Chapter 22

"Hello Dr. Marx" Howie greeted once he calmed down enough to find his voice.

"I'm sorry for startling you gentlemen" said Dr. Marx apologetically as he entered the room.

"That is alright" Howie replied for the whole group. "Are you guys ok?" he quietly asked Kevin and AJ who were beside of him and hadn't spoken yet.

"Yeah" Kevin said as he nodded his head. "Hello Dr. Marx" he sheepishly said, somewhat embarrassed by his reaction to the doctor's unexpected greeting.

Dr. Marx smiled and took a seat. "We got the results of your friend Nick's test results back" he stated without making eye contact.

"And what did this result show?" asked Kevin curiously as he moved to a seat closer to the doctor.

"Well first off let's meet in my office and I will explain to you what the x-rays of his head and the CAT scans show." Dr. Marx explained before he stood up and signaled for the boys to follow him. Howie, AJ, and Kevin all stood up and followed the down the hall to the elevators and rode the elevator to the 6th floor. Once they exited the elevator they followed the doctor down a hallway with offices on each side. And they entered the office that the doctor opened the door to and nervously sat down as the doctor turned the x-ray viewer machine on and pulled some x-rays out of a big manilla envelope. Each boy held their breath as they waited for the doctor to begin speaking. Once Dr. Marx placed a x-ray on the machine, he turned around and faced the young men in his office and pointed to an area on the x-ray.

"Well as you can see here, there is a crack in his skull and from this CAT scan" Dr. Marx said as he switched x-rays "You can see in this area here that his brain is slightly bruised."

The room got strangely quiet just after the doctor delivered this information.

"Does that mean he will have brain damage when he wakes up?" asked Howie.

"If he wakes up brain damage is a good possibility. All we can down now is keep him alive and whether or not he survives is solely up to him."

Kevin sat back in his chair and sighed as he massaged the bridge of his nose with his index and thumb fingers, he could just feel a headache ready to surface. Suddenly there was a firm knock at the door and a woman in a white nurse's uniform entered the room.

"Sorry to disturb you gentlemen, but there is a Officer Daniels in the ICU waiting room who would like to speak with Mr. Dorough and party as soon as they are finished in here." the nurse announced.

"Thank you Lynn. Please tell Officer Daniels that these gentlemen will be in the waiting room in a few minutes." Dr. Marx told the nurse as she backed out of the room and smiled at the doctor and the three young men in his office.

Once Lynn was gone Kevin, AJ, and Howie all returned their undivided attention to the doctor.

"As soon as you all are done with speaking with the officer, you may go visit Nick if you wish. If any of the nurses in the ICU unit stop you, just tell them I sent you but if they are administering medication or anything to Nick just wait before entering, ok?"

"Yes sir." they all replied.

Dr. Marx smiled and got up from his chair. "You gentlemen may go now, if anything else comes up I will contact you as soon as possible and if you have any questions just have me paged."

"Thank you Dr. Marx" said Kevin as he shook the doctor's hand. "Come on guys the quicker we talk to Officer Daniels the sooner we can go see Nicky."

Both AJ and Howie jumped up from their chairs and followed Kevin out of the room.

"Hey Kev?" said AJ

"Yeah?" replied Kevin.

"Isn't Officer Daniels the one who found Nick's body and called you?"

Kevin stopped for a moment to think and his eyes got larger as he realized what AJ had said was true. "Yeah it is AJ. I didn't think of that until you mentioned it." he admitted sheepishly.

"Let's just get this over with. Maybe the quicker we give this officer information, the quicker Bri will be found." Howie suggested.

"I agree with ya ‘D." AJ said as he flung his arm on Howie's shoulder and grinned, trying to lighten up the mood.

"Hey AJ?" said Howie

"Yeah ‘D?"

"Get your arm off of my shoulder" Howie said as he pulled AJ's arm off of his shoulder and entered the elevator. Howie waved as the elevator doors closed, leaving both Kevin and AJ standing outside. They both watched as the digital number beside the elevator kept decreasing as the elevator made it's way to the lower levels.

"Well that is just gratitude for ya." AJ mumbled as he repeatedly pushed the down arrow hoping the elevator would come back before it dropped Howie off.

"That ain't gonna work AJ." said Kevin as the number stopped. "The elevator already let him off."

"Well I guess we shall go downstairs the long way." AJ said as he looked towards the door that lead to the stairs.

"Yeah might as well this darn elevator is taking too long" Kevin grumbled as he turned towards the door and walked in that direction.

"Coming AJ?" Kevin asked as he opened the door.

"Yeah right behind ya Kev." AJ replied as he ran over to the door.

Both friends down the stairs silently, both hoping that the officer would find their friend soon and that their other friend would survive