RP LOG with surgeonshands | Secrets revealed
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Dave was standing at Chris’ bedside, one arm wrapped around himself as he chewed his thumbnail of his other hand. He was close to tears and let his eyes fall closed as he exhaled sharply and inevitably just soon let them fall. Just minutes before, he had authorised a request from Chris’ ICU doctor to give him a bag of IV antibiotics. There was no infection, but they were worried about the possibility of something like a UTI. Without Chris awake and able to kick his body into gear to start functioning with only one kidney, they had to be ultra aware of any further complications. The antibiotics were precaution only, but they were a good idea. They would support Chris’ immune system to fight off any bugs that might settle and give him an infection. His blood pressure was still low, and another transfusion was being run through. Dave just felt totally helpless. There wasn’t anything anyone could do right now but wait for Chris’ system to strengthen so he could wake up.
Just letting the tears fall, Dave watched his best friend unconscious on the hospital bed. He hadn’t been able to fight off the urge to check all the machines and tubes himself to make sure they were all in the right place and doing what they were supposed to do. It wasn’t that he didn’t trust the Intensive Care physicians, but as a doctor himself, it was just reactionary. Apparently Serena had done exactly the same thing when she got here, once the distressing shock of seeing Chris in this condition eased off just a little. Dave hadn’t been here at that point to know how she coped with it, but Drew had spoken to Aimee when Serena had been too upset to call her herself, and that was how Dave had heard how Serena coped with it. The truth was, no one was really coping very well at all. They were just doing the best they could in the crushing, painful worry for both Chris and Rick. Rick seemed to be recuperating well. Bella had her finger on the pulse with Rick’s progress, and as ironic as it seemed, Rick was thriving with Chris’ kidney. His body seemed to be accepting it and it was functioning as it should be. But Chris couldn’t even know how much he had helped his brother. It just all seemed so wrong.
Dave had to do a double take when he was suddenly not the only visitor in Chris’ room. One of the nurses was leading Chris’ mother into the isolated room, the blonde woman adorned in scrubs and a surgical cap. A heavy sigh of relieve exited Dave in a rush that Mrs Deleo was even here. She knew of the family issues, and how tough life had been for them growing up, but the guys should have their mom here for this, no matter how much of a complex they both harboured in wanting to protect her. They never wanted to tell her tough things in case she got hurt.
A sob caught in Carla’s throat as he put a hand over her mouth as soon as she got close enough to see that the man in the bed was her youngest son. “Oh, my baby boy,” she got out tearfully and then reached to grab Dave’s hand. She had known the boy since she visited Chris at his college just a few weeks after he started. It was a relief for her to know he was here and she squeezed his fingers, almost like they were a lifeline. “Can I touch him?” she pleaded. “He’s so pale... he’s so... so...” She couldn’t even finish. She had no words. Chris lying there motionless amongst all the tubes and wires, a machine breathing for him. Her breathing became shallow with panic. She just needed to touch him to know he was alive.
Dave nodded. “You can hold his hand,” he told her, trying to swallow back his own tears. “You can touch his arms or his face. Just don’t touch his torso. The surgical incision ended up being quite large. I mean he, um... he can’t feel pain right now, but just precautions...” he tried to explain shakily. He remembered how long his own mother had sat vigil had his hospital bedside and it was one of the hardest things for him to see. He was glad Chris was unconscious and couldn’t see his mom crying. Dave knew that was one of the hardest things Chris could tolerate. Chris had mentioned many times how much he hated seeing his mom cry. Maybe that was why he hadn’t had the guts to go visit her on his fly-by trip to Wimico a few days ago.
Carla drew in a shaky, uneven breath and went over to Chris’ side. His hand was resting down by his side on the bed, limp with his fingers loosely curled over. Carla covered his hand with her own and then softly cupped his stubbled cheek with her other. Tears dripped down her face and dropped onto the bed. “Oh, baby...” she whispered. “Not you. You were always so invincible...” She started to rub her thumb across the back of Chris’s hand and turned back to glance at Dave. “He feels cold. Is that normal? He hates being cold.”
Dave wet his lips with another slight nod. “It’s just because he’s lost a lot of blood, Mrs Deleo. The circulation will gradually increase and he’ll warm up. It’s just his extremities, if you’ve noticed. He’s responded well to the transfusions, so his vitals have picked up a little over the past hour or two. He’s afebrile and producing urine, so the kidney is functioning okay on its own...” He trailed off, realising he had resorted to doctor talk in an attempt to cope with this. He didn’t want to see Chris’ mom cry either, but it was inevitable. “I’m sorry,” he added in a quiet mumble.
Carla leaned down and kissed Chris’ forehead before she stepped back to sweep Dave into a hug. She rubbed his back reassuringly. “You have nothing to apologise for, sweetheart. I understand, okay? Any information you can give me is much appreciated. You know what the boys are like. I... haven’t been told a whole lot by them directly. The Chris’ girlfriend told me. The one I didn’t know anything about. I just... this is all so much to take in. Come sit. I think we both need it,” she told him and led him over to the nearby chairs. When they sat down, she kept a hold of his hand, even if her gaze was back on her son.
“Secrets. The bane of all our existences lately, Mrs Deleo. I promise you, no on intended to hurt anyone, but we all managed that anyway,” Dave murmured, sniffling back some of the tears. Despite the sleep he had managed to catch up on during his days off, the lethargy was back again now, but he knew it was just emotional strain. “I understand why Rick concealed the cancer. It’s not something you ever have a right way of telling people, and before you know it, so much time has passed and it’s easier to let people go on in blissful ignorance, until it’s too late. Chris and Serena... well, it’s a different story entirely. They were worried what people would think, worried about their jobs. I think when they decided to keep it secret it was just a protective mechanism. Rick and Chris, they never wanted to hurt you, Mrs Deleo. They think you’ve already been hurt too much. It’s just easy to get swept up in the storms going on around you.”
Carla glanced back at Dave with a hint of a smile. “When did you get so wise, David? You seem to understand the situation from the inside looking out. I’m glad Chris had you in his life. Rick never seemed capable of being the brother Chris needed. To this day, I still don’t know what I did wrong there. I just always felt like I was drowning that I couldn’t see a lot of what was actually going on.”
“Because I’m just as guilty of secret-keeping as everyone else,” Dave admitted and started to get teary again when he looked at Chris’ face. “When I was living in LA, I got sick. Really sick. I had cancer, Mrs Deleo. I fought it for nearly years, and I had a really terrible time with the chemo. I spent months in hospital. But I... I never told Chris. And I regret that, but it seemed like the best choice at the time because he had just started his residency and I didn’t want to screw with that because he was made for the job. That was his life, and I didn’t want what I was going through to affect that. It was why I lost contact for a while. I was too ill to keep in touch. The odd email and text message with Chris here and there just worked. I went into remission and knew I wanted to come home to Florida. It was just a freaky coincidence that I scored a job with Chris at MT1. I only told him when I got back here, but it crossed just after he was told Rick had been diagnosed with the renal cell carcinoma... the kidney cancer. Telling someone you love something like that is...” He shook his head. “I just know Rick didn’t want to hurt you or Chris, Mrs Deleo. I think he thought that experimental surgery would fix everything and take the cancer away so he wouldn’t need to bother anyone with it. To bother you... to bother Chris. It was just a really bad choice, and he had to pay the price.”
By now, Carla’s eyes were locked on Dave, her motherly instinct causing her to look over him for any signs of illness. She touched his cheek with her fingertips and then his hair and swallowed. “But you look so well,” she told him in a whisper, shaking her head slowly. It was hard for her to understand any of this. “So many painful secrets. It’s not right. Rick, he’s... he’s losing his hair.”
A flicker of a smile played at the corners of Dave’s lips, but it didn’t linger. “I’ve been in remission close to a year now. Around ten, eleven months. It’ll be a year in October. My hair grew back around six months ago, and I’ve been taking extra care of myself to get my strength back. You just do what you have to do to survive. I wasn’t supposed to live, and my doctors don’t even know why I did. But who really cares why, huh?” he added with a slight laugh. But then he nodded soberly. “He’s just started to. His doctor told me earlier, and she noticed when she took his cap off after the surgery. He was quite sick with the chemo, but he got back on his feet. Chris took leave from work to look after him. But it came too late the tumours had spread, and his remaining kidney began to fail. That’s why he needed a transplant and Chris stepped up. He was a perfect match.”
“All three of you...” Carla bit down on her lip and put her hand over her eyes when more tears just came. “Are you feeling better now though, sweetheart? You look good. Very strong. Tired and upset, but still strong. “He said he needs more chemo, and that he has a good doctor, but I... is he going to survive this, David? Are they both?”
“I feel better most days. More days now than I did a few months ago. But I’m far from completely better. You never really quite ever escape cancer. I’m lucky I have an amazing family around me, and friends, and a beautiful girlfriend who understands the hurdles I need to keep jumping. That doesn’t mean that sometimes, it just all gets too much. It does. Things can trigger it, bring me back to my own experiences.” Dave paused and considered continuing. He cleared his throat and then bit down on his lip. “You should know, Mrs Deleo, that Rick’s doctor is like me. She’s a survivor. She understands what it’s like and that is what makes her fantastic at her job. She knows her stuff. She’s made all the right calls with him, and quickly. First sign of anything, and she has jumped. He’s in the best hands, and because of that, she has given him the best chance he has. We just need to wait to see that his body doesn’t reject Chris’ kidney. If it doesn’t, Rick has a really good chance of making a complete recovery. Removing the kidneys removed the tumours. More chemo should protect his other organs. This has been the ultimate best chance he had. Chris, on the other hand... this was completely unexpected, but it was serious. They did nearly lose him, but they got him back. He had the best responsive treatment to the incident, and now he just needs to heal. He was perfectly healthy and fit before the operation, otherwise they would never have touched him. He has that on his side...” His voice broke on the last comment and everything finally wanted to take its toll. He despite some tears falling before, now he just started to cry. The fact of the matter was, he just didn’t know if Chris was going to survive this, and he was struggling to handle it.
Carla wanted to keep interrogating Dave for the details. It wasn’t fair on him, though. He was upset, and although he was being cooperative and talking to her like the sweetheart that he was, she couldn’t bring herself to weigh on him more. Instead, she just wrapped her arm around him protectively and reached over to hold her son’s hand. One thing seemed starkly evident above all else here, and that was that they just had to wait, no matter how hard it seemed to be to face.
Word Count | 2,368
Dave was standing at Chris’ bedside, one arm wrapped around himself as he chewed his thumbnail of his other hand. He was close to tears and let his eyes fall closed as he exhaled sharply and inevitably just soon let them fall. Just minutes before, he had authorised a request from Chris’ ICU doctor to give him a bag of IV antibiotics. There was no infection, but they were worried about the possibility of something like a UTI. Without Chris awake and able to kick his body into gear to start functioning with only one kidney, they had to be ultra aware of any further complications. The antibiotics were precaution only, but they were a good idea. They would support Chris’ immune system to fight off any bugs that might settle and give him an infection. His blood pressure was still low, and another transfusion was being run through. Dave just felt totally helpless. There wasn’t anything anyone could do right now but wait for Chris’ system to strengthen so he could wake up.
Just letting the tears fall, Dave watched his best friend unconscious on the hospital bed. He hadn’t been able to fight off the urge to check all the machines and tubes himself to make sure they were all in the right place and doing what they were supposed to do. It wasn’t that he didn’t trust the Intensive Care physicians, but as a doctor himself, it was just reactionary. Apparently Serena had done exactly the same thing when she got here, once the distressing shock of seeing Chris in this condition eased off just a little. Dave hadn’t been here at that point to know how she coped with it, but Drew had spoken to Aimee when Serena had been too upset to call her herself, and that was how Dave had heard how Serena coped with it. The truth was, no one was really coping very well at all. They were just doing the best they could in the crushing, painful worry for both Chris and Rick. Rick seemed to be recuperating well. Bella had her finger on the pulse with Rick’s progress, and as ironic as it seemed, Rick was thriving with Chris’ kidney. His body seemed to be accepting it and it was functioning as it should be. But Chris couldn’t even know how much he had helped his brother. It just all seemed so wrong.
Dave had to do a double take when he was suddenly not the only visitor in Chris’ room. One of the nurses was leading Chris’ mother into the isolated room, the blonde woman adorned in scrubs and a surgical cap. A heavy sigh of relieve exited Dave in a rush that Mrs Deleo was even here. She knew of the family issues, and how tough life had been for them growing up, but the guys should have their mom here for this, no matter how much of a complex they both harboured in wanting to protect her. They never wanted to tell her tough things in case she got hurt.
A sob caught in Carla’s throat as he put a hand over her mouth as soon as she got close enough to see that the man in the bed was her youngest son. “Oh, my baby boy,” she got out tearfully and then reached to grab Dave’s hand. She had known the boy since she visited Chris at his college just a few weeks after he started. It was a relief for her to know he was here and she squeezed his fingers, almost like they were a lifeline. “Can I touch him?” she pleaded. “He’s so pale... he’s so... so...” She couldn’t even finish. She had no words. Chris lying there motionless amongst all the tubes and wires, a machine breathing for him. Her breathing became shallow with panic. She just needed to touch him to know he was alive.
Dave nodded. “You can hold his hand,” he told her, trying to swallow back his own tears. “You can touch his arms or his face. Just don’t touch his torso. The surgical incision ended up being quite large. I mean he, um... he can’t feel pain right now, but just precautions...” he tried to explain shakily. He remembered how long his own mother had sat vigil had his hospital bedside and it was one of the hardest things for him to see. He was glad Chris was unconscious and couldn’t see his mom crying. Dave knew that was one of the hardest things Chris could tolerate. Chris had mentioned many times how much he hated seeing his mom cry. Maybe that was why he hadn’t had the guts to go visit her on his fly-by trip to Wimico a few days ago.
Carla drew in a shaky, uneven breath and went over to Chris’ side. His hand was resting down by his side on the bed, limp with his fingers loosely curled over. Carla covered his hand with her own and then softly cupped his stubbled cheek with her other. Tears dripped down her face and dropped onto the bed. “Oh, baby...” she whispered. “Not you. You were always so invincible...” She started to rub her thumb across the back of Chris’s hand and turned back to glance at Dave. “He feels cold. Is that normal? He hates being cold.”
Dave wet his lips with another slight nod. “It’s just because he’s lost a lot of blood, Mrs Deleo. The circulation will gradually increase and he’ll warm up. It’s just his extremities, if you’ve noticed. He’s responded well to the transfusions, so his vitals have picked up a little over the past hour or two. He’s afebrile and producing urine, so the kidney is functioning okay on its own...” He trailed off, realising he had resorted to doctor talk in an attempt to cope with this. He didn’t want to see Chris’ mom cry either, but it was inevitable. “I’m sorry,” he added in a quiet mumble.
Carla leaned down and kissed Chris’ forehead before she stepped back to sweep Dave into a hug. She rubbed his back reassuringly. “You have nothing to apologise for, sweetheart. I understand, okay? Any information you can give me is much appreciated. You know what the boys are like. I... haven’t been told a whole lot by them directly. The Chris’ girlfriend told me. The one I didn’t know anything about. I just... this is all so much to take in. Come sit. I think we both need it,” she told him and led him over to the nearby chairs. When they sat down, she kept a hold of his hand, even if her gaze was back on her son.
“Secrets. The bane of all our existences lately, Mrs Deleo. I promise you, no on intended to hurt anyone, but we all managed that anyway,” Dave murmured, sniffling back some of the tears. Despite the sleep he had managed to catch up on during his days off, the lethargy was back again now, but he knew it was just emotional strain. “I understand why Rick concealed the cancer. It’s not something you ever have a right way of telling people, and before you know it, so much time has passed and it’s easier to let people go on in blissful ignorance, until it’s too late. Chris and Serena... well, it’s a different story entirely. They were worried what people would think, worried about their jobs. I think when they decided to keep it secret it was just a protective mechanism. Rick and Chris, they never wanted to hurt you, Mrs Deleo. They think you’ve already been hurt too much. It’s just easy to get swept up in the storms going on around you.”
Carla glanced back at Dave with a hint of a smile. “When did you get so wise, David? You seem to understand the situation from the inside looking out. I’m glad Chris had you in his life. Rick never seemed capable of being the brother Chris needed. To this day, I still don’t know what I did wrong there. I just always felt like I was drowning that I couldn’t see a lot of what was actually going on.”
“Because I’m just as guilty of secret-keeping as everyone else,” Dave admitted and started to get teary again when he looked at Chris’ face. “When I was living in LA, I got sick. Really sick. I had cancer, Mrs Deleo. I fought it for nearly years, and I had a really terrible time with the chemo. I spent months in hospital. But I... I never told Chris. And I regret that, but it seemed like the best choice at the time because he had just started his residency and I didn’t want to screw with that because he was made for the job. That was his life, and I didn’t want what I was going through to affect that. It was why I lost contact for a while. I was too ill to keep in touch. The odd email and text message with Chris here and there just worked. I went into remission and knew I wanted to come home to Florida. It was just a freaky coincidence that I scored a job with Chris at MT1. I only told him when I got back here, but it crossed just after he was told Rick had been diagnosed with the renal cell carcinoma... the kidney cancer. Telling someone you love something like that is...” He shook his head. “I just know Rick didn’t want to hurt you or Chris, Mrs Deleo. I think he thought that experimental surgery would fix everything and take the cancer away so he wouldn’t need to bother anyone with it. To bother you... to bother Chris. It was just a really bad choice, and he had to pay the price.”
By now, Carla’s eyes were locked on Dave, her motherly instinct causing her to look over him for any signs of illness. She touched his cheek with her fingertips and then his hair and swallowed. “But you look so well,” she told him in a whisper, shaking her head slowly. It was hard for her to understand any of this. “So many painful secrets. It’s not right. Rick, he’s... he’s losing his hair.”
A flicker of a smile played at the corners of Dave’s lips, but it didn’t linger. “I’ve been in remission close to a year now. Around ten, eleven months. It’ll be a year in October. My hair grew back around six months ago, and I’ve been taking extra care of myself to get my strength back. You just do what you have to do to survive. I wasn’t supposed to live, and my doctors don’t even know why I did. But who really cares why, huh?” he added with a slight laugh. But then he nodded soberly. “He’s just started to. His doctor told me earlier, and she noticed when she took his cap off after the surgery. He was quite sick with the chemo, but he got back on his feet. Chris took leave from work to look after him. But it came too late the tumours had spread, and his remaining kidney began to fail. That’s why he needed a transplant and Chris stepped up. He was a perfect match.”
“All three of you...” Carla bit down on her lip and put her hand over her eyes when more tears just came. “Are you feeling better now though, sweetheart? You look good. Very strong. Tired and upset, but still strong. “He said he needs more chemo, and that he has a good doctor, but I... is he going to survive this, David? Are they both?”
“I feel better most days. More days now than I did a few months ago. But I’m far from completely better. You never really quite ever escape cancer. I’m lucky I have an amazing family around me, and friends, and a beautiful girlfriend who understands the hurdles I need to keep jumping. That doesn’t mean that sometimes, it just all gets too much. It does. Things can trigger it, bring me back to my own experiences.” Dave paused and considered continuing. He cleared his throat and then bit down on his lip. “You should know, Mrs Deleo, that Rick’s doctor is like me. She’s a survivor. She understands what it’s like and that is what makes her fantastic at her job. She knows her stuff. She’s made all the right calls with him, and quickly. First sign of anything, and she has jumped. He’s in the best hands, and because of that, she has given him the best chance he has. We just need to wait to see that his body doesn’t reject Chris’ kidney. If it doesn’t, Rick has a really good chance of making a complete recovery. Removing the kidneys removed the tumours. More chemo should protect his other organs. This has been the ultimate best chance he had. Chris, on the other hand... this was completely unexpected, but it was serious. They did nearly lose him, but they got him back. He had the best responsive treatment to the incident, and now he just needs to heal. He was perfectly healthy and fit before the operation, otherwise they would never have touched him. He has that on his side...” His voice broke on the last comment and everything finally wanted to take its toll. He despite some tears falling before, now he just started to cry. The fact of the matter was, he just didn’t know if Chris was going to survive this, and he was struggling to handle it.
Carla wanted to keep interrogating Dave for the details. It wasn’t fair on him, though. He was upset, and although he was being cooperative and talking to her like the sweetheart that he was, she couldn’t bring herself to weigh on him more. Instead, she just wrapped her arm around him protectively and reached over to hold her son’s hand. One thing seemed starkly evident above all else here, and that was that they just had to wait, no matter how hard it seemed to be to face.
Word Count | 2,368