Jamie's eyelids were unbelievably heavy, and his body was dead weight, he noticed, as the light against his eyelids got brighter and the sound around him became less muffled. There were two male voices and a female voice in the room conversing with one another. He couldn't make out any words, and the voices were still too muffled for him to tell who was who. As the light continued to get brighter, he squinted his eyes slightly, trying to force them open. As soon as he was able to get his eyes opened, they slammed shut in reaction to the bright lights above him that sent a sharp pain through his head and down his spine, forcing a strained groan out of his throat.
"Jamie," one of the male voices called his name. The female voice announced that she was going to get the doctor. The same male voice got closer and repeated his name much clearer than before. "Jamie, can you hear me?"
Finally, after fighting the headache the light was giving him, Jamie forced his eyes open and turned his head to look at the person who was speaking to him. His vision cleared and he could finally see who it was--it was his dad.
Jamie looked around the room, seeing his grandfather leaning forward in his chair at the foot of his bed, and Eddie speeding back into the room with two nurses following close behind her. The redhead told the blonde one to go get the doctor as well as Linda.
"Hi Jamie," the woman greeted, walking up to Jamie's right by the bed. "I'm Nurse Langston. Do you know where you are?"
"No," Jamie tried to speak but it came out in a hoarse whisper.
"You're at St. Victor's," she informed him, noticing the confusion and anxiety written on his face. "Do you remember what happened?"
There were flashes in his mind, images of a chase, the sound of loud popping, and pain coursing through his body as he hit the ground.
"Jamie," she said his name again, snapping him back to the present. "You remember what happened?"
He had a pretty good idea, but he wasn't entirely sure, so he shook his head. She nodded and answered, "You were shot. You've been in the hospital for a week."
The confusion was obvious on Jamie's face while he tried to piece together what had happened with what the nurse was telling him. Nurse Langston turned her head toward the door at the sound of someone else entering the room. It was Dr. Jefferson.
"Well would you look at that," he said with a warm smile at the sight of his patient awake and--seemingly--alert. "Welcome back to the land of the living, Jamie. My name is Dr. Jefferson. How are you feeling?"
"My head hurts," he whispered, unable to get his voice to work.
"Your head hurts," Dr. Jefferson asked for clarification, and Jamie nodded, glancing over the doctor's shoulder as Linda entered the room. "Alright, son. I'm gonna shine this light in your eyes, okay?"
Dr. Jefferson shone the light in Jamie's eyes, stepping back after a minute and putting his penlight back in his shirt pocket. "It appears that you got a mild concussion, Jamie. As of right now, there's nothing we can give you for the headache. Aspirin or Ibuprofen are all we can give you, but we're gonna have to wait a few hours before we can administer those. In the meantime, we can shut these blinds and dim the lights, alright?"
Jamie nodded slightly, wincing from the pain at the base of his skull. Dr. Jefferson moved to the foot of the bed and pulled the end of the blanket up, exposing his feet. "Jamie, I'm gonna rub me finger against the bottom of your foot. You let me know if you feel anything, okay?"
Jamie nodded again, saying with a hoarse voice that was now above a little louder than a whisper. "I gotta warn you, doc. I'm ticklish."
Amusement filled the room, and relief settled in when Jamie pulled each foot away. Paralysis wasn't something they were going to have to worry about.
After a few other small tests and asking Jamie the level of pain he was feeling on a scale from one to ten, Dr. Jefferson left the room in order to let Jamie spend time with his family.
