Aftermath

Part VI: Adam

As I made my way toward the nurses’ station, I was stopped in my tracks by Doctor Lewis, the resident in charge of Christie’s care.

“Mr. Lambert, I’d like you to come to Radiology with me,” he said.  “We need to run a few of those tests we talked about to see if you and Christine are a match for the transfusion.  I’ve already sent a nurse down to draw Christine’s blood.”

My heart raced eagerly as I followed him down the hall, around two corners, and through a set of double doors.  Once we had arrived, I was taken to what couldn’t have been much bigger than a twelve-by-twelve room.  It was filled with several different medical tools, although the first thing I noticed was a pair of metal cabinets with glass windows, revealing plastic bins of vial upon vial of blood.  I immediately averted my eyes and braced myself against the arm of a chair in the room to keep myself from fainting.  No wonder Tommy hated hospitals; this place was creepy!  And I had just developed a new phobia—of blood.  I recalled being about five or six years old and I had to get my blood drawn at the doctor’s office.  My mother and two nurses had to hold me down as another nurse struggled to get the needle into my vein.  I laid there, pinned to that table like a captured wild animal, kicking and screaming.

I gulped loudly as I watched the pretty platinum blonde phlebotomist enter the room with a small box of empty vials, needles, and gauze, among other things.

“Well, well, well,” she purred.  “Mr. Adam Lambert, as I live and breathe!”  Clearly she was a fan.  “Never could I have imagined that I would one day have the pleasure of sucking you dry.”  Her mouth was curved up in a tiny smirk, as if to answer herself with “That’s what she said!”

I grinned a little, albeit somewhat uncomfortably, and eased myself back into the raised chair.  She set her supplies down on the counter next to me and, against my better judgment, I watched out of the corner of my eye as she prepared the syringe, tiny vials, and a tourniquet.  My eyes bugged out of my head as she secured the tourniquet just above the crook of my arm.

“So what’re ya in for, if you don’t mind my asking?” she said as she attended to the task at hand.

“Transfusion,” I answered monotonously, staring blankly at the floor.  She turned to look at me, eyebrows slightly raised.  “Oh, not me!” I quickly corrected myself.  “I’m…donating.”

“Aww, good for you!” she chirped.  “See, we need more people like you, Adam.  Some of our donations even come from dead bodies.”  I shuddered.  “Or four-legged critters.”

“You can do that?” I asked in surprise.

“Oh, sure.  We don’t do it very often, of course, but it happens on occasion.”  She cleaned a spot on my arm with an alcohol swab.  “My name’s Jess, by the way,” she said, lightly smacking my veins.  Then she took up a syringe and connected it to a vial.  I gulped again and a laugh rolled out of her throat.  “I’m making you pretty nervous, aren’t I?  You really need to calm down, honey,” she said, trying to stifle her laugh.  “It’s just a needle.  Don’t be such a baby.  Now, relax.  You’re gonna feel a little poke…”

No sooner had she said this, I blacked out, my head slamming forward on the padded armrest that folded over the front of the chair.  She must’ve been new because she started to panic.

“Oh, my god…  Alex!” she shrieked, leaning out the doorway.  “You better get in here!  I-I think I killed him!”

A young Hispanic man wearing dark blue scrubs breezed into the room.  “Jesus Christ, Jess, what the hell did you—”  Upon seeing the unconscious Adam, Alex heaved a sigh of annoyance.  “Oh, for God’s sake!  What did you do to him?!”

“I didn’t do anything!” Jess wailed.  “I didn’t even stick him yet!  He just saw the needle and he just…”  She gestured to her unconscious “victim.”  She looked like she was about to cry as she put the syringe back down on the counter.

“Aw, damn it, gimme that thing!” Alex grumbled, snapping on a pair of latex gloves before sliding the needle into Adam’s arm.  Within a few seconds, four vials were filled and capped off.  “There,” he huffed, removing the tourniquet.  “Now.  Think you can wake him up without killing him?”

“Oh, stop bein’ such a dick already!”

Alex stormed out of  the room, leaving Jess alone with Adam.  She inhaled nervously and got down on his eye-level.  “Adam,” she said, “I need you to open your eyes.”  He remained silent and unresponsive.  She tried again, louder this time, and shaking him a bit.  “Adam, wake up!” she commanded.  “Come on, open your eyes!”

Now I knew how Christie felt: wanting so badly to wake up and remove herself from this haze but being completely unable to do so.  I groaned and turned my head slightly.  I felt someone’s hand on my arm and I opened one eye.  It was Jess.  She was crouched down in front of me, a very worried look on her face.

“Oh, thank God, you’re awake,” she said, relieved, and placing a hand over her racing heart.  “I thought I’d killed you!”

I laughed a little and slowly lifted my head.  “Well, then, I guess I saved you a lot of misery, huh?”

“You sure did.”  She lifted the armrest of the chair so I could get down.  “Do you think you can walk?” she asked.  I tried to get up but then clumsily flopped back down in the chair.  She chuckled.  “I’ll take that as a ‘no’.”

I held my head in my hands.  “Ugh, I’m dizzy…”

“I’ll go get you some juice,” she offered.  “Your blood sugar probably just plummeted, I’m guessing.”

Juice…  Oh, my god, the ice chips! I thought just then, my head flying up.  I felt another tremendous rush of blood to my head and I cradled it in my hands again.  “Yeah, juice would be nice, thanks.  And do you think you could get some ice chips for me too?”

“Oooh, a little greedy, are we, Mr. Lambert?” she teased, putting a hand on her hip.

“Not for me,” I replied.  “It’s for a friend.  She’s down the hall.  She’s in pretty bad shape.”  I regretted letting the last sentence slip and my face burned.

She nodded in understanding and left the room.  A few minutes later, Jess returned with two Styrofoam cups: one filled with apple juice and another with ice chips.  She’d thrown in a packet of saltine crackers for good measure.

“Thanks,” I said with a grateful smile.

Eager to return to Christie’s room, I swallowed the juice in two gulps.  I sat in the chair for a moment longer, waiting until the lightheadedness subsided, and then I tested my legs to make sure they wouldn’t give out from under me again.  They were still a little shaky, but I figured that if I went slow, I could make it back to Christie’s room in one piece.

Before I left, I gently took Jess by the sleeve, pulled a pen from my pocket, and scribbled my name on the light-colored fabric.  “That’s for taking care of me.  I’m sure my friend will appreciate it.”

She glanced down at her sleeve and blushed as a huge grin spread across her face.  “Well, I’m just doing my job.  You know that.  And I hope your friend gets better soon.”

I was silent for a while before I replied, “Yeah.  Me too.”  I collected the cup of ice chips and the crackers and left to go back to Christie’s room.