Webster came and checked on him at six o’clock in the morning, as he had every hour all through the night. But everything looked fine to him. The neurosurgeon came back later that morning, and seemed pleased with what he saw. He told Liz that her son was a very lucky boy.
She helped the nurses bathe him, and they started him on clear fluids, and in the early afternoon, she went home for a while. The others were still anxious about him, and the girls had a million questions, but as soon as she got home, Liz realized that Jamie was nowhere to be found. She asked Carole about it, who said that she hadn’t seen him since breakfast, and when Liz searched the house, she found him sitting quietly in his room.
“Hi, sweetheart, what are you doing up here all by yourself?” She was worried about him, and even more so when he turned to look at her and she could see the devastation on his face. Just seeing him that way made her heart sink like a rock. She went to sit beside him on the floor and took his hand in her own. “Peter said to send you his love. He’s going to try and come home soon.” But Jamie just shook his head, as two tears rolled slowly down his cheeks into his lap.
“No, he’s not. He’s gone, like Daddy. I had a dream about him last night.”
“Look at me,” she said, turning his face gently toward her, and looking straight into his eyes. “I’m not lying to you, Jamie. Peter is going to be fine. He hurt his neck and he has a brace on it, and a big, big headache. But I promise you, he’s coming back.” There was a long silence between them, as the child searched her eyes.
“Can I see him?” He still looked pretty scary, with tubes everywhere, and monitors flashing and beeping, but she couldn’t help wondering if it would be better for Jamie to see him and know for certain that his brother was alive.
“If you really want to. There are a lot of machines around him, they make funny noises, and he has tubes in his arms.”
“What kind of tubes?” Jamie looked curious but less frightened.
“Kind of like straws.” That was close enough.
“Will they let me see him?” There were no children allowed in the ICU, but she decided to ask Bill Webster, and explain the situation to him. He told her he’d be on duty that evening, and she had promised Peter she’d be back to spend the night.
“I’ll ask,” she promised, and then gently pulled the child into her arms. “I love you, Jamie. Everything is going to be all right.”
“Promise he’s not going away like Daddy?”
“I promise,” she said, fighting back tears. This was still so hard for all of them, not just for her.
“Pinkie swear?” he asked, holding his little finger up, and she linked it with her own.
“Pinkie swear. I’ll ask about your visiting when I see the doctor tonight. Why don’t we call Peter this afternoon so you can talk to him?” Jamie’s eyes lit up at that.
“Can I?”
“Sure,” she promised, and realized that it would be a relief to his sisters too. Jamie came downstairs with her after that, and she rounded up the girls, dialed the hospital, and asked for the Trauma ICU.
They brought a phone to Peter, and he sounded hoarse and weak, but relatively normal in spite of it, he promised to come home as soon as he could, and told his sisters to behave while he was gone. And then he warned Jamie to be careful in the pool, and told him that what he had done was real dumb, and never to do anything like that.
“I miss you guys,” he said, sounding like a child again, and Liz could hear tears in his voice, as she listened on the other phone. “I’ll come home as soon as I can.”
“Mom said she’s going to ask if I can come and visit you,” Jamie said proudly, and Peter sounded pleased. Liz spoke up then and told Peter she’d be back in a few hours. If he was feeling all right, she wanted to have dinner with the kids.
“That’s fine, Mom. Can you bring me something to eat?”
“Like what?” He was still on fluids, and they were talking about starting him on Jell-O that afternoon. He wasn’t too excited about that.
“A cheeseburger.” His mother laughed at the request.
“You must be feeling a lot better.” It was a far cry from the day before when she was begging him to open his eyes and talk to her, as he lay there in another world. “I think you’d better wait a couple of days for that, sweetheart.”
“I figured you’d say that.” He sounded disappointed.
“I’ll see you later.”
She went back to the other children then, and Jamie sat on her lap for a while, but he looked less upset than he had been. Talking to Peter had helped. And after he went to play outside, she called her office. According to Jean, there was nothing exciting happening. She had managed to postpone a court appearance, and reschedule some appointments for the following week. But it pointed out to Liz again that everything rested on her shoulders now. There was no one to stand in for her, juggle cases with her, it all depended on her. The children, her work, the catastrophe that had nearly befallen Peter, and the destruction it would have wrought if he had not survived. It was an awesome burden. And she was thinking about it as she drove back to the hospital to see Peter that night.
Bill Webster was back on duty by then, and he smiled when he saw her, but he looked harassed, and only waved as she walked by. It was another hour before he drifted in to the ICU to see Peter, and chat with her.
“How’s our star patient doing?”
“He asked for a cheeseburger, I think that’s a good sign, don’t you?” she asked, as she brushed a lock of red hair out of her eyes. She had been gently rubbing Peter’s shoulders for him, and he was still complaining about his massive headache, but they had put him on pain medication, which seemed to help somewhat.
“I think a cheeseburger is an excellent sign. How about tomorrow, Peter?”
