While her husband slept, Delilah starched and ironed his suit for the next day. He needed to look sharp in the morning and she was going to make sure that he did. Both shirts were ironed, both ties were ironed, his slacks and jacket were starched and pressed. After all that was taken care of, she settled into bed next to him. When he wrapped his arm around her waist, she smiled as his hand came to rest on her stomach. That’s too sweet, she thought. Even though he’s asleep, he’s still protective and still thinks of the little boy growing inside me. Its adorable. She stretched up and pressed her lips to his cheek before allowing herself to dose off until the alarm went off in the morning.
When the wakeup call sounded, Jake jumped from the bed with a start. His heart was racing and he found it difficult to catch his breath. The alarm had startled him. He tried to slow his breathing, but still couldn’t get control of it. Delilah knew what she had to do. She knew that he was going through nerves again. She took him through a guided visualization and helped him get control of his breathing and heart rate again. He kissed her nose after saying thank you and got out of bed for a shower. She’d placed an order for their breakfast first thing when they arrived the night before. Breakfast was supposed to be there by the time he got out of the shower.
He came out of the bathroom in just his slacks and dress shoes. She let out a low whistle. “Damn, Doctor. You shouldn’t walk around looking like that”, she laughed.
He laughed. “Looking like what?”
“A male stripper.”
He laughed harder. “Oh, really now? Is that what I look like?”
“Until you get the rest of your clothes on, yeah, that’s what you look like.”
“I don’t want to get my dress shirt dirty when I eat”, he said as he pulled a black wife beater tank top on with the black slacks and black shoes he wore, then tucked it in.
“Now, you look like an enforcer in the Jewish mob”, she laughed.
“There’s no such thing”, he chuckled.
“And if there were?”
“My father would probably be the Don”, he laughed out.
“Yeah, you’re right. And, I’m gonna be sure to let him know you said that while you’re doing your interviews.”
“He might just agree with me, though Robert De Niro he is not.”
“I’ll tell him THAT too.”
“Be my guest. Like I said, he’ll probably agree with me.”
---------------
Jake sat in the waiting area and cracked his neck. He knew that if his mother had seen him do that, she’d chew his ass from there until Kingdom come. “You never force the joints past their natural range of motion”, she’d nag. My neck hurts, Mom, he thought, even though she wasn’t there. I needed to pop it.
One of the production assistance's came back and got him. “Doctor, we’re ready for you.”
He stood and adjusted his clothes, dusting his slacks and shoes off quickly before he was taken out to the set. Once he was there, he shook hands with the woman interviewing him. “Pleased to meet you, Dr. Draiman. I’m Shauna Conan.”
He nodded and smiled. “Charmed.”
The director counted them in, and she looked at the camera. “Welcome back to Good Morning, America. I’m sitting here with the newest medical revolutionary, Dr. J. Micah Draiman, a neurologist out of Colorado who developed a miracle treatment for traumatic brain injury. Good morning, Dr. Draiman.”
Jake nodded once in greeting. “Good morning.”
“Ok, first, I have to ask the obvious questions. Are you related to Disturbed vocalist David Draiman and Reckless Disregard vocalist Jordan Draiman and guitarist Malachai Draiman?”
“Yes. David Draiman is my father, Malachai is my big brother and Jordan and I are twins.”
“What was it like growing up with David Draiman as your father and Malachai and Jordan as siblings?”
“It was rather interesting, to say the very least. Jordan and I have always had a bit of a sibling rivalry going on, but that’s just being brother and sister. And, my Dad’s just a man. I know that there’s this hyped up image of him from the history books and just judging from what he does to bring home the money, but he’s just a normal guy. When he’s at home, he’s just Dad.”
“So, your brother and sister follow him into music, but you took a different path. Why?”
“Growing up, my mother always said, ‘Jacob, you’re a healer. That’s your calling in life. You’re supposed to heal people.’ I realized during Junior High School that my mother was right. I wanted to help people. At first I considered following her into massage, but thought better of this by high school. I wanted to be a doctor. I wanted to be able to diagnose and treat illness, not suggest what a person should and shouldn’t do.”
“And so you became a doctor. Now, from what we understand from Jordan and Malachai, there are ten of you total. Is that correct?”
“Yes”, he answered with a nod.
“So, why not go into pediatrics or obstetrics?”
“I had actually considered pediatrics before going into medical school, but I decided not to do that when I after a long conversation with my mother. My parents have always taught us to follow our hearts and to do what we’re passionate about. Helping people, saving lives, that’s my passion. Now, the reason I chose neurology is because during my senior year of high school I had a very good friend who was in a motorcycle accident. He still suffers from a traumatic brain injury. I wanted to make it possible for him to live a normal life.”
“And so you have, it seems, and you’ve gotten yourself quite a bit of attention because of it. Now, just to clarify, you are NOT nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize, correct?”
“That would be correct. It’s the Nobel Prize in Medicine. Everyone may think that they’re the same thing, but they’re far from it.”
“What do you plan to do if you win?”
He sighed. “I honestly have no idea.”
---------------
Shauna Conan took a few minutes to ask Jake some questions about the research before the segment was up. After shaking his hand again, Jake was taken to The Early Show set where he quickly changed his shirt and tie, then went out on the stage to answer the same set of questions he’d just been asked; this time by a man named Calvin Gregory. You win some, you lose some, he thought as he did the same interview he’d just done all over again.
After the interview was done, he went back to the hotel room to find his wife and daughter asleep. He smiled and changed his clothes before crawling into the bed with them and getting a nap. He was pretty tired. When his head hit the pillow he went right back to sleep.
When he woke a few hours later, he knew that he needed to get something to eat and they all needed to get ready to go to Kennedy to catch their plane back to DIA. Delilah had gotten up the last time Miri fussed. He hadn’t heard a thing… not even half a peep. He looked at his wife with sleep still in his eyes. “How long have you two been up, baby?” he asked.
“Not very long to be honest. Now that you’re up, I can order some take out so that we can eat something before going to the airport.”
“Or we could just check out and go to the airport and eat there. Something tells me that we need to get home ASAP. One of my siblings needs to have a heart to heart with me.”
“Which one do you think it is?”
“One of the quads; probably one of the boys.”
She laughed softly. “That narrows it down to James or Jeremiah. Which one would need it, do you think?”
“James is the more reckless of the two of them, so it’s probably him. Jeremiah is a little more responsible. James let being a star athlete go to his head, I think. And now, he’s about graduate high school and he doesn’t know what to do.”
“What time is our flight home?”
He looked at the tickets and checked the time, then checked his watch. “If we check out now and catch a cab from here to Kennedy, we’ll have plenty of time to get something to eat at the airport. It will be nasty, greasy fast food, but it’s better than nothing.”
“Well get that sexy famous ass out of bed and get dressed so that we can leave for home. I’ve always wanted to see New York City, but I’m done with it as of NOW.”
Jake climbed out of bed and got dressed as Delilah repacked the suitcase and got Miri ready to go. Once they were ready to go, they headed down to the lobby, checked out and caught a cab to the airport. After checking their luggage, they went to the McDonalds’ in the building nearest their gate and got some lunch. Miri even got her own little sack of fries to eat while they waited on their flight. Her parents were discovering that she LOVED potatoes.
When the time came to get on the plane, they did so. Once they were settled in, Jake called his parents to see who was going to be there to pick them up from the airport when they landed in Denver. It was going to be Maddie and Colton picking them up. Maddie and her boyfriend were the only one available that wouldn’t mind having a car seat in the back seat of the car.
They got in the same seating arrangement that Jake had devised in when they flew out of Chicago the night before. He hadn’t planned on sleeping. He just wanted to hold the two most important women in his life. He loved the both of them with everything he had. He could only imagine what it would be like to have a son as well. He couldn’t wait until his little family of three became a family of four. After Ira’s born, we should take a family portrait. That would be fun. I think everyone would like to have a picture of the four of us, he thought. He smiled to himself and grabbed his carry one and pulled his Kindle out of the bag so that he can read until they landed and he silently thanked God that the flight was straight through from JFK to DIA.
---------------
The ride back to the house was eventful. Maddie and Colton made sure to update them on everything that had happened over the two days they were gone; especially what was happening with James. “He’s got me worried, Jake”, Maddie said over the front seat. “He’s been moping around the house with this look of sheer torture on his face; like he’s debating in telling someone something or he just got bad news.”
Jake sighed. “I was planning in talking to him when I got home, but now I’m almost positive that he’s going to come to me.”
“What makes you say that, Jake?” Colton asked looking in the rearview mirror at the man who would be his brother in law.
“James has always come to me for advice; him and Jeremiah. Marc goes to Malachai. That’s just the way things in our family go.”
“Hmm… interesting.”
Jake took a deep breath. “What do you think the problem is, Maddie?”
“I think he did something that’s really eating at his conscious, bro”, Maddie said with a sigh. “And I mean it’s REALLY eating at him.”
“Yay! I get to play Jay’s Jimney Cricket, as usual. Whatever it is that he did, he just needs to be a man, balls up and tell Mom and Dad.”
“I totally agree, Jake, but you and I both know that it’s a James thing to keep things to himself until he can’t hold it in anymore. Then, he comes to you. I think he’s at the point where he can’t hold it in anymore and he’s been pacing while he waits for you to come home.”
Jakes sighed. “I am NOT looking forward to this little heart to heart with James. Something tells me that whatever it is that’s eating at him is going to be a bad thing. No good can come of it, no matter if he tells Mom and Dad or not.”
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