13: A Demented Visit

‘Once more, it’s time to switch perspectives, since Alex’s only memory of the events recounted here were the result of people describing things to him. To understand more, we need to focus on those that managed to surround him at the hospital in the hours that followed. While they may not affect how we see Alex as the leader of a movement or as a spiritual leader, it still gives us insights into how he handled events, and also how people related to him during a crisis. Plus, actions undertaken at this time bear a little more insight into Alex’s unique abilities.‘

Cate quietly observed her brother with great concern. She knew they’d come very close to losing him and whatever amazing things he was destined to achieve. If Alex hadn’t acted so quickly she was sure he would be gone now. As it was, he still suffered quite a bit, but, aside from some minor scrapes and cuts, it was his mental state she was mostly concerned with.

She watched his now quiet form. He was resting semi-quietly now, although he’d been ranting on and off the entire way to the hospital. He had to be restrained to prevent injuring himself. Damn, he almost bit the ambulance driver, even if she’d thought it was cute. Cate simply shook her head. She could never believe the things her brother could pull off, even unintentionally.

Once they’d gotten into the hospital he continued to spout gibberish, sometimes speaking somewhat sensibly, other times getting glassy eyed and mumbling. She knew he was still in serious danger, as these were all signs of brain trauma, and that wasn’t good news no matter how you looked at it. The hospital staff in the emergency room had finally given him something to allow him to rest, with the strict provision that he be awakened every so often so they could measure his responses.

Cate knew what they were afraid of, aside from getting bitten or his falling off the bed, that is. They were afraid of swelling in his brain, though Cate was even more worried about longer term consequences. It would be terrible to see her brother on the cusp of something great, only to have him fall into a permanent dependent state due to the actions of one crazy individual.

Just the thought of Brandon set her on edge. Man did she ever want to rip that creep a new one. He’d clearly been on something. He simply wasn’t acting rationally. But then he compounded it by manipulating the police into treating everyone as common criminals, when they were all victims of his ruthless attack. She hoped the others were OK. She knew the police were busy questioning everyone, so she didn’t know if anyone would be available to sit here with Alex besides her. Alex definitely deserved to have his many loved ones beside him in his hour of need. Instead they were all...

The nurse came in then, probably to check on him again. For some unexplained reason they’d removed him from the emergency room, where he clearly belonged because he was obviously having an emergency. Instead they’d placed him here, in a private room. It afforded more privacy, but that was something she didn’t need at the moment and Alex wouldn’t be able to put it to any use while he remained semi-coherent.

The nurse began checking his vitals and Cate decided to take the opportunity to see if they knew anything yet.

“Can you let me know what you are planning to do with Alex? I’d hate to think you’ve just shuffled him off to the corner while something serious is happening to him.”

“Oh, no, Miss Jennings,” the nurse responded to her formally, which Cate immediately thought was odd. “He’s had a pretty severe concussion. We’ll have to keep a watch over him all night. If it’s bad enough we might have to open his skull to alleviate any swelling or excess bleeding on his brain. He’s going to get a CAT scan momentarily. That’ll give us some idea of the damage, but it’s always difficult to tell with concussions. The CAT only reveals concentrations of blood. Everything else is just guess work.”

While explaining this, the door quietly opened and a physician she recognized as Dr. Ryan Moore, the hospital administrator, entered. Dr. Moore was the man who took Alex on a tour of the hospital, having him help out on numerous cases.

“No he won’t,” Ryan insisted. “He won’t need a CAT scan. I have it under good authority from a scan done at the scene of the accident that he only has minimal bleeding. They’ve also informed me of the extent of the bruising to his brain and just how much swelling is occurring. We’ll go ahead with some tests, just for documentation, but they’ll be complete MRIs instead of a useless CAT scan. I’ve cleared their schedule so we can get him there right away, but I want to wait until my assistants can get here.”

At this point he turned and addressed Cate directly. “The idiot cops tried to restrain my medical personnel at the accident scene because of some wild assertions by the attacker. Luckily, someone had the good sense to call me directly, rather than leaving everything to the police. That’s how I managed to reroute the ambulance here instead of to the nearest treatment center, and why I knew to reserve this room for him. I let the police know what I thought of their holding my people, and had them release at least one of them. I’m hoping Allison will arrive shortly, as I want to ensure there’s no further swelling or renewed bleeding.”

“But,” the nurse started to reply, taking a moment to consider how she’d phrase her comment to her ultimate superior, “we need to know the extent of ... Wait, you said you know what parts of his brain were specifically injured?” She sounded astounded by the idea.

“That’s just not possible,” she continued. “There’s no way of knowing how much the human brain has been injured by an accident like this without a...” Here she hesitated, not wanting to mention an autopsy in front of a worried relative.

“Normally that’s true,” Ryan assured the nurse. “However I have some specialists who have access to a new technology which can effectively measure the actual extent of any and all brain injuries, without any surgical intervention or even using any radiation. That’s why I’m so anxious for them to get here.” Just then his phone rang, distracting him.

“Pardon me, one moment, this is likely to be important,” he said, addressing Cate directly.

“Hello, Dr. Ryan Moore here,” he answered.

“Yes, sir, I understand, sir. Now if you could get that message across to the police on the scene. They’re holding my medical personnel. We need to bring this matter to a successful resolution. We need those people, because otherwise there is no way to treat this patient.” He listened for a moment.

“Very good, I’m glad that’s finally being addressed. I’m glad you could help. I’ll be sure to keep you apprised of the situation as it develops, though I have it under good authority that, aside from some mild temporary dementia, the patient should suffer no long term damage.” He said a few more things, but after Cate heard him say “no long term damage” she was so overcome with relief she didn’t hear much more.

She broke down in tears of relief at that moment, and the doctor came over and patted her on her back, quietly reassuring her.

“That was the Senior Senator of the State of Louisiana calling to assure me that he’d personally spoken to the Governor to help get them to prioritize their handling of this affair. Someone must have called in some big personal favors to arrange this, and somehow I’m not surprised your brother managed to have it done for his benefit.”

Cate looked up, glancing at him through tear soaked eyes. She observed the nurse still standing there, apparently fascinated enough in the proceedings to remain quietly observing what the hospital administrator had to say.

“He said your friends should be free to travel soon. I don’t know how long it will take them to get here, or who they allowed to leave before this, but I think things are looking up now.”

Cate briefly wondered who she knew that could arrange such major intervention in their case, but immediately realized it had to be Allison. She kept stressing how she knew several prominent individuals in New Orleans. Apparently she’d used her connections to pull some strings. Cate was thankful, and made plans to personally thank her for whatever she’d done.

The door opened again and Allison entered, followed by a uniformed policeman. She immediately hurried to Alex’s bedside, pushing the useless nurse out of the way and closely examined his head. She used a metal tray to shield the glare of his aura, which made the entire scene that much more surreal. The cop, meanwhile, examined everything in the room, apparently recognizing the good doctor.

“Should I return the tray? The cafeteria people were a little perturbed when she grabbed it from them.”

“No, it’s fine. I’ll return it and make sure everything is taken care of,” Ryan assured him, at which point the cop nodded his head at Ryan and left, shaking his head as he did.

“You’ll have to halt whatever they’re giving him as it’s only confusing things, but he seems to be doing OK,” Allison advised everyone, immediately assuming the role of the medical expert on the scene. “The bruising on the underside of his brain is a little worse, but the small portions affected in the front and side are no worse, and there’s only minimal bleeding. Overall he’s looking pretty good. How is he responding?”

The nurse started to object, but Dr. Moore signaled her to be quiet and they all turned to Cate for her personal observations.

“He’s been semi-coherent, occasionally lapsing into nonsensical ramblings. They put him on something to keep him quiet, mainly to keep him from accidentally injuring himself. I insisted they take off his restraints, telling them I’d personally watch over him to ensure he didn’t accidentally hurt himself. Since then he’s been mostly sleeping, although they come in about every 30 minutes to evaluate how much sense he’s making,” she informed them all.

“Every twenty minutes,” the nurse corrected her.

“From now on, this woman,” Dr. Moore insisted indicating Allison, “is in charge of this man’s care. Do whatever she says. I don’t care what anyone else says, including the head of neuropathy. If she says don’t do something, no one does it. Is that understood?” he asked, staring pointedly at the poor nurse. She nodded nervously, then hurriedly left to spread the new orders to the rest of the staff.

“When was the last time you spoke to him?” Allison asked Cate.

“It’s been a while now. I thought she was coming in to wake him again, but she first checked his vitals and then she started explaining things and...” She left the obvious conclusion unsaid.

“Well, I’d better try to wake him then,” Allison announced, more to herself than anyone else.

“Just be careful when you do,” Cate advised with a brief laugh, “he tried to bite the EMT on her tit.”

“Maybe that just means he’s perfectly normal,” Allison teased in response.

“Yeah, it sure looked like the old Alex,” Cate agreed. “She was more pleased than annoyed by it. Only he could charm women while he’s babbling incoherently.” Her words sounded mocking, but her love for her brother shown clear for each of them to see in her eyes.

Allison gently shook him, whispering softly. He jerked a bit as he came awake.

“Leave the blue pants ... where’s my pretty breastie?” he mumbled.

“Alex, Alex, it’s Allison. We’re checking to see how you are. Can you understand what I’m saying to you?”

“Uh, Alizon? Where’s the pretty breast that was ... uh, that was...”

She turned to regard Ryan. “Yeah, I’d describe that as semi-coherent. He recognizes words and actions, but can’t quite formulate complete thoughts.” She cradled Alex in her arms as she thought a second.

“Why don’t you see if your friends in the neurology department have a model brain I can use to show you what areas were impacted by his attack. In fact, bring down a neurologist so he’ll be able to advise us on what the damage I describe might be liable to do in this case,” she ordered the doctor. He immediately pulled out his phone and began dialing.

“Remind me,” he told Cate as he was waiting for the phone to be answered, “I’ve got an attorney your father should probably have for this, just in case it gets ugly. I don’t know what he can afford, but if he needs help, I’m sure I can barter a substantial reduction in his fees.” Cate simply nodded at him as he quickly turned back once his call was answered.

Cate moved up and ran her hands along her brother’s face as Allison cradled him. This is more like it, she thought. He deserves to be amongst his many friends.

After Ryan’s hurried conversation with the neurologist, he quickly called Frank Jennings to convey his offer and information, as well as asking how things had been progressing.

“They’d been holding everyone for questioning,” he whispered to the girls. “They were taking the attackers words over theirs, despite the denials by his sister. Once the Governor called the police chief, and he called the officers, things got moving again. Your parents and the rest of the girls are on their way here. Apparently the other girl I met before, Chalise I believe her name was, came here in a separate ambulance to be checked as well. They don’t think she really needed anything, but her brother was yelling about suing everyone, so they decided they wanted evidence of his assault on her. I’ll have someone downstairs check on her for us.”

“Chatty?” Alex groggily asked, seeming to brighten a bit.

“Chatty’s hurt?”

“Alex? Can you tell me the date?” Ryan asked him, finally stepping up and trying to evaluate Alex himself.

“I already have ... one ... morrow,” he weakly tried to explain.

“No, do you know what the date is?” Ryan proceeded to explain very slowly.

“Today or ... morrow?” Alex asked, trying hard to focus.

“Today’s fine,” Ryan assured him, although Cate was sure that wasn’t what he’d been trying to ask.

“Friday, April 7th?” he asked, unsure.

“Very good,” Ryan told him. “What year is it?” Alex mumbled a year, seemingly at random.

“Not what year you were born, silly,” Cate told him, gently stroking his cheek.

“When can I talk to the breasts again?”

“As soon as you promise not to try biting them,” Cate assured him, her eyes again growing misty.

“All right,” Ryan said, stepping back so Alex wouldn’t be further distracted by him. “He is indeed semi-coherent. He recognizes simple facts, names, even the current date. But he seems unable to put them together in a sensible pattern.”

“That’s what it sounds like,” Allison said, agreeing with his symptoms.

Another doctor entered, slightly heavier with a wispy head of hair and a thin mustache and wire rim glasses.

“Ah, Dr. Padilla, welcome. We’ve got a most unusual case that I think you’ll be interested in. Now, before we say anything further, I want you to avoid asking any questions about what you hear. Just assume that, however unlikely, what you are going to be hearing is true. We need you to advise us on the possible extent of this man’s injuries based upon what Ms. Livermore here tells us. Also, I want to say that, anything said here is NOT to leave this room. You have to swear to not repeat a word of it.”

Dr. Padilla, intrigued by a new mystery and confused by the secrecy insisted upon, grudgingly agreed. When asked, he handed Allison the plastic model brain he had brought along with him.

Stepping away from Alex, leaving him in his sister’s capable hands, Allison proceeded to point out each of Alex’s injuries from having his brain severely jostled. She described the extent of the damage, while avoiding any description of odd colors or how she derived the information. When Dr. Padilla tried arguing there was no way to possibly know such information, Ryan simply hushed him, and the discussion continued.

They proceeded to briefly discuss possible repercussions of an injury of the type described. Dr. Moore then described Alex’s symptoms. The neurologist agreed that it sounded likely, occasionally glancing over at Alex as he did so.

“Well, if there’s no more substantial injury than those, I’d guess he should recover pretty quickly,” he surmised. “But we’ve never been able to measure brain injuries before, and we don’t know how much a ‘simple’ bruise might impair someone. Still, I’d try to keep him awake and talking. Chances are he’ll be able to focus more that way and he’ll regain more of his rational thought process as a result.”

Ryan thanked him and then asked if he’d like to stay and examine the patient as he recovered. He agreed, but they immediately got into a quiet discussion over whether they shouldn’t do an MRI for comparison purposes. They both agreed, though Ryan said he’d been planning on doing a baseline in the morning, but that that idea was moot now.

Gail Sanders paused outside the door. She’d felt drawn by whatever stood on the other side of the door while she was driving past, a good quarter mile away. Being an officer, she had learned to listen to her instincts. They’d worked for her in numerous instances, leading her to be one of the most promising officers on the force. Yet she wasn’t sure until she started getting closer. The nearer she got, the stronger the feelings grew. At first she thought it was just an intuition about something occurring, so she was watchful. But once she’d reached the hospital she knew there was a source of great power here, something she’d never encountered before and she was anxious to find the source.

She’d assumed it must be a person, if this much power was generated by an inanimate object it would be classified a dangerous substance. It took her a couple of tries to get the floor correct. She knew when she’d passed it, but had a hard time figuring out the exact floor. Now she stood outside the door and she could actually feel the source of her feelings residing inside. She felt more than a little nervous. More nervous than when she was about to break into a dangerous suspect’s house. Then she only had to fear for her life, now she was afraid of what or who she may find. Death is certain, what she was facing was completely unknown. Girding herself, she slowly opened the door.

Cate, Allison and the two doctors turned when the door suddenly swung open. They were surprised when a young policewoman entered the room, glancing around as if she was searching for something. She had the typical police style, hair pulled tightly back into a bun and wearing a cap and starched blue uniform, so it was hard to gauge her true looks. However, she looked more curious than if she was on duty.

Ryan quickly became defensive. “You’ve got no business in here, Miss, as this is a private medical evaluation.”

However, the police officer paid him no heed, as she quickly focused on the helpless figure on the bed. She slowly approached him, as if afraid, and looked down at him for a moment. She looked at him reverently for a few short moments, then Allison suddenly decided something. Allison pushed her back, manhandling and turning her, shoving her towards the back of the room. The young woman kept glancing back at Alex, over her shoulder, but Allison was insistent.

“OK, stop looking at him. This is important. If you want to help him, you need to focus. Did you look in his eyes?”

This seemed to focus the woman’s attention, though you could tell she was fighting the constant desire to glance back at Alex.

“Yes, I looked at him, but he didn’t seem to react to me.”

Allison nodded. “Cate, get over here. Let the nurse earn her pay by looking after your brother, you’ve got something to look after here.” As she drew near, Allison quickly started explaining what she had picked up on.

“She’s one of us, but she hasn’t been activated yet. That means it isn’t simply the eye contact that is necessary, but that Alex needs to be alert enough to be aware of what he’s doing. It’s clearly a conscious thing that he’s doing. We’ll have to wait until the others get here, but, in each of them, I remember seeing a particular bright spot in their brains that other people don’t have. This woman doesn’t have it yet. That seems to imply that when Alex activates us, he triggers something in a specific area of the brain.”

She turned and called out to Ryan, who had been drawing closer along with Dr. Padilla. “I think now would be a good time to take Alex for that MRI you both want. We’ll take this one with us so she’ll be out of the way. When you get back, I’ll watch her as she first greets Alex. I think I already know the area involved, but I’ll make sure when I see it actually happen. I think we’re ready to discover another significant piece of the whole Alex puzzle,” she told him, growing more and more excited, despite the fact that Ryan still didn’t know much of it.

Dr. Moore called the nurse and started shouting instructions, growing excited himself. He wasn’t quite sure what was happening, but he knew it had to be significant. He knew he had to document what was happening, but he already trusted these people enough to assume that whatever they told him was true. He was already sure that Alex would be OK, but he wasn’t sure if the time needed to run an MRI would be enough for him to recover. He wanted to get it done as soon as he could, as he was anxious to see whatever Allison was looking to discover.

Everyone started moving then and Allison and Cate guided the woman, whose name no one had even asked yet, to the nearby visitors lounge while the nurses were busy getting Alex ready for a trip to the testing suites. Without Alex being conscious, Allison couldn’t communicate with any of the other women, so she quickly called them while she gave Cate a chance to brief the new woman.

“Hey, this is Allison,” she responded when Shani answered her phone. “Are you guys close? We have an interesting situation here. No, no, Alex is fine, although he’s still only slightly coherent. That’s why I have to use a phone to talk to you guys. I’ll explain everything when you get here though.”

Shani told her she’d need to contact Brooke, as she’d called in a panic when she felt Alex’s fear and then couldn’t contact him afterwards, so she assured her she would, but that they had a lot to do in the meantime. She then turned to Cate and this newest member of their coterie.

Apparently Cate was too busy detailing everything involved in being a member of Alex’s select group to even slow down enough to ask anything of the officer, who was listening, fascinated with everything she said.

“The others should be here soon,” Allison told Cate. “I’m having them meet us here, so I can do a baseline on them before I observe what it is I’m looking for. I’m assuming Dr. Moore will call me when they’re ready to return.”

She observed this newest woman, who, although somewhat pretty, looked stark and severe with her hair pulled back in that bun and wearing her uniform. She wasn’t a big girl, but was in good condition, apparently from spending time in a gym and on her job. Beyond that she didn’t try to figure anything else out, she simply assumed she’d learn it when Alex did, since she wanted him to be the first to get to know her, rather than trying to pass him faulty information from a hurried conversation.

Gail found this whole thing quite odd. There was clearly a very important person lying injured in the next room, and the people in this room with her were apparently in charge. What they’d just told her was amazing. Hell, if a witness had told her this story during an interview she’d have laughed at them and called in for a psych evaluation. But now she was sure they were telling the truth. She knew this was no mere young man.