NewU Pt. 01

"Excellent," the voice came back. "Okay, so I need you to keep as still as you can, it will be deafening and not the most comfortable experience you have ever been in, but it will only last a few minutes. You ready?"

"Good to go." I managed a weak smile.

"Alright then, here we go."

A series of quiet whirring motors started moving the examination table into the opening in the machine. I could immediately see how someone who didn't like small places would have a problem here. My entire vision was filled by the beige circular plastic interior of the scanner. A series of dull thuds started sounding from all around me, in different places every time as the magnets were spun around my head. The thuds became louder and closer together, quickly merging into a continuous deafening rumble.

"Okay, Mister Roberts," the voice came from a speaker inside the machine, surprising me with the fact that I could hear it over the noise of the scanner. "We are about to start the test, keep as still as you can, please."

"Okay."

"Five minutes, and you'll be out. If..." the voice paused, "what the?..."

The room outside the machine -- or at least the small parts of it that I could see -- went dark, the lights shut off. "Oh shit!" the voice exclaimed as the rumble around my head started to grow louder, growing from a rumble to the roar of an aircraft engine. "Shut it down!" the voice shouted, "Shut it down now! Get him out of there!!!"

I frowned, barely registering the panic in the voice. My senses were overwhelmed with the noise coming from all around my head, and the small sparks of light flashing from behind the plastic in front of me. A strange smell started wafting into my nose. It reminded me of the small a clutch makes if a car isn't driven properly.

"Hit the emergency shut down! Kill the power! Shut the fucking thing down NOW!"

The voice seemed so far away now, and so insignificant. The tiredness that had been building in me for the last hour or so now washed over me like an ocean wave. All I wanted to do was sleep.

"What do you mean it won't shut down?!? Then pull him out! Grab his legs and get him the fuck out of there before his brain gets fried!"

Dude, you need to chill the fuck out. I can hardly hear you over the noise, and I'm beat. Wake me when it's finished so I can go back to my room and sleep for a few weeks. I'm out!

Darkness came... I greeted it gratefully.

Existence faded slowly back into being from the blackness behind my heavy eyelids. I was in a hospital room, the heart monitor next to my head, the sterile walls, and ceiling, and the concerned look on the attractive middle-aged nurse and balding Doctor were all pretty clear giveaways. I was either experiencing a severe case of déjà vu, or something had gone wrong. More than that, something was... different. I couldn't put my finger on what it was exactly. I just felt... different.

"Well, that was fun. How long has it been this time?" I asked sarcastically

"Only a few hours." The Doctor said, the relief clear in his face. "You gave us quite a scare."

"What happened?" I groaned as my headache announced itself with a vengeance.

"Err..." the Doctor and the nurse -- no, Amy, that was her name -- gave each other a nervous glance. "The hospital was hit by lightning while you were in the MRI. There was some sort of power surge and the scanner overloaded; those magnetic waves can be harmful if not carefully controlled, and they were off the scale by the time they got you out of there. You had a seizure and lost consciousness."

"Awesome." I huffed sarcastically. "Next time something like that happens, just let me die. Someone is obviously trying to kill me, and I'm too tired to fight it."

"You do seem a little overdue for some good luck," Amy said with a reassuring smile. She seemed to have some sort of maternal instinct towards me, not so much because of my injuries, but because my parents hadn't bothered to show up while I was in a coma. There was something about me and the situation with my family that resonated with her, especially since she found out she couldn't have children of her own, and her husband had found someone who wasn't quite as barren. Not an attraction, but more of an urge to take care of me...

I frowned. Where the fuck did that come from? Apparently, errant MRIs cause an overactive imagination.

I looked at the Doctor... he just had a powerful desire not to be sued.

No promises there, buddy.

"Well, I hate to ask this twice in the matter of a few days... but am I alright?"

The Doctor sighed. "to be honest, we don't know." He said carefully. "The magnetic waves used in MRIs are like X-Rays, in that they are carefully administered, in small doses with an adequate period of time between uses to avoid a cumulative effect. That's why we give patients MRIs and X-rays with no issues, but the technicians need to be in protected booths to administer the tests..."

"O...Kay..."

"When the MRI overloaded, you got substantially more than the normal dosage, and it was administered directly to your brain. To be honest, we don't know how much damage was caused, or if any damage was caused at all... But it would be reasonable to assume some kind of physical or neurological reaction to what has happened."

"What kind of reaction? Are we talking about cancer here?" the knot in my chest was tightening.

"Its... err... It's possible," the Doctor answered after some thought, "but extremely unlikely. Considering your seizure, we are more worried about some form of epilepsy."

"But most forms of epilepsy are very manageable with medication." Amy added reassuringly, "and we are still talking in terms of 'if' at the moment..." she gave the Doctor a stern glance, "...we don't know that there is anything to worry about, and we won't know until we can run more tests."

"You're gonna shove me back into another MRI, aren't you?"

"Not while the storm is still around." She smiled.

"Hmm."

"I know its not a nice prospect," Amy said, placing her hand on my arm, "but we won't know what has happened to you, or if anything has happened at all unless we look. We can rerun the EEG as soon as you're ready, but if we want to make sure that you are okay, and rule out any serious side effects of the accident -- either of them - we need to run another MRI scan."

"Can't wait." I sighed.

"What the fuck are you trying to do to me?" Jimmy's voice boomed into the room as the door swung open, and my friend strode towards my bed. The Doctor gratefully gave up his spot and took the distraction as an excuse to leave. "I turn my back for five minutes, and you go an almost die again! Are you trying to give me a fucking heart-attack? Is that what this is? You miss me so badly you want me to wind up in the bed next to you?"

I turned my head in an exaggerated gesture of looking at the walls on either side of my bed. There were no other beds in the room, let alone next to me. "It seemed like a good idea at the time." Jimmy laughed out loud, and Amy tried unsuccessfully to stifle a grin and a quiet giggle.

"Becky called me..." Jimmy started.

"Wow, she moved on quick." I joked.

"She told me what happened," Jimmy went on, sitting back into his chair and ignoring my joke. "Someone has got it in for you, dude."

"She alright?" I asked, my question directed at either of the two people at my bedside.

"We sent her home," Amy answered, "she was pretty shaken up. Her and the orderlies had to physically pull you out of the MRI... while you were fitting... I'll give her a call in a minute to let her know you are okay."

"Tell her she still owes me a shave." I smiled. Hopefully that would cheer her up a bit, not the shave, obviously, but the humor might be enough to lighten her mood.

"And a sponge bath," Jimmy added with a grin.

"Feel free to leave that part out," I said, rolling my eyes. Amy laughed, nodded, touched my arm again, and turned to leave. She was indescribably grateful that I was okay, yet she was still worried that the MRI and other tests would come back with less than ideal results. She wanted so badly for me to be okay. She was also grateful for Jimmy; with a family like mine, I would need all the support I could get, and, despite his bravado, Jimmy was about as supportive as a friend could be. Impressive for two men of such a young age. Becky would be so relieved to hear I was okay, nobody even considered that it was her fault; how could it have been? It was an accident, a freak, once in a lifetime accident, yet she still felt responsible. She was inconsolable when they sent her home. This piece of good news would mean the world to her.

I frowned again. This overactive imagination thing is getting a little out of hand. But Amy was already pulling her phone out of her scrubs as she left the room. No, It couldn't be. That's fucking ridiculous!

"Hey, Earth to Pete..." I was dragged back to the moment by Jimmy.

"huh? Sorry Dude, I was miles away for a second."

"I asked how you are feeling?"

"Like my head has just been through a spin cycle on a washing machine."

"Like a bad hangover then." He laughed.

"Worse than last Christmas."

"Ouch!" If Amy was grateful that I was okay, Jimmy was beyond words. When his parents had been killed in a car crash when he was young, he had been forced to live with a grandmother who made it perfectly clear he wasn't welcome. He left home for college as soon as the law would allow and -- much to his surprise -- met me, the closest thing to a brother that he could ever imagine having. My words to him yesterday had moved him beyond his ability to articulate. He had walked home from the hospital with tears in his eyes, not just because I was okay, but because I had echoed his sentiment. Calling the hospital that morning eight weeks ago and hearing what had happened to me had brought back some old and very traumatic memories for him. His playful and flirtatious demeanor toward the nurses and me was hiding a lot of pain, panic, and despair that had taken up and almost permanent residence in his gut. This morning -- when he left for my tests -- was the best he had felt since I had been here, he had been home for less than an hour when he got the phone call about the MRI incident, and all his fears had come back with a vengeance. That easy smile was all that stood between him and total panic.

Alright, what the actual fuck! Jimmy is nothing if not the easy-going life of the party, and as much as I love the guy, he has the emotional depth of a puddle. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that he had never talked about his family. In fact, he barely mentioned home at all. I looked closer at him, his eyes sparkling with his smile but, every now and again, flashing uneasily at the machines all around us, or the casts on the bottom of my legs when the sheet rode up, or the tubes attached to my arm. He was smiling, but he was genuinely worried about my condition. How the hell had I not noticed that?

"Hey," I started slowly. "You alright, man?"

"Me?" he asked in surprise, "I'm fine, shouldn't I be asking you that?"

I arched an eyebrow at him. "You sure?"

His smile faltered for a second, then collapsed completely. "I never told you, but both of my parents were killed in a car wreck when I was 8, hit by a drunk driver. This has all brought back some hard memories for me, that's all.

No fucking way!

"You never said anything," I said, my mind flipping over like an excited puppy.

"Its not something I like to think about." He replied sadly, his eyes dropping to the floor. "But it's been hard not to since... you know. Then spending weeks here with you, not knowing when - or if - you would wake up. I know it sounds gay but, I don't think I could have coped with losing someone else in the same way, least of all you."

Holy shit!!

"I'm sorry." I said after a pause, "I had no idea. But I'm good, man. You're stuck with me for a while yet, so you'd better polish up your chick magnet lessons, cos I am gonna be working on these nurses for as long as I'm in here."

"I've got eight weeks of tutoring ready to go, I've had plenty of time to work on the material while you've been away with the fairies." He laughed, the tension in his eyes dissipating a little.

Amy chose that moment to re-enter the room, "I've just got off the phone to Becky," she said with a smile, "She is feeling much better now she knows you are alright. She said to expect a visit from her in the morning for your shave."

We all chuckled, the last of the tension evaporating in an instant. "Looking forward to it." I smiled.

"I bet you are," Jimmy laughed. "You need a shave badly, you look like a hobo."

"Hey!" I barked, "We prefer the term 'residentially impaired'!" another round of laughter echoed around the room.

"Pete," Amy guided the conversation back on track, "The Doctor is ready with the EEG if you're up to it. She can come up to your room and do it now if you like."

"Aww, no more trips to the other side of the hospital?" I joked back. Amy rolled her eyes playfully. "yeah, it's fine. I can do it now."

"Do you need me to leave?" Jimmy asked

"No," Amy replied in the tone of an acquiescent mother, "you can stay."

Jimmy's grin widened "Thank you, Nurse Amy." He said, imitating a schoolchild and drawing another round of chuckles from the room.

A stern-looking doctor with shoulder-length, light brown hair came into the room a few minutes later, dragging a cart full of equipment behind her as she approached. "Good Afternoon, Mister Roberts," she smiled and started unpacking her gear, "are you ready?"

"As ready as I'll ever be, I guess."

"Excellent, so the test will be the same as the one you had this morning. Except that this time, we have the benefit of having those results and can compare this new test to the readings we took earlier... It should make things a little quicker, and it will be easier to identify any discrepancies."

"Discrepancies?"

She paused and looked up from assembling her equipment. "There are three possibilities," she said carefully, "firstly -- and the most ideal -- is that this test and the one from this morning show no abnormalities at all. The first test measured a set of normal brain waves, and this test confirms them. The second possibility is that both test measure something out of the ordinary, given the scale of your injuries, the brain surgeries, and your time in a coma, this is probably the most likely scenario, but I should point out that the brain is a wonderful organ, it can perform some pretty amazing feats, so an abnormal reading doesn't necessarily mean there is a problem; it could just mean that the brain has rewired itself to bypass the damaged areas. The last possibility is that this test picks up damage that wasn't in the test this morning; an abnormality that has resulted directly from the accident with the MRI machine, that would be more complicated because we don't actually know the extent of any damage you may have suffered from that type of brain injury and that would need further investigation. However, the same caveat applies; an abnormal reading doesn't mean that there is a problem."

"I... Err... Okay."

Jimmy remained quiet.

"Let's get started, shall we?" The Doctor hooked me up the machine, the electrodes being stuck to my head in the same places they had been a few hours earlier, and we ran through the same battery of tests. Much to our surprise, she was more than happy for Jimmy to participate in the test, we had both assumed that he would need to remain quiet, but the Doctor encouraged us to interact as much as possible, "The more brain activity, the better," she had said.

However, as easy as the test was, and as freely as the conversation flowed between Jimmy and me, I couldn't help but notice the confused frown growing on the Doctor's face. After a few more minutes, she disconnected all the wires, tested the machine, unpackaged, and reconnected new wires and repeated the tests. Her actions did not go unnoticed.

"Everything alright, Doc?" I eventually asked.

"There are... um... some unusual readings," she said with a frown, her eyes never leaving the machine's display. "but they are in a part of the brain that we usually don't find much activity... and they weren't there this morning."

"I don't understand," Jimmy interrupted.

"It's like finding oil in a car," she said quickly but without looking up. "If it's in the right place, then its all good. If you find it in the petrol tank, then that's not right and needs to be looked into. But if you find it spread all over the windshield, then something out the ordinary is going on."

Jimmy and I shared a frowned look.

"I'm gonna have to take these results back to the office, I have a hunch about what is going on, but I need to do some research, maybe confer with some colleagues. I should have an answer for you before the end of the day, but either way, I'll keep you and your doctors informed."

Before either Jimmy or I could think of an appropriate response, she had packed up her equipment and almost ran out of the office.

Jimmy spoke first. "Well, that was weird."

"I... err... don't know how to feel about what just happened," I replied, trying to sound casual.

"Well, let's hope she comes back later with some good news."

We both made idle -- albeit nervous -- conversation for the remaining visiting hours before Amy popped her head around the door and told us that it was time for Jimmy to leave.

"Let me know how the results go." He said with a smile as he got up to leave, "and no fucking dying on me while I'm away."

"No problem," I answered with a smile, "I will wait for you to come back first, then I'll die."

"That's all I ask."

Amy - who was still stood by the door - giggled and shook her head. "Anything you need?" she asked as Jimmy left the room.

"Nah, I'm good, thanks, Amy," replied gratefully. "I'm a little tired, so I think I'll just get some sleep."

"Couple more days, and we might be ready to start you on food. You should have more energy then."

"Sounds good," I tried, unsuccessfully, to stifle a yawn, eliciting another giggle from Amy.

"Sweet dreams."

It was dark outside when I was shaken awake, only the dim light from the lamp on the other side of the room illuminating the otherwise pitch darkness. "Mister Roberts, you need to wake up." A woman's voice whispered loudly as she kept shaking me out of my slumber.

"Urgh," I groaned, my entire body letting me know that it was in no way satisfied with the amount of sleep I had had. "What time is it?"

"I.. err... I don't know; it's late."

It took me a few moments to recognize the voice and the increasing clear face that had disturbed me. "Doc?" It was the stern-looking lady doctor who had taken my second EEG a few hours earlier.

"Yes, It's Doctor Harris." She said, finally satisfied that I was now fully conscious. "I'm sorry to wake you like this, but it couldn't wait."

"Its gonna have to, you need to give me a sec."

I shook myself, working loose the cobwebs and trying to coax every last ounce of alertness out of its slumber. I rubbed my eyes, noting somewhere in the recesses of my mind, that the movement to bring my hands to my face didn't hurt as much as it had done all day.

"Alright, I think I'm with you."

"Good," Doc Harris breathed a sigh of relief. "I'm sorry to wake you like this, but the night staff work to a very tight schedule; it will be a few hours before anyone comes to check on you, and this is not a conversation for prying eyes or curious ears."

"O...Kay."

"Look, I could get fired for this, struck off the register even, I could lose my license, but this is important, I need you to concentrate!"