“Faelan Fletcher.”
“Lynn, darling?” Lynn appeared in the doorway. “I’ll need an update on your patient, Faelan Fletcher. Immediately. Otherwise you’re about to have a very stubborn patient to deal with.”
“Och, doctors, I swear they make the worst patients.” Lynn made a tsking noise and I could hear the smile in her voice.
“Oh, I well know it.” The two women shared a smile.
“I’ve already checked. She’s in intensive. Vitals are stable, at the moment, but she’s not responsive.”
“I need to go to her.” My heart clenched. “Lynn, they don’t know what she needs. It’s not what …”
“Shh, lad.” Lynn eased inside the room and closed it tightly behind her. “You’ll just be telling me what she needs and we’ll sort it out. She’s got unusual contusions and bruises all over her body. Blunt-force trauma almost, yet no bones are broken. No internal bleeding. Nobody can make head or tail of it.”
It would only get worse, the longer she held the pain in. But how could she release it, if she wasn’t coherent? We needed to wake her, somehow.
“She needs a special tea, to start. It’s at her house. Can we call for help? Someone who can go?”
“Of course, though I’m not sure how we’ll get tea into her.” Lynn tapped a finger on her lip.
“I’ll drip it into her mouth. Anything. But she needs us.”
Lynn came over and put a hand to my wrist, checking my pulse against her watch.
“Color’s returning to your skin. You’re looking a lot better, Dr. Carmichael. Care to enlighten me on anything?” Lynn looked up from her watch.
“Best not. If it’s all the same to you.”
“No problem by me. Either way, I’ve got your back. I doubt I’ll be able to keep you in this bed much longer, correct?”
“Correct.” I gave Lynn a small smile. She knew me well.
“I’ll make you a deal. If you stay here another twenty minutes, I’ll chat with that nice Sophie in the waiting room about getting the tea for Faelan. Does that suit?”
“Sophie’s here? Aye, of course. She’ll know what to do.”
“Then, and only then, can you go to her. But I can’t have you falling over and hitting your head, understood? Whatever this”—Lynn waved her hand at the IV between my father and me—“is doing … well, it’s working wonders. A few more minutes won’t hurt, and it will put you in a better position to help your woman. Understood?”
“Understood. I’ll be good,” I promised.
“And I’ll make sure he follows orders,” Mum followed up.
“In that case, I’ll be off. Twenty more minutes. And try and drink some water if you can.” With a shake of a finger inthe air at me, Lynn left.
“I like her,” my mother said, wheeling her chair back to my side.
“She’s both terrifying and incredibly comforting. Runs the entire hospital. Knows everything about everyone.”
“You’re lucky to have her.” Mum squeezed my hand and then leveled a look across the bed at my father. “Haud your wheesht, Richard Carmichael, and settle yourself. It’s time you followmyorders.”
“I will not?—”
“Och, you will.” Mum drew herself up in her chair and gave him a look that had his shoulders hunching over. Nobody had the ability to cow my father, other than my tiny mum. She was his sun, and he fought every cloud he could from shrouding her glory. “Because this will be the last time I say it. You’ve ignored me for years now, but I want you to hear me very clearly. Are you both listening?”
“Aye,” my father and I said in unison.
“If you ever, and I mean,ever, bring up the birth and my subsequent injury again, with the intent to place any sort of blame on the healer, on my non-Wulver bloodline, on anything other than the fact that accidents just happen—I will leave you.”
My father gave a sharp intake of breath.
