“Ward seven A. Critical Care Unit. I’ll stay here.”
I’m torn. Blair will be out of the operating theatre soon and I want to be there, but she has Micky and Isaac has no one until Ivy gets down here.
“Go, Ben. Go see him and then come back.”
I stand, still silent. No words are available for me to use. The corridors seem too narrow the closer I get to the ward, the silence seems louder.
I find his ward and his room, the nurses saying something I don’t comprehend.
Isaac lies on the narrow hospital bed, his eyes closed and tubes attached to his arms, his bare chest still apart from the rise and fall of his breath.
I go to his right hand side and take hold of his hand, squeezing it. “Wake the fuck up, man.” I feel wet on my face, my eyes leaking. “I need you to wake up.”
The sobs I hear come from me, but I don’t feel them, just the coolness of his limp hand.
“Why the fuck are you crying?” The words are barely audible.
His eyes are open, pupils not right. Concussion.
“Because of you, you fucker.”
“I’d smile but it hurts, it hurts so fucking much.”
I press the button to call the nurse.
“Blair?” He tightens his fingers around mine.
“In theatre to remove shrapnel from her legs. But she’ll be okay. Just shock and flesh wounds. What happened?”
“Can’t remember.” He turns his head to the side and vomits. Two nurses enter to help him, checking, cleaning up, fetching a bowl.
I’m asked to leave which I do, giving him a promise I’ll return.
Micky’s still sitting in my seat when I get back to the waiting area.
“Operation was a success; she’s just coming round. As soon as we get the all clear, we’re taking her back home. Joanna will deputise for her with Goldsmith tomorrow.”
Joanna’s Blair’s recent appointment as her senior advisor. She even scares Micky.
“When can I see her?”
“Patience, young Jedi. While we wait, we talk. What happened in there?”
I close my eyes and recount the events, talking in depth about the nurse and the disguised voice.
“Who do you think it was?”
I look at him, feeling five again, covering for Majjie when she’d taken money from my mother’s purse.
“Ben. You need to tell me.”
“My sister.”
He doesn’t react or explode, his face is the same subtly amused expression that I’ve seen in the clubs he likes to go to.
“What’ve you told her?”
“Fuck all. But she’s threatened what could happen if I don’t.”
