Adopted

Chapter 47

Brendon's POV

"Zack, go faster," I pleaded.

"B, I'm not an ambulance or a cop car. I don't have lights and sirens. I'm going as fast as I legally can," he said, swerving around a car.

Sarah took my hand. I could see the fear in her eyes, too. What did Pete mean that they don't know if she'll wake up?

Kala, who is usually full of positive affirmations and chatter was silent. I appreciated that at this point. I love Kala, but if I had to hear 'let's just think positively' one more time, I might snap.

Zack pulled into the drop off zone at the front of the hospital and Sarah and I were out of the car before he'd come to a full stop. Both of us ran at full speed to the elevator.

"Come on, come on," I said, looking for the stairs. If the elevator was going to take so fucking long I'd run up there.

I heard the elevator doors ding and jumped on. I pressed the button for Jessie's floor over and over.

"B, give it a second,".

She took my hand.

After what felt like an hour, the doors opened to the PICU and we ran down the hallway towards Jessie's room.

"Mr and Mrs Urie?" A nurse stopped us. My heart sank.

"Yes?" Sarah said.

"I'll let the doctor know you're here. He'll want to come and talk to you."

"Can we go see our daughter?"

"Of course. I just wanted to let you know to expect the doctor,"

I turned away and ran into Jess's room. Pete was sitting on her bed holding her hand and talking to her. Josh and Patrick were sitting in the chairs. They got up as soon as we came in. Pete moved away from Jess and came over and gave me a hug.

"She's gonna be okay, man. I know it," he said.

"What happened though?" I asked.

"The doctor will probably explain it better when he comes but the nurse told us her brain is still swelling and that might have triggered the seizure. They're not sure if there's damage they didn't see on the CT and they're not sure if she's in a deeper coma."

"Fuck!" I shouted. "I am going to fuck those kids and their families up their great-grandchildren will still be paying for this."

I sat on Jessica's bed and took her hand.

"I'm here, love. It's Dad. I'm here. I came home for you,"

"Jess, sweetie?" Sarah said. "I brought Mr. Bunny. He really missed you."

She placed the stuffed animal in the crook of Jessie's arm.

Pete, Josh, and Patrick stayed with us for a couple of hours. Zack and Kala came in after they'd parked the car. Kala brought the cooler in and Zack handed me the speaker I'd grabbed from my studio. I plugged my phone in and chose one of Jessie's Spotify playlists from our family account.

Stressed Out started up.

"Your kid has good taste," Josh said. I turned the music up enough that the beeping of her machines was mostly drowned out, but not too loud that the nurses would get mad.

I'm not sure how long it was before the doctor wound up rolling in.

"Mr. and Mrs. Urie?" He asked.

"That's us," I said, indicating Sarah and myself.

"Hi. I'm Doctor Smith. I've been treating your daughter."

"I wish I could say it's nice to meet you," I said. "But I'd really rather we hadn't had to this way."

"Totally understandable, believe me. My daughter is a huge fan of yours and I would rather have met you another way as well."

"What can you tell us about Jessica? What about the seizure?" Sarah interjected.

"Well, the swelling on Jessica's brain has not come down yet. But, it hasn't actually gotten worse. It's sort of stabilized. What we're not sure of is what triggered the seizure or if the seizure, or its cause, may have caused more damage. We're going to need to do an MRI, which I have booked for first thing in the morning. If there's more bleeding or some sort of structural damage we didn't see when she came here, it could mean that her coma is deeper than what we put her in. We won't know until we have the MRI results and we try waking her up. And I'm not comfortable doing that until the swelling starts coming down," he said.

"But what did the CT scan show?" I asked. "Anything besides what you've told us?"

"As I said, I really need that MRI but from the CT scan, there's some bruising on her brain. It's likely because she was kicked in the head. The bleed on her brain has definitely stopped, at least on the outer portions and that blood is being absorbed. I am fairly certain we should see the swelling come down in the next day or so. When that happens we'll have a better idea of what course of action to consider."

"Do you think she'll have brain damage after this?"

"I really don't know until we can start waking her up and seeing how she responds," he said.

We thanked him and he left the room. The nurse came in, checked a few things, and told Jessica she was doing great. I liked that her nurse talked to her as well.

I smiled at the nurse.

"I always talk to my patients, in case they can hear me," she explained. "And Jess is really doing fine. She'll get through this."

"Thank you. I hope so. We hope so,"

She left.

Zack and Kala said their goodbyes and went home to tend to our dogs and get some sleep.

Sarah and I settled in for a long night with our daughter.