I almost laughed at the way Nora presented her demand as a question.
“I’m going to CT from here, so I’ll be the first one to know, and you’ll be the second,” he said.
“Thank you, Dr. Vaughn,” Nora said. “Please, don’t let me keep you.”
He left, and I walked Nora back to the bad news room. Then, I checked on Ariel, used the bathroom, and returned with enough time to rub my neck enough for my dad to notice.
“Stop that,” he said quietly.
I stopped immediately and clasped my hands together in my lap. “Thanks,” I said quietly.
After what felt like an eternity, Dr. Vaughn returned and asked Nora and me to step into the hallway.
“Surgery isn’t needed at this time,” he said immediately and gave us a moment to express our relief. “He does have a skull fracture, but no brain bleed. We’re going to admit him to the ICU and continue to monitor him. Honestly, I expected to find much worse.”
“I can’t say I’m surprised. My boy’s always had a hard head.”
Electronic tones sounded overhead, followed by, “Code Alert, Radiology.”
“Fuck!” I sprinted down the hall, leaving Dr. Vaughn and Nora in the dust. Or so I thought. Dr. Vaughn came to a sliding stop at the same time I did.
Ink was standing in the middle of the hall wielding his IV pole like a weapon, with his bare, inkblotted ass cheeks on full display. “Where’s Ariel?” he demanded.
“Ink!” I shouted and waved my arms to get his attention.
He found me quickly but didn’t change his defensive stance. “Where is she?”
“She’s upstairs.”
“Is she okay?” he asked, dropping the IV pole.
“Yes,” I said and slowly moved toward him. “But you’re not. Let me help you get back into bed. When they’re finished with you, we’ll go see her.”
“Okay,” he said slowly and frowned. “My head hurts.”
“Shit!” I blurted and moved to his side right as Ink leaned forward and threw up.
“My fucking head,” he groaned and tried to straighten, but he wobbled and lost his balance.
With Dr. Vaughn on his other side, we kept him from falling to the floor and dragged him to the bed. “She’s okay?” he asked again.
“Yes. She’s upstairs,” I told him before I stepped back so my coworkers could take over and wheel him back to his room.
“That was impressive,” Dice said. I should have known he’d follow us.
“There’sa lotof paperwork to do if they actually hit the floor,” I said. “No one wants that.”
“Why did you lie? About Ariel?” he asked as we walked back.
“Because it was the easiest and safest way to get him to calm down so we could get him back in the bed.”
“Gotcha.”
On the way, we stopped by the bad news room to get Nora before continuing to Ink’s room. There was no reason we couldn’t stay with him since he was stable. Unfortunately, he was no longer awake when we got there.
Things moved quickly until they didn’t.
Ink was admitted to the ICU, only a few rooms away from Ariel.
