Chapter 3

Friday, March 30, 2006

There were many things in life that Al enjoyed.  Watching the sun finish rising while in a cab on the way to the airport wasn’t one of them.  Sadly, that’s what he found himself doing.  Had he had his way, he and Sam would still be checked into the hotel and not because he didn’t want to be on his way to the airport at 6:45 in the morning but because he was still convinced that Sam shouldn’t be flying but should be back in bed resting and getting better.

True he was no worse this morning than he had been the previous morning but the point was…he was no better.  Sam wouldn’t hear anything of staying in LA for another day.  He’d adamantly informed Al that they would be on their flight to Honolulu and that was the end of that, no arguments.

After checking them in and getting Sam settled in a seat at their boarding gate, Al set off to find them both something to eat for breakfast.  Sam had claimed that he wasn’t hungry but he needed to take the antibiotic and he couldn’t do that on an empty stomach.  When Al came back over with bagels and juice Sam was dozing off in the chair.

“Hey, Sam.  Wake up,” Al said shaking his knee.

“Hmm…I guess I sort of fell asleep,” Sam said straightening from the slouch he’d slipped into.

“Yeah, I guess you did.  Here, eat this so you can take the antibiotic.”

Sam took the proffered bagel and started eating it.  He didn’t have the energy to argue with Al about eating and simply figured it would be easier to eat even if he wasn’t hungry than to argue about it.  In the end it was an argument he knew Al would end up winning so, really, what was the use in bothering.

Sam dutifully ate the majority of the bagel and then swallowed both his antibiotic and pain med when Al handed them to him.  Dr. Childs had switched his pain meds from the Percocet he’d been taking to Tylenol 3 since it wasn’t quite as strong.  It still tended to pack a punch, though, especially since he wasn’t feeling well, and shortly had him dozing in his seat again.

“Sam, time to wake up, Kid,” Al softly called as their flight was called to board.

“I fell asleep again?” Sam asked rising from his seat and grabbing the cane.  He leaned on it heavily, his limp more pronounced in direct relation to how tired he was.

“You did,” Al agreed shouldering his carry-on and grabbing Sam’s.  Their flight this morning was sold out so there had been no possibility of being bumped up to business class.  They were, however, allowed to board first since it took Sam a little longer to move.

Locating their seats Al placed his carry on in the overhead compartment and dropped Sam’s onto one of the aisle seats.  He unzipped it and pulled out the pouch on top that contained all of Sam’s prescriptions and then re-zipped the carry on and put it with his.  Grabbing Sam’s cane from him he also stowed that in the overhead compartment as well before squeezing by Sam to the window seat.  Since they were on the right side of the plane and Sam was in the aisle seat, he’d at least be able to stretch his leg out into the aisle during the flight.

As soon as they were seated, one of the flight attendants came over to see if they needed anything.

“No, we’re all set right now, Ma’am,” Al assured her.  “Do you think my friend could get a pillow and blanket, though?”

“Sure, I’ll be right back with them.”

Al’s goal for the flight had been to keep Sam as comfortable as possible until the plane landed and then get him to Katie’s house and tucked into bed where he could get the rest he needed.  He’d spoken with Katie the night before and let her know that Sam had come down with something.  She planned on meeting them at the airport but was going to convince Thelma to wait at home for them to get there.  They’d both decided it would be better for the reunion between mother and son to take place privately – especially since Sam was under the weather.

“Here you are, sir,” the flight attendant said coming back with the requested pillow and blanket.  “If you need anything else, just ring.”

Sam and Al both thanked her and she went off to take care of the other passengers now boarding.

“I think I’m just gonna take a little nap,” Sam said as he put the pillow behind him.  Al helped him to spread the blanket out, tucking it in behind his shoulders, and making sure the seat belt was buckled over it.  Sam was sound asleep before the plane even taxied down the runway.

They hit more turbulence on the flight than Al really would have cared to have and he was surprised when Sam continued to sleep through it all.  He gently lay a hand on his forehead and frowned when it felt like not only was Sam still carrying a low-grade fever but that it seemed to have gone up a bit.  Getting on the plane to Hawaii had most definitely not been one of their smarter moves.  It was too late to go back and undo it, though.

Sam ended up sleeping through the entire flight and it wasn’t until the plane was going in for it’s landing that Al finally nudged him to wake him up.

“Where are we?” Sam asked as he tried to stretch the kinks out of his neck that he’d acquired from sleeping for so long in an awkward position.

“We’re here.  The plane’s starting its descent now.”

“Already?” Sam asked in surprise.  “I slept through the whole flight.”

“Like a log.  You didn’t even flinch when we went through the turbulence and that was pretty bad.  How are you feeling?”

“I’m ok,” Sam attempted to reassure Al.  “Ok, I feel like something the cat dragged in,” he admitted when he saw the skeptical look on Al’s face.  “I’ll be glad to get to Katie’s.  This might sound strange considering I just woke up but lying down in a real bed sounds like the best thing right about now.”

“It’s probably is the best thing for you.  I’m not sure if those antibiotics you’re on are doing anything for you.”

“They need a chance to start to work.”  Sam would have said more but before he could he started coughing.  It was a raw, painful cough and it reminded Al of the cough Sam had had in the hospital.  He rubbed his hand up and down his back like he had then until the cough finally abated.

“Well, at least you waited until the end of the flight to try to cough up a lung.”

Once the plane had landed, Sam and Al remained in their seats until the rest of the passengers had collected their carry on luggage and left the plane.  It would have been foolish for them to try to exit with the rest considering Sam still wasn’t moving very fast.

When Sam reached out to take his carryon from Al, Al nudged him ahead.  “You’ve got enough to carry just getting yourself off the plane.  I’ll take care of this.”

When they exited the jetway into the waiting area of gate, Sam immediately saw Katie standing off to the side looking anxiously for them among the passengers that had already disembarked.

“Katie!” Sam called out rushing over to her as fast as he was able.

As soon as she heard her brother’s voice Katie’s head swung around in their direction and she hurried over to them.  As soon as she was in arm’s reach Sam swept her up into a bone-crushing hug.  Al hung back to give the siblings their privacy.

“God, it’s so good to see you,” Sam said when he finally let go of his sister and stepped back.

“I thought I’d missed you when everyone else got off.”

“Yeah, well, I’m still moving a lot slower than everyone else is, I guess.”

“Don’t let him fool, you,” Al said as he approached the two and dropped a hand on Sam’s shoulder.  “He just wanted to make a dramatic entrance all by himself.”

“Where’s Mom?” Sam asked looking around for his mother.

“She’s waiting for you at home.  I figured you’d probably rather skip her fussing over you in public.”

“Oh, ok.  But she’s ok, right?” Sam asked nervously.

“She’s fine, Sam.  You’d hardly even know anything happened to her unlike you.”  Katie took a long hard look at Sam and then shot Al a concerned look that didn’t go unnoticed.

“I’ll be ok, Katie.  It’s just a cold,” Sam explained correctly interpreting his sister’s look.

Al took a look at Sam himself and tried to see him as his sister was seeing him.  He’d grown used to Sam’s appearance over the last several weeks and had forgotten that to someone who hadn’t seen Sam in a while the difference would be startling.  Whereas Al had noticed that Sam had started to gain back some of the weight he’d lost during his hospitalization, Katie only saw how much he’d lost since she’d seen him some months ago.  Where Al had grown used to the pale features and the dark shadows under Sam’s eyes, Katie wasn’t used to seeing these physical reminders of his injuries and recent illness.  Al did have to concede the fact to himself that the respiratory infection that Sam currently had didn’t help how he looked any.

“I know you’ll be ok,” Katie answered brightly, maybe a bit too brightly.  “What better place to rest and recuperate than here in paradise with Mom’s good cooking.”

“I’m not here to recuperate and I’m looking forward to your mom’s cooking,” Al chimed in.  Let’s go get our luggage and head out of here.

Just before they left to retrieve their luggage Katie reached out giving Sam another quick hug.  “I’m so glad you’re here, Big Brother.”

“Me too, Katie,” Sam said hugging her back.  “Me too.”

Al led the way toward the baggage claim area with Sam and Katie following along behind him chatting happily.

“Hey, hang on a second, Al” Sam called out from behind.

“What’s up, Kid?” Al asked after he’d stopped and retraced his steps back to where Sam and Katie had stopped.

“Nothing.  I just need to make a quick detour,” Sam explained gesturing towards the men’s room they were in front of.  “You two can go on ahead and I’ll meet you in baggage claim if you want.”

“No,” Al disagreed.  “We’ll wait for you right here.  No sense in getting split up if we don’t have to.”

“I’ll be right out,” Sam said before disappearing through the doorway.

“Ok, what’s wrong with him?” Katie asked as soon as Sam was out of sight.  Her earlier smile had faded away and she crossed her arms over her chest.

“Wrong?” Al asked.  “What do you mean?”

“What I mean, Admiral Calavicci, is that you’ve been telling us…he’s been telling us that he’s recovering fine but he looks like a good wind could knock him over.  What’s going on that you haven’t told us about?”

“He is recovering, Katie.  Trust me.  If you’d seen him just a week ago you’d know I’m telling the truth.  He was hurt pretty bad when that car hit him and the pneumonia didn’t help but he’s been doing great since he was released from the hospital.  To tell you the truth, he’s been looking so much better the last couple of days it didn’t even occur to me anymore how shaky he still looks.”

“I hope you’re telling me the truth here Al ‘cause if you’re not Mom’s gonna get it out of you.  She has a very low tolerance bs meter and right now Sam looks like hell.”

“I know, Honey.  That’s just because he picked up some bug.  He’s taking antibiotics for that and the doctor said he should start feeling better by tomorrow.”  It was a small lie, Al admitted to himself.  The doctor had said the antibiotic should start taking affect in 24 hours and it had been over that without any noticeable difference.  Al chalked it up to the travel and that once Sam had time to rest he’d be fine.

“It was really bad, wasn’t it?” Katie asked.  “I mean if you’re telling me he’s looking good now it must have been really bad.”

Al looked down to the ground for a moment unable to meet the eyes of Sam’s sister.  Finally he looked up at her.  “There were more than a few times I thought we were going to lose him.  He’s kept fighting, though, and he’s going to make a complete recovery.”

Anything Katie might have said in return was cut off as Sam reappeared.

“You two have been talking about me,” Sam immediately said on seeing the expressions on the two of them.

“What makes you think that, brother dear?” Katie asked linking her arm through Sam’s free one and leading him away.

“You both look like thunder clouds, that’s why.  And you looked like you were going to swallow your tongue when I walked out.”

“Ok, you got us dead to rights,” Katie confessed.  “We were talking about you but it’s not what you think.”

“Oh no, just what was it then?” Sam challenged.

Katie floundered for a moment not sure what to answer when Al came up on the other side of Sam and wrapped an arm around his shoulders.  “I was telling her all about those gorgeous nurses you had in the hospital and how you refused to take my advice.”

Katie breathed a mental sigh of relief at Al’s save.  “Really, Sam,” she chided her brother, “You have to loosen up sometimes and have a little fun.  That advice that Al gave you couldn’t have been all bad.”

Sam allowed himself to play along with their game protesting that it would have been unethical to get involved with any of his nurses all the way down to the baggage claim area.

Since they were among the last passengers to get there, their luggage was already waiting for them.  Al quickly retrieved it and piled it on a luggage cart.  Katie led the way out of the airport encouraging the two of them to wait just outside the door while she went to get the car from parking.  Soon the luggage was loaded in the trunk and they were on their way out of the airport parking lot and on their way to Katie’s home.

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