“NO don’t let him go!! I still gotta get the conditioner!”
“Kevin The dog doesn’t need to have conditioner!”
“Yes he does!” Kevin grabbed the bottle off the ground near the soap filled bucket and held it up.
“He needs to smell like strawberries!” The Happy Harvick grin was in full effect as he popped the top and squeezed some of the pink goop into his palm.
“You are nuts you know that?”
“Who me?” he said while rubbing the smelly liquid into the large dog’s fur.
After a few minutes of rubbing the conditioner in Kevin reached over for the hose only to find it already held up in the air.
“You wouldn’t.”
“Oh no? I think I would!” Delana’s sides of her mouth twisted up evilly and she applied pressure to the handle. A spray of water shot out and landed right in the face of her husband. He flinched a little and shut his eyes while a “I can’t believe you did that” look came over him.
Delana couldn’t help but giggle at him as he reached up to wipe some of the water out of his eyes. Never losing that trademark smile.
And without warning a hand came out and snatched the hose from her hands. There wasn’t much time to act as water was sent at her direction. Drenching her hair and shirt.
“Hey not fair! I didn’t spray you that much!”
“All’s far in love and war.” He said while aiming the hose at the dog who was starting to get bored.
After he was done spraying the dog off, he unhooked the leash and set him free.
“Don’t roll you silly mutt!’ he yelled after it.
“Oh he’ll roll. He doesn’t listen to daddy.”
“What?” Kevin started to point the hose back in Delana’s direction but she was quicker this time and leaped at him with such force that she knocked both of them down to the grass in a fit of giggles.
As fast at the memory came… it went just as fast. The scene started to fade away, leaving her with a totally different view.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
”No…” she whimpered as she sat up on the couch and shook her head a little to rid some of the sleep.
“No what?”
Delana looked over to find Jr sitting in front of a roll around Television set.
“It was just a dream…”
“What was?”
“Nothing… what are you doing?”
“Oh… Watching the press conference.” Jr said as he looked back at the TV.
“Oh yeah I forgot about that.”
“Richard hasn’t come on yet. They kinda just started.”
Realization hit her quick and she stood up faster then her still sleepy muscles wanted.
“Kevin!”
“Whoaaaa!” Jr spat and he flew back in his seat. He had to fight a small giggle as he watched her look at him franticly searching for an answer.
“What the hell’s the matter with you Dale? Did they say anything about him? Jesus its around 10 o’clock! What the hell are you giggling at?”
Jr stood up and crossed his arms.
“I’m sorry… its just… you reminded me of that Home Alone movie. Listen. The doctor came down this morning and told me that he’s sleeping peacefully now and to give him a few more hours so he can get rest.”
“Really?!?! So he could be awake now?!”
“Don’t know… Why don’t you check it out?” He said with a grin.
Delana turned around and ran out of the waiting room at full speed to the desk.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
She had to admit. He did look peaceful. His color was back and all that insane twitching was gone now. She resisted the urge to grab him and pull him into a protective hug and instead walked closer to his bed taking a seat in a nearby chair.
She didn’t want to wake him herself. She wanted him to do it all on his own. And she’d wait as long as she had to for that to happen.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
“Hey everyone and thank you for coming today. I wish that we had a different reason for having this conference but I’m afraid there’s only one reason right now.”
Flash bulbs snapped around him and he kept his eyes down so he wouldn’t start seeing spots.
“It is true that Kevin Harvick was found last night in a house near downtown Charlotte. He has since been taken to a local hospital and is being treated as we speak. I’m expecting word on his condition soon.”
As those words were said Richard was stunned a second as his cell phone went off in his jacket pocket.
“Talk about timing huh?” He said to the crowd of reporters who all giggled a little in response. He stepped off to the side as he answered the phone.
“Hey Richard!! I’m watching you!!!”
‘That’s great Jr… Anything new?”
“Fine right to the point… just like you… Yes there is word. AS of right now he’s sleeping peacefully and they believe he’s gonna wake up soon. He’s just resting now. Delana just went to see him.”
“Oh that’s great! Alright... thanks Jr.”
“No problem! Oh hey! Give my Dirty Mo Posse a shout out would ya?”
“I most certainly will not.” Richard said. And with that he hit end and turned back to the microphones.
“Well I was unsure to announce what happened to Kevin until I knew how he was this morning and now that I do I know it’ll be answering a lot of your questions. Dale Earnhardt Jr has just informed me that Kevin is sleeping peacefully and his condition is improving just fine. He should be awake soon and then I’m sure the poor boy wont be able to get a moments peace!” Richard smiled. He couldn’t’ wait for the moment he could yell at His driver again when he did something silly on the track.
A hand was raised and with a nod the reporter stood up.
“You are gonna tell us what happened right?”
“Yes I am. Kevin came into the ER last night suffering from a drug overdose.”
The crowd started up in chatter at the statement. Richard had to clear his throat and talk louder to be heard.
“The man who kidnapped him, Alex Jordan, Kept him out of it for two weeks by injecting him with a variety of different things. Not long before he was found he was injected a last time with a high dose that would have been fatal if he wasn’t found as soon as he did. It just goes to show how amazing our law enforcement and paramedics are. They got him back to us as safe as we could have hoped and I’d like to thank them for their hard work.
Now I’m going to head back over there to see Kevin. No questions.”
Richard walked away from the podium to an explosion as the room full of reports tried to scream their questions at him.
“What hospital is he at?”
“What kind of drugs?!”
“Did they catch the guy?”
“When can we expect a statement from Kevin?”
Richard ignore them all and walked through the side door of the building into a car waiting for him.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Delana was about to fall asleep when something caught her attention.
A movement.
Not much of one… but it was enough.
She slowly rose from her chair staring wide-eyed at her husband.
The sight of his open eyes made her heart jump and she walked over to his bedside grabbing his hand.
“Kevin? Honey?”
Kevin looked up at her with a blank stare.
“We’ve missed you! How are you feeling?”
Delana got no answer. Just the same stare.
“Kevin?”
She desperately craved the sound of his voice.
“Do you need me to get someone?” Her tone was shaky when she slowly realized that he wasn’t going to answer her back.
“Kevin what’s wrong!?”
She gripped his hand tighter but never got a squeeze back in return. He just stared at her, burning a hole into her eyes.
She let go of his hand and stepped back. His eyes slowly turned back to the ceiling. She was scared. Deathly scared. All she could think to do was run out the door in search of a way out of hell.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The little light shut off and the doctor stood up straight again. The people in the room looked at him anxiously, wanting an answer to what was going on.
“Hmmm…” the doctor said while leaning back over and putting the light back into the blues eyes of his patient. He got the same reaction he did before as the pupils dilated and then returned back to the normal size at a normal rate.
“His responses are good. He’s alert and is aware of things around him.”
The group watched Kevin stare out the window and Jr, whose arms were firmly crossed, stepped forward.
“Then what the hell is wrong with him then? He wont fuckin talk to us!”
“Can I talk to you all outside please?” The doctor said as he noticed Kevin look back over to see what was going on.
The group that consisted of Jr, Richard and Delana, walked out into the hallway and the doctor shut the door behind them.
“His system looks like it battled what it needed to. I’m happy with what I see right now.”
“HAPPY?! Jesus! There is something WRONG! Are you not listening to us?” Delana snapped before Richard grabbed her by the shoulder to comfort her.
“Remember me telling you that there was a chance of brain problems?”
The three people in front of him had a slight case of jaw drop and he continued quickly before someone yelled at him again.
“No no… Listen… What I didn’t mention was the chance of mental and emotional problems… What I mean right now is that I think his brain is fine... but his thoughts aren’t. I’m not sure what he went through but I think its effecting him.”
“No kidding.” Jr stated as he looked away from the doctor.
“Give him a few days and maybe he’ll come around and start talking. If not then we’ll have someone come down and talk to him.”
“So like a shrink? Your gonna get Kevin a Shrink now?!” Jr’s eye slit up with fury. Not necessarily at the doctor but at the man who did this to his friend.
“I know some good ones. They could really help.”
“We’ll look into that… thanks.” Richard said. He was trying to be as professional as possible but it was starting to get tough.
‘I wanna bring him home…”
Eyes locked on Delana as she spoke up.
“Mrs. Harvick... I…”
“You said he looked ok. I can take care of him. What he needs now is family, friends and a familiar safe place he’s comfortable with. Not a hospital.”
“Well I would suggest that…”
“Man! Just let him go home… quit givin us the run around.”
Delana gave Jr a weak smile to let him know she appreciated his words and He nodded back at her before turning and walking back into Kevin’s room.
“Ok… I’ll release him.”
And with that they went to make arrangements to sign Kevin out. Delana smiled in triumph as Richard led her down the hall behind the doctor.
