Katie couldn't believe her ears. She looked down, only to see blue eyes staring up at her. "Trent?" she whispered, a smile coming to her face. Tears of anguish turned to that of joy as she took in the sight before her. "Oh Trent, honey......." She trailed off, for words could not express her gratitude at the moment.

"Mom, don't cry," he said, his voice hoarse. "It's okay."

"I know honey, I'm just so happy that you're okay."

"I saw you crying and I didn't want you to be so sad, so I came back." Trent explained as best he could.

"Trent, what do you mean?"

"I-" he broke into a coughing fit.

The sound of his 'dead' patient nearly hacking his brains out seemed to snap Dr. Anjer out of his trance. He rushed forward, gently pushing Katie out of the way. "Nurse Allen, let's hook up the IV and heart monitor again, and get some oxygen. I don't believe the respirator is necessary anymore. Also, order some more chest x-rays, and another sack of Gentamycin. Let's check the fever, and..." He placed his hand on Trent's forehead. "and try to break it, he still feels too hot. Oh,

yeah, and call the morgue, tell them they have a free freezer, our patient decided to come back to life." He didn't know how the ME would respond to that one, but he pictured the look on her face, and smiled.

There really wasn't any time to think about the 'logic' of the event he just witnessed. He had seen the power of prayer before, he had even met some people who had claimed to be 'angels' those three always did seem to pop up during unexpected times. And they always seemed to help people. But never had he witnessed a clinically dead person just come back to life. And Trent had been dead for 25 minutes, he should've shut down completely, and he did. There wasn't any way to explain it, it just happened.

Tommy had finally stopped running, and quietly sank to the ground, sobbing softly. He was in the back of the hospital, in some kind of courtyard, and there was no one in sight.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, shoes appeared beside him. He looked up. Those shoes belonged to a tall blonde man.

"Are you Tommy?" he asked, sitting down beside the young boy.

"Yeah, why?"

"You're Trent's brother, right? Not waiting for a response, he continued. "I'm Andrew. You know, I was just with your brother."

Tommy looked at him oddly. "My brother just died, how could you have just been with my brother?"

"It's my job, I'm always there during people's last moments. But it's nice every once in a while to know that it wasn't their time."

Walker had walked up behind the two just in time to hear Andrew's last comment. "Andrew?"

Andrew looked up. "Hey Walker."

"Um, Andrew, what were you just saying?"

"Oh, I was just telling Tommy about how nice it is when it's not a person's time."

"Yeah, that's what I thought. Oh, and And-" He didn't finish, the man had just disappeared.

"Whoa......." Tommy trailed off. "Walker, what was that all about?"

"I'll tell you on the way Tommy, cause we gotta get back up to Trent's room." He started to walk off, and Tommy quickly caught up to him.

"Walker, who was that?"

"Who, Andrew? I've met him on an occasion or two, nice guy. Really nice, considering his job."

"Huh? What's his job."

"Well, you'd think, being the Angel of Death and all, that he wouldn't be so nice all the time.......Oh, we're here." He walked into ICU, leaving many of

Tommy's questions unanswered.

Tommy walked after Walker into Trent's room, and stopped in his tracks. "Oh my gosh," he whispered, looking at the sight before him. Instead of a sheet wrapped body, he saw his brother, alive, sitting up in bed with the aid of a few pillows, doctors and nurses bustling around him. There wasn't a respirator, just an oxygen mask around his face. Everyone was smiling, Carlos, his mom, Roscoe, Kim, Butch. "Trent?"

Trent saw his brother, and lifted a hand. He took off the mask.

"Hey Tommy," he said weakly. He started to say more, but was cut off by a nurse who hastily put the oxygen mask back on.

In about an hour the room had grown quieter, and Trent had fallen asleep. Katie, Carlos, Tommy, Walker, Kim, and Butch were out in the hallway, still amazed at what happened.

"Mrs. Malloy." Dr. Anjer approached the woman.

Katie turned around and smiled. "Dr. Anjer, how is he?"

"Well, he's breathing on his own now, the infection is down just slightly. His fever's at 103.1, and I'm thinking that it'll be down to a controllable rate in a few days. We've started another round of antibiotics in the IV. There's still a high round of the bacteria in his lungs, especially in the left one. But all things considering, we witnessed a miracle. In all my days as a doctor, I have never witnessed a patient coming back to life after being clinically dead for 25 minutes."

"It's the power of prayer," Roscoe explained. "Trent had a lot of people praying for him."

"I don't doubt that for a second Pastor Jones. But he's not out of the woods yet. I want to keep him in ICU until the fever is down to about 100 and the infection is down significantly."

"But he's going to be okay?" Katie asked, just for confirmation.

"Yes, Mrs. Malloy, I think he's going to be okay."

*****************

Carlos quietly walked into Trent's room. Katie had finally allowed herself to be taken home, and he had volunteered to stay with Trent. He sat down and started thinking.

He couldn't believe that just a few short hours ago his best friend was dead. Literately, dead. And then...............

He didn't know what to say. What could you say. He had never been a deeply religious person, like Trent, but he knew that science hadn't brought his friend back. It had to have been God. "Thanks," he whispered to this unseen force above him.

"Thanks for what?"

Carlos turned to look at his friend. "Hey man."

"Hey," Trent replied softly. "Thanks for what?" he repeated.

Carlos pointed towards the sky. "Just thanking' the man upstairs for bringing back my best friend.............Look, Trent, I'm really sorry."

Trent looked puzzled. "Sorry, why should you be sorry?"

He shook his head. "I shouldn't have gone off with Walker and left you with all the work. I mean, look what happened."

"Carlos, this isn't your fault. You had no way to know that I'd get sick. I had no way to know if I'd get sick. It's mostly my fault, I should've taken better care of myself when I started to feel bad, a-" He stopped, short of breath.

"Trent, what's wrong. Are you okay?" Carlos stood up quickly.

"Yeah, just......give,....me, a-" Trent started coughing.

Carlos put the oxygen mask back on. "Nurse!"

Trent pushed the mask back down. "Carlos," he gasped.

"Yeah Trent, what is it?" Carlos leaned forward.

"Hard,.....to.........breathe."

"Here buddy, put the mask back on." Carlos placed it back on his face.

Trent pushed it back down. "No, makes, it,..........worse."

"Okay, I'll be right back." Carlos was in a panic. He raced out of the room, looking for Dr. Anjer. He ran down to the ICU nurses' station. "Page Dr. Anjer," he exclaimed. "Trent, he can't breathe."

A nurse nodded and spoke into the intercom. "Dr. Anjer, to ICU, stat."

A few seconds later the Doctor strode in. When he saw Carlos, he quickened his step. "What's wrong?"

"Trent can't breathe." Carlos looked back towards Trent's room.

"Okay, come on." Dr. Anjer motioned to a few nurses. They ran into the room.

It was apparent that Trent had stopped breathing. His lips were turning blue.

"Nurse Hilliard, get a respirator, NOW!!!" Dr. Anjer started CPR.

The nurse came back with a respirator, and Dr. Anjer quickly began hooking it up. After performing the procedure, he injected the IV. "This'll let him rest for awhile," he explained to a terrified Carlos. "Look, Mr. Sandoval, why don't you go on home. It's 11:30, you look like you need some sleep."

"No, I can't." Carlos began.

"Yes you can, I insist. Trent will be all right. It seems that the infection in his lungs was a little worse than we thought. But he'll be alright. You need to go home and sleep, Trent's out for the night."

Carlos sighed in defeat. "Alright." He grabbed his coat and walked out the door.

As he was walking to his car Carlos dialed up Katie on his cell phone.

"Hello."

"Hey, Mrs. Malloy, this is Carlos."

"Carlos, what's wrong?"

"Um, Trent stopped breathing, so they had to put the respirator back in. He-"

He was cut off by Katie "I'm coming down there right now."

"No Mrs. Malloy, it's okay. Dr. Anjer said that he's fine now, there were just complications with the infection. They gave him something and he's out for the night. Dr. Anjer convinced me to go home, and I don't think you should be up here, you need some rest."

Carlos heard Katie sigh. "Okay, but I'm coming up there first thing tomorrow morning."

"Okay, you do that. Bye Mrs. Malloy"

"By Carlos."

Carlos hung up his phone. He had kept his cool while talking to Katie, but he was really shaken up. It was pretty scary. Trent practically died in there, again.

He drove home and walked inside. He had left his apartment in disarray when he left, it was worse than it usually was. He picked up a few things, but soon realized that he was more tired than he originally thought. He flopped down on the couch and was asleep before he knew it.

  Part 9

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