Chaotic Order // Rio fic

Chapter 28

The drive to the hospital was short and manic, I was in a state of chaos, everything around me spinning as we ran through the white halls to find Beth and the kids in the waiting room. As soon as I found them I sprinted into Beth's arms, crying out as she informed me that he was still living, she was accompanied by Annie and Ruby who comforted me as best they could.

Rio had taken it upon himself to take the kids out of the room, distracting them with a promise of as many snacks as they could ask for. We heard them follow him excitedly, Kenny being concerned for us and being the most hesitant to join them. After regaining my composure I was in the right head space to be informed of the severity of the situation. According to Ruby who had been doing most of the talking with the doctor given Beth's obvious inability to retain information in such an emotional time, Dean was hit with high impact and had done some damage to his rib cage, puncturing a lung and causing a concerning amount of internal bleeding that was difficult for them to operate on.

He was going to be out of the second surgery in a matter of minutes so we could discuss his conditions with the surgeons, it was debated whether he would be able to have visitors or be conscious depending on the success of the surgery. We waited in a tense silence as I anxiously picked at my finger nails. We were interrupted by the kids and Rio returning, candy in their hands and smiles on their faces.

"Sorry, they wanted to come back." Rio apologized and I give him a grateful smile and he comes to sit beside me, his hand taking mine as I rested my head on his shoulder. The kids all greet me, gushing over how cool Rio was and showing off their new candy. Kenny approaches us, leaving his siblings with his mother across from us.

"Aunty Vi?" He asks sit up slightly. "He's going to be ok right?"

"We don't know for sure but your dad is so strong. He'll get out of this." I pull him into my lap and he begins to cry softly into my shoulder. I shush him lightly, running my hands through his hair soothingly. Rio put his arm around me as I began to drift off slightly.

"Babe, the doctor's here." I was jolted from my sleep to Rio gently shaking me awake. Kenny had jumped off of my lap in anticipation but I told him and the other kids to stay with Rio, Annie and Ruby. The doctor introduced herself as Dr Perland and gave us the summary of what it was we're dealing with.

"The surgeries went well, we've managed to stop his internal bleeding and for now he is in a stable condition." My shoulder's slumped with relief as I felt like I could finally breathe again. "However, in regards to taking care of significant trauma to his right side we will need to be giving him heavy pain relief for a number of weeks."

"Will that effect his chemotherapy or radiation at all? Because I don't think we can deal with the repercussions of that." I state and Beth nods in agreement. The doctor's eyes narrow in confusion as she glances back down to her copius notes in the file.

"I'm sorry, there's no record of him recieving that type of treatment." She retorts flipping back and forth through the pages.

"What do you mean? He was diagnosed at this hospital! Surely there's a record of his prostate cancer." With Beth's outburst the doctor looks gobsmacked and at a loss for words.

"I'm sorry to be the one telling you this, this is the first time I've seen this." We both stare at her unknowingly. "We've done a number of tests on him in his time here and if he had cancer or was being treated for cancer it definitely would've showed up."

"What exactly are you saying?" I question.

"Your brother doesn't and has never had cancer." I could feel anger boiling within the pit of my stomach.

"Excuse me?" Beth was shocked to a point of paralysis, simply staring ahead of her.

"I'm not sure which medical professional has given you such devastatingly false news but if you could refer them to me I'll need to make a formal report to the board of medicine because obviously the tests were doctored or severely mismanaged." I nodded mindlessly.