Chasing the Sun

When Dr. Davidson had said the first forty-eight would be the hardest, she hadn’t been lying.

After coming back from the hiatus he took from the hospital per his friends persistence, he found out there had been a scare of infection—Abbey’s level had been upgraded until the scare went down, meaning Tyler was only able to watch her from the other side of the glass hospital room. No more skin-to-skin, hand-to-hand contact.

Twelve hours after that another scare, one more legitimate than before. After countless tests, and pinpricking of blood and spinal fluids, the doctors had determined all it had been was a scare, and if she were able to make the next fifteen hours that they would go in and hopefully operate to place the skull flap back on.

“Everything looks good so far with Abbey, surgery is a go.” Dr. Mather- another neurosurgeon announced after the ‘forty-eight hour hold’ was over. Tyler breathed a sigh of relief to himself. This signaled a good thing. She was still fighting, and even though she had a lot of fight ahead of her, she would still fight. “Around four Dr. Davidson will be in to get her, and we’ll hopefully be able to put that skull flap on.” The doctor was positive, something Tyler had appreciated so much, giving him hope that everything really would be okay.

At four promptly Dr. Davidson and Dr. Mather came and got Abbey, he followed them- and her mess of machines- until the sign for only authorized personnel, and then met a couple of his teammates- and their significant others- in the waiting room.

Tyler paced, and paced, and paced, and paced around the small waiting room until Sidney- the lone bachelor of the group- grabbed him by the coat sleeve, and shoved him into one of those uncomfortable hospital chairs.

“Sit,” he ordered after Tyler gave him a ‘what the fuck was that for?’ look. “And lay off the coffee, will ya? You’re making us all nervous over here with all your pacing.” Tyler knew he was kidding, but the small- and immature- child in him decided it was funny to stick his tongue out at him, despite being the older of the two. Sidney shook his head in disgust, muttering something about children underneath his breath as he went back to reading a copy of ESPN Magazine he had picked up.

“I’m just antsy,” he finally mumbled, pulling his cell phone out of his pocket and opening up Temple Run, his current addiction while waiting for any news.

“Is that it?” Sidney grinned, flashing his famous pearly whites. Internally, Tyler grinned because of all the time Abbey had made a joke about how one day she would finally dump his sorry ass for the captain—always a joke, something that was now actually comical to him. “What?” he asked, noticing the stupid grin on his friends face. Tyler shook his head and continued playing the game until the doctors came out three hours later.

“Everything went stupendous in Ms. McNealy’s surgery. She’s back in Intensive Care, and on stronger doses of medications because of wanting to fight off any potential infections. The swelling that prevented us from re-capping went away, which was beautiful, and so now we wait until tomorrow to perform the neurological tests that I was speaking to you about earlier on in the week.”

So far all things were a going good. Tyler only hoped, prayed that one hundred percent function would be seen once they had done their tests tomorrow afternoon.

“As of right now, Mr. Kennedy, Abbey’s neurologic function looks as if it is still there. That is not to say it will or will not deteriorate over the next couple of days, it’s something we will be monitoring very closely, but we wanted to give you the latest update as to what is currently happening.” Tyler grinned- bigger than he had in years- and hugged the doctor, surprising them both.

“Thank you, thank you, thank you, doctor.” He replied with full elation. Dr. Davidson shook his hand, and let him know that if he needed anything then he knew where to find her. Tyler nodded, and retreated back to his permanent spot next to Abbey’s hospital bed.

After a bit, he took out his phone- something typically frowned upon in the ICU- and sent a mass text to his family, teammates, and close friends back home that knew what had happened. Great news about Abs today! Seems to have perfect neuro function. All seems well, can’t wait until she wakes up! Thank you for all the well wishes, and prayers. Ty and Abbey.

Sending the text message, and slipping his phone back into his back pocket as one of the nurses knocked on the door, letting her in.

“Mr. Kennedy, you have some people here for you, they’re in the waiting room.” Tyler scratched his head as the pretty blonde- Claire? Clarissa? Jenny? – stood in the doorway. Who would be there? The guys were on a western conference road trip to San Jose, LA, and Anaheim so it couldn’t have been one of them; his parents hadn’t planned on making the trip down to Pittsburgh until at least early next week; and any friends from back home had families, and jobs that they couldn’t just leave without letting him know whether they were coming. He didn’t like surprises.

No he didn’t like surprises at all.