Fic: Dig the Hole Wide and Deep (14/?)
Nov. 5th, 2007 04:31 pm![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
jayceepat.livejournal.com posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
nickngregTitle: Dig the Hole Wide and Deep
Rating: PG-13.
Pairing: Nick/Greg
Warnings: None.
Summary: Why is nothing ever easy?.
Spoilers: None
A/N: This is a sequel to ‘Putting Down Roots’ which you can find
here
Previous parts of this story can be found here
Alan Perkins was feeling pretty damn good. Life was sweet. He had a thriving practice, he had a beautiful home, he had a little black book that contained the names and numbers of some of the finest ladies in Las Vegas AND most of all, he had finally gotten Nick Stokes to tell him one tiny piece of truth. Now most people would not be walking on cloud nine because of an ‘I went there on purpose’ but those people had not been dealing with Mr. Stokes and his avoidance issues. Alan knew from past experience that all he needed was one teensy, tiny hole in the façade of his patient and he could worm his way inside.
It was 10:30pm which was early for Alan to be settling in for the night but he had a busy day ahead of him tomorrow. Alan’s practice was not only thriving, it was varied and covered a large geographical area from the Meijer Clinic in Henderson to consulting at another private clinic in Reno. In order to keep himself organized and on time for all his appointments, Marie, Alan’s ‘worth her weight in gold’ assistant, faxed a schedule to his private home fax every evening. Alan had trained himself to read over that list each night before he went to sleep. Several of those fine ladies from his little black book had been somewhat insulted when Alan had jumped out of bed, ran to his office and come back to bed with a fax. Alan always smiled, complimented them and then told them if they wanted the best restaurant’s and the ‘A’ wine list and let’s not forget the pretty little baubles he gifted them with, the list had to be read every night; no matter what.
Tomorrow’s list was not long as far as appointments went, but Marie’s notes on the four appointments he had were quite explicit. He had two appointments in Las Vegas; Alan smiled when he saw the names. He could never understand the people who objected to gay marriage because it was so ‘unnatural’. Alan discovered quite early in his practice that two people in an intimate relationship acted the same no matter what their gender. Cases in point were his two appointments tomorrow. The Halverson’s, husband and wife, were having problems with in-law interference, sex and money. The Barnes-Wilson’s, husband and husband, were having problems with sex, money and in-law interference. See what I mean?
Both couples had been patients for approximately the same length of time and both were progressing but tomorrow’s appointments for both couples were going to be pivotal. Alan saw that Marie had scheduled an hour and a half for each.
He had one fairly new patient he would be seeing in her home. Alan usually did not make house calls but this patient had developed Agoraphobia after a particularly brutal rape. Her husband was a prominent member of the old Las Vegas families (as in part of the New York mob members who had relocated when things got too hot on their old home turf) and the money was phenomenal. After working with the wife for 2 months and observing the relationship between the spouses, Alan had notified her husband that his rate would be $150.00 an hour plus $25.00 for a house call. Now that sounds like a lot but the husband had offered $1000.00 a week for one hour. When asked why he was changing the rate, Alan told the husband simply. “She needs me and so do you.”
When Marie opened the mail after that visit and a check fell out for $25,000.00 she almost fainted. She called Alan and asked him what the HELL was going on; had he agreed to become a mob therapist? Alan told her he would look into it; no, he wasn’t going over to the dark side and she had to stop watching re-runs of The Soprano’s. When he called the husband and asked for an explanation, the husband replied, “You’re right, we do need you and thank God I am able to pay for what I need. You’re worth it and if you don’t want to accept it from me as payment then consider it a contribution and use it for other patients like Jenny (his wife) who need you and can’t pay for you.” You just never know when you are going to run into a genuinely good guy.
His fourth appointment was Nick and he could hardly wait. For some reason, Nick had captured Alan’s fancy in a way that few patients did. Alan was as straight as they come so it had nothing to do with his extraordinary good looks. It could be partly because of Alan’s almost instant attachment to Greg. As I said, Alan was completely hetero and loved his ladies. That was the problem; he loved them too much. He had realized early on that he was not marriage material because he just could not stop looking, wanting to touch and possess. He just simply could not be faithful so he made the choice to stay single and play the field. However, he did like kids and sort of missed the idea of having a son to raise and care for.
He had thought when he first met Greg that he was much younger than his 32 years. He looked it and he acted younger. When Alan finally got around to getting the basics on his new patient, he didn’t care anymore. He admired the brilliant, hurting young man completely and really had to work to keep his professional and personal opinions separate. It wasn’t as weird as it sounded. Alan was 52, Greg was 32; there were lots of dads who were twenty when they had their first one. Alan was thrilled when Greg stood up to Judge Stokes and asserted his right to demand respect. It meant that Greg was no longer his patient and they could establish a closer connection.
As a surrogate father, even if Greg didn’t know it, Alan felt he had a right to be concerned about the man his ‘boy’ was involved with. When he got the call from Bobby, he dropped everything and ran because Bobby was also a dear friend and he didn’t take advantage of their friendship. If he asked for help right now, he needed help right now. When Alan got to Bobby and Steve’s house and found Greg there with them and all three of them covered in blood, he realized he was opening a huge can of worms. He almost threw up when he saw what had been done to Nick and when he did a preliminary rectal exam and saw the horrific damage; he did vomit. At that moment, he realized he was going to be involved with all of these men and he was going to be walking a very fine, very high, wire between friendship and professional behavior.
Alan’s reminisces were interrupted by his phone. He glanced at the caller ID and when he saw Meijer Clinic, he grabbed for the phone. He had 4 patients besides Nick and all 5 of them were in the early stages of treatment which meant anything could be important. When he heard Charles voice his heart sank.
Meijer’s was a very exclusive clinic. The prices charged included a staff that was highly trained with exceptional credentials. Alan and Gordon Meijer had established the habit of assigning specific orderlies to each patient and keeping them with that patient throughout their entire stay.
Charles and Phillip were the two orderlies assigned to Nick Stokes and Charles had been with the clinic since it opened. His feel for the patients was almost psychic, especially when he genuinely liked the patient and Nick was one of his favorites. If Charles said, ‘I’m concerned’, you better by God believe there was something to be concerned about. Charles was concerned about Nick.
Alan told Charles to wait a second; he needed a pad of paper. When he was settled at his desk where he could take notes quickly in his own form of shorthand, he put the phone on speaker so he had both hands free and told Charles to tell him everything.
“When I came on duty, I saw that Nick had ordered dinner in his room. I was puzzled because he’s been going to the dining room for all his meals and he’s made quite a few friends with the other patients and of course, the entire staff just love him. I took his meal up and served him.“
“How did he seem?” Alan interrupted.
“He was perfectly normal. I asked him why he wasn’t eating downstairs and he said he had some serious thinking to do. I asked him if something had upset him and he said no he’d had a great visit with a dear friend and it had been a real good day. I offered to turn the TV on but he said he preferred some background music. He keeps his CD changer loaded so I just turned it on and put it on random play, told him to page me if he wanted anything else and just as I was leaving, he said he thought he would like to have a cold beer; preferably a Tecate. I told him I would bring it right up and left.”
“When I brought the beer, I brought a couple of extras and put them and a small bowl of limes in his room fridge; his file says alcohol is no problem. He had finished his pot roast and asked if there was any chance he could get just a little more. He used his ‘puppy dog eyes’ as his mother calls it on me so of course I said I would get him another plate and did he want some more cornbread also. He said yes and more butter. Now normally with anyone but Nick I would worry about the amount of food and the rich butter but the way that boy works out, there is not an ounce of fat on his body so I like to indulge him. When I left the next time, he was happily munching his way through his salad and cornbread and eyeing his chocolate cake like he was thinking about a second helping of that also.”
“Dr. Perkins, when I came back at 10.00 to pick up his tray and turn his bed down, he was a different person. His face was red and swollen, he could hardly see me. A blind man could see he had been crying, perhaps sobbing hard and for some time. He got up to go to the bathroom and he moved like an old man; as though everything hurt. I’ve not seen him move like that since the first time he tried to get up after his surgery. I asked him if I could do anything for him. He asked if he could have something to help him sleep. I told him I would go check and I called you at once.”
Alan started cursing himself about the time Charles said ’10.00’ and had worked up a good head of steam. He was damning himself for being a pompous ass when Charles interrupted him with a soft, “I’m so sorry Dr. Perkins. What did I do wrong?”
That’s when Alan realized he’d been talking out loud and Charles thought he was calling him an ass. “Good Lord Charles, I wasn’t talking to you. I didn’t even realize I was talking out loud. I was calling myself a pompous ass because I’d just been sitting here congratulating myself on what a great therapist I was. No, you have done everything just right. Now, here’s what I want you to do. Give him a 10 gram phenol-barbital and a 5 gram Zantac. Make sure the head of his bed is elevated. On very rare occasions, that combo can cause problems with breathing. If Nick has been crying as hard as you’ve described, his mucous membranes are going to be swollen and congested. You might also make sure there is lavender and eucalyptus oil in his mister; set it on vapor and direct it just over his bed. That will help with the breathing and congestion and the lavender may help him relax. “
“I want a 2 hour check starting at 11.00pm. I don’t just want someone to stick their head in the door. I want vitals taken every 2 hours. I want him looked at; I want to know if his skin is clammy or too warm. It’s to go until he starts to wake normally. Is that understood?”
“Yes Dr. I will check him myself until I go off shift and I’ll make sure his 6.00 am nurse is aware of your orders.”
“Thank you Charles. I couldn’t put him in better hands than yours. I may be calling you back. I know who his visitor was today and he and I are going to have a talk.”
Alan took one second to curse himself a little more and then dialed Bobby’s cell phone. If he had thought, he would have realized that this was a good time to call because Bobby was just getting ready to head for the lab. The problem was, Alan wasn’t thinking. He was just plain pissed. He could not figure out what happened. He knew, he was sure Bobby had done nothing to upset Nick and if he had, he would have called and told him but Bobby was the only unknown quantity and Alan was going to find out what had happened to his patient if it was the last thing he did.
Bobby answered on the 2nd ring and just barely got a ‘Hey Alan’ out when Alan aggressively asked him what the hell he had said to Nick after he (Alan) had left. We have mentioned before that Bobby has a temper and he didn’t react well to being yelled at by a friend especially after the great afternoon he’d had with Nick. When he got home and discovered that Steve’s mother had come and picked up Chelsi so they could fit some new clothes (Steve’s mother was an accomplished seamstress and their little girl dressed like a fashion model) well, that was just the icing on the cake. He knew he had to get some sleep before work but as Steve was yanking off his boots and unbuttoning his jeans and dragging them down his legs, along with his briefs, he decided he didn’t need that much sleep. By the time Steve had him stripped in their big bed and was taking his clothes off much slower than he’d ripped Bobby’s off, he knew that his lovin’ man was planning on an evening to remember. Now that made sleep completely unnecessary.
So he was in no mood to be yelled at and he yelled right back at Alan. By the time they both stopped yelling and took a breath, Bobby realized that something bad had happened to Nick.
“Ok man, slow down, stop yelling and tell me what’s happening.”
“Bobby, Charles just called and said Nick looks like he’s been crying for hours, he’s lethargic, moving like he’s in pain and just generally in bad shape. He wasn’t that way at 7.00pm when Charles served him his dinner so what the hell happened. He told Charles he wasn’t eating in the dining room because he had some serious thinking to do. What did you two talk about that could have brought this on?”
Bobby was stunned. He told Charles he had no idea. When he left, he and Nick were roaring with laughter over some silly shit they were talking.
Alan told him to take a minute and think if there was anything at all during the afternoon that seemed different.
Bobby went through the entire afternoon in his mind. He deliberately switched to his work mode and examined the visit the way he would study evidence from a crime scene. He remembered Nick’s surprise that Bobby knew about him and Greg. He repeated everything that had happened from that point on. He told Alan how Nick had jerked when he asked if his discomfort with his ‘gayness’ had caused trouble between him and Greg. He told him how he told Nick that Greg had come to him for help in handling the breakup. He told him how Nick changed almost before his eyes and accused him of trying to take advantage of Greg in his moment of weakness.
“Alan, I swear I thought he might come after me. He was red in the face and breathing hard. He didn’t look like Nick or sound like Nick.”
“What did you do?”
“I got myself set in the chair so if he did jump me I would be ready for him but I put my arms on the chair arms like you taught me, you know, open up your body position and make yourself seem less threatening. I stayed calm and told him I had comforted Greg, not taken advantage of him. I told him I took him home to Steve and we fed him and put him in the same room we’d put him in…..”
“That was fast thinking Country; make him remember how you and Steve took care of him and let him see the comparison. Good job.” Alan interrupted without thinking because at that moment he was so proud of his friend for remembering much of what he had taught him and others in his ‘Averting Confrontations’ seminar.
“I told him that Steve had comforted Greg when he had nightmares the same way he’d held Nick in the car to keep the road bumps from jarring him.”
“And how did he react?”
“He just sort of collapsed. It was like watching him change back into the Nick I know. He said he was sorry and he said something else that really weirded me out at the time.”
“What, what did he say?” Alan asked eagerly.
“He said, “Who am I and then something about what happens to the Nick that knows that I love Steve and wouldn’t have a fling with anyone. He scared me Alan because he was talking about himself in the third person. He said I wouldn’t do that not even with someone as hot as Greg.”
Alan thought for so long that Bobby thought he’d hung up and started yelling, “Hey Alan, are you still there?”
“Yeah I’m here Bobby, don’t yell in my ear. Did anything else happen after that, I mean anything that you considered odd?”
“Well just the fact that I had moved over beside him when he started crying and after he said that about Greg, he did stop crying. I felt sorry for him and that loveseat ain’t the biggest thing in the world for two grown men, so I put my arm around him and he just leaned against me like Chelsi does when she’s tired and ready to go to sleep.”
“That’s it, That’s all? Charles said the nurses told him Nick was in a great mood; that they heard him laughing clear out in the hall.”
“Oh yeah. After I moved over to sit beside him, I told him that I agreed that Greg was a doll because let’s face it, to a gay man he’s pretty much like catnip to a cat, but I knew that anyone trying to get with Greg would have him, Nick that is, in bed with them. I also told him that if he cared anything for Greg at all, to please try and work with you because we would never pull him out of a mess like that again. That’s when he apologized and said he would try. That’s when he just leaned against me and rested.”
“And as for the laughin’……I asked him what he was goin’ to do the next time I grabbed Greg and hugged him to pieces because he was just so damn cute and he said well he’d just have to grab Steve and plant a big wet one on him and what did I think about that? I told him that Steve would be the happiest, horniest, most confused gay guy in Las Vegas and just started laughing thinking about the expression on Steve’s face if that should ever happen.”
“Nick tried to keep glaring at me but then he got tickled and we both just howled. That’s how the visit ended.”
“Well damn. How did he go from laughing out loud to sobbing until he’s sick.”
“I don’t know Alan, what do you want me to do?”
“Nothing for now Bobby, I’ve got to see what’s going on and most of all, I need to get Nick stable for right now. I’ll call you tomorrow and for now, don’t say anything to Greg please. He doesn’t need anything else to worry him.”
**********
If the weather had any sense, it would have been storming with thunder and lightning the next morning. No one was in a good mood.
Charles was worried sick about his favorite patient who had cried intermittently during the night. Nick had never woken up, but it was obvious that he was in distress and his vitals agreed with Charles visual diagnosis.
Nick’s morning nurse entered in his chart that he was running a low-grade fever, his heart beat was faster than normal sometimes and thready others, his pulse was racing. He was definitely a sick puppy.
Alan had almost no sleep and when he did, he had nightmares, none of which he could remember when he woke up.
Bobby snapped at everyone so much during his shift, by the end of the night, only Grissom approached him without steeling himself first.
All that was just the introduction; the really bad stuff happened when Nick woke up and informed his nurse that he didn’t feel like seeing Alan. He wanted to cancel his appointment and he wanted them to call everyone on his visitors list and tell them not to come until further notice.
Alan was just pouring himself another cup of coffee when the phone rang and a frantic Greg was almost yelling at him. He demanded to know what was going on. Why didn’t Nick want to see him anymore? What had happened? The questions were coming so fast, Alan couldn’t have answered them even if he’d had a clue what the young man was talking about. It took a few minutes to get him calm enough to give the facts slowly, rationally and in a voice just below a yell. When he asked Greg how he knew Nick did not want to see him, Greg’s voice quivered as he said, “The receptionist at the clinic called me and told me that Mr. Bueller had requested no visitors until further notice. Alan I thought he was making progress. This doesn’t sound like progress to me.”
Just then someone tried to beep in on their call and when Alan looked at his caller Id, he saw it was Bobby. He asked Greg if he would hold on just a moment and switched over hoping Bobby had thought of something else but this call was a repetition of what he had just gone through with Greg. Bobby had gotten the same call telling him no visitors until further notice. Just then, there was another beep in. This time, it was a Texas prefix and Alan just knew it was Nick’s folks. He told Bobby he had a call from Texas and was willing to bet they had a call also and for Bobby to get some sleep and he’d get back to him as soon as possible. He told Greg the same thing except Greg refused to hang up and told him to conference him in with the Stokes.
Alan knew how much Nick’s folks thought of the young man so he told him he would put him on hold, ask them if they minded and if they said it was OK, he would; otherwise, he was hanging up on Greg. There was a very reluctant OK. Of course when he answered the line, it was both Judge and Mrs. Stokes and they were pissed big time. He managed to get a word in edgewise and told them he had Greg on the other line, that he’d gotten the same call they had and he wanted to be conferenced in. Within seconds, four worried people were all talking at the same time and trying to figure out where everything went so wrong.
Rating: PG-13.
Pairing: Nick/Greg
Warnings: None.
Summary: Why is nothing ever easy?.
Spoilers: None
A/N: This is a sequel to ‘Putting Down Roots’ which you can find
here
Previous parts of this story can be found here
Alan Perkins was feeling pretty damn good. Life was sweet. He had a thriving practice, he had a beautiful home, he had a little black book that contained the names and numbers of some of the finest ladies in Las Vegas AND most of all, he had finally gotten Nick Stokes to tell him one tiny piece of truth. Now most people would not be walking on cloud nine because of an ‘I went there on purpose’ but those people had not been dealing with Mr. Stokes and his avoidance issues. Alan knew from past experience that all he needed was one teensy, tiny hole in the façade of his patient and he could worm his way inside.
It was 10:30pm which was early for Alan to be settling in for the night but he had a busy day ahead of him tomorrow. Alan’s practice was not only thriving, it was varied and covered a large geographical area from the Meijer Clinic in Henderson to consulting at another private clinic in Reno. In order to keep himself organized and on time for all his appointments, Marie, Alan’s ‘worth her weight in gold’ assistant, faxed a schedule to his private home fax every evening. Alan had trained himself to read over that list each night before he went to sleep. Several of those fine ladies from his little black book had been somewhat insulted when Alan had jumped out of bed, ran to his office and come back to bed with a fax. Alan always smiled, complimented them and then told them if they wanted the best restaurant’s and the ‘A’ wine list and let’s not forget the pretty little baubles he gifted them with, the list had to be read every night; no matter what.
Tomorrow’s list was not long as far as appointments went, but Marie’s notes on the four appointments he had were quite explicit. He had two appointments in Las Vegas; Alan smiled when he saw the names. He could never understand the people who objected to gay marriage because it was so ‘unnatural’. Alan discovered quite early in his practice that two people in an intimate relationship acted the same no matter what their gender. Cases in point were his two appointments tomorrow. The Halverson’s, husband and wife, were having problems with in-law interference, sex and money. The Barnes-Wilson’s, husband and husband, were having problems with sex, money and in-law interference. See what I mean?
Both couples had been patients for approximately the same length of time and both were progressing but tomorrow’s appointments for both couples were going to be pivotal. Alan saw that Marie had scheduled an hour and a half for each.
He had one fairly new patient he would be seeing in her home. Alan usually did not make house calls but this patient had developed Agoraphobia after a particularly brutal rape. Her husband was a prominent member of the old Las Vegas families (as in part of the New York mob members who had relocated when things got too hot on their old home turf) and the money was phenomenal. After working with the wife for 2 months and observing the relationship between the spouses, Alan had notified her husband that his rate would be $150.00 an hour plus $25.00 for a house call. Now that sounds like a lot but the husband had offered $1000.00 a week for one hour. When asked why he was changing the rate, Alan told the husband simply. “She needs me and so do you.”
When Marie opened the mail after that visit and a check fell out for $25,000.00 she almost fainted. She called Alan and asked him what the HELL was going on; had he agreed to become a mob therapist? Alan told her he would look into it; no, he wasn’t going over to the dark side and she had to stop watching re-runs of The Soprano’s. When he called the husband and asked for an explanation, the husband replied, “You’re right, we do need you and thank God I am able to pay for what I need. You’re worth it and if you don’t want to accept it from me as payment then consider it a contribution and use it for other patients like Jenny (his wife) who need you and can’t pay for you.” You just never know when you are going to run into a genuinely good guy.
His fourth appointment was Nick and he could hardly wait. For some reason, Nick had captured Alan’s fancy in a way that few patients did. Alan was as straight as they come so it had nothing to do with his extraordinary good looks. It could be partly because of Alan’s almost instant attachment to Greg. As I said, Alan was completely hetero and loved his ladies. That was the problem; he loved them too much. He had realized early on that he was not marriage material because he just could not stop looking, wanting to touch and possess. He just simply could not be faithful so he made the choice to stay single and play the field. However, he did like kids and sort of missed the idea of having a son to raise and care for.
He had thought when he first met Greg that he was much younger than his 32 years. He looked it and he acted younger. When Alan finally got around to getting the basics on his new patient, he didn’t care anymore. He admired the brilliant, hurting young man completely and really had to work to keep his professional and personal opinions separate. It wasn’t as weird as it sounded. Alan was 52, Greg was 32; there were lots of dads who were twenty when they had their first one. Alan was thrilled when Greg stood up to Judge Stokes and asserted his right to demand respect. It meant that Greg was no longer his patient and they could establish a closer connection.
As a surrogate father, even if Greg didn’t know it, Alan felt he had a right to be concerned about the man his ‘boy’ was involved with. When he got the call from Bobby, he dropped everything and ran because Bobby was also a dear friend and he didn’t take advantage of their friendship. If he asked for help right now, he needed help right now. When Alan got to Bobby and Steve’s house and found Greg there with them and all three of them covered in blood, he realized he was opening a huge can of worms. He almost threw up when he saw what had been done to Nick and when he did a preliminary rectal exam and saw the horrific damage; he did vomit. At that moment, he realized he was going to be involved with all of these men and he was going to be walking a very fine, very high, wire between friendship and professional behavior.
Alan’s reminisces were interrupted by his phone. He glanced at the caller ID and when he saw Meijer Clinic, he grabbed for the phone. He had 4 patients besides Nick and all 5 of them were in the early stages of treatment which meant anything could be important. When he heard Charles voice his heart sank.
Meijer’s was a very exclusive clinic. The prices charged included a staff that was highly trained with exceptional credentials. Alan and Gordon Meijer had established the habit of assigning specific orderlies to each patient and keeping them with that patient throughout their entire stay.
Charles and Phillip were the two orderlies assigned to Nick Stokes and Charles had been with the clinic since it opened. His feel for the patients was almost psychic, especially when he genuinely liked the patient and Nick was one of his favorites. If Charles said, ‘I’m concerned’, you better by God believe there was something to be concerned about. Charles was concerned about Nick.
Alan told Charles to wait a second; he needed a pad of paper. When he was settled at his desk where he could take notes quickly in his own form of shorthand, he put the phone on speaker so he had both hands free and told Charles to tell him everything.
“When I came on duty, I saw that Nick had ordered dinner in his room. I was puzzled because he’s been going to the dining room for all his meals and he’s made quite a few friends with the other patients and of course, the entire staff just love him. I took his meal up and served him.“
“How did he seem?” Alan interrupted.
“He was perfectly normal. I asked him why he wasn’t eating downstairs and he said he had some serious thinking to do. I asked him if something had upset him and he said no he’d had a great visit with a dear friend and it had been a real good day. I offered to turn the TV on but he said he preferred some background music. He keeps his CD changer loaded so I just turned it on and put it on random play, told him to page me if he wanted anything else and just as I was leaving, he said he thought he would like to have a cold beer; preferably a Tecate. I told him I would bring it right up and left.”
“When I brought the beer, I brought a couple of extras and put them and a small bowl of limes in his room fridge; his file says alcohol is no problem. He had finished his pot roast and asked if there was any chance he could get just a little more. He used his ‘puppy dog eyes’ as his mother calls it on me so of course I said I would get him another plate and did he want some more cornbread also. He said yes and more butter. Now normally with anyone but Nick I would worry about the amount of food and the rich butter but the way that boy works out, there is not an ounce of fat on his body so I like to indulge him. When I left the next time, he was happily munching his way through his salad and cornbread and eyeing his chocolate cake like he was thinking about a second helping of that also.”
“Dr. Perkins, when I came back at 10.00 to pick up his tray and turn his bed down, he was a different person. His face was red and swollen, he could hardly see me. A blind man could see he had been crying, perhaps sobbing hard and for some time. He got up to go to the bathroom and he moved like an old man; as though everything hurt. I’ve not seen him move like that since the first time he tried to get up after his surgery. I asked him if I could do anything for him. He asked if he could have something to help him sleep. I told him I would go check and I called you at once.”
Alan started cursing himself about the time Charles said ’10.00’ and had worked up a good head of steam. He was damning himself for being a pompous ass when Charles interrupted him with a soft, “I’m so sorry Dr. Perkins. What did I do wrong?”
That’s when Alan realized he’d been talking out loud and Charles thought he was calling him an ass. “Good Lord Charles, I wasn’t talking to you. I didn’t even realize I was talking out loud. I was calling myself a pompous ass because I’d just been sitting here congratulating myself on what a great therapist I was. No, you have done everything just right. Now, here’s what I want you to do. Give him a 10 gram phenol-barbital and a 5 gram Zantac. Make sure the head of his bed is elevated. On very rare occasions, that combo can cause problems with breathing. If Nick has been crying as hard as you’ve described, his mucous membranes are going to be swollen and congested. You might also make sure there is lavender and eucalyptus oil in his mister; set it on vapor and direct it just over his bed. That will help with the breathing and congestion and the lavender may help him relax. “
“I want a 2 hour check starting at 11.00pm. I don’t just want someone to stick their head in the door. I want vitals taken every 2 hours. I want him looked at; I want to know if his skin is clammy or too warm. It’s to go until he starts to wake normally. Is that understood?”
“Yes Dr. I will check him myself until I go off shift and I’ll make sure his 6.00 am nurse is aware of your orders.”
“Thank you Charles. I couldn’t put him in better hands than yours. I may be calling you back. I know who his visitor was today and he and I are going to have a talk.”
Alan took one second to curse himself a little more and then dialed Bobby’s cell phone. If he had thought, he would have realized that this was a good time to call because Bobby was just getting ready to head for the lab. The problem was, Alan wasn’t thinking. He was just plain pissed. He could not figure out what happened. He knew, he was sure Bobby had done nothing to upset Nick and if he had, he would have called and told him but Bobby was the only unknown quantity and Alan was going to find out what had happened to his patient if it was the last thing he did.
Bobby answered on the 2nd ring and just barely got a ‘Hey Alan’ out when Alan aggressively asked him what the hell he had said to Nick after he (Alan) had left. We have mentioned before that Bobby has a temper and he didn’t react well to being yelled at by a friend especially after the great afternoon he’d had with Nick. When he got home and discovered that Steve’s mother had come and picked up Chelsi so they could fit some new clothes (Steve’s mother was an accomplished seamstress and their little girl dressed like a fashion model) well, that was just the icing on the cake. He knew he had to get some sleep before work but as Steve was yanking off his boots and unbuttoning his jeans and dragging them down his legs, along with his briefs, he decided he didn’t need that much sleep. By the time Steve had him stripped in their big bed and was taking his clothes off much slower than he’d ripped Bobby’s off, he knew that his lovin’ man was planning on an evening to remember. Now that made sleep completely unnecessary.
So he was in no mood to be yelled at and he yelled right back at Alan. By the time they both stopped yelling and took a breath, Bobby realized that something bad had happened to Nick.
“Ok man, slow down, stop yelling and tell me what’s happening.”
“Bobby, Charles just called and said Nick looks like he’s been crying for hours, he’s lethargic, moving like he’s in pain and just generally in bad shape. He wasn’t that way at 7.00pm when Charles served him his dinner so what the hell happened. He told Charles he wasn’t eating in the dining room because he had some serious thinking to do. What did you two talk about that could have brought this on?”
Bobby was stunned. He told Charles he had no idea. When he left, he and Nick were roaring with laughter over some silly shit they were talking.
Alan told him to take a minute and think if there was anything at all during the afternoon that seemed different.
Bobby went through the entire afternoon in his mind. He deliberately switched to his work mode and examined the visit the way he would study evidence from a crime scene. He remembered Nick’s surprise that Bobby knew about him and Greg. He repeated everything that had happened from that point on. He told Alan how Nick had jerked when he asked if his discomfort with his ‘gayness’ had caused trouble between him and Greg. He told him how he told Nick that Greg had come to him for help in handling the breakup. He told him how Nick changed almost before his eyes and accused him of trying to take advantage of Greg in his moment of weakness.
“Alan, I swear I thought he might come after me. He was red in the face and breathing hard. He didn’t look like Nick or sound like Nick.”
“What did you do?”
“I got myself set in the chair so if he did jump me I would be ready for him but I put my arms on the chair arms like you taught me, you know, open up your body position and make yourself seem less threatening. I stayed calm and told him I had comforted Greg, not taken advantage of him. I told him I took him home to Steve and we fed him and put him in the same room we’d put him in…..”
“That was fast thinking Country; make him remember how you and Steve took care of him and let him see the comparison. Good job.” Alan interrupted without thinking because at that moment he was so proud of his friend for remembering much of what he had taught him and others in his ‘Averting Confrontations’ seminar.
“I told him that Steve had comforted Greg when he had nightmares the same way he’d held Nick in the car to keep the road bumps from jarring him.”
“And how did he react?”
“He just sort of collapsed. It was like watching him change back into the Nick I know. He said he was sorry and he said something else that really weirded me out at the time.”
“What, what did he say?” Alan asked eagerly.
“He said, “Who am I and then something about what happens to the Nick that knows that I love Steve and wouldn’t have a fling with anyone. He scared me Alan because he was talking about himself in the third person. He said I wouldn’t do that not even with someone as hot as Greg.”
Alan thought for so long that Bobby thought he’d hung up and started yelling, “Hey Alan, are you still there?”
“Yeah I’m here Bobby, don’t yell in my ear. Did anything else happen after that, I mean anything that you considered odd?”
“Well just the fact that I had moved over beside him when he started crying and after he said that about Greg, he did stop crying. I felt sorry for him and that loveseat ain’t the biggest thing in the world for two grown men, so I put my arm around him and he just leaned against me like Chelsi does when she’s tired and ready to go to sleep.”
“That’s it, That’s all? Charles said the nurses told him Nick was in a great mood; that they heard him laughing clear out in the hall.”
“Oh yeah. After I moved over to sit beside him, I told him that I agreed that Greg was a doll because let’s face it, to a gay man he’s pretty much like catnip to a cat, but I knew that anyone trying to get with Greg would have him, Nick that is, in bed with them. I also told him that if he cared anything for Greg at all, to please try and work with you because we would never pull him out of a mess like that again. That’s when he apologized and said he would try. That’s when he just leaned against me and rested.”
“And as for the laughin’……I asked him what he was goin’ to do the next time I grabbed Greg and hugged him to pieces because he was just so damn cute and he said well he’d just have to grab Steve and plant a big wet one on him and what did I think about that? I told him that Steve would be the happiest, horniest, most confused gay guy in Las Vegas and just started laughing thinking about the expression on Steve’s face if that should ever happen.”
“Nick tried to keep glaring at me but then he got tickled and we both just howled. That’s how the visit ended.”
“Well damn. How did he go from laughing out loud to sobbing until he’s sick.”
“I don’t know Alan, what do you want me to do?”
“Nothing for now Bobby, I’ve got to see what’s going on and most of all, I need to get Nick stable for right now. I’ll call you tomorrow and for now, don’t say anything to Greg please. He doesn’t need anything else to worry him.”
**********
If the weather had any sense, it would have been storming with thunder and lightning the next morning. No one was in a good mood.
Charles was worried sick about his favorite patient who had cried intermittently during the night. Nick had never woken up, but it was obvious that he was in distress and his vitals agreed with Charles visual diagnosis.
Nick’s morning nurse entered in his chart that he was running a low-grade fever, his heart beat was faster than normal sometimes and thready others, his pulse was racing. He was definitely a sick puppy.
Alan had almost no sleep and when he did, he had nightmares, none of which he could remember when he woke up.
Bobby snapped at everyone so much during his shift, by the end of the night, only Grissom approached him without steeling himself first.
All that was just the introduction; the really bad stuff happened when Nick woke up and informed his nurse that he didn’t feel like seeing Alan. He wanted to cancel his appointment and he wanted them to call everyone on his visitors list and tell them not to come until further notice.
Alan was just pouring himself another cup of coffee when the phone rang and a frantic Greg was almost yelling at him. He demanded to know what was going on. Why didn’t Nick want to see him anymore? What had happened? The questions were coming so fast, Alan couldn’t have answered them even if he’d had a clue what the young man was talking about. It took a few minutes to get him calm enough to give the facts slowly, rationally and in a voice just below a yell. When he asked Greg how he knew Nick did not want to see him, Greg’s voice quivered as he said, “The receptionist at the clinic called me and told me that Mr. Bueller had requested no visitors until further notice. Alan I thought he was making progress. This doesn’t sound like progress to me.”
Just then someone tried to beep in on their call and when Alan looked at his caller Id, he saw it was Bobby. He asked Greg if he would hold on just a moment and switched over hoping Bobby had thought of something else but this call was a repetition of what he had just gone through with Greg. Bobby had gotten the same call telling him no visitors until further notice. Just then, there was another beep in. This time, it was a Texas prefix and Alan just knew it was Nick’s folks. He told Bobby he had a call from Texas and was willing to bet they had a call also and for Bobby to get some sleep and he’d get back to him as soon as possible. He told Greg the same thing except Greg refused to hang up and told him to conference him in with the Stokes.
Alan knew how much Nick’s folks thought of the young man so he told him he would put him on hold, ask them if they minded and if they said it was OK, he would; otherwise, he was hanging up on Greg. There was a very reluctant OK. Of course when he answered the line, it was both Judge and Mrs. Stokes and they were pissed big time. He managed to get a word in edgewise and told them he had Greg on the other line, that he’d gotten the same call they had and he wanted to be conferenced in. Within seconds, four worried people were all talking at the same time and trying to figure out where everything went so wrong.
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