Kickdrum Beating in My Chest Again (Alternate Version)

Chapter 133

!!!!!!!!!!Author's Note!!!!!!!!!!

Hello Everyone! Happy Friday! I hope your week went well! Last weekend was busy for me because I had two gigs, one was opera and the other was my Halloween setlist. Both went very well, but I was tired so I did the bare minimum on Monday and Tuesday. The rest of the week was pretty normal. I taught my voice students and got ready for my gig tomorrow! It's in the early afternoon, so I have to go to bed early tonight. That means that I will update the story here and on Wattpad, but I probably won't get a chance to post in all the groups on Tumblr and Facebook. I will do that when I get home from my gig tomorrow.

This week, we check in with Joe and Patrick in the real world. He's in sick bay where they are trying to lower his temperature, but nothing seems to be working. He pukes all over himself several times and stinks really bad, so Joel and Ian take him to the shower in his bathroom, and bathes him. They leave him there under the spray of the shower for a bit to get his temperature down, which is successful. Then we go back to Patrick's hallucination where Pete is getting clean after Patrick barfed on him, and then goes to Patrick. He finds him still in the tub with Spencer who is doing tepid sponging to try and bring Patrick's fever down. He works on Patrick for a while until it's time to move Patrick back to his bed. Once Patrick is settled, Pete connects to him and continues working on him. After that, we check in with Patrick in the hallucination. He's floating in the white void and reflects on how he feels, which is horrible, admitting that he feels a tiny bit better, but his symptoms are worsening. He has a tiny bit of hope that he will recover and see Pete again, followed by him returning to his super deep level of unconsciousness. Pete's been working on Patrick for many hours and checks in with him before he disconnects from him. Patrick tells him the truth about his condition and reveals how he's rapidly approaching his death.
As always, enjoy, tell your friends and if you like it feel free to leave me kudos or a comment! If you'd like to discuss the story directly, you can find me on tumblr @dancecoaster. Happy Reading! 

Chapter 133

********Trigger Warning for Discussions of Medical Situations and Conditions********

Back in sick bay, Joe is still there sitting next to Patrick's bed as he continues to hallucinate. The nurses brought him some bottles of water, and a guard eventually brought him his book. Patrick's temperature hasn't come down hardly at all, despite the medications, cooling blanket and the cooled saline fluids. Ian and Joel have given him more Tylenol and Ibuprofen via injection, but it doesn't appear to be doing much, unless it's stopping Patrick's fever from getting higher, which is a scary thought. It's been another hour since Patrick's fever spiked and they ended up in sick bay, Spencer had stepped out for a while to allow for tests to come back, and to research more on how a person who is hallucinating can experience the same symptoms in the real world. He said he'd be back in about an hour when he had news and test results. Meanwhile, Joel and Ian are holding cold, wet cloths on Patrick's forehead and tending to his needs. Spencer walks back into the room with his laptop and sets it down on a taller shelf that runs the entire right side of the room.

"I'm sorry that took so long, I was waiting for these last test results to come back. Unfortunately, they don't tell us much. Most of them came back completely normal, except the ones from the complete blood cell count. They indicated that he has some sort of sickness that his body is trying to fight off. His white blood cell count is elevated which indicates some kind of infection. His red blood cell count is lower than it should be, and his C-reactive protein is high. He must have some kind of infection in his hallucination, and it's manifesting in the real world, somehow, making him sick. I've never seen anything like this in my entire medical career! That's why I was researching it to see if it had happened to others under the same circumstances. I found a few instances, but not many. To be honest, this shouldn't even be possible. What kind of crazy hallucination is this? What's his temperature now?" Spencer asks.