He picked up a hypodermic and glanced at Colin. “Try to keep him calm and still,” he murmured. “I don’t want to restrain him, so I’m counting on you. But watch his lower right side, he’s got three cracked ribs there.”
Colin nodded. He laid an arm across Joshua’s chest and held tight to his left hand. He leaned close, his mouth almost touching Joshua’s ear. “I’m right here, baby. Can you hear me? Can you hear my voice?”
Joshua’s rapid, erratic breathing seemed to slow. “I hear you,” he whispered.
“We’re in that damned ER again,” Colin told him. “You got hurt, but Adam is going to fix you up.”
A nurse moved to Colin’s side. “Let me clean his eyes so he can open them,” she murmured. She carried a tray containing eye cleaner and several cotton balls, and after sitting it on the bedside table, she bent over Joshua.
“Where are we?” Joshua cried again. “Colin? Wherearewe?”
“Honey, we’re at University Hospital in the ER. You got hurt. Adam is fixing you up. Listen to me: the nurse is going to clean your eyes so you can see.”
“We’re in the ER?”
“Listen to my voice,” Colin soothed. “Everything’s OK, baby. You got a little dinged up, but you’re going to be fine. Just listen to my voice. Don’t worry about anything. Don’t worry about where we are. Don’t fret about any of it. I’m here, and I’m not going to let anything happen to you.”
Colin cringed inwardly at the words he heard coming from his own mouth. He bowed his head, and his breath caught in a single harsh sob.Won’t let anything happen to him,his mind mocked.Look what ALREADY happened to him!
“Colin!” Adam snapped. “Keep it together!”
Colin nodded. He clenched his teeth and forced back the wave of emotion threatening to overwhelm him. He leaned closer to Joshua, pitching his voice into low, soothing registers. “We’re OK, baby. Everything’s OK. You’ve been hurt, but you’re going to be fine. I’m right here beside you. I love you, Josh. I love you so much. Relax, darling. It’s all going to be OK.”
Joshua’s breath shuddered in his chest, but he seemed to relax as he listened to Colin’s voice.
“How many stitches will he get?”
“He’s not getting stitches,” Adam said. “He’s getting staples, and so far, he’s had seven. Probably going to take at least twenty.” He glanced at Colin and winked. “Had to cut off some of that long hair you’re so fond of.”
“I don’t give a damn if he’s bald,” Colin muttered. “As long as he’s alive.” He glanced up at Adam. “How bad is the concussion?”
“Grade 3,” Casey told him. “Which is as bad as it gets. When I first saw the wound, I was concerned about skull fracture, but thankfully that didn’t happen. Still, it’s a four-inch-long gash and it’s jagged as fuck.”
It took forty-five minutes to staple the wound on Joshua’s head. Once finished, Casey leaned back from the gurney and laid his instrument aside. “OK. That’s done.” He picked up another curved needle. “I’m going to put a few stitches into these facial lacerations,” he told Colin. “Then we’ll get him admitted.”
“He won’t get a cast on his arm?”
“No. Not for a hairline fracture,” Casey replied as he sutured Joshua’s face, “He has three cracked ribs, fractures to the inferior floor of both eyes sockets, plus he has some kind of knee injury, probably ligament damage, which I’m not going to worry about yet.” After a few minutes he stepped back and laid the needle aside.
“The concussion is what I’m most concerned about.” He peered into Joshua’s eyes one at a time then turned to Colin. “He needs low light, low voices, and low stress.” He gestured toward the doorway where a nurse stood waiting. “Go with Annie,” Casey told Colin. “She’ll take you upstairs so we can get him admitted. Then you can stay with him in his room.”
Colin rose, still clinging to Joshua’s hand. “Do Ihaveto leave him?”
“Yes,” Casey said. “For ten minutes. Then you can stay with him as long as you want.” He pointed to the door. “Now go. I’m going to move him to his room.”
Colin bent to press a soft kiss to Joshua’s forehead. “I’ll be right back, baby,” he whispered, then he turned and stumbled after the nurse into the lobby.
David, Nate, and Donald Thompson all rushed to his side. “How is he?” David asked.
“Out cold, but OK,” Colin told them, following the nurse down the hall. “I have to go get him admitted. I’ll meet you in Josh’s room. Have Adam tell you where it is.”
Chapter 19
Not Again!
Colin got through the process of admitting Joshua as quickly as possible, then rushed to the hospital room where he would be convalescing. David and Nate were waiting outside, leaning on the wall next to the closed door.
“They just wheeled him in,” David told Colin. “Looked like he was still unconscious.”
