No Strings Attached

Chapter Thirty Two

“I can’t discharge myself?”

“Well,” the doctor looked uncomfortable – he’d been fabulous with all of them – incredibly professional, but Shannon could see him struggling up against Nate, once he’d made his mind up on something. He could be persuasive, after all – hell, couldn’t he just?

“Nate, it’s not a good idea ...” she said softly, “I’d feel better if I knew you were well enough ...”

“Mr. Casey,” the doctor reiterated, “There will be lasting effects here. Your cognitive activity will suffer some kind of shortfall – from the trauma itself as well as the barbiturates. We need to monitor that.”

Lasting effects? Shannon’s stomach dropped into her Jimmy Choo’s as she turned back to the doctor – they’d mentioned something of the like, but not in any depth.

“What kind of cognitive damage?” Jayden broke in quietly – obviously just as concerned as Shannon.

“Memory loss, concentration difficulties – perhaps even motor functions,” the doctor said quietly, “We won’t really know for sure until we’ve seen the results. Maybe not until even later – we find that we can never have a proper prognosis for this kind of case.”

“And this is a definite?” Nate was saying gruffly, searching around at the side of him for Shannon’s hand, “There’s no way that I won’t be kosher?”

“You’ve made a remarkable recovery so far,” the doctor was flicking through his notes, “After the surgery, and the first 36 hours, it was clear that there was no longer a high risk of cerebral damage from the Intracranial Pressure, and we would be in a position to drop the level of Thiopental in your dosage, which would gradually draw you out of the sedation. Your lungs are almost completely recovered – although you will need to be administered antibiotics to reduce the possibility of infection.”

“Speak in English, doc, “Nate groaned, “I must’ve missed this class ...”

“In short, I am expecting there to be some kind of complication as a result of this recovery.

Shannon’s heart split for him – her proud, strong man would struggle with this – he’d see this as weakness – deficiency. She could already see his eyes shifting around the room, not quite sure what to make of everything he was hearing. He didn’t trust anyone more than these guys – and yet it was still almost painful for them to be hearing this along with him.

“You can’t tell anyone any of this, right?” he asked the doctor stiffly, who shook his head in response, “Especially memory loss – you’re never to talk about this case and any side effects. With anyone. I’ll give you an extra twenty grand, but it doesn’t even go in a paper. The records are burnt, and you never think of it again.”

“Nate, I ...” Shannon started, but Nate shook his head quietly – not breaking the simmering eye contact between him and the young doctor – who must, by now, have registered that there was something out of the ordinary going on.