Season 4

Chapter 43

"He's okay!" The doctor exclaimed, relieved, to Sam and Johnny. They both let out massive sighs of relief and they put their heads in their hands. They had just watched Miguel die right in front of them. His heart had stopped beating for more than a minute. But now, his heart was beating again and he was resting peacefully in the bed. "He's resting now. He's not in a coma. He's just sleeping. He should be awake soon."

"Thank God." Sam murmured, wiping tears away from her face.

"Jesus Christ you scared us, kid." Johnny exclaimed to the sleeping Miguel, before turning to Sam. "I'm gonna go call his mom."

HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Miguel awoke in a white room. Well, it was actually just big, concrete bricks painted white. He felt strange; sluggish and slow and dizzy and everything else. He blinked a couple of times to try and clear some of the haze out of his eyes, then slowly turned his head to the side to see where exactly he was. For some reason, his brain wasn't acting as quickly as it normally did. Was anyone else here with him?

"Oh my god! You're awake!" A pleasant female voice came from just below where he was looking. He lifted his head up slightly and saw an elderly lady furiously writing something on a clipboard chart.

"Am I dead?" He asked without preamble. If he was, he was definitely going to suggest a much more pleasant welcome into the afterlife; a bed in a white concrete room wasn't cutting it for him, and he was usually pretty relaxed about that kind of stuff.

The elderly lady laughed a bit, which highlighted the laugh lines along her face, and then shook her head. "You're in the West Valley General Hospital. You came close, I'm not going to lie."

"How did I get here?" Miguel groaned and let his head fall back into the pillow behind him, a touch of nausea coming to him as his temples flared in pain when he shifted himself. "Fuck, this hurts."

The nurse shook her head and retrieved a needle from the table beside him. "Language, my young friend. Never a need for that word."

Miguel grumbled and swore inside his mind. The nurse had complete control over his well-being, though, so he kept his thoughts to himself.

He watched as she approached with the needle, but then (much to his relief) she suddenly turned towards his I.V. and used that line for the injection. "Let's see if Demerol can take care of your discomfort, shall we?"

Miguel nodded a bit, then settled back down and anxiously waited for the painkiller to work. He had been given Demerol when he had injured his back and it had worked wonders for him. He felt the drug quickly work through his body and make him feel extremely tired in the process. The nurse then walked out and into the waiting room, where Johnny, Carmen, Sam and Robby were waiting. They all jumped to their feet when the doctor walked in.

"Is he okay?" Carmen asked immediately, concerned. The doctor nodded.

"He just woke up now actually. He's obviously feeling dizzy, nausea and pain from his injury - that's completely normal."

"Can we see him now?" Johnny asked. The doctor nodded.

"Yeah, sure. As you know, we had to perform a craniectomy, which is an extremely high risk surgery with almost a third mortality rate but he seemed to pull through okay. The swelling in his brain went down so that's great. Please follow me and please keep your tones calm and soft when speaking to him. There's always a small chance of amnesia and we don't want to aggravate his brain in its current state."

"Wait... he could have forgotten about us?" Sam asked, suddenly extremely frightened. The doctor smiled kindly at her.

"It's a very unlikely chance, and even if he does have amnesia, it's most likely temporary. He'll be up and about in no time." The doctor replied.