Finding Jaime

Chapter 48

Pete POV

"Jaime! You're cheating!" Saint shouted. 

"How?" Jaime said. "I... didn't do... anything!" 

His speech was still slow, and he was working on that with a speech therapist. He had physical therapy every day, and a tutor three days a week to help him keep up at school.  The family had fallen into a routine where Meagan and Marvel visited in the mornings, sometimes while Jaime was working with the speech therapist.  Marvel was enthralled with Jaime's speech therapy and sometimes would repeat his exercises. 

Meagan and Marvel would go home, have lunch, wait for the boys to come home from school, and then go back to the hospital where they would have dinner with Jaime, the boys would do their homework, and then sometimes play on Jaime's X-Box, which I had brought from home.

Jaime was on the rehabilitation medicine floor.  He'd been here for two weeks already, and was improving by leaps and bounds. He'd been taken off the ventilator two days after the first unsuccessful attempt.  Once he was stable off of that, he had an x-ray of his broken leg, which had healed while he'd been unconscious.  The bone had healed and Jaime was able to start physiotherapy. He was frustrated easily when he couldn't just get up and walk, but he worked hard. 

And tonight, like any other night,  the family was gathered in Jaime's room, Jaime and Saint playing some car racing video game together. 

"I don't know, you cheated though!"

"No I... didn't," Jaime insisted. 

"Boys..." I warned. 

They both stuck their tongues out at me, but went back to their game. 

"Jaime, your tutor texted, she's going to be an hour late tomorrow, okay?" Meagan said.

"Oh... darn. I'm... so... s-s-s... ups-set," Jaime stuttered and smirked.

"I bet you are," I joked back. 

Marvel was sitting across from Jaime, at his tray table, drawing pictures and colouring. Every once in a while, she would look up at Jaime, who was concentrating on the game he was playing, and smile. I loved watching that. Marvel was in love with her big brother, and I think I can safely say, the feeling is mutual. Jaime seemed to work harder when Marvel was around. 

The physio and occupational therapists had suggested the video games to help Jaime with his hand-eye coordination. It was helping. But no one knew how much Jaime would get back, or if he would get everything back. 

I could often see the frustration in Jaime's eyes. There was so much he knew he used to be able to do - like walk unassisted - that he couldn't right now. I watched as he tried to push himself harder than maybe he should. 

One thing I'd noticed was that not one of Jaime's so-called 'friends' had come to visit him since he'd been in the hospital.  I had called the school and told them what had happened. I'd let them know where Jaime was and a couple of his teachers had come by and visited. Both while he was in a coma, and after he'd woken up. In fact, a couple of times, his teachers had come and gone over the work the tutor had brought. But not one of his friends had been to visit. I contemplated asking him about it, but I didn't want to do anything that might derail his healing. I wanted him to concentrate on getting better.

"Wanna play again?" Saint asked Jaime. Jaime lay back on his pillow.

"S-s-sorry, S-s-s-aint," Jaime stuttered, frowning in frustration. "I-I'm ... t-t-t-t sleepy."

"That's okay," Saint said. "Do you mind if I play solo?"

Jaime shook his head. He seemed to enjoy having his family around. He seemed to finally see that he's a part of this family. 

Jaime lay back and looked up at the ceiling. He looked content. 

"Doing alright, son?" I asked him. 

He nodded. 

"Got something on your mind?" I asked 

"No... not... r-really," he said. 

"Jaime! Look! I drawed you another picture!" Marvel said. Jaime's eyes moved to Marvel's drawing. His eyes smiled before his lips did, but he smiled. 

"I...l-love it... M-M-Marvel," Jaime said. 

"Okay, boys, Marvel, it's time to go home," Meagan said, gathering up a few things. "Jaime needs his rest, and Marvel needs to go to bed, and you two still have school tomorrow."

The kids grumbled some, but they knew the routine. They all said good night to Jaime, who fist bumped or hugged him, as they do. Meagan gave him a kiss on the forehead as she said goodnight, and herded the kids out. I walked out with them, letting Jaime know I'd be back in a few minutes after I helped Meagan get the kids in the car. This was part of the nightly routine. 

"He's doing so much better," Meagan said to me as I lifted Marvel into her car seat. 

"He is," I agreed. "He really is. I just hope we're not being overly optimistic. I don't want to push him, but I want to see him heal, more or less, back to the way he was before this."

"Pete, that's not fair. You know we don't know, that the doctors don't know, what the final outcome will be."

"I know. And we'll deal with whatever it is when we know," I said. "If he never walks unassisted again, so be it. If he's always got a stutter, so be it. If he has developmental issues, then we'll get him tutors, we'll get him resources. We'll do what we have to do to get him the right treatments and resources. He's my son. And I think he finally realizes it."

Meagan smiled, gave me a kiss and said good night. 

"I'll bring you some more clothes tomorrow," she said, got in the car and drove away. I waved at the car as they drove off. 

Back up in Jaime's room, I saw he'd fallen asleep. Because I'm paranoid, I double checked he was breathing, then turned on the TV and watched some baseball. 

I eventually fell asleep myself, and was woken in the morning by Jaime's nurse. 

"Oh, good morning, Mr. Wentz. Jaime and I were just discussing breakfast options," Jaime's nurse Karen, said. 

"She... said... there's only... o-o-oat...meal," Jaime said. "I-I-I hate... o-o-oatmeal."

"Bring him the oatmeal," I sighed.  Jaime frowned at me. The nurse left the room. 

"D-d-dad!" Jaime frowned at me. "I-I-I won't e-e-at it!" 

Jaime hadn't paused once in that last sentence. 

"You don't have to. If that's what's for breakfast, that's what's for breakfast. I'll get Meagan to bring you something better than oatmeal. What do you want? Want a McDonald's sandwich? If the bagel or English muffin is too hard for you to chew, you can eat the egg."

"Could, C-could she bring... Froot Loops?" Jaime asked. "And n-normal milk?"

I smiled. The hospital kept giving Jaime 1% milk and he preferred 2%. A small thing, but easy to accommodate.

"Sure," I smiled and texted Meagan to bring a container of Froot Loops and a cup of milk for Jaime.

"D-dad?" Jaime said. 

"Yeah, son?"

"D-do you think...I'll g-get better?"

"Well, Jaime," I said to him. "I'm going to be honest with you, okay?"

"I would hope... y-you all-always ... w-were," he frowned. 

"Well, fair. So, I don't know. But, what I can tell you is that you are definitely getting better. You're not hesitating as much when you talk, you're stuttering a bit less. I think, maybe, you'll get pretty much all the way better. And if you don't, we'll take what comes and deal with it then, okay?"

"O-okay," Jaime smiled.