Another five hours passed by before they heard any more news. The boy’s injuries were doing fine, but he had developed an illness that they had never seen before. It was chipping away at his health and, while the doctors were doing everything they could, it wasn’t slowing down. He regained a stable consciousness, but couldn’t say a word. The doctor came to fetch Jeremy and Tom so they could see him.
The two of them walked into the ICU, over to the boy’s bed. He looked miserable hooked up to machines and all sorts of sensors. He saw the two of them and his eyes lit up. Restraints kept the boy from moving his arm. Tom met the boy’s pleading eyes.
“Why is he restrained?” Tom asked the doctor, still looking at the underweight child in the bed.
“When we removed his necklace, he began to get violent, and we had to put him under so that we could treat him. We feared he might remove the needles or hurt himself when he woke up again, and we’re only trying to do what’s best for him.”
“But he’s not doing any of that now.”
“We’re doing everything we can so that he gets better, and if he damages the IV or machines then it would set back treatment.”
“Can he at least get a pencil and paper to write on? You said he couldn’t speak.” A weak smile appeared on the boy’s face as he tried to nod. The doctor sighed and pulled out a pen and pad from one of the desks. They placed it by the kid’s right hand, and he slowly began to write. Every letter was a slow process. The handwriting was messy since he couldn’t see what he was doing, but the message was clear.
I...n...e...e...d...w...e...a...r...n...e...c...k...l...a...c...e...h...u...r...r...y
The last word was written larger and more deliberately than the others. Jeremy and Tom looked up from the notepad to the doctor, who sighed.
“I suppose it wouldn’t hurt.”
The boy couldn’t have looked happier in the state he was in. The doctor retrieved the chain and pendant from a desk drawer and gave it to Tom. The pendant’s blue light was nearly faded all away; Tom would have to cup it in his hands to see it.
“Between us, we never saw you put it on him. Got it?” the doctor instructed.
“Don’t know what you’re talking about, doc,” Jeremy responded. Tom unclipped the chain, circled the boy’s neck, and reclipped it. The light inside the necklace suddenly grew more intense, and the boy gained more color in his face in seconds.
“Thanks,” Cody said, breathing a sigh and falling asleep.
=============
[Part 5] [Part 7]
Holy bajeezus it's been awhile. 19 or 20 days? Sorry about that. Band camp was the week that this was supposed to go up, and the first week of school was busy enough to make me forget all about this for awhile. I did come up with a scene a night or two ago, though, which is gonna be tons of fun to write. There's lots of excitement coming up after these hospital scenes, I promise! I just need to find time to make sure I'm writing.
Also coming up later this year is NaNoWriMo! I'm gonna be trying my hand at it, thus this story will be put on hold for the entire length of November. Therefore, an apology in advance to all three of my readers who've ever seen this!
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