Chapter 2

After The Sunset

When he came to, he was looking up into the ceiling, into the white led light that shined throughout the room.

“Where…” He stopped before he could even finish. No words came from his mouth and he felt pain crawled its way to his neck. He dragged his hand and felt the bandages. A tube was directly put into his mouth and he could feel it extending up to the depths beyond his throat.

A feed?

He thought. It was a nutrient and oxygen feed, a modern scientific method of giving life support to a patient with inability to swallow and even breathe.

Looking around, he saw a red blinking light on the wall along with the machines that supported his life. Then he heard the door opened with a bang with a nurse running with a frightened expression towards his direction.

“You’re awake?!” The nurse cried. “You shouldn’t be awake!”

Rex raised his right hand, his left hand was in cast. He tried to make up a hand signal, but the nurse only reached it and placed it on his side. She checked for the machine and her expression grimmed.

Two more people entered and one of them looked like a familiar doctor.

Even though he can’t speak, he could clearly hear what they were talking about. Basing on that alone, Rex’s thoughts jumbled off.

“He shouldn’t be awake! This is impossible.” The doctor shouted. “Give him a sedative and make him sleep. His mind is still in shock.”

As he heard the words, the second nurse pulled a syringe from the small box she carried and the first nurse caressed his head as the other pressed the liquid into the feed on his arm. The first nurse pulled a pen light from her pocket and checked the focus in his eyes. Rex followed its movement and the light went off, slightly blinding him while the nurse kept on speaking.

“It’s alright. Relax. Sleep. You’re in a shock.”

With no words and his consciousness slowly being drawn to oblivion, he summoned all his strength and moved his still able hand. He grabbed the nurse’s arm and she looked at him with a surprised expression.

“B…Ba…ron…” Rex endured the pain in his throat and spoke the word with clear eyes.

The nurse stopped her resistance and instead, with a now real caring touch, stroked his hair with teary eyes.

“Your brother is alright. He’s safe. You saved him.”

Hearing the news, Rex released the grip and relaxed his stiff neck. His breathing calmed and he ignored the rising liquid on his mouth.

The other nurse, upon seeing the red liquid, moved in a panic and the doctor yelled giving off orders to her. The nurse who received his grip looked at the peaceful expression on the now sleeping patient and she unknowingly clenched a fist in front of his chest.

Seeing her teary eyed expression, the panicking nurse nudged at her and pulled her to accompany her upon the doctor’s orders.

“What are you doing?!” She exclaimed. “He might be dying!”

“He won’t die.” The nurse said and wiped the forming tears on her eyes. “His will is too strong.”

“What are you talking about?”

“The accident just happened the other day and yet he was already awake. And you know what he whispered to me?”

“What?”

Her smile became brighter. “Baron. He spoke his brother’s name.”

At that, the two of them stopped and looked back on the direction of the said patient’s room.

“That’s impossible. We just fixed his throat. How could he…”

“That’s why I said his will is too strong.”

“Damn. He endured the pain to the point that it bled…”

“He cared for his brother that much that he was willing to cross the line of life and death for him.”

On that word, the announcement voice on the hospital rang and the two of them moved their feet towards the direction where they should have been present a few moments ago.

“We must save him.” The second nurse said.

“Yeah. We must.”

***

Rex wandered his eyes the moment he woke up. No words. No actions. Just his eyes probing in the white room filled with machines and the green and blue blinking lights on the wall. The tube on his throat was gone and what were left are the IV stand and the nutrient dip.

He checked to feel for his throat. There were still bandages in there and the feel of its slightly tight application was choking him.

He moved his hand and the green light in the wall blinked red.

When he had successfully loosened the bandage, the familiar face of his nurse entered the room.

“You’re awake.” She said. This time, she wasn’t frightened nor in any grim expression. “I guess it’s about time.”

“How…” Rex gargled on the sand dry feeling on his throat. He touched his throat and tried to sit and the nurse helped him. “Thank you.”

“Don’t force yourself.” As she spoke, she gave him a glass of water from the side table. From that action alone, he knew that he was already far from critical condition. “You’ve been sleeping for the past month. I know you must be worried about your brother.”

Rex stopped from drinking and turned to her. “Where…is…he?”

Though the voice was still hoarse, with a few pinch of pain in there, Rex ignored it all and continued on.

“Don’t talk yet. You can only go as far as drinking water but your pharynx has been damaged severely, affecting your speech. From here on out, expect that your voice would change according to how you heal yourself. Worst case, it might be like this forever so please don’t use your voice for now. It’s still in the process of healing.”

Rex nodded and held the glass tighter, lowering his head.

“He’s alright. He’s in the OR right now.” She said the words with a layer of worry and sadness. The expression she wore made Rex felt anxious and so he grabbed her hand with as much force as he could.

He himself saw the once slightly muscular arm became skin and bones. Still, with as much little force it may seem, the look in his eyes was enough to stop the nurse from resisting. She understood very well what those eyes meant.

“Wh-Where…”

The nurse pursed her lips as she saw how Rex was enduring the pain in his throat. But his eyes told her otherwise and she felt hurt by those gazes. It felt so heavy that she averted her eyes.

“He…he’s in a coma.”

Hearing the news, Rex snapped from his bed and stood up. With swaying motion, he went into the door and straight outside. The nurse got into a panic and dialed from the room’s intercom. She followed him and tried to stop him but there weren’t enough strength on her pulls that she was rendered weak by a swaying patient.

Rex ignored the hurting joints. His left arm was covered in cement and right leg was also in cast. Still, like a zombie in the hospital, he never bothered to be stopped and went straight to where the OR is.

He knew this place well like the back of his hand.

This is the place where his father and mother had worked once.

They were the brightest of doctors when it comes to the mind. It was their field, it was their calling, and with his childhood spent almost every day in this place, he knew exactly where to go looking for his brother.

OR. When he arrived, there were already male personnel behind him who also understood from the nurse’s and his actions what he wanted to do.

So instead of stopping him, they helped him to reach where his brother was. They knew his story and couldn’t pull themselves on stopping him to see the last family he had left.

Though he cannot enter the room, through the window, while he dragged his IV stand weakly, he saw a few doctors tending on his also bandaged brother inside the Observation Room.

But unlike him who was like a mummy with the number of cast and bandages on his body, his brother’s only injury was in the head.

The doctors were busy monitoring his status and the readings on the supporting computers that they did not realize the commotion going on outside the room.

Rex forced himself to reach the window and he leaned on the glass to support his body.

Tears flowed in his eyes as he saw his brother’s state. He gargled on the pain of his injured throat and he tried to stretch a hand on his brother but was stopped by the glass window. His sobs hurt like hell, still, he couldn’t stop. The image of his dead parents in his mind was vividly clear and he knew that he won’t be able to erase that sight as long as he lives. The memory of that one last glance on their burning car just moments before the explosion knocked him off was also adding to his aching heart.

The image of his parents holding hands made his sobs even more painful.

When the nurse saw that his wounds were opening up and the red line was forming on his neck, she knew that it was not safe anymore. A doctor then suddenly noticed him outside the room and he rushed to check on them outside.

“Why is he here?! He should still be sleeping!” He yelled to the nurses and they all pulled Rex together. “You! You should be resting right this instant. There is no point in seeing your brother now.”

Rex knew this doctor well and so he did not mind the scolding that he received. But instead, looked at him with his tear filled eyes.

“Is he…gon…be…” Rex tasted blood on his mouth as he failed to finish the words. With tears and the heavy feeling of his gaze, a strand of sweat flowed on the doctor’s temple and their eyes were locked for a few moments before the doctor understood.

SIGH. “He’s gonna be fine.” He told Rex. “We already performed a surgery to remove the cloth on his cranium. His condition is already stable. We can only wait for him to wake up.”

Rex, upon hearing the news, relaxed his shoulders and he held the doctor’s arms. Then he retreated into strays of sobs. Blood was flowing in his mouth and neck, making the nurses panic.

“Rex, we already did what we can but you are in a worse situation than your brother. You should be resting and healing your injuries. Don’t make me do the same pain-in-the-ass surgeries on you twice.”

Rex understood the doctor’s words and he turned around to see the female nurse’s eyes talking to him in a stare. He just glanced over her chest and called her name.

“Aman…da.”

The nurse jolted in surprise as she heard her name and a smile emerged on her lips as she grabbed his leaned hand. And at the next moment, he embraced her and she felt his entire weight on her. She tried to push but couldn’t do so. And until the male nurses had helped him, that’s where they realized that Rex fell into unconsciousness on her shoulders.

“Bring him back to the ER. Clean him.” The doctor said before coming back to the OR. “And even if you have to, tie him up on his bed so he won’t be standing again.”

Amanda could only nod at those commands.

They all did as directed.

All the while as he slept, Amanda was the one who went the extra miles to personally make sure that Rex would receive the best care possible.