BEAUTIFUL BROKEN MESS (Broken, Series #2)(93)

“Working on him?” I quickly inquire.

“I’m sorry. I’m Dr. Graham. You are related to Jaxon Riley, correct?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Would you like to step out in the hall to speak?” he questions, while looking at all the eyes peering up at him.

I look down and see Em’s anxious face and shake my head, “They’re all here for him as well. You can say it here.”

“Alright then. Your brother endured what appears to be a mild traumatic brain injury. We ran almost every test possible and I’m optimistic at his outcome. You need to know that he is comatose at the moment. The scans of his brain do show signs of mild swelling, so we need to just give him time to heal. I don’t believe we need to take any drastic measures at the moment.”

“Just give him time? That’s all we can do?” I ask roughly.

“We’ll continue to monitor him closely and let his body do the repairing,” Dr. Graham calmly replies.

“How long could he be in a coma, Doctor?” Em requests from her chair, her hands gripping the armrests tightly.

“Everyone reacts differently to a brain injury, so I’m sorry to say we don’t know at this point. He’s rating average on the GCS...”

“GCS?” Cole asks.

“Glasgow Coma Scale,” I answer quickly.

“Nice job. Are you in the medical field?” Dr. Graham questions.

“Not anymore. When can we see him?” I ask, not missing the slight gasp Em lets slip. Shit, I forgot I hadn’t told her about dropping Pre-med.

“We need to run a few more tests. His motor skills are responding to pain.” When I flinch, he hastily adds, “That’s a good sign. We’ll make sure he doesn’t have any additional discomfort, but it’s part of assessing his brain activity. I just want you guys to prepare yourselves. Even though a coma simply means he’s unconscious, he could be like this for a few more hours, days, weeks...if it goes further than that, we’ll re-evaluate our options. ”

When no one says anything else, Dr. Graham continues, “He’s breathing on his own and showing pupillary responses to light. Give him time; I have high hopes for him. From what I heard of the fall, it could have been much worse. He doesn’t have any broken bones or damage to his spinal cord. We’ll take this one day at a time. Just be there for him, but make sure you’re still taking care of yourselves.”

He leans over to shake my hand and lets me know he’ll send in a nurse when we can go see Jax. I sink to floor beneath the weight of his words and cover my face with my hands. My brother is in a coma. Unconscious. Comatose.




  - Sixteen -



AUDREY -

My heart breaks as I watch Jace’s body gradually slide down the wall. His brother is beyond his best friend, he’s spent almost every moment of his life with him. Seeing as I’ve spent my whole life craving to have just one person slightly care about me, I can’t imagine what even a fraction of his sadness must feel like. But now I’m starting to see why Em tried to push people away from her. You can’t miss what you never had.

I make my way toward Jace slowly and sink down next to him. He doesn’t acknowledge me at all. I know I shouldn’t be hurt by his coldness toward me, but after everything we’ve been through, I would have hoped he’d let me be here for him during hard times. I grab his thigh and he flinches but doesn’t move. I squeeze three times, hoping he’ll know what I mean and that I’m here for him. That I’ll help him any way I can. He doesn’t respond, instead he just lays his head on his knees and breathes in roughly.