Gyrus

Chapter Twenty: Poor Fits

I sensed the person approach before I even heard him turn the corner. It felt like a waking dream. I could tell I was knocked out by fatigue and could hear myself snoring, but I could also hear distinctly shoes clicking against the tiled floors getting louder with each step. I unsure of where exactly I was, or how I knew it was a man that was approaching or even how I knew I was the one he was coming to see. I slowly opened one eye and felt a mix of relief and disappointment when I saw the pastel green walls of the nurse station staring back at me. According to the plain clock set into the wall it was a little past five am. I looked around, suddenly attuned to the pervasive silence that blanketed the room. I shrugged and shook Wong and Zoe awake. 

"Look alive, someone's coming." I said to Wong as he stretched and rubbed his sleepy eyes.

He did a quick once over and shot me a look. "Dude, I was actually enjoying my nap." 

"Trust me." I replied and nodded in the direction of the emergency doors that led to the surgery wards. 

He begrudgingly turned and paused in amazement as the door gave a tiny hiss and opened to reveal a tired looking man in scrubs and dress shoes. He couldn't have been older than thirty but his expensively coiffed black hair was peppered with grey and his eyes were puffy from severe sleep deprivation. 

"How did you do that?" Wong mouthed at me.

I shrugged in response. I still hadn't gotten the hang of it, and this one was nothing like the past visions I had been getting. I made up my mind to ask Roberto once I managed to get him alone. The anxiety of the previous night was back in the pit of my stomach, riding on a sense of foreboding that chilled me all the way to my soul. The doctor stopped at the door, spotted us and dragged himself over. I ignored the feeling and rose to meet him and he shook us in turn. He surveyed our slept in clothes and the dried line of dribble on Wong's cheek and mumbled something about the nurses not following hospital protocol and informing us about cots for surgery patient's families. I smiled apologetically, not bothering to correct him that we weren't actually family to any of the people we'd brought. I cleared my throat to get his attention.

"Sir, we've been here since last night and we haven't gotten an update on our... cousin in surgery."

He huffed and shook his head as if to clear it of wandering thoughts. "Oh yeah, the girl, I was called in last night to assist in the surgery. She had to have a craniotomy to stop the bleeding in her skull but when we went in we discovered there had also been significant brain damage. There was also some damage to her lungs and kidneys that we were able to successfully repair. We did the best we could to minimize the consequences of the damage to her brain but we won't know the extent of our success till she wakes up."

I turned to Wong and he shook his head. The prospects weren't good. 

"What's the best possible scenario we can expect?" Wong asked.

The doctor shrugged. "You can never know with these things. There's a sliver of hope that she won't exhibit any adverse effects but realistically, the best we can hope for is minimal impairment to the parts of the brain that control speech and memory." 

"Thank you." I said as neutrally as I could, dismissing my despair. "Can we go and see her?" 

"She's in the intensive care unit right now, been put in a drug-induced coma to reduce the stress to her brain while she heals. You'll have to wait till at least tomorrow morning. We'll check then if the swelling caused by the invasive surgery has subsided and decide what to do then."

"Sure." I replied. "We came with two other people. How are they?"

"I don't know who you're talking about but if I was to guess I would say the people you're looking for are in the recovery ward. First turn left through those doors- "he pointed at the doors through which he had just come - "and the third door on your right. You all should probably go home and get changed. There's enough time before the wards open for visitation," he added and made for the front entrance.