AllFreeNovel
Share Us
He continues. “Mr. Adley was able to be resuscitated, but he was considered clinically dead for over eight minutes. There were further complications after that—”
“Eight minutes?” Micah interrupts. “Isn't the cutoff for brain damage four minutes?”
“What?!” Six screeches, the pain in her voice causing her to sound almost shrill.
The five of us erupt into a frenzy of yelling, crying, and talking about the various statistics of when brain death is supposed to occur. We're all frantic, and there are tears in more than just Six's eyes. A couple of tears spill over my own eyelashes.
Dr. Franks holds his hands up to both calm and silence us.
His voice low, as if he doesn't want to be overheard, he continues. “There is more, and we have much to talk about. What I can tell you at this moment is that there is still hope. If you can give me a few minutes to check on Mr. Adley and clear the room, we can talk more candidly.”
Luis is able to at least nod, but the rest of us are frozen. I can't tell if I'm still experiencing brain fog from the morphine, or if I'm simply overwhelmed, but I don't have it in me to do anything other than stare blankly.
I'm jolted from my stupor by Six's hand slipping out of mine as she stumbles back and sinks into a chair. Her body seems to shrink into itself and I'm reminded, for the first time in a while, of how vulnerable she was when we first met.
She seems reduced to a shell of a person, like all the life has seeped from her eyes. There have been moments over the course of the last week that she has zoned out, lost in what seem to be painful thoughts and worry. Those moments that she couldn't use sex, exercise, or some other activity to distract from the misery of agonizing over whether we could save Bennet.
To have him here in the room with us and know he might still be gone from us is another level of suffering. Are we watching her break?
Luis lets out a breath and then shuffles chairs around. Without a word, he makes a semicircle of chairs right next to my bedside. Then he retrieves Six by picking up the chair she's sitting in, and places her in the center of the group of chairs. Now everyone can sit, but we are all close enough to reach one another. Well, they're close enough to reach me. I can't do much from this bed.
Six starts a sort of hand-holding chain as Dr. Franks escorts the last nurse from the room, coming to sit in front of us in the empty chair Luis left for him. Her fingers thread through the hands of Lukas and Luis on either side of her. Lukas holds Micah's hand, and Micah reaches for me with his free hand.
None of us says a word, waiting with bated breath.
“I hope that the fact that you brought me all the way here means that we have some level of trust between us,” he begins.
We each look around at each other, silently conveying our thoughts in a series of eye raises and shrugs. I, for one, trust him. At the very least, he probably risked his employment, if not his license, when he helped us escape with Six. Not to mention flying all the way here at a moment's notice to help Bennet. I think he deserves considerable credit.
The impressions I get from the others seem to agree with my sentiments, but we are understandably hesitant. What is he going to ask of us?
“I trust you,” declares Six. And, as ever, we fall in line.
I'm usually a pretty trusting guy, but I'm hesitant when it comes to anything that might jeopardize her safety. But if she trusts him, after the life she's led and everything she's seen and been through in the last few weeks, I'll go with it. Carefully, and within reason, of course.
Minds made up, we nod affirmatively, and he continues.
“Let me tell you the facts, first, and then I'll tell you why I think we may still have hope. First, Mr. Adley—”
“You can call him Bennet,” I interrupt. I say it gently, not wanting to be rude, but if I never hear that name again, it'll be too soon. Bennet hated being called by his last name anyway, not wanting to be connected to his father. And after what he did to the son he raised and claimed as his own? If I have anything to say about it, we'll never associate his name with Bennet again. The fact that I share a first name with that man may haunt me for the rest of my life.
Dr. Franks bows his head slightly. “Very well, Bennet looks as though he has been tortured. His injuries were severe, and some of them were familiar.”
He aims a brief but knowing look at Six. “Bennet should not have survived the flight here. He probably shouldn't have made it out of wherever you all escaped from—I'm not asking questions, I don't need to know unless you think it will benefit his treatment. He died during surgery, was clinically dead for over eight minutes, resuscitated while open on the table, and then suffered from seizures that required a medical coma to prevent further damage to his brain. Given the trauma he has been through, it was statistically improbable that he would make it through alive, much less with any brain function.”
His usual friendly but matter-of-fact manner is gone, replaced with uncertainty and worry. He uses his words tentatively, as if worried he’ll offend someone.
“The cap on his head is an EEG to measure brain activity. When we first started measuring, there was little to no response. We were this close to declaring him brain dead, but then there was some movement in the measurements, then a little more. Bennet has shown no signs of waking up, but I believe that, somehow, he is defying probability in miraculous ways.”
The surge of hope in the room is palpable. Shoulders relax slightly, hands loosen their grip. Not completely, but enough to help process without panic.
Dr. Franks clears his throat slightly and looks down, as if he's searching for the right words and might find them in the click-action of his pen. “I know that there is something special about Six. Her rate of recovery after her own trauma should have been impossible. And while I can't explain the continued memory loss, the physical wounds healed so quickly I feel we could have watched them stitch themselves back together. And look at you now, not a scar to be seen.”
“What's your point?” Luis asks, a little gruffly.
“While I don't believe Bennet to have the same level of…unique abilities that Six does, I believe there is something different about him as well. I think he could potentially heal himself and come around. The issue is that his internal injuries are so severe, his body might be failing faster than he can heal himself.”
“So there's hope, but he's not out of the woods yet,” Lukas clarifies.
