Of Broken Things

Chapter 5 - Scene 2.

"You were born under a lucky star, you know that?" the ER doctor put the last strip of adhesive tape over the gash on Aiden's forehead. "According to the scans of your lungs, you drowned. If the paramedics had been even five minutes late, you would have been a goner, CPR or no CPR. Though I must admit that they went a bit rough on you, which resulted in at least one broken rib."

Something in what the doctor was saying didn't make sense to Aiden, so he pulled the oxygen mask off his mouth and tried to speak, managing more of a wheezing whisper.

"They didn't perform CPR on me. I was already on the bank and fighting to breathe when they arrived."

The doc had patched up most of his wounds, which included a broken nose, three fractured and two broken ribs, a deep gash on his forehead, and an interesting pattern of bruises all over his chest. All in all, he walked from that accident relatively intact. His gravicar had been a lot less fortunate. State patrol had managed to pull it out of the river, but it was totaled.

The other bad news was that the hospital didn't have any spare lungs on stock and had to order one. It wouldn't be delivered until the next morning. So Aiden was stuck in a hospital bed, hooked up to a machine that maintained his lung function and breathing through an oxygen mask.

The doctor just shrugged and said, "Must have been the good Samaritan who placed the 911 call then."

"Wait, somebody saw the accident and called 911?"

That was also news to Aiden.

"Dispatch got an anonymous 911 call saying that a car had gone off the bridge on Route 1015 straight into the White River. Paramedics were at the scene within 20 minutes. Beat their record, in fact. You are lucky they did too, because that damaged lung of yours wouldn't have kept you alive for much longer."

"And you are sure somebody performed CPR on me?"

"Oh yes. Look here," the doctor pulled up the X-ray of Aiden's chest on the screen. "That's your biological lung. And those blue splotches all over it are traces of river water. You drowned, man. No doubt about that."

"I remember coughing water out when I came to..."

"Mate, let me tell you this: there is no way you would have started breathing again on your own unless someone gave your lung a push."

That left Aiden with a lot of unanswered questions. Somebody had pulled him out of the water, performed CPR, and called an ambulance, but the only people on that bridge with him had fired at his car. It made no sense for them to go to all this trouble to save him, when they had just tried their best to kill him. So who had it been then?

The doctors had pumped him full of painkillers and antibiotics. It helped with the aches from the punishment his body had taken, but made his mind foggy and sluggish. The painkillers also had an interesting side effect - they put his emotions in overdrive. He wanted to scream in frustration one moment, then weep in relief the next. Roll into a ball and sleep, or jump up and start pacing the room. None of this made analyzing the situation any easier.

One thing was for certain though, this attack meant that Aiden had been right and all the professors were connected. His attempt to contact Dietrich had obviously scared whomever was behind the clean-up enough to order him eliminated. What did Dietrich know that put these people so on edge? Aiden groaned in frustration and punched the bed. He wanted to be out there chasing this lead down, but instead he was stuck in this hospital room with a machine breathing for him.

Another thought jumped on the tail of this one – Hikaru was waiting on him in the Safe Haven tonight, and Ricky would be banging on his door and wondering where he went tomorrow morning. And both of them might have vital information about the case. And nobody would be able to get a hold of him because the water had done a number on his transmitter.

Marvelous, just marvelous. What a fitting end to a shitty day!