As Ready As I'll Ever Be

Chapter 8

~Alyssa's POV~
"Please don't leave me.." I cried as I held Brielle's hand, as she was laying there lifeless. I looked up and saw something. Her blood pressure was increasing and her O2 was getting higher. Then I saw some waves on the brain monitors.

"Dr. Charles! Dr. Abrams! Dr. Rhodes!" I yelled.
"Hey get me Dr. Abrams and Rhodes!" I heard Dr. Reese yell.
"What happened?" Dr. Charles came in.

"Look! Her BP is going up! Her O2 is getting higher! And she finally has some brain waves going!" I said.
Then Dr. Abrams and Rhodes came in.
"What's going on?" Dr. Abrams asked.
"Look at her monitors! Isn't that good?" I asked.

Dr. Rhodes and Dr. Abrams both looked at each other.
"Dr. Reese? Will you go get Brielle's parents?" Dr. Abrams asked.

In less than 2 mins, Aunt Stella and Uncle Kelly came.
"What happened? Is something else wrong?" Aunt Stella came in, freaking out.
"No uh... Alyssa might have just found something... look.." Dr. Rhodes said.

They all looked at her brain monitors. The waves were at a slow pace. Then they started to pick up.
"Omg Bri?" Aunt Stella said.
"Dr. Rhodes? You think we can turn off her vent for a minute? To see if she is breathing on her own?" Dr. Abrams said.

~Stella's POV~
I couldn't believe it. Brielle was actually getting better.
"Do we have your permission to turn off the vent for just a moment?" Dr. Rhodes asked us.
"Yes, of course!" Kelly said.

They turned off her vent and she was still breathing on her own. I looked at Kelly and started crying out of happiness. Alyssa looked at me and started crying and smiling. I opened my arms to let her bury her face my my chest as she cried.
"Oh my god thank you lord." She said.

After 3 minutes, Brielle was still breathing on her own and her brain waves were significantly increasing.
"Alright, can we take out the tube? We will still keep her on light oxygen with a nasal cannula." Dr. Rhodes asked.
"Yes. You can." I said. I looked and Kelly and smiled. He wiped my tears and gave me a kiss on my forehead.
"She's gonna be ok." He whispered, smiled and laughed.

They took out her tube and put in the nasal cannula.
"Everything looks good. I have no reason to believe she will not make a full recovery with the rest of her injuries. Congrats you guys." Dr. Abrams said before he walked out.

"How long until she'll wake up?" Alyssa asked.
"Given the circumstances and what just happened. And considering her other injuries. Probably another...hour. 2 at most. I'll get Dr. Manning in here to get a second opinion. But I'm very hopeful now. She doesn't have any broken bones or fractures. However, this guy did make deep lacerations and significant bruising on her. There are a few lacerations that were a bit deeper than we would like to see,... but those should only take.. maybe 2 weeks to heal up. We will hang some more blood for her, her blood pressure is still a bit low. But.. other than that.. she's doing great. She's gonna go home soon enough." Dr. Rhodes said.

We went back to the lounge room.
Addilynn ran up to Kelly and I.
"Is something wrong with Bri? Why did Reese come and get you?" She asked.
"No honey... she... she isn't brain dead anymore..." I smiled at her.
"Wait what? How?" Greyson asked.
"Her blood pressure and O2 levels just all of a sudden went up and some waves started forming on her brain monitors... she'll be ok." I smiled.

~Dr. Reese's POV~
I was with Dr. Charles, outside Brielle's room.
"Do we still need to take Alyssa down to psych? I think she was just very upset... we know that people say stuff they don't want to when they are upset." I told Dr. Charles.

"Well Miss Reese.. you and I both know as psychiatrists that while that might be true... we can't know that for sure. She could've been secretly depressed all this time and this would've been the tipping point. She could be having stress about becoming a paramedic...stress at home with taking care of all her siblings when Gabby and Matt are on shift.. We did both hear that she just broke up with her boyfriend-" Dr. Charles explained, but I cut him off.

"She said that she figured something out and that they both agreed to break up. And you could be right about the other reasons. But I don't believe we need to send her down just yet Dr. Charles. I'm sorry but I strongly believe it isn't necessary just yet. We don't need to tell her parents just yet either. Give me just... 3 hours. See if Brielle wakes up before we make any harsh moves." I said.

"Ok... I trust your judgement... we'll try your idea. And if it's doesn't work. We will send her down to psych. Is that ok?" He asked.
"Yea. Let's just.. wait and see." I said.

~Stella's POV~
That great news about Bri now lightened up the mood in the room. It's 3am and we're all so tired. Madison, Mason, Oakley, Greyson, Jaxson, Oliver, and Layla were asleep. Alyssa and Addilynn were still awake with Kelly, Casey, Gabby, and I even thought we've told them to try and get some rest many times already. Casey was getting coffee.

"Girls can you please try and get some rest? We'll wake you up as soon as a doctor comes in." Gabby said.
"No. It's been over an hour now... someone has to come in soon.. Rhodes said it would only take... up to 2 hours for her to wake up...." Alyssa yawned.
Her and Addilynn were sitting on a couch, struggling to stay awake.

Then Casey came back.
"Alright, 6 coffees... 2 with 3 creams 2 sugars and 4 with 1 cream 3 sugars." Casey said.
He gave the coffee to Gabby, Alyssa, Kelly, Addilynn, Me and him.

After 10 mins.
Dr. Manning came in.
"Stella? Kelly? Can I speak to you guys?" She asked.
We went just outside the room and talked to Nat.
"Feel like I'm having a bit of a deja vu episode from like almost 19 years ago.." she giggled.
"Is Brielle ok? Is she awake?" Alyssa and Addilynn came out of the lounge.

"Ok so... she is waking up.. however it is taking her a while for her to wake up. She's very dazed right now and in pain from the attack.. we're thinking about giving her more sedation to give her more time to heal so she won't be in pain. Or I had a plan that we can just drug her up with a much of pain meds... given how much sedation she has already been on and the scare we had with her. I think it would be best to keep her awake. Dr. Rhodes thinks the first idea is better. But it's up to you guys." Nat explained.

"Um..." I looked at Kelly, confused. I wouldn't want to give her more sedation, and then she just never wakes up. But I also don't want her to be in pain. I was torn.
"I... don't want her to be in pain.. but I don't want to risk the sedation ruining everything that just happened with her brain.." I said.
"We would be giving her plenty of pain meds, she should feel very minimal pain... and.. Dr. Charles suggests she sees him and Dr. Reese. Considering what she's been through... but we can cross that bridge once we get there." Nat explained.

Kelly looked at me and whispered for a quick second. I nodded, then Kelly turned to Nat.
"No more sedation." He said.
"I'll let Dr. Rhodes know..." she said, then Rhodes came.
"She's been slightly responding. What's the plan? Sedation or pain meds?" Rhodes asked.
"We want to take her off the sedation completely and just give her pain meds." I said.

"Ok.. we will try that and come get you guys when she wakes up enough to be coherent." Rhodes said.
"Thanks." I said.

We went back in the lounge room.
"Is she ok?" Gabby asked.
"Yea. She's coming back. They are gonna take her completely off all the sedation meds she had been on and give her more pain meds and get us when she wakes up." I said.
"That's great! See. It's all gonna be ok!" Gabby hugged me.

1 hour later. The 6 of us were all still awake, surprised that Addie and Alyssa still haven't fallen asleep yet.
Nat came back.
"She's awake." She told us.
"Can we leave them here?" I said, pointing to all the kids that were sleeping.
"Yea, should be no issue." She said.

We went to Brielle's room. Dr. Abrams, Dr. Charles, Dr. Reese, and Dr. Rhodes were there.

Brielle was still a bit groggy, she was laying in her bed with her eyes sort of closed
"Hey baby.." I smiled as I walked up to her bed, I stroked her hair so she would wake up. She opened her eyes slowly and looked around the room.

She looked at me, Kelly, Gabby, Matt, Addilynn, and Alyssa very concerned and afraid before she spoke.
"Who are you guys?"

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