“Mr. Jones?”
I jumped to my feet and searched out the person who’d called my name. A young man in a long white coat was standing near the double doors leading to the treatment area.
“I’m Phoenix Jones,” I called as I hurried to him.
“Mr. Jones, I’m Dr. Clark. I’ve been treating Levi for the burn on his wrist.” The man glanced at the tablet in his hand for a moment before he finally focused his attention on me. “Levi has given me permission to talk to you about his injuries and the treatment plan.”
Thank fucking God!
“Okay,” I said, hoping my voice sounded more in control than I was feeling at the moment. I wasn’t a big fan of hospitals.
“Levi has sustained a third-degree chemical burn to the inside of his right wrist. He tells me the burn was caused by oven cleaner. As you may or may not know, some oven cleaners contain sodium hydroxide, also known as lye.”
I nodded. “Yeah, I saw the bottle. It had lye in it.”
“Lye doesn’t instantly burn the skin; it takes time to actually cause damage. With the severity of Levi’s burn, I estimate he had the oven cleaner on his skin for at least fifteen minutes. He would have been in quite a bit of pain at that point.”
I wanted to throw up. I’d spent those fifteen minutes ignoring him because I’d been so pissed. “I didn’t know what he was doing,” I murmured.
I felt a hand on my shoulder and realized I’d dropped my eyes at some point. Worse yet, they were blurry from the tears I was trying to hold back.
“He told me why he did it,” Dr. Clark said as he removed his hand. “You were right in how you treated the burn before bringing him here. The good news is that the fact that he was in so much pain means the nerves weren’t permanently damaged. We’ve given him a mild painkiller to help take the edge off while we’re cleaning and dressing the wound. It will likely become more painful as it starts to heal, especially as the skin begins to scab over.”
“Do you have to do skin grafts or debridement or something?”
“Surgery is an option to try and reduce the scarring, but Levi has declined that line of treatment. He says he doesn’t care if it scars or not. His biggest concern is whether or not the tattoo is gone.”
I bit back the curse I wanted to let loose.
“It’s too early to tell if any part of the tattoo will still be visible once the tissue begins healing, but in all likelihood, most of it will be gone or damaged to the point that you won’t be able to tell what it was.” The doctor paused to check his tablet. “I’ve contacted someone from Psych Services to do a consult with Levi since this is technically a case of self-harming, but after having spoken to Levimyself, I suspect the psychiatrist will reach the same conclusion. Levi isn’t a danger to himself or others. He knew what he was doing and while his actions were not advisable under any circumstances, I don’t believe he did it to actually hurt himself.”
I nodded in agreement. There was only one reason Levi had done what he’d done.
And I was a big part of that reason.
“So, if the psychiatrist clears him…”
“He can go home tonight,” the doctor confirmed. “We’re going to send him home with some mild pain meds as well as some antibiotics. He’ll need to follow up with his doctor over the next several weeks to monitor the injury for infection, but otherwise it’s just going to be a long, painful process of letting his body heal itself.”
“Can I see him?” I asked.
“I had to ask him that myself because he seemed pretty convinced you wouldn’t even be out here when I came to look for you.”
I shook my head in disbelief. I wanted to both strangle Levi and kiss the shit out of him. “You can tell him I’m not going anywhere,” I said firmly.
“You can tell him yourself,” he said. “It could take Psych a while to get someone down here so why don’t you sit with him until then? They’ll probably ask you to step out while they’re talking to him.”
“Thank you, Doctor,” I said as I held out my hand. He shook it and then motioned towards the double doors. I followed him past several curtained-off rooms. My stomach tightened uncomfortably when I spied Levi sitting upright on a bed, the back raised to support his upper body. His heavily bandaged wrist was resting in his lap.
As soon as I reached his side, Levi said, “I’m sorry Ph-”
“Shut up,” I whispered just before I bent down and sealed my mouth over his.
Chapter 13
Levi
“Willyou tell me about your family?”
