The minutes stretched endlessly until finally a light knock sounded on the door. Through the peephole, she saw Chief Mertz with two paramedics.
She fumbled with the locks and opened the door.
The paramedics hustled past her and attended to Cap, checking his vitals and slipping an oxygen mask onto him.
Chief pulled the stretcher into the room and placed it next to the couch.
“BP’s dropping,” one paramedic said.
The other lifted his shirt. “Possible internal bleed.”
Emma’s heart lurched.
They lifted Cap onto the stretcher. He didn’t stir, didn’t acknowledge they were there. Nothing.
Chief Mertz lightly gripped her bicep and guided her along as they followed the paramedics and Cap out of the hotel, to the ambulance.
“I want to go with him,” she said to the chief.
“I’m sorry, but you can’t. You’ll ride with me. We’ll go to the hospital.”
She stared at the man through watery eyes.
“It’s safest for you,” he added.
She climbed into the chief’s squad, and they followed the ambulance eighteen blocks to the hospital. No lights. No sirens. Would they be moving faster if they could use the emergency lights and sirens? Was Cap stable enough not to move more quickly? He must be, right? The chief and paramedics wouldn’t risk it unless they were confident another minute or two didn’t matter, right?
When they arrived at the hospital, she spotted a tall, slim man with a military-looking haircut. It took a second to register that it was Captain Tomie.
She walked directly into the secure emergency room area alongside Chief Mertz. Tomie was on her other side.
She darted her gaze around the area. A nurse’s station was in the middle of the room, surrounded by patient rooms. Some with actual doors, others with just curtain barriers. The lights were bright, the equipment beeped, and it smelled clean. She couldn’t see Cap. Was he in one of those rooms already?
An older gentleman dressed in blue scrubs approached them.
“Hi, Chief,” the man said, then looked at the captain. “Captain,” he added with a nod and then zoned in on her. “Miss.”
“Hi, Jerry. Where’s Cap? Captain Tomie needs to be with him at all times. No matter what.”
“I don’t know if…”
“At all times,” Chief Mertz interjected.
The man’s solid tone shone with authority.
“Understood,” Jerry replied as he gestured for Captain Tomie to follow him.
“I want to go, too,” Emma said excitedly.
Chief Mertz’s empathetic gaze met hers. “You can’t.”
“But…”
“Listen. Right now, you are safest away from him. And, well, he may wind up in surgery or something. We don’t know yet.”
She didn’t care about her safety; she wanted to be with Cap.
The chief pointed at a bank of four chairs. “Let’s sit and wait for Jerry to come back and let us know what’s going on.”
