adam's Guestbook

Andrew smiled as he listened to his brother and sister speak. He was very proud of them for not only standing ground about seeing Adam and Hoss, but also realizing that family sticks together, no matter what. He was also proud of them for realizing their limitations and knowing that if it did become too much, rather than staying and playing off their feelings, they would leave so that they could collect themselves. When they were done talking and they were all standing outside in front of Andrew's truck, he couldn't help but softly smile at both. Then, Andrew wiped away Jennie's tears and pulled them both close to him, with an arm around both Jennie and Joe's necks as they walked in. Finally, as they went inside and up to the information desk. That was when Andrew leaned down and whispered to them. "You're welcome," he told them just as the nurse came out to talk to them. The nurse said that Adam was still in the ER and that he couldn't have visitors at the moment, but they were free to go visit Hoss.

Andrew nodded and then took them up to the floor where Hoss's permanent room was. It only took them a few minutes on the elevator to get to Hoss's floor. And as they were getting off, they just happened to see a woman, who was walking out of Hoss's room. She was dressed in normal clothes and looked stressed, just as they were bringing a sleeping Hoss out of the room right behind her. Andrew knew exactly who that was as they were walking closer to Hoss's room. "Now please try to be nice to her, but that lady right there is Laura Schaffer," Andrew whispered to Jennie and Joe. "She's the main reason why Hoss pushes himself so hard, but she's also the reason why he's never given up on love either," he told them. He didn't know where they were taking Hoss, but he could tell that Laura was stressed. Once Andrew, Joe and Jennie walked up to Hoss's room, Andrew then began to speak to Laura. "Well, if it isn't the most beautiful rose in all of Virginia City," Andrew said as he walked up to Laura, who turned around and smiled as she hugged Andrew. Then Andrew turned to look at Joe and Jennie. "Joe...Jennie, this is Hoss's Lulu, but since Hoss is the only one that can call her that, you guys can call her Laura," he said as they broke the hug.

Laura smiled with a blush on her face as she looked at Andrew. "You're lucky that Hoss didn't hear what you said. He would have gotten out of bed just to punch you in the nose," she said laughing. Finally, she turned and looked at Joe and Jennie. Laura had a smile on her face, despite the face looking stressed and a mess. "So, you two are Eric's little brother and sister, Joe and Jennie," Laura said with a huge smile on her face. "It's so good to meet you two. Eric has told me all about you," she told him. "And as Andrew said, I'm Laura Schaffer," she told them as she still had a smile on her face and held out her hand for them to shake as Hoss slowly disappeared out of sight.

It wasn't long before Lynda and Carter rushed into the emergency entrance only to see Adam hanging on for dear life. She grabbed her stethoscope and put it around her neck. The second thing she did was tell Carter to go to the nurse's station and tell the head nurse that Lynda Cartwright said for you to wait there until she can come and get you. Carter nodded and then ran towards the nurse's station and once Lynda was sure that Carter was out of the way and doing his homework, she turned back to Adam and what was going on with him. She looked up at the monitor and noticed that Adam's numbers were dropping, except for his heart rate, which was starting to get extremely high, which she knew wasn't good. So, she glanced over Adam's chart, which she spotted why Adam's heart rate was so high. Someone had given him penicillin, which Adam was extremely allergic to.

After ordering some medication to not only counter act the penicillin, but also to bring his heart rate down, Lynda also ordered Ringer's Lactate fluid to help bring up his blood pressure. One of the nurses nodded and went running to get what Lynda requested as Lynda put her stethoscope in her ears. And as she began to listen to Adam's heartbeat and lungs, she began to call his name and try to get him to talk to her. "Adam," she said softly and sweetly. "Adam, honey can you hear me?" she asked him worried as she took off her stethoscope off and pulling out a little flashlight and began to look into his eyes, noticing that his pupils were starting to dilate, which meant he possibly had a sever injury. "Adam, honey if you can hear me, talk to me," she softly told him as she told the rest of the team that they needed to get him up to CT for head scans then over to X-Ray for some x-rays of his chest and the rest of his body.

"Okay, I won't sugar coat anything," Andrew said as he was filling in what he knew about Adam and Hoss's conditions. He came to a red light and stopped as the hospital was in plain view. Andrew looked over and saw that Joe and Jennie were holding hands tightly and soon he put his hand on top of theirs. They were still sitting there at the red light when he looked over at them. "Adam and Hoss will be okay," he said to both Joe and Jennie. "We must have faith," he added as he fought the guilt that he was keep deep down in his chest, but he wasn't about to let his little brother and sister see it, it would only make things worse. Finally, the light turned green and soon Andrew had the truck driving again. "Now remember, they may not let us see Hoss and Adam until Lynda gives the okay," he reminded them. "But that won't mean that they won't know we are there for them," he said as he turned into the long drive of the hospital. Andrew was looking for Lynda's truck but didn't see it. He couldn't help but wonder where she was and where Ben was.

Andrew found a good spot to park and then parked his truck. After shutting off his truck's engine, all three of them just sat there for a moment or two. Finally, after several minutes of complete silence, it was Andrew that finally spoke to Joe and Jennie, though this time, his voice and tone cracked before he could even catch it. "I know this is going to be very hard for the both of you, especially since you two haven't been exposed to this too much," he told them. "But whatever you are told, please just do it," he said. "And try hard not to argue with anyone. If it all gets to be too much for both or either one of you," Andrew said. "We can come back to the truck, and you can fall apart here," he added as he looked at both Jennie and Joe. "Are you both sure that you want to go in right now?" he asked them one final time. "There is no shame in waiting until they are a bit more stable," he said as the worry for Joe and Jennie's mental health started to also come through his cracking voice and tone.

"Joe, slow down," Andrew said as he caught up to Joe, holding him for a few minutes. "It's bad enough we have two brothers in the hospital fighting for survival, but I don't need you in there too," he said trying to keep his composer. "Hoss and Adam are both struggling right now, which is why we need to go but calmly," he told his little brother. "And we need to wait for Jennie to come down. She doesn't know about Adam yet, so she's going to need our support," he added. "Do you think you can take a couple of deep breathes and calm yourself long enough for me to explain Adam's situation to her?" he asked Joe. "And once we are in the truck and on our way, I'll explain to the both of you what's going on with Hoss," he added just as Jennie was coming down the stairs.

"Honey, Hoss's isn't doing so good," he told Jennie as he let Joe go and walked over to him. "Lynda and Pa are on their way and I told them that I would bring you two up there," he added. "But sis, you must know that Adam is also in the hospital fighting for his life," Andrew said. "Joe and I were on our way to see how serious it was when I got the call about Hoss," he told her. Andrew knew that she would be very upset about not knowing about Adam, but her worry for Hoss would outweigh the anger she had for not knowing about Adam. Adam took a breath as he went onto answer Jennie's question. "Sweetie, nobody dying today," he told her.

Then Andrew brought Joe over to him and he held his little brother and sister for just a moment, or at least until they got themselves under control. He began to speak again, this time to both. "Both Adam and Hoss are strong," he told them. "Adam is stable and is being carefully monitored. And Hoss has his Lulu with him, so he's staying somewhat calm, though I know he would love to see the both of you," he told them and then he paused for a moment as he looked at both Jennie and Joe as they were walking out to Andrew's truck. "Listen, you both are going to meet Laura in a little while and for Hoss's sake, please keep everything nice," he told them as he looked over at Jennie. "Now let's get going," he told him as he watched Joe helped Jennie into Andrew's truck.

Once everyone was in the truck, Andrew started it up and soon they were on their way to the hospital. As Andrew drove, he began to explain everything he knew from Adam's accident, in which Joe already knew about and what was going on with Hoss. And in between explaining everything, Andrew answered all of Joe and Jennie's questions.

Andrew smiled as he watched Joe disappear in to his room. Then soon Andrew went into his room. He quickly got himself cleaned up and changed out of his clothes. Once Andrew was satisfied with the way he looked, he grabbed his hat and truck keys and went down stairs to wait for Joe.

As Andrew was waiting, he couldn't help but go over to the bookshel and pull out the old family photo album. He began to gently flip through the pages as he looked at all the pictures of him with Adam. Then he moved onto pictures of him, Adam with baby Hoss, and tears started to fill Andrew's eyes. But when Andrew hit the pictures of him, Andrew and Hoss with baby Jennie and Joe, Andrew completely broke down and started crying, knowing that he couldn't help his siblings with their inner demons as much as he really wanted too.

It was about that time that Andew's phone rang and so Andew closed the photo album and wipped his tears as he answered it his phone it was Ben calling to tell him about Hoss and that he needed to get both Jennie and Joe to the hospital as soon as possible. Andrew started to say something about Adam, when Ben quickly hung up. Andrew went to the stairs and began to yell for his brother and sister. "JOE! JENNIE!! GET DOWN HERE!! WE NEED TO GO NOW!" he yelled.