The Lockdown

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The next few days went by agonizingly slow. Andy called them whenever he felt up to it, the first day he could hardly eat anything solid so the doctors kept the infusion going for hydration and to get the antibiotics into his system easier and spare his stomach. Even on the first day the nurses made him get up multiple times, just a few steps first, but by the following day he was able to go to the bathroom alone so they removed the catheter. He admitted it to Cam how embarrassed he was when they did that, thankfully he was not conscious when they put it in. Even worse was when a nurse came in the first day and washed him down with a sponge. Cam started to devise an elaborate plan to sneak into the hospital as a nurse just for bath time to make Andy laugh.

Cam spent the rest of the time playing with BB (a lot), getting to know Jennie, who truly became the sister he never had in just a few days, and teaching some Filipino dishes to Maggie, who, in turn, taught him some of Andy's favorites. Jennie was pretty much incredulous when Cam told her that Andy was getting better at cooking, though Maggie approved his efforts.

Jennie was an elementary school teacher and spent the mornings with remote teaching made easier now that there was someone to occupy BB while she had classes. Her husband, Charlie also worked from home because of the pandemic, but BB was rather difficult to keep track of and eventually both her students and his colleagues got used to the unavoidable interruptions.

Cam got to explore Andy's room and he had a lot of questions about Andy's punk and hard metal rock paraphernalia when he found a Rammstein T-shirt, a studded dog collar and a few Sex Pistols, Carcass and Iron Maiden CDs. Maggie articulated her theory that it was just a teenage rebellion because they wouldn't let him spend the summer in California with his best friend at the time and thanked the heavens that the phase lasted less than six months until the best friend turned out to be a jerk and tried to hit on the 14-year-old Jennie.

Uncle Joe and Sarah took care of the bar starting to prepare it for the eventual reopening. He got Cam involved in his talks with their suppliers, a few of which they lost because they shut down recently or got way too expensive and had to be replaced.

On Friday, Dr. Palter had a conference call with them and Andy and since he had been improving remarkably every day, barring any setbacks, decided to let him go home the next Monday just a week after his surgery, mostly because he had a great support system to take care of him while he recovered.

Andy had a minor fight with his mother when he refused her offer to move back for a while desperately wanting to just go home with Cam. Jennie interceded and decided the argument by siding with her brother, though even Maggie admitted that she made a good point highlighting the fact that he would be so much closer to the hospital at their place in case anything went wrong.

The next day, Jennie took Cam shopping for supplies to make sure they would have everything they needed for at least the next two weeks. As they were carrying their purchases into the apartment Cam saw his father waiting for him in the same spot he was the week before. He decided to pretend he was not even there and the older Reyes was patiently watching them unload the car. They cleaned the place and slightly rearranged the living room, Andy's bedroom and the bathroom to make moving around easier. Leaving the apartment, Cam felt bad for his father and crossed the street just to tell him that it was a very bad time and asked him to go home. Jennie was observing the scene with heightening curiosity obviously noting the familial resemblance, but she did not press the issue seeing their tense exchange and Cam's gloomy demeanor.

On Monday morning, as per the doctor's conditions, all four went to the hospital early and got tested. They had to wait two hours for the negative results which the doctor also got from the lab and released Andy from his care. Cam had to leave a small bag of clothes in front of the glass door, which an orderly took, and half an hour later Andy was wheeled out through the forbidding entrance. Hospitals make patients sit into wheelchairs for insurance reasons mostly, but Andy apparently needed the support. He was gaunt, looked like he lost at least ten pounds and he barely managed to stand up from the chair by himself. Jennie and Cam helped him get into the car. Walking up two flights of stairs normally took him less than a minute, this time it was closer to twenty as they had to stop to rest every few seconds. Cam did not mind because he was holding and supporting Andy all the way. Jennie brought a chair from the apartment for Andy to sit down halfway up and BB kept chattering about her adventures during the last week to entertain him while he caught his breath.