An Illicit Gentleman II

                                              Chapter-Forty

            AJ sat on the chair beside Eve’s bed, his head resting on his hand as he leaned on the mattress.  He held her hand and gently skimmed his thumb along the back.  She lied awake now staring at the ceiling, every once in a while her eyes would drift over to the window or to him and then she would look back up.  They both waited patiently for the Doctor to let them know the results of the MRI.  AJ looked down at the notepad remembering when the nurse had brought it in, he wrote Hi and smiled at her but she grabbed it out of his hands and threw it to the floor and that was the end of using the notepad.  So now they sat here in silence waiting. 

            The door opened and the Doctor walked in, he had a large envelope in his hand and he walked right over to the white board on the wall.  He flicked a switch and the back of the board lit up.  He then opened the envelope and stuck two X-ray like pictures up against it.

“This is a MRI of Evelyn’s brain, from the right side and the left side.” The Doctor said as he pointed to each picture.  “This is her ear; this is her ear drum, this is the Cochlea.  This space right here and here is where the Auditory Nerve is supposed to be attached to the Cochlea; basically it’s the part that translates the sounds so the brain can understand them.  The head trauma she suffered caused the string like nerves to detach, we’re still not sure how much damage has been done, there’s still some swelling.”

“Can it be fixed, like with surgery or something?” AJ asked.

“Well, it can be but to be honest the chance it would work is still pretty fifty fifty, not to mention we don’t know how badly damaged the Nerves are and the risk of going in and having something happen is pretty high.” The Doctor told him. 

“Than it’s permanent?” AJ asked.

“We’re not one hundred percent sure yet, we’ll take another MRI in a few days, when more of the swelling goes down learn more about the damage that’s been done but Evelyn can still live a normal life. You’ll both have to learn how to sign and we’ll get her into therapy, where she can learn to read lips and to pick up on her other senses.” The Doctor told him.

“Ok” AJ said not really knowing what to say, like doing all of that would make it better.  He didn’t want to look at Eve, she would read his face and know something was wrong.  AJ looked up as the Doctor walked over to her beside across from him and handed her a piece of paper.  He looked at her as her eyes skimmed from left to right and then her hand started to shake.  She looked over at AJ the tears already forming in both their eyes.  The Doctor began to write something down on the notepad, when he turned it around AJ read it.

“You can still have a very normal life, with a little time and some work, things will be fine.” He said before he turned to look at AJ.  “I’ll get the nurse to bring in some information and a hearing therapist will be in to see her.”

“Ok” AJ nodded his body had gone numb.

The Doctor left the room and AJ looked over to Eve when he heard something slam against the steel roll bar.  She was crying her hand rested on her forehead.  He stood up and leaned over her, her eyes darted to him.  “Relax.” He said slowly hoping she would understand and by the pissed off look she shot him, she understood just fine.  He wanted to tell her she needed to relax and not throw herself into a Panic Attack but what good would it do, if she even understood what he said how could he ask her to be relaxed after finding out what they had. 

Evelyn started to cry harder and AJ took her hands.  “Eve calm down.” He told her but it did no good, her face was going red from crying so hard and now she started choking on the ventilator.  Her hands reached up to grab the plastic tube but he stopped her, not wanting her to rip it out.  Then beeps and buzzes started going off and within a flash the nurses came running in.

“What happened?” One nurse asked.

“She just started freaking out, I…I think she’s having a Panic Attack.” AJ said scared and unsure.  The Nurse ushered him out of the room but he didn’t stop looking at Eve until the door closed and she disappeared behind it.

“Alex?” He heard from down the hall and he turned his head to see Kevin and Kristin walking down the hall towards him.  “What’s going on?”

“The Doctor told us that the hearing loss is most likely permanent.” AJ told them as he looked back at the door.  “She’s upset, went into a Panic Attack I think.”

“Alex.” Kevin said sadly.

“Doctor says everything will be fine but how can it be fine, she can’t hear.” AJ said looking at his friend. 

“What about surgery?” Kristin asked.

“Not worth the risk and probably won’t fix it.” AJ told her.  “I don’t know how to deal with this, what do I say to her, what do I do?”

            “You tell her exactly what the Doctor told her, whether you believe it or not.  You tell her everything will be fine because it will be, yes it’s a shock now but the Doctor is right Alex it’s not the end of the world, she can live a normal life and she needs to hear that from you.” Kristin said.

            “I need to call my Mom.” AJ said wiping his eyes.

“I can call for ya man, you stay here with Eve.” Kevin told him.

            AJ was about to reply when Eve’s door opened and the nurses came out.  AJ looked past them and saw Eve lying on the bed.  He then looked at the Nurse who walked up to him.  “We gave her a sedative and she’s calmed down, you can go back in now.”

“Ok, thanks.” AJ said with a light nod.

He looked at Kevin and Kristin and then headed back into the room.  He walked over to her bedside and looked at her as she slept.  Taking her hand he sat back down in the chair.  He stared at her and brought the back of her hand to his lips.  “Everything will be ok Evie, it’ll be ok.”

Laying his head down, he kept her hand at his lips and closed his eyes.  The machines hummed and beeped around him.  Then he heard the door to her room open and he slowly sat up.  It was Detective Ozwith and she had another officer with her.

“Hello Alex.” The woman said with a light smile.

“She’s sleeping right now can you come back and talk to her later?” He asked not wanting to wake her up.

“Of course I’ve already talked to her Doctor and he thinks it is best we wait till tomorrow to ask her some questions but I need to talk to you as well.” She told him.

“Me? I really don’t know how I can help you, like I said she was supposed to be going to the supermarket.” AJ said as he rubbed his eyes.

“Yes, well the CSI Technician did some preliminary tests on the vehicle and it seems there was some other damage done to the car besides what was caused by the accident.” The Woman said.  “Did you or Eve have a rear end accident recently, like with the photographers or anything?”

“No” AJ said shaking his head.  “Why?”

“We think she might have been rear ended and that maybe how she went up on the guard rail and the technician said she was going at least ninety miles an hour and…”

“What?” AJ said quickly.  “No, no there’s no way Eve would be driving that fast even on a highway, she wasn’t a speeder.” AJ told them and then it hit him, the rear damage to the car, Eve driving so fast.  “You think this accident has anything to do with Mats? Do you think someone was chasing her?”

“We’re not sure yet that’s why we wanted to talk to you and Eve.” The Detective said.  “I will be back in the morning and by then I’ll have more answers or questions from the CSI Lab, until then I will keep someone outside her door just to be safe.”

“Thanks.” AJ said looking back to Eve. 

When the Detective left AJ looked up at the ceiling and sighed.  “This was supposed to be over, Mats is dead, why, why are you punishing us so much?” He asked as he started to cry again.  AJ laid his head down and cried as he held her hand close to her face.

He ended up crying himself right to sleep and didn’t wake up for a couple of hours.  His back ached as he slowly sat up and he moaned as he gently rubbed the small of his back.  He looked at Eve and saw her lying there still sleeping and he wondered if she had woken up at all.  Getting up from his chair AJ walked out of the room and headed down to the waiting room to get a bottle of water.  When he walked into the room it was full of family and friends.  Kevin and Kristin were still there and they were joined by Howie, Leigh B, Nick and AJ’s Mom.

“When did you get here?” AJ asked as she walked up to him and hugged him, holding him tightly.

“About an hour ago, the nurse let me go down to the room but you were both sleeping so I let you be.” She replied with a light smile.  “How is she handling it?”

“Not good.” AJ told her.  “She won’t talk to me or anyone, I tried getting her to talk to me by writing stuff down on a pad of paper the Nurses had given us but she threw it across the room.” He said with a light shrug.

“What about you?” She asked.

“I dunno.” AJ said with a sigh.  “I want to tell her she’ll be ok but if she can’t hear me than what good would it do.  I could write it down but that just makes me feel like I’m treating her like…like…I dunno.” He moaned as he sat down.  “I really don’t know what to do, where to go from here and now the Detective is telling me there could be a link to the accident and Mats.”

“What how?” Everyone in the room asked.

“They asked me if Eve or I had been rear ended, I guess there’s some rear damage to the car that doesn’t add up, they also said she was driving at like ninety miles an hour down highway one.” AJ told them.  “But that’s not Eve she doesn’t drive fast…”

“Yeah you’re the speed demon.” Nick joked and everyone was able to crack a smile.

“So they think she was being chased?” Kevin asked.

“Yeah, they’re still collecting evidence and stuff but Detective Ozwith has posted a cop at the door so…” AJ replied with a light shrug.

“So that’s what he’s doing there.” Kevin said more to himself than to everyone else.

AJ stood up and walked over to the vending machine, he could feel the eyes staring at him.  He put his money and pressed the buttons and then waiting for the bottle to fall.  Turning around he looked at everyone.  “I better get back down there in case she wakes up and needs something.”

“If you need anything I’m right here, I’ll come and check on you in a little bit.” Denise said as she hugged her son one more time.

“Ok” AJ replied and he found himself saying that word a lot today.