Hidden in the Blood: A Novel of the Terribly Acronymed Detective Club (Book 5)

Chapter Eighteen: Al, Saturday

The doctors came to check him over, and Sunny and Tej took that as their cue to leave. Only Rachel and Mom stayed, hanging back to allow them room to shine a light in his eyes to check his pupil response, tap his elbows and knees to measure his reflexes, and poke and prod him to see if his nervous system was responding to pain stimuli. "Ow," he said, and moved his foot when they curled his toe around a pen, for some reason. 

"We're going to take an MRI of your brain function to confirm, but we're seeing some positive signs here," one of them, whose name Al didn't think he offered, said; maybe he didn't want to burden him with the mental power it took to remember it. 

"So, he's out?" Rachel asked. "He's out of his coma?"

"We're pretty confident he's progressed from minimal consciousness to full consciousness. That being said, Al, you may find yourself becoming tired easily as you continue your recovery. That's completely normal. Your body's been through a lot, and you need to reestablish normal sleep-wakefulness cycles."

"Okay," Al said, suddenly feeling tired, as if the doctor had used the power of suggestion on him. It sucked, because he was finally awake and aware after apparently being out for weeks, and he felt like he'd missed out on a lot, most notably the fact that Agnes was back. It had sent him into a panic at first, thinking he hadn't emerged from "the well," as Sam had called it... "I saw Sam."

"What?" Rachel breathed.

"Sorry, what was that?" the other doctor said.

He hadn't meant to say it out loud, or at least not yet. "Sorry," Al said. "I just meant... I was remembering stuff from my past while I was out. I also saw Danny Trybek. We talked about that seance we did. He didn't seem impressed."

Rachel nodded sadly. "Poor Danny," she said, wiping her eyes.

"We'll come back when we're ready to wheel you to the basement level," the first doctor said, scrawling something in Al's chart and then putting it back at the base of his bed. "I'd advise you to get some rest soon, so we can have you awake for the MRI."

Once they were gone, Al said to Mom, "I saw Dad, too."

"Oh!" Mom said a little too brightly. Her smile didn't reach her eyes. "More memories?"

"No. It was more like he was talking to me in the present day. He said something that was weird. I was asking him why he never really had time for me, and he told me he wasn't really my father, that Uncle Richard was."

Mom blinked wordlessly at him for what seemed like a whole minute. Rachel looked at her in concern.

"Mom?" Al said.

"How could this be?" Mom breathed, shaking her head in disbelief.

"How could what be?" Al said. "It's just my head playing tricks with me, right? I mean, it's not true, right?"

Mom didn't say anything. 

"Right?" Al repeated.

Her mouth opened and closed as she tried to form words to say to him.

"Maybe I should leave the room for a minute..." Rachel said, just as Sunny entered the room and said, "Rachel, we have a little problem."

"What is it?" Rachel asked.

"It's your ex-girlfriend, Al," Sunny said.

"Agnes?" Al asked. "What about her?"

"She's going to need a lawyer."

"I thought you were giving her free legal advice," Rachel said.

"Why does Agnes need you, Sunny?" Al asked, trying to keep up.