on the cheek before him and Carter followed Dr. Irving back to the room.
Dr. Irving had two chairs off to the wall, where he allowed them to stand or sit; he left that up to them. They had multiple nurses in the room now, and they were cutting off Ethan’s clothes while checking his temperature and vitals. They could hear one nurse mention his temperature was too high, around 104.4 degrees, while another nurse said his blood pressure was low. Neither Jeremy nor Carter could make out all of the medical jargon they were calling out to the doctors, but Jeremy knew it wasn’t good.
Lily was busy getting an IV set up in one of his arms. As soon as it was done, she grabbed a bag of saline and got it going.
“He’s in shock,” Dr. Lawson said to Dr. Irving. “And he’s way too hot. He’s likely been unconscious for at least half a day. I hope it hasn’t been longer than that.”
“Cool him down and get him pain medicine,” Dr. Irving ordered. “Once he’s more stable, I want a picc line placed. And get him admitted. A private room.”
“On it,” Dr. Lawson said as he moved around a few of the nurses, giving short and quiet orders to them, which included them getting him some units of blood onto his line to get blood back into him, while Dr. Irving came over to Jeremy and Carter.
“I’m going to be straight with you both,” Dr. Irving said quietly. “It’s possible he might not wake up.”
Carter exchanged a look with Jeremy. His eyes were wide with concern and his face looked like the last three days of not hearing from Ethan had completely destroyed him. He wasn’t in a position to make a brave statement to the doctor refuting the possibility that his boyfriend might not wake up.
Jeremy’s face was completely blank as he took that in. He was a practiced lawyer, so he was good at keeping a neutral face. He had already been preparing himself for that news, but it still hurt. With the way Carter was looking at him though, he didn’t have the ability to break down over it.
“What are his chances?” Jeremy asked.
Dr. Irving considered the question. “That depends on him, honestly. He has to be willing to fight. If he’s decided in his own mind it’s not worth waking up, then he never will. I’ve seen people come back from worse, but they were strong mentally to fight what happened to them physically. We’ll do everything we can, but you’ll need to be there too. You are his power of attorney, aren’t you, Mr. Thayer?”
Jeremy nodded. “Chloe and I are, yes.”
“Then be ready in case you need to make a decision,” Dr. Irving told him before moving back to help them work on Ethan.
Jeremy put his hand on Carter’s shoulder, squeezing it for a moment to try and lend him strength. The nurses were trying to use the colder bags of saline to cool down Ethan’s body, but Lily also gave him a dose of Tylenol to try and bring the fever down. Some of the shaking had started to go down after they gave him medication, and now Ethan just seemed still and pale as they worked.
The two of them eventually sat down as they watched them work. By the time they were ready to move Ethan to a room, they had the picc line in, which was how they were now giving him the antibiotics to try and fight the infection, an oxygen mask on his face, and the IV was still in for more saline and other medication. He was also attached to a blood pressure cuff and monitors for his heart and oxygen rate. Dr. Lawson told them that it looked like Ethan had hurt his ankle at some point, and Chloe said it was probably at the treehouse then. They did x-rays but it wasn’t broken. He had it wrapped up and put in a boot to heal better while he was asleep.
The private room they had given him was a fairly nice one, with chairs and a long couch in one corner by the big window in the room that not only let in light but also had quite the view of the city.
Lily was talking to Ethan when they first came into the room while she put special leg wraps around his legs meant to keep his legs from getting blood clots while they were still. The device would tighten up around his legs and then loosen to try and keep him safe.
“You are a stubborn jackass,” Lily was saying as she got them put in place. “It’s usually something that exasperates me about you, but right now, you need to put it to good use, okay? Because long night shifts are going to suck if you aren’t here, and I refuse to work full moons without your jokes. Besides, what would the kids do without your impromptu dance offs in the peds ward on your breaks? They adore you, and I do too.”
Carter quietly found a seat, not wanting to disturb Lily while she got things off her chest.
Lily turned to look at them. Normally they had rules for how many people could be in the rooms, especially with Covid, but they were making an exception for Ethan. “Let me know if you need anything. Drinks, menus for food, or just one of the doctors, okay?”