I could not answer. I attempted to, but my voice choked, and he spoke again.
‘Abs, are you okay?’
‘Nick.’ His name came out in this strange, hoarse whisper. He was waiting for me to continue, but the emotion was still robbing my voice.
‘Abbey. What is it, sweetheart?’ His voice was so tender I felt my chest ache as my heart split.
‘Nick, it’s Oliver. He was in an accident. I think his leg is broken, and he hit his head.’ My voice cracked again as I choked on tears. ‘It’s really bad. I’m in a car behind an ambulance. They’re taking him to St Vincent’s Hospital.’
‘Ollie’s hurt?’ I could hear the emotion and panic in his voice. ‘Tell me you’re okay, Abbey,’ he demanded.
‘I’m fine, Nick. I’m okay.’
He took a deep breath. ‘I’ll meet you there.’
Keith dropped me off at the front door of Emergency and I arrived in time to see the paramedic stretcher Oliver into the hospital. After that I was by myself. I sent off messages to Peter to pick up Ella from school and then to Liz, one of the EAs I’d sent to Brisbane, to let her know Oliver did not need to be picked up from the airport. Once I found out what was going on, we would look at cancelling next week. Or the next month, I thought, as I sent the message.
Nick burst through the door of the emergency room about ten minutes after I sat down. His eyes scanned the room, landing on me. His face was ashen, and concern was already deeply etched on his handsome face. I stood up and we both just walked towards each other until we collided.
After a long moment, he stepped back from me, checking me for damage. There was blood on my blouse, and, though I had attempted to wash it off, Ollie’s blood was on my hands and under my fingernails.
He pulled me back into his chest, whispering questions. I explained what had happened, and that I didn’t have any more details, but that Kate was here and would give us an update as soon as she could. It would likely be several hours before we heard anything at all.
The two of us sat, stony-faced, holding hands. Nick would sometimes get up and pace the hall, while I worried obsessively for him and Ollie. When Kate finally emerged, several hours later, she refused to speak until the doctor was with her, which I suspected meant it wasn’t great news. I thought I would throw up, expecting her to tell us that he had lost too much blood and hadn’t survived.
The doctor was young. Younger than I expected him to be.Was he even a doctor?
‘I’m Dr Hayden Tan. I work in the ER. You’re Nicholas?’
Nick nodded once. Economising his energy.
‘Okay, your brother is a bit of a mess, Nick. He has a spiral fracture to his left leg. His pelvis has a hairline fracture, but we are not too concerned with that one. The head injury is the priority. He has a laceration and a small haematoma. We’ve placed him in an induced coma. We need to monitor him very closely to ensure the bleed does not get worse. If itdoeswe may need to create a burr hole, or perform a craniotomy to control the damage.
‘Right now, he’s about to have his leg treated. The ortho team will put a titanium rod from his knee to his ankle and then allow the break to heal on its own. We’ll keep him in an induced coma for twenty-four to forty-eight hours and then, if the bleed is resolving, we can attempt to bring him out of it. He’s in the ICU, you can visit with him for a few minutes. Only one of you, though,’ he said, looking at me.
Nick seemed frozen under the weight of the doctor’s list of his brother’s injuries. I reached out to him to rub his arm and then circled mine around his back as Kate also instinctively grabbed his hand.
He nodded. ‘Yes, I’d like to see him, please.’
He followed the doctor and Kate and I stood, watching him go.
‘You should go home, Abs,’ Kate quietly implored. ‘You look exhausted.’
‘I’m not leaving Nick. I’ll take him home when he’s done.’
‘Abbey …’ Kate started.
‘I’m not leaving him, Kate.’ The caution in her tone made me want to bite her head off. I breathed through my annoyance. I needed to know what the worst-case scenario was. ‘Kate, is he … Is Ollie going to be all right?’
‘The next forty-eight hours are really important. We don’t know yet,’ she said.
It felt as if hours passed, but it was only ten minutes later when Nick emerged. His face was frighteningly pale, but I saw the relief on his face when he saw me, which made my heart contract. I stood up and wrapped my arms around him, holding him.
‘Abbey. I … I don’t … I don’t think I want to be alone.’
There was not a chance on this earth that I was leaving him anyway.
We didn’t speak in the Uber. He gripped my hand so tight across the seat that I moved into the middle so my body was touching his, offering silent comfort and support.
