Dynamite

Chapter Ten: Recovering

"Are they going to be ok?" Emma asked Jake desperately. She and Rose were both in the waiting room, nervously waiting for any sort of news. Jake had done Nathan's emergency surgery, along with two other surgeons, but other surgeons had done Ethan's and Tony's surgeries. After that, however, they all became Jake's patients. He was the one with the results of the surgeries.

Jake tapped his pointer finger on a clipboard in his hands. He sighed as he read the paper on the clipboard, containing the results, and pulled his surgery mask off his face. He placed the clipboard in Emma's lap and slowly pulled his gloves off. He crossed his arms as he saw Emma begin to read it, Rose peering over her shoulder.

"I'm not supposed to say anything about them yet, when other tests haven't been finished and evaluations haven't been done, but it's family and friends we're talking about so I'll let it slide," Jake sighed. "I know Adam wouldn't care; he'd do the same thing." Emma and Rose quickly read over the results of the surgeries. Rose sighed happily, putting a hand over her heart, as Emma stood up and hugged Jake.

"Thank you," Emma sighed. "They're going to be ok." Jake smiled and nodded, hugging her back. Rose then stood up and hugged Jake too, him kissing her on the cheek.

Little did Emma or Rose know that even though they were satisfied with the results, Jake wasn't. He had to draw Nathan's, Tony's, and Ethan's blood after the surgeries for extra testing. When he had tested Nathan's blood, the blood type came out as an error. There was no type of blood specified. When he had seen that, his heart started racing and he had gotten confused. Fear became his adrenaline. He had started to make an assumption... but quickly rejected it. He started to think of the assumption again as he was hugging Rose.

"He's Emma's boyfriend, he wouldn't hide anything like that," Jake thought. "There was probably a problem with the machine when detecting the blood type. I mean, technology isn't perfect, right? I'll talk to Rose about it later."

"When can I see him?" Emma quietly asked. Jake smiled, knowing she was talking about Nathan. He let go of Rose and picked up the clipboard. It read that he'd be knocked out for at least another two hours.

"You can wait in his recovery room, but he's still put under," Jake answered. "I think he's going to be out of it for a while." He lead Emma to Nathan's recovery room. When Jake opened the door, he and Emma saw Nathan sleeping peacefully, in patient robes and a hospital bed. There were hospital machines attached to his arms by tubes. One machine beeped to the rate of his heart. There were some visible bruises and cuts on his face and arms, and there was a little bit of dry blood on his face.

"You can wait in here for him to wake up," Jake whispered. He patted Emma on the shoulder after she sat in a chair by the hospital bed and left the room, closing the door shut. Emma grabbed one of Nathan's hands, starting to cry happily. At the same time, it pained her to see him that way.

"Thank goodness you're alright," Emma breathed. That was when she noticed a small smile on Nathan's face. She smiled and whispered, "I love you."

An hour passed. Nathan was still asleep, but Tony and Ethan had woken up. A doctor did physical evaluations on both of them, to confirm that they weren't in any serious condition. Luckily, they both were recovering well from their injuries and the surgery. Jake, Rose, Jess, Emma, Nicole, and Tony's family all crammed into their recovery room to see them.

"We're just glad you're ok," Tony's mom said to the two of them. They both smiled slightly, very tired and in a little bit of pain.

"So are we," Ethan sighed. "We thought we were goners." Tony nodded, a sad look in his eyes when he remembered the accident. Nicole held Tony's hand, to reassure him that everything was ok.

"I'm glad you weren't," Rose sighed. She patted Ethan on the head. A doctor knocked on the door walked into the room.

"Doctor Charleston, patient 311 has woken up and needs a physical evaluation," he said to Jake. He then realized he was talking about Nathan. He nodded and left the room. He walked over to Nathan's room, knocked on the door, and walked inside. Nathan saw Jake, and his eyebrows raised.

"Hey Nathan, what's up?" Jake greeted.

"Mr. Charleston, what are you doing here?" Nathan gasped.

"I work here," Jake answered. "I also performed your surgery." Nathan whispered, "Oh." Jake laughed.

"I just have to give you a physical evaluation," Jake explained. "Honestly, I don't really need to test anything since I already drew your blood. The results were good, so there's nothing serious with that. But there was a gash on your back that I'm concerned might be infected. Could I see it for a second?" Nathan nodded. He took off his shirt and turned around. Jake looked at his back and gasped.

The gash wasn't infected and was healing fine. It wasn't what Jake was gasping at though. There was an unusual birthmark on Nathan's back. It was an orange blob on the middle right side of his back. It was about the size of a golf ball. It made Jake very confused. He felt his mouth go dry, thinking about the blood type from earlier. As he started to put puzzle pieces together, he felt his hands go numb.

"Is there something wrong?" Nathan asked.

"Oh... uh, no," Jake answered. "It's just... I'm... surprised because it actually isn't infected. I was pretty sure it would be. Well, that's very good news. You're recovering very well, I'm happy about that. Just rest now, and you'll be let out in a day or two."

"Thank you Mr. Charleston," Nathan thanked. "Um... i-is Emma here by any chance?" Jake smiled, nodded, and left the room. He then led Emma to Nathan's room. She ran into his room and tightly hugged him as Jake watched through the window. He sadly smiled, the thoughts still in the back of his head.

He hoped his assumption and paranoia about Nathan weren't true.