“Our girl is so brave!” the nurse said, adjusting Luci’s blanket and checking her vitals. “Her vitals are all good—oxygen and pulse are both normal, no temperature. But we do have a boo-boo on her arm.” She looked sympathetically at Luci. “The paramedicssplinted it on the ride here, and the doctor has been in. She’d like to order some images. So, we are headed to X-ray.”
“Is it broken?” Olivia asked.
“We don’t know for sure, but given the swelling and bruising we want to check.” She lowered her voice, turning to Olivia. “We haven’t been able to get her to answer any questions. Apparently, the man who came in with her said she doesn’t talk?”
Jake.At the mention of him, Olivia felt her eyes well. He’d seen to taking care of Luci, after all. “That’s my fiancé. How is he?”
“That I don’t know, but I can find out for you. I’m going to check with radiology about this X-ray, so we can get Luci going, and then I’ll come find you. Okay?”
None of this was okay, but Olivia nodded gratefully. Right now this nurse was her lifeline.
Olivia turned back to Luci, forcing a smile. “Everything is going to be all right,” she told her. But her mind spun, images of Jake and Emma fluttering through it. Now that Luci was accounted for, she needed to find out about the others.
Luci pointed with her good hand at the doorway. Olivia turned, expecting to see the nurse again. But it was Perry.
“How is she?”
Olivia rose to meet him in the doorway. “She seems all right, except for her left arm. They need to X-ray it. What about Emma?”
“We haven’t been able to see her yet. She’s still in radiology. Amelia is over there now, trying to learn more.”
“Did they give you any information? Anything at all?”
“That she is conscious and alert, which is good. But that she appears to have a head injury.” His voiced wavered. “We’ll know more with the images.”
Olivia glanced back at Luci through the curtains, and lowered her voice. “What about Jake?”
Perry’s eyes were as wide and blue as his brother’s. Had she ever realized that before?
“Perry?” she asked again, dread rising in her throat. “What do you know?”
“Jake is in the OR,” he said, softly.
“What? Why?” Again, her heart sounded against her ribs. Luci was okay. But for the first time since giving birth, Olivia realized that it was not just Luci and her father around which her world revolved. Jake was part of that world now, too.
She stepped out of the dim light of the examination room and into the buzz of activity in the hallway. Perry followed. “Tell me what you know,” she demanded. “All of it.”
Perry told her. About the compound fracture in his right leg. About the blood loss from that injury. And the gash across his head. Unlike the two girls, who were found on the floor of the boat after the accident, Jake had been discovered at the edge of the shore. They believed he’d been ejected from the boat upon impact with the dock.
So, the boat had hit a dock. Olivia felt her knees buckle. She waved Perry’s hand away when he reached to steady her. “Go on,” she told him.
When he finished, Perry watched Olivia like one watches an injured animal.
He did not attempt to console her, or even put an arm around her. He did not tell her everything was going to be okay. “All right,” she said, finally. She would not stand here in the hallway and cry. It wouldn’t change a damn thing if she did, except to scare Luci. She took a deep breath. “Thank you.”
“I’ll come back as soon as I know more,” he promised. “I’m sorry.”
The engagement ring on her finger flashed under the fluorescent hospital lighting as she twisted it to and fro.
But Perry didn’t go. She could feel him standing behind her as she hesitated in the doorway and tried to collect herself. Olivia parted the curtains and sat down in the chair beside her daughter’s bed. Finally, there was the fall of receding footsteps.
Gently, Olivia took Luci’s good hand in her own. It was so warm and small.
“Baby, can you tell me what happened in the boat?”
Luci winced. She leaned back into the pillows and shook her head. Beneath the blanket one foot began to jig. Then the other. It was what she did when overcome with anxiety, something she used to do when she was younger and less able to articulate. Olivia hated to see its return.
“It’s okay, Lu Lu. Everyone is going to be all right. Mommy just needs to know what happened on the boat. Can you tell me?”
