Page 98 of Private Exhibit
A few doctors and nurses jumped back, startled at their sudden appearance. Andy didn't have time to apologize orexplain. He shot to his feet with Devon still in his arms and started barking orders.
Andy dropped Devon on a gurney and threw himself on top of the boy, keeping up chest compressions while nurses wheeled the gurney into a scanning bay. Frantic activity swirled around him as the E.R. staff yanked Devon's clothes aside and started feeding bypass tubes into his veins.
“Come on, Dev,” Andy muttered. “Come on, baby. Stay with me.”
Two nurses had to drag him off the gurney. Andy fought them until he realized he was in the way. He stumbled and caught himself on the railing, watching as they completed the setup and got the bypass machine turned on, circulating Devon's blood for him. Meanwhile, another nurse got Devon intubated, helping Devon's body get the oxygen it needed.
“Bypass at seventeen-thirty-two,” a nurse called out, giving the current time.
Andy punched a button the wall, and a bar of blue light tracked down Devon's body. The whole room seemed to hold a collective breath as the light winked out and a hologram appeared. Andy stared at the rendering.
He couldn't move.Hells. He could hardly breathe.
“Good blood flow,” someone announced. “Normal oxygen saturation.”
“I see brain activity,” someone else called out.
Andy let out a shuddering breath. If there was still brain activity, maybe it wasn't too late. He still frantically searched the room, looking for any sign of a ghost, then stared at Devon again. “Deep scan on just the brain,” he ordered. “Expanded view.”
Someone waved away the hologram of Devon's body, and the bar of blue light scanned Devon's head again. A new hologramappeared. A nurse expanded it, stripping away the layers of skin, bone, and muscle, leaving just a representation of Devon's brain.
Andy suddenly couldn't make sense of what he was seeing.
“Shit,” someone whispered.
“What?” Andy demanded, stepping closer and staring intently at the scan.
“Were we too late?” Hayden asked.
Andy jumped, startled to find the boy right there at his elbow. He'd entirely forgotten Hayden was even there.
“How long until bypass?” someone asked him.
Andy shook his head, trying to think. “I don't know. Three minutes? Four?”Hells. It could have been thirty seconds or three hours for all he knew.
Hayden pulled out his phone and cursed. “Shit. I fried it. But I'm pretty sure you called me right at five-thirty.”
Andy nodded dumbly. That meant two minutes, plus however much time he'd wasted before remembering to call Hayden. “How bad is it?”
The whole room fell silent until someone quietly said, “He's in a coma.”
Andy swayed.
“Make him go sit down before he passes out,” someone ordered.
A hand grabbed Andy's arm, steering him away from the scanning bay. He found himself shoved into a chair, then felt the person sit down next to him, still clinging to his arm. “Were we too late?” Hayden quietly asked again.
Andy braced his elbows on his knees and ducked his head, running his hands back through his hair. “I don't know,” he gasped.
They sat there in silence for what felt like hours, though Andy knew—watching Oliver sprint into the waiting area witha bag in hand—that it couldn't have been more than a few minutes.
Oliver lurched to a stop at the sight of them and dropped to his knees. “Oh gods. Is–”
Hayden jumped up from the chair and threw himself on the floor in front of Oliver, grabbing him by the shoulders. “He's still here,” Hayden gasped in a rush. “He's still here.”
Oliver's face crumpled. Hayden seized the boy in his arms. Oliver's eyes went wide with shock, but then he hugged Hayden back and cried.
Andy watched them, unable to move. The boys looked devastated, and there was nothing he could do about it.
