Curtis (32 page)

chapter FIFTY-TWO

Sunday, April 3

“Pop!” Travis called out to his father when they walked into the crowded emergency room waiting area. There were people scattered about from one side of the room to the other, some talking, some who looked to be sleeping.

He noticed his father looking around as though he didn’t know where he was or who was calling him. Then again, the frantic voice mail Curtis had left had nearly sent Travis into a panic. The only things keeping him together were the woman and man standing at his side keeping him that way.

“Dad? You okay?” Travis asked when they approached.

His father looked dazed and confused, as though he couldn’t focus on who Travis was.

It only took a moment before the fog seemed to clear and Curtis was back with them.

Damn, this place smelled like disinfectant and disease, which wasn’t at all appealing by any means. For a second, he wondered if maybe Gage and Kylie should take Kate home. He doubted it could be good for his pregnant wife or his little girl to be in there. Then again, he knew Kylie. She wouldn’t leave until she knew what was going on. According to Curtis’s message, they’d needed to get their asses down to the hospital and quick.

Here they were.

“Where’s Mom?” he asked, trying not to be too gruff, but his fear was overwhelming him. He could handle a lot of shit, but he didn’t hold up too well when it came to something being wrong with a member of his family. He recalled back when Zane had been beaten and hospitalized… He hated thinking about that shit.

“Tests,” Curtis grumbled, his eyes scanning the faces around them. Once again, Travis felt as though his father was somewhere far away. That or he was panicking, which was likely the case.

“Dad, you need to sit down,” Kylie instructed, her small hand curling around Curtis’s arm as she guided him toward a chair. The woman didn’t even realize she held his heart right in her hands.

Gage’s firm hand came to rest on Travis’s shoulder, a silent message that he was right there, ready to catch him if he fell. God, he loved that man.

“Breathe,” Kylie told Travis’s father. “Just breathe.”

“Where’re your brothers?” Curtis asked, meeting Travis’s eyes.

“They’re on the way. I called them as soon as I hung up with you. Did the doctor say anything before they sent you out here?”

“Something about infection…” Curtis was shaking his head as though he couldn’t recall what they’d told him.

Travis gave his father’s shoulder a strong, comforting squeeze. “From the kidney stone?”

“They said that shouldn’t have caused it.”

Travis looked up at his husband and his wife, feeling a little off-kilter. His mother was somewhere in this hospital, and they didn’t seem to be telling his father what he needed to know.

His heart broke when his father put his hands over his face, breathing deeply. Travis had been there before, that space where you were trying to breathe through the emotional pain, trying to hold your shit together, and knowing it wasn’t going to matter. Falling apart was inevitable.

“Hey, Trav. Pop.”

The sound of Ethan’s voice drew his attention toward the door. Travis saw some of his brothers and their significant others coming toward them. Ethan and Beau, Kaleb and Zoey, Sawyer and Kennedy. All of their faces reflected the same concern and fear that Travis felt.

“What sort of tests are they doing?” Kylie asked, her hand still resting on Curtis’s arm.

“Blood tests and a CT scan.”

Probably standard tests, Travis thought.

“What happened?” Kennedy asked, his sister-in-law’s concern palpable.

Travis stepped back when his father sat up straight, gripping the arms of the chair until his knuckles turned white.

“She woke up this mornin’, said she felt horrible,” Curtis explained. “She couldn’t eat, and if she tried, she couldn’t hold anything down. Her temperature was one-oh-three…”

Ethan squatted down in front of Curtis, placing his hand on their dad’s knee. “When did this start?”

“When she went to bed last night, she said she didn’t feel well. Thought maybe she was coming down with the flu.”

“The flu?” Ethan frowned, his eyes cutting to Travis’s briefly. “But she’s been better since Friday?”

Curtis nodded. “For a bit, yes. Then this morning, her skin was kinda ashy. Finally, she told me to get her to the hospital.”

Well, hell. If his mother had asked to go to the hospital, it had to be bad. Lorrie wasn’t the type to enjoy going to hospitals, regardless of who was there. One of those unexplainable phobias, she’d always told them.

Travis needed to get more information. He hated that his father had been sent out to the waiting room when his mother was somewhere back there being poked and prodded. She needed her husband to be with her.

“Be right back.” Travis patted Curtis’s shoulder, then nodded to Gage before he trekked over to the nurse’s desk.

He glanced over to see Braydon and Jessie, Brendon and Cheyenne, as well as Zane and Vanessa, coming toward them. Good. All his brothers were there, just as they should be.

“Hey, Trav,” his cousin Jared called out, coming toward him.

“Hey.”

“Any news?” Jared asked as he hiked his son, Derrick, up on his hip.

“That’s what I’m hopin’ to get now,” he explained, nodding toward the desk.

“I’ll go keep an eye on your old man.”

Travis nodded, then turned to the nurse’s desk. A young woman looked up briefly, then turned her attention back to the desk.

It appeared she was going to ignore him. He’d see about that.

“I need information on my mother,” he told her firmly, not giving a damn if she was busy doing something else.

“Due to HIPAA laws, we can’t give out—”

That was the same bottled response he’d expected. “Family,” he told her.

“What?” Her brown eyes widened when she looked up at him.

“That’s the code you’re gonna ask me for, right? To be able to share information with me. Well, now you’ve got it, so share away.”

“Sir, I’m sure the doctor’ll be out shortly—”

“That’s not what I asked,” he grumbled.

It wasn’t that he enjoyed being an asshole—most of the time—but he damn sure wasn’t going to sit back while his father fell to pieces worrying about his mother. She shouldn’t be back there by herself, no matter what the damned doctors thought.

Her eyes narrowed. He’d seen that look before. She was weighing her options. Trying to decide whether or not it was worth the time and effort to argue with him. It wasn’t.

“Her name’s Lorrie Walker. She’s my mother.” He waved his hand behind him. “The entire family’s out here, including her husband. We need to know what’s going on.”

She gave a terse nod, then got to her feet. She didn’t look at all happy, but thankfully, she headed in the opposite direction, which he took as a good sign. That or she was going to get security. He’d had that happen a time or two.

While hopefully she went to get information, he headed back over to his father and the rest of his family. He walked up in time to hear his father mumbling to himself, “I need to see her.”

“You will,” Kylie assured him. “Travis’ll make sure of it.”

Damn right he would.

“She’ll be okay, Pop,” Ethan said, his voice low.

All eyes fell on him and he nodded toward the nurse’s desk. “They’re going to find out what’s going on.”

“How long has she been here?” Brendon asked their father.

Curtis shrugged. “Coupla hours, maybe.”

Too long for him to have been exiled out here, that was for damn sure.

“Walker family.”

The shrill voice sounded from behind him, and Travis turned to see a nurse searching the faces. Curtis was on his feet instantly, and everyone converged on the poor, unsuspecting woman.

“I’m Lorrie’s husband,” Curtis told her.

“She just came back from the CT scan, and they’re getting her settled. Once they’re done with that, someone will come get you and take you back to her.”

“Why can’t he go now?” Travis asked. This was bullshit.

The woman’s gaze scanned all the faces, and Travis knew how it looked. It was pretty intimidating when the Walker men converged. They weren’t small men, and they tended to take up a lot of space. She didn’t seem to know what to say.

“Where’s the doctor?” Travis asked, hoping to move this along. “We’d like to speak to him.”

The woman nodded. “Of course.”

Glancing over at Kylie, Travis nodded, giving her the signal to take his father back to sit down. He was shaking, whether he realized it or not.

Gage passed Kate off to Kennedy and remained at his side while Ethan and Beau joined him.

“It sounds bad,” Ethan said, his voice low.

They didn’t know enough to make that assessment just yet, but yeah, Travis couldn’t deny that it sounded bad.

“I stopped by the house on Friday night,” Beau told them. “Just to check in, make sure they didn’t need anything. They were watching a movie in the living room. She seemed to be doing well.”

Travis knew that jumping to conclusions was never a good thing. He could sit here and try to come up with a million reasons as to what had made her sick, but he knew it was a waste of time and energy.

“Mr. Walker.”

All heads turned toward the voice coming from behind them. Travis glanced at Gage. “Go get Pop.”

The doctor came to stand directly in front of them, waiting to speak until Curtis was there. “We’re running some blood tests and we did a CT scan. The initial results are pointing to a large infection.”

“What does that mean?” Ethan asked.

“We need to narrow down to the source of the infection. At that point, we’ll be able to determine a treatment plan.”

“Is it bad?” Travis blurted.

The doctor’s eyes softened. “It’s not good, I can tell you that much. She’s vomiting a lot. We’ve given her some anti-nausea medicine to help with that, and we’re giving her fluids intravenously. We’re admitting her to ICU for now. She should be moved in the next couple of hours.”

Intensive care unit. Yeah, that was bad.

Sensing there wasn’t any additional information, Travis nodded his head and turned to look at his father. “You wanna ask him anything else?”

Curtis frowned. “Yes. When can I see my wife?”

The doctor turned to look behind him as a little blond nurse was hurrying toward them. Her eyes met Travis’s, then slid to his father’s. She looked as though she expected one of them to tackle her at any minute.

“Mr. Walker,” she said, looking directly at Curtis. “Mrs. Walker is asking for you.”

“I’ll follow you back,” Travis told his dad. “That way we’ll know where you are.”

They headed down a wide area of curtained-off rooms that circled around a large nurse’s station. The nurse stopped in front of one of the curtains, pulled it back, then headed in the opposite direction as fast as her legs would carry her.

Travis watched as his dad hurried into the small space. He got a good look at his mother for the first time, and his heart broke. She looked so pale and weak lying there in the bed. Despite the fact that she forced a smile when Curtis leaned over and kissed her on the forehead, Travis could tell she was hurting.

“What did they say?” Curtis’s deep baritone resonated out into the common area.

“Something about high white blood cell counts from the preliminary tests,” Lorrie explained, her voice weak. “They’ve put me on more antibiotics while they wait for more tests to come back.”

When his father eased into the chair beside the bed, seemingly oblivious to Travis still standing there, he knew he needed to give them a minute.

“I’m so tired,” his mother whispered.

“I know, darlin’. Close your eyes and rest. I’m right here.”

“You won’t leave me?”

“Not in this lifetime.”

Travis knew that no truer words had ever been spoken. His father would remain by her side, which meant Travis needed to step up and help out.

Knowing they would be okay, he headed back out to talk to the others, to figure out what they wanted to do for now. Because of the little ones, not everyone could stay at the hospital, but Travis knew he wasn’t going anywhere until they knew for sure what was going on.

chapter FIFTY-THREE

“Any news, Pop?” Zane asked, worry creasing his brow as Curtis joined them in the waiting area.

Glancing around, Curtis noticed that the group had grown smaller over the last few hours. Since they had rug rats who needed to be put to bed, he completely understood. But there, sitting in a line against one wall, were all seven of his boys, plus Beau and Gage, who were additions to his family who he considered his own. As he neared, they all got to their feet.

“They did more blood work and the doctor came in to talk to us,” he told them. He was doing his damnedest to keep his composure, but it wasn’t easy.

“And?” Sawyer prompted.

“The doctor called it sepsis,” he explained, although he didn’t really have a clue what the hell that meant.

As soon as the word was out of his mouth, Zane was on his phone, and Curtis knew he was looking up the definition and probably what doctors did to treat it. Curtis had a fairly decent understanding based on the way the doctor had described it, and the one thing he’d taken away from it all was that it wasn’t good.

“Something about a complication from infection,” he said, trying to recall the long, drawn-out explanation the doctor had given.

“But she’ll be all right?” Ethan asked.

That, Curtis honestly didn’t know, but he’d said enough prayers since the doctor had told him that he hoped like hell God was listening. “It can be life-threatening,” he relayed, hating the looks he received. The last thing he wanted to tell his boys was that their mother might not survive this, but he’d always believed in telling it to them straight.

“What does that mean?” Travis questioned, his tone relaying his lack of acceptance of a fatal outcome.

Curtis took a deep breath. “The chemicals that her body naturally releases to fight the infection have caused inflammation throughout her body. He said that this series of changes within her body has the potential to cause her organs to fail.”

“Fuck,” Gage mumbled.

Curtis couldn’t have said it better. “Like they said, they’re getting ready to move her to the intensive care unit. She’s still really sick, can’t stop vomiting.”

Braydon’s eyes widened and Curtis could feel his son’s pain.

“How do they treat it?” Kaleb asked.

“They’ve got her on antibiotics and fluids. They’ll push those, hoping to fight the infection. The problem is, they don’t know where the infection is coming from.”

“How long will she be here?” Brendon asked.

All faces were staring back at him, concern etched deeply across them. Curtis could only shrug. “They didn’t say. They’ll do more blood work to check her white count, see if the numbers’ll go in the direction they want.”

“What can we do?” Beau asked.

Curtis stared back at his son-in-law. Beau had been part of the Walker family since he’d been a kid, so he knew that he was close to Lorrie. Having been Zane’s best friend growing up, then marrying Ethan, Beau was as much a part of the family as any of his boys. He was grateful that he was there.

“The doctor said the only thing to do now is wait. See if the antibiotics will kill the infection.”

“Can we see her?” Brendon asked.

“Sure.” Curtis nodded. “No more than two at a time. I’ll sit out here while y’all go back. When they get her to ICU, they said there’ll be visiting hours.”

“Go on back,” Travis told Brendon and Braydon. “We’ll wait out here with Dad.”

Ethan urged Curtis toward a chair.

“Can we get you somethin’ to eat?” Gage offered.

Curtis looked at Travis’s husband and forced a smile. “Not hungry, but thanks.”

“Pop, you have to eat,” Sawyer stated, squatting down before him.

“I will,” he assured him. Even the thought of food didn’t sit well. The only thing he could think about was how he wanted to see Lorrie smiling and laughing, enjoying her Sunday dinners with her family, not laid up in a hospital bed. His chest tightened as he tried to fight the urge to cry. He didn’t want his boys to see him break down, but the mere thought that he’d have to spend a single day on this Earth without Lorrie was too much.

Fighting the tears was useless, and the next thing Curtis knew, Travis was hugging him tight, cradling his head like a baby as he broke down, releasing the pent up emotion.

“Oh, God,” he groaned, his entire body weak as the emotions poured out. He was scared. So damn scared.

Travis held him tighter while Curtis fought for breath, hating that he was falling to pieces, but he couldn’t stop it. The one and only thing guaranteed to take him out would be losing her.

One minute without Lorrie … would be too long.

He wouldn’t survive.

Lorrie hurt all over. Her eyes continued to drift shut although she was doing her best to stay awake. It wasn’t easy, especially when she had a reprieve from the vomiting. Seemed every time she would close her eyes, her body tried to send her stomach out through her mouth. That and the pain. They’d said they would give her something, but she feared it would only make her groggier; still, she wouldn’t refuse, because the pain was overwhelming.

“Hey, Momma.”

Forcing her eyes open, she saw Braydon and Brendon standing on either side of her bed. She smiled. At thirty-one, her twins were still identical, although she could easily tell them apart. That was a mother’s gift, she supposed.

“Hi,” she whispered.

“How’re you feelin’?” Brendon asked, his big hand settling on top of hers.

“Like crap,” she said truthfully, chuckling.

Braydon gently squeezed her other hand. “Need anything?”

Glancing over to the chair on the opposite side of the small curtained-off room, then back to him, she said, “Just take care of your dad. I know he’s havin’ a hard time with this. But I promise, I’m gonna get well.”

“We’ll keep the old man in line,” Brendon assured her, grinning.

“I’m not sure that’s even possible,” she noted.

“Probably not,” he agreed.

Looking between the two of them, she didn’t try to hide her pain. “Make sure he eats. And sleeps.” She forced another smile. “And showers.”

“He’ll be fine, Momma,” Braydon stated, sliding his hand on her arm. “You worry about you.”

“Did he tell you what the doctors said?”

They both nodded.

“I guess they’ll be moving me to a room soon?”

“That’s the rumor,” Brendon said.

“Hopefully it’ll have a view,” she teased.

Her boys smiled, but those smiles didn’t reach their eyes. They were scared, as was she.

Something about this felt off. Never in her life had she felt like this. The pain seemed to be coming from everywhere, and the only thing she wanted to do was sleep. It killed her to watch Curtis trying to process what was happening to her. She knew it was tearing him up that he couldn’t fix this for her. He’d always been the one who wanted to fix whatever ailed her. Although, they’d been together long enough, endured so much, he should’ve known by now that he couldn’t fix it all. Still, she loved him for wanting to.

Before she was ready, sleep pulled her under, but not before she saw the deep worry on her boys’ faces. It hurt her heart to know they were upset. That was the last thing she wanted.