Nurse Jaycee Langston came in around six in the morning to check Jamie's vitals, noticing the empty room. She expected to see the officer's dad or grandfather, or any of his siblings who had been in to visit over the past five days, so it caught her off guard to walk into the room with just her patient.
"Good morning, Jamie," the redhead said as she walked up to the monitor and took down Jamie's vitals. "It's Nurse Langston. Today is Friday, November 12. It's supposed to be chilly and overcast again today, so consider yourself lucky to be in a building with heat. I know I'm glad to be in here and not out there, like my sister. She's a paramedic, so she does the prehospital care, and she's always complaining about how hot or cold it can get. The only time she doesn't is during those two weeks during the fall where it's in the upper fifties and lower sixties." She paused as she looked over the recording of his vitals from overnight and smiled. "Your vitals are looking good, Jamie."
"Do you always talk to your unconscious patients," someone asked from behind her, startling her. She jumped and turned around quickly, facing the older brother of her patient, Danny. He held his hands up. "Sorry. Didn't mean to startle you."
Jaycee placed her hand over her heart and let out a nervous chuckle as she tried to calm herself down. "You're good. I just didn't hear you come in."
Danny smirked and nodded. "Yeah, my wife tells me she's gonna put bells in all my shirts so she can hear me coming."
Nurse Langston chuckled, looking back to where she left off in Jamie's chart, answering Danny's question. "Yeah, I do. It keeps me sane working in an environment like this. Plus, I figure, what's the harm?"
Danny looked at his brother and frowned slightly. "Do you think he can hear you?"
Nurse Langston shrugged. "I'm not sure. There are reports from those who have woken up from comas or sedation after surgery who claim they heard what was being said in the OR or in their hospital room before they woke up. There are some studies that may indicate activity in the auditory cortex when patients are unconscious, but there isn't really a way to prove it just yet. Right now, it's all speculation. I also, a few years ago, had a patient--a teenager--who spent a week in a coma after a car accident. It took us a while to contact his parents, because it took a while to ID him, but I used to talk to him all the time. I'd tell him stories about my family, talk to him about shows I was watching or books I was reading. When he woke up, I introduced myself, but he told me that he already knew. He repeated some of the stories I told back to me."
Danny was surprised, though he wasn't sure if he believed what she was telling him. She could tell, but just brushed it off. She wasn't too concerned with whether he believed her or not. She knew it was true and that was enough.
"Anyway, I also figure, if Jamie can hear, that keeping track of the days might be helpful," she continued. She looked between the brothers for a moment and stepped away from the monitor. "I'll leave you to be with your brother."
Danny thanked her as she walked out of the door, looking back at Jamie. He wasn't as pale or sickly looking as he had been when he first came out of surgery, and Danny was relieved to no longer have to hear the sound of the ventilator breathing for his brother. Now, he just needed him to wake up.
"C'mon, sleeping beauty," Danny said, walking up to Jamie's bed and looking down at him. "You can't rest forever. Doc says you're gonna be fine, but I'm gonna need you to actually be fine so I can continue to bully you on the job."
Danny cleared his throat to get rid of the lump forming in it and scratched the back of his head. "Don't go anywhere, Jamie. I mean it."
The sound of Danny's phone ring cut through the room, and he grumbled as he pulled it out. It was Baez. "Yeah?"
"Sarge and I got the location of our drug dealer," she told him. "You wanna come with us?"
"Yeah. Send me the address and I'll meet you there," he told her, hanging up the phone and looking back at his kid brother. "I gotta go, Jamie. Don't go anywhere."
With that, Danny turned around and raced out of the room, leaving Jamie alone in his room once again. It would be another hour before Linda would arrive at work with Henry, briefly checking in on Jamie before she clocked in for work and leaving Henry to stay with his grandson. Henry spent the morning telling story after story dating from his childhood all the way to present day.
Around noon, Eddie stopped by. She was back on patrol, riding with Sergeant Renzulli until either Jamie could come back to work, or she got a new partner. They were having a relatively quiet day over the radio and decided to stop by and see how Jamie was doing. She knocked on the door as she entered, gaining Henry's attention. He looked up at her and smiled, pushing himself out of his seat as she and Sergeant Renzulli walked in.
"Well, good afternoon to the two of you," Henry greeted with a cheerful tone. "I gotta say, I doubt there's any more excitement in this room than there is out there."
Sergeant Renzulli scoffed. "You're not supposed to say that, Commissioner. I thought you knew better than that."
Henry chuckled, sarcastically raising his hands. "My apologies. Wouldn't want you to get your money's worth."
The three of them exchanged small laughs. Sergeant Renzulli looked over at Jamie and frowned. "So, how's he doing?"
Henry looked at his grandson with a sad smile. "Well, he's breathing on his own, and the nurse says his vitals look good. She said some other things I didn't understand, so don't ask me to repeat it. Doc says he should make a full recovery."
"Good," Sergeant Renzulli said. "Because the kid is a pain in my ass but I need in my precinct. Don't think he can get away from me so easily."
"Believe me, Sergeant," Henry replied. "It's gonna take more than a couple bullets to take Jamie out."
