You're getting on mine.And you did meet him, it was just you weren’t conscious at the time he picked us up.Very swoon-worthy moment.
Honestly, I don’t know why I put up with you.
As I was saying, very swoony.Lifted us like we weighed nothing.All those big muscles…
The sigh had Toby release an exasperated groan, giving Morty the wrong impression.
“Niall won’t be long, I’m sure.At least whoever was getting loud out there has calmed down.”
As if hearing his name, Niall appeared with a smiley nurse who held a small white pot.“Toby, can you give me your date of birth, please?”
She looked at the chart she held in her other hand as Toby recited it before she offered him the pill pot, and Niall picked up a glass of water off the table to offer it to him.
He held up his hands and waved them at them both.“A little help, please.”
The nurse giggled and stepped close enough to place a pill on Toby’s tongue when he stuck it out.Niall held the glass to his lips so he could sip and swallow.They repeated the move, then Toby settled himself back, his eyes drifting shut, and he turned his head to bury his nose in his hoodie, pretending nothing was happening in his nether regions.
Count my blessings.
He might not have a mate, but it smelled like he did, and while his brain was playing tricks on him, he was going to enjoy it.
You really are daft,his bird chirped.
“Don’t suppose there’s another entrance out of ED, is there?”Niall’s question, though odd, wasn’t strange enough for Toby to bother opening his eyes.
“There is, it’s used to bring in emergencies.”
“I think it’s an emergency when there seems to be someone kicking off out there.”This was Morty.
“I’m sure it’ll be fine to go out the back door when the doctor is happy to release your friend.”
Release him, sounded like a prison, but if it came with the heavenly scent, then Toby wouldn’t mind at all.The thought drifted through his mind as the pill took effect and left him on a nice, warm cushion, accompanied by the smell.Maybe getting a head injury wasn’t so bad after all.
Chapter Eight
Ernest
“They kicked me out.”Ernest’s life as he knew it was over.He had never felt so defeated in his whole life.Breaking up with Pierre had been bad enough.Being physically removed from the hospital had wounded Ernest beyond repair.He stared up at Rick, realizing he made a pathetic picture—he was beyond caring.
He was sitting in the middle of his ruined paddock.Bottles of booze—every bottle of alcohol Ernest had had in the house—strewn around him, providing a frame for his despair.
“It took four of them,” he said, his voice choking with tears.“They didn’t listen to me when I said Toby was my mate.They said he wasn’t claimed, had no mark, and I wasn’t his next of kin, so they couldn’t let me see him.
“And when I yelled—I mean, you would yell, right?Because I was really upset, and no one was fucking listening to a word I said.But when I started yelling, those four uniformed brutes came out of nowhere, tackling me to the ground and dragging me out by my arms and legs as if I couldn’t walk under my own steam.”
Ernest felt the anger and humiliation all over again.“I kicked at a couple of them, but that didn’t help.Those bastards must have been made of concrete.Not that it made any difference.They wouldn’t let me in to see him.I was the one who saved him.It was me who took him to the hospital in the first place.They wouldn’t even tell me his last name.How can I find him if I don’t even know his last name?”
“Is this pity party going to go on for much longer?”Rick questioned dryly.“Only there’s the little matter of trying to get this paddock straightened up, to consider.Are we going to try re-sowing it?Putting in some new seeds?We still have plenty.We could try to recoup some of our losses.Thanks to your quick work, directing the balloon clients to the edges of the paddock when you did, we at least only lost half of the paddock, not the full field.”
“I don’t know what to do anymore.”Sitting on the ground, his arms draped over his knees, still wearing his ripped shirt and dirty pants from being dragged into the hospital parking lot, Ernest shook his head.“You might as well just bury me in this damn field.Four hours I waited—four hours I waited outside the front of that hospital, hoping to catch sight of Toby when he was released.
“And then, when he didn’t come, I stayed even longer, waiting for the staff to change shifts.I even tried to smarten myself up before I went back in to inquire about him.But they said there was no Toby at the hospital.He’d already gone.
“I don’t know how, and I don’t know where.The nurse just said his next of kin had been with him and would make sure he would get safely home.But I don’t know where that home is.”Ernest was rapidly blinking—if he started crying, he couldn’t stop.
“I’m not saying that it’s not extremely traumatic to have found and lost a mate all in one day,” Rick muttered, looking perplexed as he should.“But tomorrow morning, you are going to be kicking yourself for another reason if you don’t follow up on this business with Pierre and the wrecked field.
“We have time to re-sow this mess.The original seeds have only been in two weeks.Provided we don’t get a heavy frost, we can at least recoup this half of the field that was so badly damaged.Is that something you want to try?”
