Tuesday - 4/12
HORTON HOUSE
Lily (Sandy’s daughter) walked down the stairs and into the kitchen. Marie was sitting at the table.
LILY: Morning.
MARIE: Good morning, darling. How are you?
LILY: I’m good, thanks. Getting ready for my shift at the hospital. How are you?
MARIE: Very well, thank you.
LILY: That’s good. I’m guessing Grandpa’s already at work.
MARIE: Well, if he is, I haven’t seen him go yet. Then again, I only came out here about an hour ago. Tommy’s always the first one up.
LILY: Oh, I know.
Lily opened her therapy bag and looked around for it.
LILY: Oops. Forgot something upstairs. Be right back.
LOFT
Joey knocked on the door. Alanis opened it.
ALANIS: Hey you.
JOEY: Hey. Ready to go?
ALANIS: Just about. Need to get my shoes. Come on in.
Joey walked in as Alanis picked up and put on her shoes.
ALANIS: Chase texted a little bit ago. Claire’s awake!
JOEY: Oh, thank goodness!
ALANIS: I know! I was so worried about her!
JOEY: You and me both. Do you wanna go visit her?
ALANIS: I want to, but Chase says she’s probably not up for that just yet, since they’re testing to see if she has any side effects. Once she’s up for visitors, he’ll let me know, though.
JOEY: Gotcha.
Alanis stood up.
ALANIS: Okay, ready. Let’s go have breakfast!
JOEY: Sounds good to me.
Alanis kissed Joey on the cheek.
JOEY: I love you.
ALANIS: I love you, too.
SALEM UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL
Addie had taken Shawn-D, Belle and Chase into one of the private waiting rooms.
BELLE: Did you get the test results back?
ADDIE: Most of them. We’re still waiting on one or two, but the majority of them have come back.
SHAWN-D: What do they say? Is Claire gonna be alright?
ADDIE: It may take some time, but yes, I have every confidence that she will be. Her brain function is at normal levels for someone who’s just woken up from a weeklong coma. She can speak and use complete sentences, but it sometimes takes time for her to form the right words. As she wakes up more, her speech will become better. At the moment, we’re trying to see if she can hold down food or if we need to keep the feeding tube in. That’s one of the tests we’re waiting on. We’re also going to see how her leg function is in a little bit. Her hand function is okay, but there’s a slight delay. We’re gonna keep an eye on it for the next few days, and if it doesn’t improve, she’ll probably need physical therapy. She recognizes who people are, so that’s a good thing.
CHASE: What about her liver? I know you worked on that while she was in a coma, but when the accident happened, there was so much blood coming from that side.
ADDIE: That was an initial concern. There’s a bit of scarring on the liver, and the doctor who normally takes care of her liver, Dr. Kirshner, will be monitoring her liver function closely for the next little while. Initial lab results look positive, so that’s a good thing. That’s one strong liver she’s got there.
SHAWN-D: Good to know that Zack’s liver is still hanging in there.
ADDIE: And doing an admirable job, from what we can tell so far. The other thing to look out for is mood swings. Sometimes coma patients will be confused or agitated, even after they’ve been awake for a few hours. We’re working on that.
BELLE: What a relief. Thank you so much, Addie!
CHASE: Yes, thank you.
ADDIE: You’re welcome. Do you have any other questions?
SHAWN-D: Can we see her?
ADDIE: I will check and see how she’s doing with the food. If that test is complete, then you most certainly can.
HORTON HOUSE
Lily came back down, but whatever she had gone upstairs to get wasn’t in her hand. She looked very pale. Marie looked up.
MARIE: Darling, are you all right?
Lily didn’t respond. She looked as though she was in shock. Marie stood up and gently put a hand on her shoulder.
MARLIE: Lily, darling, take a seat.
She gently guided Lily to a chair and had her sit down. Marie sat down next to her.
MARIE: What’s going on?
Lily gulped.
LILY: I…when I went upstairs to get…his door was closed. He never closes it unless he’s sleeping. I was worried, so I checked on him. Oh god!
Lily let out a sob and covered her face with her hands.
