The night passed in a fit of fever dreams. Each time Joey woke up, it took him a minute to remember where he was. The third or fourth time he stirred, sometime well after midnight, he tilted his head a bit and discovered Lance camped out on one of the big recliners next to his bed. Lance, who was using his folded-up jacket for a pillow, appeared dead to the world, but one of his hands loosely gripped Joey’s hand. Joey was surprised and a little embarrassed at this gesture, yet he also found it strangely comforting.

When morning came at last, Joey’s eyes were open long before Lance shifted and opened his own eyes. Lance yawned deeply, then groaned as he adjusted his neck and massaged his stubbly face. Joey could tell his companion hadn’t rested any easier than he had.

When Lance looked up from his hands, he said softly, “Hi, Joey. How are you feeling this morning?”

“Like someone pulled a plug on me,” Joey said in the same muted tone. “I feel like I can barely move. Feel like the heat’s been turned up, too.”

Lance placed his hand gingerly against Joey’s face, and frowned. “Hmm, you do feel pretty warm. Almost as if you just came out of an oven.”

“And your hand feels like it just came out of a freezer.”

Lance stroked Joey’s hot, sticky brow for a few seconds before sighing and dropping his hand to the bed’s railing. He looked like he wanted to say something extremely serious, but when he opened his mouth, all that came out was, “Can I get you anything?”

“Some of that water over there would be nice.”

A small table near the bed held a glass pitcher of ice water and a column of paper cups. That was one of the things Joey and the others would come to appreciate about this place—when it came to food, drink, and little personal luxuries, these people thought of everything and always had plenty of it on hand.

Lance took one of those cups, filled it to the brim, and passed it to Joey, who drained the whole thing in essentially one gulp. “Oh, man…that is good stuff!” Joey said with a gasp, and immediately held out his cup for a refill; Lance must have poured him at least six rounds before he was satisfied. “Amazing, isn’t it?” Joey said after wiping his mouth on the back of his wrist. “Water’s not supposed to have any particular flavor, but as of right now, I don’t think the world’s finest, most expensive wine can compare.”

Lance nodded, but said nothing.

Before too long, another doctor came to see them—a medium-sized, attractive woman with short chestnut hair and glowing blue eyes, who went by the title of Dr. Rachel Coleman. Like Dr. Richardson, she had a way of being pleasant and candid at the same time. After the basic introductions and a bit of small talk, she informed Joey that he was set to have a CT scan that morning, and a biopsy later that afternoon.

“Biopsy?” Lance repeated the word like it was foreign.

“What for?” Joey asked, though he knew the answer before Dr. Coleman gave it to them.

“We’re going to take out a tiny snippet of that lump in your neck for testing,” she said, her long, manicured fingernail grazing Joey’s swollen jaw so lightly he almost didn’t feel it. “While we’re at it, we’ll extract some of your bone marrow and send that in for study, too.”

Lance’s eyes widened and his posture stiffened. Joey felt his stomach clench. Despite their medical ignorance, they both knew the CT scan shouldn’t be much of a problem—but this bone marrow business would not be at all pleasant, because they would have to dig deep into the bone to get the stuff. While Joey wasn’t as skittish around needles as JC was, he knew how much a simple flu shot could hurt, and the idea of having a needle go clear through his bones made him shudder.

Sensing his distress, Dr. Coleman told him kindly, “The procedure won’t take long, and we can give you an anesthetic so you’ll be more comfortable.”

Joey grimaced, but only said, “Guess I’ll do what I have to do.”

Lance remained quiet, but judging from the paleness of his face and the look in his eyes, you would have thought he was the one to undergo such tests.

It wasn’t until well into the afternoon, after Joey had gone for his bone marrow trial, that Chris, JC, and Justin made it back to the clinic. They found Lance alone in one of the halls, clutching a cup of untouched coffee and appearing the picture of nerves. When they asked him what was going on, where Joey was, if everything was all right, he gave them the shortest, simplest explanation possible. Even with the limited details, JC’s face rivaled the whiteness of the surrounding walls as he listened; Justin looked ready to throw up, and Chris had to sit down due to his shaking legs.

While Joey’s procedure didn’t last too long, it was at least another two hours before they could see him again. Joey was quite mellow from the sedative, but he managed a smile when he saw his mates. They noticed a big white strip on his neck, and while his sheets covered two-thirds of his body, they knew there had to be another bandage somewhere.  

“Sorry we couldn’t get here any sooner,” JC said, sinking into a soft armchair. “The traffic was murder, and we must have made at least a thousand phone calls this morning.”

“Each,” Justin added dryly.

JC went on, “Some people aren’t too happy with us at the moment, as you can imagine.”

“We made sure to go light on the details,” said Chris as he settled onto the armrest of JC’s chair. “We only said you had to stay in the hospital for a couple of days and that we’re suspending all future plans until further notice. Some of our people were understanding, others not so much.” He shook his head and sighed. “Man, some of them really gave us an earful.”

“But never mind that now,” JC said with a wave of his hand. “How do you feel, Joe? Are you okay?”

“As okay as can be expected.”

“How did it go?” asked Justin, who opted to remain standing. “You know, with your tests and everything?”

“The CT scan was no sweat, aside from having to keep perfectly still the whole time.”

“What’s a CT scan?” Chris asked.

“A glorified X-ray of your entire body. They load you into this big machine and you have to stay still as a stone while they take your picture from all sorts of angles. They say it doesn’t take long, but to me, it took forever.”

“Doesn’t sound like Chris would fare too well in a device like that,” said JC, which earned him a light punch from Chris.

“And your bone marrow?” Justin asked with some apprehension. “Lance said they took some of that out of you, too.”

Joey nodded and put a hand on his left hip. “Yep. Stuck a long syringe right here and just sucked it out, like a mutant mosquito.”

Everyone winced. “Oooh…that sounds nasty,” said Chris softly.

JC said, “If they’d tried that on me, I would be out the door before they came anywhere near me with that thing. In fact, forget the door; I’d just go straight through the window!”

“Did it hurt, Joe?” Chris asked.

“They gave me a shot of painkiller before they did their job, and they put some kind of numbing cream on the intended spot.” Joey made a mild face. “But yeah…I felt it, all right.”

“Wow,” said Chris, shaking his head again. “Just…wow.”

“You’re a real trooper, man,” said JC, regarding Joey as if he had never seen anyone like him before.

After a while, Justin asked, “So, what happens now?”

Lance was the one to answer that question. “They say it will take at least a day to get the final results, maybe two.”

“I don’t think I can wait that long,” Chris said.

“Neither can I,” said Justin.

How do you suppose I feel? Joey was tempted to say, but held back. Instead, he said, “Well, while we’re waiting, what do you say we do something a bit more fun, guys? We could play a few games, watch a movie or two, and later grab some chow. I hear there’s a real nice cafeteria downstairs, or we could call and have someone bring the food to us.”

“Are you sure the food they serve here is safe to eat?” Chris asked.

This led to a fit of laughter from all the guys, including Joey.

“It may not be five-star gourmet,” Joey said, “but it’s edible.” He couldn’t resist adding, “And even if we do get food poisoning, this would be the perfect place to get it.”

Now Chris laughed with the others and the tension in the room broke like fragile glass.

Joey smiled. Despite what he’d been through and what he had yet to face, it sure felt good to laugh and joke with the old gang again.