Disbelief

Jason's eyes grow wider as Katie explains. "Three weeks?" It suddenly hits him that he really had been close to death. "I...wow." He looks down for a moment as he thinks of how it must have affected his family. "I've got foggy recollections of people being here...things people said...it was like a dream or something." He glances up, catching Katie's eye. She'd been with him the whole time...he had felt her presence...he had heard her voice...he was slowly remembering her words. A strange new feeling slowly seeps into his heart. He allows the moment to pass though, not wanting to approach it now. "So did you..." His voice trails off as he looks up, seeing someone in the doorway.

Austin can't believe his eyes, and shock takes over. "Jason...you're....awake....you're...alive."

Jason rolls his eyes. "Yeah, sorry...guess you gotta put up with me a while longer."

Tears form behind Austin's eyes. He turns around to see the others, and focuses on Cindy. "He's...awake."

"What?" Cindy's heart leaps into her throat. "I...how..." She forces her legs to carry her into the doorway, and she peers inside, almost afraid to look. Her son gives her a little wave and a grin. Overcome with an emotional barrage, Cindy simply stands in shock for several moments. Finally she walks slowly to Jason's bed and sits in the chair, the tears starting to flow again. She takes his hand in hers and buries her face in his palm as she cries. "Oh, Jason...I thought I had lost you."

Jason swallows hard, not liking to see all the tears around him, and uncomfortable in the spotlight. "It's alright," he tries to comfort his mother. "I'm here...and I'm not going anywhere."

Cindy sniffs and straightens to look at him, her smile full of love. "I'm sorry....to you this is probably nothing... but I just can't believe it."

Austin and Con join her, both shaking their heads in disbelief. Con gives Jason a teasing look. "Hotshot, don't you ever do this again, do you hear me? I wouldn't be able to last through another bout like this."

Jason gives him a wry grin. "Glad you missed me, Con."

The room quickly fills with the others, all shocked but happy. JT glances down the hall, wondering at the quiet commotion. He goes to them, and when he sees what's happened, he stares in disbelief. "Good heavens..."

Austin smiles at JT. "I'm sure you don't like being called wrong, but..."

"I sure am glad I was wrong about this one." JT approaches Jason, sidling in next to Katie to check on Jason's vitals. "Kid, you're a walking miracle. You should have died ten minutes ago." He takes Jason's pulse, then retrieves a needle to draw some blood. "How are you feeling?"

Jason squints an eye as his arm is pricked. "I feel like I've been run over by a truck."

JT laughs. "That's pretty good for someone in your position. Can you be more specific?"

Jason answers him as JT continues to poke and prod. "My ribs are pretty sore...my face hurts a bit....my left leg feels like it's got a cement block sitting on top of it."

JT nods. "One good thing about you being asleep for this long is that your injuries have actually been healing quite nicely, and probably faster than if you'd been up and around - despite the poison that was in your system." He finishes taking blood. "I'm going to have some tests run on this to see what happened. I don't want to assume you're out of the woods yet."

Jason gestures to his leg. "So how bad is it?"

JT sighs, thinking. "I did as much reconstruction as I could. I replaced part of your knee...bone fragments caused a lot of damage and hassle, but I'm confident I removed all of them. Probably the worst of it was that there was some tearing in the muscles and tendon around the knee. A lot of healing has happened in three weeks, but the downside is that you haven't moved it at all. The mobility and strength that you'll gain back is questionable. I can't predict it." He leans in, looking closer at Jason's face. "Looks like we can get these stitches removed for you."

Jason grimaces slightly. "Just call me scarface." He glances to the side at a hand mirror.

JT raises an eyebrow. "You sure?"

"Show me," Jason nods.

JT hands him the mirror. "You're lucky there was no damage to your eye itself."

Jason looks at his own face, only now seeing the severity of the knife blow he'd received. It was evident that he would wear a diagonal scar across his eye and down to his cheek. But he shouldn't care - he was alive, and apparently that was amazing in itself. "Well...that's one battle scar I can show off."

Con chuckles. "You can wear that one with pride."

JT laughs and begins to retreat. "I'm going to run this blood sample down to the lab. For now, don't try to get up or anything. Just rest easy until I get back."


Things begin to quiet back down a little bit, and the room grows less crowded as some leave to make phone calls. Exhausted, Cindy finally pulls herself away as well to go get some coffee at the cafeteria that she's come to know so well the last few weeks. Once again, Katie is left with Jason.


"Praise the Lord!" Sparky's smile spreads from ear to ear as he hears Austin's voice. He covers the mouthpiece and shouts into the mess hall area from the kitchen. "Jason's awake, y'all!"