Jack shook his head and pulled back from Verity, pushing toward the nurse at the intake counter.
“Callum Jardine, please.”
“Are you family, sir?”
“He’s my fiancé,” Jack informed the nurse, knuckles bent tight around the edge of the counter.
The sliding doors to the emergency room opened and an equally disheveled looking Justin and Micah entered, flocking toward Jack and Verity like a magnet. Verity turned to them and offered them the same kind of hug he’d given Jack, but Jack didn’t hear any of the conciliatory promises he’d been offered.
Jack turned his attention back to the counter. “Can you please just call him and tell him I’m here?”
The nurse made a phone call then looked at Jack with a tight frown. “He’s being moved into a room. You’ll have to go to the main lobby and wait until he’s been assigned and they can get you the information.”
Jack smacked a cup of pens off the counter with a bat of his hand and stormed past Verity, Justin, and Micah, straight out of the hospital. He collapsed onto an uncomfortable metal bench and dropped his head into his hands with a frustrated groan.
Verity followed and sat next to him, silent and solid, their hand settling softly on his back and stroking a path up his spine. Jack turned and buried his face against Verity’s chest.
“What happened?” he mumbled, pulling away to see Verity’s face.
“I don’t know,” Verity apologized. “It was nearly closing time; he asked me to watch the bar then darted out the side door. He didn’t come back…”
Verity trailed off and closed their eyes tightly. “I thought you had shown up or something so I didn’t go check on him right away, but when I realized he’d been gone longer than I expected I went outside, and…”
Verity breathed a rough exhale against Jack’s ear and their body trembled. Jack wrapped an arm around their waist and held them in silence until his own heartbeat slowed.
“What about Keith?” he finally asked, leaning back and pushing Verity’s hair behind their ears. Jack was distraught with his inability to be with Callum right now, and he’d momentarily forgotten that Verity had not only seen Callum, but also Keith. He fought down a sense of panic when he realized he wouldn’t have even known anything was wrong if Verity hadn’t called.
Verity shook their head and sniffed. “He’s alive.”
The doors to the emergency room slid open and Justin stepped out, his eyes wet with tears.
“The nurse said Callum has a room if you wanted to go to the front,” he offered.
Jack stood up and tugged Verity with him.
“How is Keith?” Jack asked.
Justin frowned and went back inside to Micah.
“Do you want me to come with you?” Verity asked softly.
Jack swallowed, asking a question he wasn’t sure he wanted the answer to. “Do you…Do you think this is how he felt when he found out about me being sick?”
The weight of his inability to do anything for Callum was pressing against every bone in his chest. His lungs felt too big, his heart, too small. He didn’t have any information and his head was thinking the worst even though Verity had told him otherwise. Callum hadn’t even had that courtesy after Jack’s appendix ruptured.
“Helpless and angry?” Verity asked.
“Yeah, mostly.”
Verity smiled sadly at him then asked again, “Do you want me to go with you?”
“Do you want to come with me?” Jack turned the question around, the concern and worry in Verity’s voice nearly palpable.
“I’d like to make sure he’s really okay. I don’t need to stay.”
Jack took Verity’s hand and walked them around the manicured planter pots outside the emergency room to the main entrance. In the lobby, he approached the front desk, his palm sweaty against Verity’s.
“Callum Jardine, please.”
