Fatal Decision

by John Greenwood

  "Are you his father?" I nod. "I'm Dr. Simmons. Can you tell me what happened?" I look at him. He's in his late fifties with thinning gray hair and thick glasses.

  "I don’t know. This is how I found him." He looks back at Tommy and touches his forehead.

  "Where did you find him? Was there any bottles nearby?"

  "What do you mean?"

  "This is obviously a drug overdose. I just need to know what he has taken." I gasp and lightly squeeze Tommy's hand.

  I look back at the doctor. "There was nothing near him. He was just lying like this. He doesn't use drugs. He's going to be okay right?"

  "He's in some kind of drug induced coma. I'm running some blood tests to see what is in his system. Once we get that we should know more." He writes something on a clipboard and then adjusts the IV. "We're going to move him to ICU, so they'll be coming to get him in a minute." I just nod. I look at Tommy. I can't believe I have my son back. I just hope he lives. Before I even can turn around two men dressed in blue jump suits come in and disconnect the IV and monitor from the wall and begin wheeling Tommy down the hall. I struggle to keep up with them. A minute later, we're in an elevator getting off the floor for the ICU. They quickly rush him into a small room filled with machines. I stand there helpless watching my son who I haven’t seen in over a week being treated for a drug overdose. I really believed Harris that he would be okay. I remember his little speech about how his word means everything and now this. I watch as two different doctors begin checking him and writing down things on their clipboards. Everything is moving so quickly. A minute later, another doctor jogs past me and into the room. He's tall and is somewhere in his forties. He's holding a sheet of paper filled with what looks like letters and numbers. He stops in front of Tommy and looks at the other two doctors. They continue checking Tommy.

  "It's called Metyrapone. In this dosage it's supposed to decrease Cortisol levels."

  The doctor checking Tommy's blood pressure looks up. He has a confused look on his face. He's very slight and has a very narrow face. "Never heard of it this way, is it experimental?"

  "Yep, it is supposed to eliminate memory, though they have no confirmation that it does so." They all look at me. "Any idea how your son would get a hold of this?" I take a step into the room and speak in a lower voice.

  "He was kidnapped." I watch the look of surprise come over their faces.

  "Hold on…is this…are you? The boy that went missing from school? This is him?" I nod my head.

  The doctor who came running in the room looks at me. "He's in very bad shape. He was given an extremely high dose." I run over and squeeze Tommy's hand. It is limp and cold.

  "What can you do?"

  He looks back at the other two doctors. "Unfortunately there isn’t an antidote for Metyrapone so we'll use charcoal."

  "Charcoal?"

  "Yes, it is activated charcoal. It will prevent the body from absorbing the drug. We'll pump his stomach first. Hopefully, he hasn’t had this in his system too long. How long ago did you find him?"

  I look at the clock on the wall. "Ten minutes ago."

  "Let's hope. Now we need you to wait right outside for a few minutes." I don't let go of Tommy's hand. There's no way I'm leaving him after getting this far. "Please sir, it will be best for your son if you wait out here." He points at the door and lightly grabs my shoulder. I feel my legs pick me up and take me out the door. I look back at Tommy and feel tears streaming down my face. The doctor places his arm around me and tries to assure me then he disappears back through the door. I quickly pull out my phone and Michelle answers right away.

  "Sheldon what about your parents, they just called again." She sounds concerned.

  "Michelle, come down to First Memorial right now. I have Tommy."

  "What." She screams so loudly I have to pull the phone away from my ear. I slowly explain to what happened and what they are doing. I can hear her crying through the phone and her mom trying to comfort her. "We're on our way." She ends the call and I dial my parent's cell phone and explain to them what is going on. They agree to take a cab directly to the hospital. I tell them I don’t care what it costs. I hang up and go back to leaning against the wall. I can’t even think about everything that has happened in the last few hours. Killing Sorenson seems so long ago, now that I'm standing outside of Tommy's ICU room and he's fighting for his life. I try not to think about what Sorenson's wife and daughter are doing right now; at least Tommy has a chance to live. Sorenson never had a chance. I'm trying to listen for anything coming out of the room, but there's nothing, not any sound. I end up on my knees facing the wall asking for God's help. I know I have no reason asking for it after what I have done and I'm not sure how long I am like this, but the next thing I feel is Michelle pulling me up.

  "Sheldon, they said we can go in." I quickly snap out of my daze and follow Michelle back into the room. There is only one doctor in the room, the one that had the drug information. The sheets are pulled up high on Tommy, in fact they are so high that I immediately think he didn't make it, especially seeing Michelle run over and begin hugging him. The doctor quickly tells us he thinks he will be fine in a few hours. I have to grab hold of a nearby chair to keep from falling. He explains the whole charcoal thing again and how they got most of it out after pumping his stomach, but I don’t think I heard a word of what he said I'm concentrating so much on Michelle and Tommy. The doctor says he should come to in a little while. I think I thank him and then he leaves the room, but I’m not really sure. A nurse enters behind him and begins to adjust the machines surrounding Tommy. I stand next to Michelle and place my head on Tommy's chest. Nothing has ever felt this good. I grasp Michelle's other hand in mine and we both stare into each other's eyes knowing everything will be okay. Tommy is fine and Tommy is back.

  Chapter 21

  We're seated just inside Tommy's room. He's been moved upstairs to a private one. It's fairly spacious, there's a TV, a small bathroom and a large window with the curtains tightly closed over it. Michelle's parents just left for the cafeteria. Tommy still hasn’t gained consciousness, but the doctor has promised us he will come to any time now, so we are both waiting very impatiently. They haven’t guaranteed us that he'll remember anything but we don't care, we're just glad he's okay. I can't take my eyes off him. It's like I’m seeing him for the first time. Michelle and I are both seated next to each other in chairs that turn into beds, and we both have already stated we aren't leaving here no matter what. I decide I'm never leaving him again. We both turn our heads towards the door and see Stanton enter. He immediately looks at Tommy lying on the bed. I can see the astonishment in his eyes.

  "Congratulations on getting him back." He pulls up a chair in front of us. His back is to Tommy. "How's he doing?" I quickly explain what the doctor told us about his recovery. He looks back towards the door. "We're going to have to get a detail up here for your protection." Both Michelle and I curiously look at each other. "There's a gathering of media outlets out front like I have never seen." He looks towards the window. I had a tough time just getting in the front door. Word travels quickly. So tell me how it happened?"

  "I was back at Lee Field hanging out and when I went back to my truck I saw him lying in the back seat. He wasn't conscious so I immediately took him here." Stanton is writing down things in his notebook.

  "Is your truck out front?"

  "Yes."

  "We'll need to go through it if that's okay with you. We need to check for any kind of fingerprints or anything." I nod my head. He immediately begins dialing on his phone. A minute later, he places the phone back in his pocket. "I've got some other news I need to share with you. Apparently, Doug Sorenson was murdered a few hours ago in his home." I feel his eyes boring into me and a tinge of sweat begins forming on my head.

  "Oh my God…when does it stop?" Stanton removes his eyes from me and looks upon Michelle.

  "I don’t know. I haven’t been over there yet, but we are currently processing th
e scene. I think it's pretty fair to say it is related." I can't speak. All I keep seeing is Sorenson's dying eyes looking at me. "Are you okay Mr. Smith?" I look up and both Stanton and Michelle are curiously eying me.

  "I'm okay. I just don’t understand why all this is happening." I look over at Tommy. The machines are steadily recording his heartbeat and breathing. I also start to wonder how well I really wiped down my fingerprints. For a second, I think about confessing to Stanton and Michelle right now, but then I don’t speak. I can’t talk. I just look at Tommy lying there alive because of Sorenson dying. Somehow, there must be a rationale for that, but I quickly stop myself from trying to rationalize a man's death. Stanton and Michelle are still looking at me, so I quickly stand up and look out the window. I'm amazed at the amount of media vans outside.

  "It's a tragedy. We received an anonymous call and immediately responded and found him shot to death. The only blessing was his wife and daughter weren’t at home." He pauses. "But hey you don’t need to worry about that any more, your son is back. However it happened or for whatever reason, he is here and from what you tell me he's going to be okay." He slowly stands up and looks at Tommy. "Please do me a favor after he wakes up and you spend some time with him, give me a call so we can see if he remembers anything. We could desperately use a good lead right now." I stand up and shake his hand. He pats Michelle's back and walks to Tommy's bed. He pauses over him for a minute and then walks out the door. I'm not sure if I feel relieved when he leaves, but when I look down both of my hands are trembling out of control. The next thing I feel is Michelle's arms around me. She is clutching me tightly. Not sure how long we remain like that, but suddenly Tommy's eyes are open. We run over to his bedside.

  "Tommy…Tommy. How are you?" I scream out. I watch him look up at us and it looks like he's trying to smile. Michelle immediately gives him a kiss on the forehead. He responds by shaking his head.

  "It's going to take time for him to come out all the way." I look back and see the doctor standing behind me. "This is a good sign though." He writes down something on his clipboard and walks to the foot of his bed. Tommy continues to nod his head slowly and then almost as quickly as he woke up his eyes close and it looks like he's back to sleep. "Very typical, just means his body is adjusting to a new stage."

  "Does that mean he's out of the coma?" I watch the doctor nod. He walks up to the heart rhythm machine.

  "Yes. In another hour or two he should be able to communicate. He'll probably be very confused and have no idea where he is, but seeing you two should help him." We watch as the doctor steps back out of the room. We both stay at his bedside sitting on the edge of the bed watching our son rest peacefully. I feel my phone begin to vibrate again. I look down and see its Jim.

  "Hey Jim."

  "Congratulations Sheldon. I just heard Tommy is okay. It's all over the news."

  "Thanks."

  "I'm so happy for you guys. He's such a great kid."

  "Thanks. Any word on Brian yet?" I look at Michelle. She's holding Tommy's hand.

  "No, still nothing. I keep going by his house but there is no sign of him anywhere."

  I look back at Tommy. His chest is rising and falling so steadily. "Okay, let me know if you hear from him." I quickly hang up and sit down beside Michelle again. Another hour or so passes, and Michelle's parents return from lunch. They volunteer to go pick up my parents, so I thank them as they leave. Luckily, both of our parents get along great despite the fact they haven't seen each other in years. A few minutes later, someone in a white uniform enters our room and drops off two trays of food. Michelle and I both finish everything on them. I think it's the first time we have eaten a full meal since Tommy went missing. My mind is actually cooperating and focusing on Tommy instead of shooting Sorenson, so the food actually stays down at least for now. A minute later, we both hear a tiny grunt coming from Tommy. We both run over to his bed and see him looking at us. His eyes are wide open and he is mouthing the words "Mom and Dad."

  "Hey Tommy." I softly squeeze his hand while Michelle rubs his forehead.

  "Hi Mom and Dad." His voice almost sounds angelic despite being just above a whisper. "Where am I?" Michelle and I both look at each other.

  "You're in the hospital buddy." I squeeze his hand a little tighter.

  "You’re going to be fine honey." Michelle is smiling broadly. I'm so elated. I feel tears in my eyes forming. I have almost completely forgotten about Sorenson for now.

  "What happened? Am I done with Mr. Ken?" His eyes are going back and forth between us.

  "Yes, you are all done with him." Michelle looks at me oddly. I shake my head.

  "How did I get sick?"

  "Something you took, but you're going to be fine. It just made you sleepy." Michelle is looking at me curiously.

  "I didn’t take anything Dad. Was it Mr. Ken?" I look at Michelle.

  "Yes it was Tommy. You did nothing wrong. Do you remember anything?" He nods his head.

  "You don’t have to think about it now honey."

  "Mom's right Tommy, don’t think about it now."

  "I did like you said right Dad?" I look at Michelle and then the heart machine. I fix my eyes on the steady patters flashing across the screen.

  "You did great Tommy. Do you remember where Mr. Ken brought you?" I watch him close his eyes for a minute and then look at me.

  "I don’t remember how I got there or where I went, but I remember it was just like my room at home except it was full of all this cool stuff." Michelle and I both smile. "Then Mr. Ken said I had to stay in my room until something was over…but I can’t remember what. Everything seems kind of fuzzy."

  "It's okay Tommy. You did great." Michelle kisses his forehead.

  "I do remember talking to you Dad. I think you were at McDonald's or something." I feel the sweat forming on my head again. Michelle is eyeing me so I just nod back and give Michelle one of those looks that people can give each other after they have been married for many years.