Jacked (2 page)

Sherry peeked around the doorframe and pocketed her stethoscope. “You okay?”

I tossed my soiled gloves into the biohazard bin. “No.”

“Oh honey, I’m so sorry.”

I buried myself into her welcoming arms.

Sherry rubbed my back. “Reception just took your parents to the private waiting room.”

I wiped my cheek. “Okay, thanks.”

She gripped my upper arms. “I know this is tough but you’re tougher. You know that, right?”

I nodded, though not fully convinced.

“Your mom isn’t handling things well. She insisted on seeing them and then demanded to see you. She probably could use a sedative but I think they’ve got her calmed down for now. Do you want me to go with you? You don’t need to do this on your own.”

I took a deep breath, willing myself to find the courage and professional detachment to get through this. “Thanks, but I think I’ll be okay.”

“I’ll walk with you.” She grabbed a box of tissues from one of the supply drawers and then draped her arm over my shoulder. My chest tightened with every step.

Doctor Jen Wyatt trotted around the far corner, clad in her favorite dark blue scrubs and the new sneakers we’d just shopped for a few days ago. As soon as she saw us she started to run. She nearly sideswiped my ex, Randy, as he came past the nurses’ station; both of them repelling away from each other like two magnetic opposites. He also noticed the dark look she shot him, giving her one in return.

Despite my current mental state of upheaval, her little reaction brought joy to my heart. So did her rushing to my side in the midst of a crisis.

“Oh my God, Erin,” Jen said, ignoring my former lover as he followed her. She pulled me into a crushing hug. “I am so sorry. Are you okay?”

I closed my eyes and hugged her back, hoping that when I opened them again I wouldn’t be staring at Randy’s sexy new glasses through Jen’s long, shimmery black ponytail.

I hadn’t had a chance to tell her I’d noticed her new hair color, either. It went well with her complexion.

“Erin?”

Oh no.

I knew that voice well. I used to jump through hoops to hear him utter my name, but now it was like verbal daggers straight into the heart. I squeezed my eyes shut, willing him to go away. “Not now. I just can’t,” I groaned into Jen’s shoulder.

“
Erin
,” Randy called again.

“Oh good grief,” Jen said. She spun around to face him, holding her hand up in warning. “Now is not the time,
Doctor
Mason.”

Randy ignored her and tugged my arm. “Are you all right?”

What a moronic question. I hadn’t been “all right” for quite a while, mostly due to the trauma
he
had caused on my heart, but that was irrelevant at this point. I’d been managing.
I pulled my elbow away. I didn’t need him adding to my emotional defeat.

Jen glared at him. “Of course she isn’t
all right
.”

He scowled back at her and pointed at me. “I’m not talking to you, okay? I’m talking to her. Erin. Hon…”

“Oh God.” The words in my head slipped out of my mouth, constricting my ability to swallow in their wake.

Jen glanced at me, came to some conclusion, and then turned back on the man I thought I’d once loved in some delusional moment of my past.

“Now is
not
the time. So do us all a favor, save your words and leave her be. We’ve got this.”

His mouth dropped open to argue, his body poised to adamantly disagree. I didn’t have any fight left in me.

Jen shushed him with her hand. “I said we’ve got this. Now go on.”

I wanted to kiss her and her southern-bred sass for being so awesome.

“I’ll check in with you later, Erin,” he grumbled, taking a retreating step.

I couldn’t keep from watching his sexy ass as he stormed off.

“He’s a jerk,” Jen said. “You do not need that man in your head clogging your brain anymore. Now you just forget about him and let’s take care of you.”

I was glad she was being my shield as I was in no position to defend myself or my failing willpower.

Sherry nodded. “I agree. I was taking her down to the family room. Her mom and dad are waiting.” She pointed down the hallway.

“Okay.” Jen put her hand on my shoulder, steering me. “We’ll go with you.”

We stopped a few feet from the waiting room door and Sherry handed the box of tissues to me. “Here, take them just in case. You ready to do this?”

NO, I was most definitely NOT ready to do this.

I nodded anyway.

Jen rubbed my arm. “You want one of us to go in there with you? I don’t care about protocol.”

Actually I didn’t want
anyone
to have to go in there and see my parents cry. I wanted to reverse the wicked hands of time and eradicate this entire nightmare from my life. “Thanks, but…” I stared at the ominous door. “I’ll be okay. I have to be, right?”

Jen hugged me again. “We’ll be right here if you need us.”

I took a deep breath and forced myself to open the door.

My mother startled when she saw me. Her eyes were red and puffy and she was sniffling into a wad of tissues. My dad looked tired and disheveled, as if new worry lines had crinkled his forehead and weary bags had formed underneath his eyes. I could tell he’d dressed quickly; his shirt, which was always tucked neatly into his pants in a staunch, business-like fashion, was wrinkled and hanging out.

I should have waited for Doctor Sechler to update them but this was
my
family, not some random group of strangers. I sat down next to my mom, taking her chilled, trembling hands in mine, trying to will her to stop begging Jesus to give her another answer with my steady gaze.

“Mom, listen. Uncle Cal is alive, but… He’s in… He’s in critical condition.” The urge to cry was imminent, but I had to be strong. I couldn’t leave the delivery of this information to anyone else.

My mother sniffed. “How…? How bad is he?”

I held my breath for a moment and collected my words—words that were failing me because I knew no matter how I said them they would have devastating effects.

“The truth, Erin,” she bit out.

“His left arm was completely severed near his… his elbow, Mom. There was nothing we could do.”

The way her eyebrows crinkled, I knew she was confused that such trauma could come from an automobile accident. I tried not to speak in complicated medical terms.

“What does that mean?”

I squeezed her hand in mine. “If he pulls through this, he’ll need to wear a prosthetic arm. There was no way… They can’t reattach it.”

She sucked in a gasp.

Losing part of a limb wasn’t the worst of his injuries. “What concerns us the most right now is his head injury. He was unconscious when he came in.”

She wiped her nose while her tears made rivulets down her cheeks. “Oh my God. Is he? Is he going to make it?”

I was proud of her for trying to be brave.
Should I lie? Fill her with false hope? Does she even need to know that he went into cardiac arrest during air transport?

“I don’t know, Mom.” In his current condition, it was a miracle he still had a pulse. I gave her the standard benign answer that we all recited from rote. “We’ll know more as we assess the test results.”

She nodded while her pale lips trembled.

“He has the best team looking out for him right now, Mom. Our chief orthopedic surgeon, Doctor Sechler, is working on him. He and Doctor Giffords are experts in their fields.” I squeezed her hand. “Just pray for him, okay?”

My mother’s gaze grew distant. I knew she was in shock. “Can I see him?”

“Not right now. He’s in surgery.” I adjusted my hospital pager as a way to divert my telling eyes. “I’ll go get another status update in a little bit.”

“Okay. And Karen? How is she?”

I took her momentary distraction discarding tissues to peg my father with a knowing stare, our silent communication that we’d perfected over the years when we wanted to keep her from overreacting. When his shoulders slumped and the sob erupted, I knew he understood.

Anguish tore through me with renewed force. I’d seen my father go through the gamut of emotions over the thirty years of my life but this was one of the few times I witnessed him shed tears.

The last time he’d cried openly was when the police had led me away in handcuffs when I was sixteen.

My eyes blurred and I wanted to leap into my dad’s arms to hug his pain away, but like that day, I felt shackled. Helpless. My Uncle Cal and Aunt Karen were their best friends. Cal was my mother’s twin and her
only
brother. The four of them did everything together—vacations, weekly dinners, shows, you name it. I knew this was killing them. It had to be as it was killing me.

I held back my sob while the spot above my breastplate started to burn, ripping fire up into my throat. “She, ah…”

My mom’s focus narrowed, questioning me.

“Their car flipped and rolled, Mom. She’s gone.”

“No. No. They were on their way home from Nate’s. We were there for Noah’s third birthday party. No. What do you mean,
she’s gone
? What are you saying? Oh, no. Please, no.”

Nothing. I was saying nothing. The flight nurse had informed me that my aunt had been partially ejected and then crushed under the vehicle. All I could manage was an unspoken no. As soon as my mom comprehended, her body started to convulse. Thankfully my father pulled her into his chest when she succumbed to the realization. Seeing my mother go through this level of anguish was my undoing.

I covered my mouth, trying to hold back my sputtering, but it was no use; my professional façade lay in a heap in my lap.

My cousin Chris came rushing into the private waiting room, stopping abruptly when he found us.

“What happened to my parents?” Chris frantically demanded, looking directly at me for answers. “Where are they?”

His brother, Nate, was a few steps behind and white as the snowflakes dusting the shoulders of his heavy winter coat. His wife, Andrea, was clutching his hand, looking just as sickly and scared. “What the hell is going on?” Nate asked.

The Chaplain came in behind them, gently urging them farther into the waiting room with sympathetic smiles and soft-toned instructions.

After the Chaplain and I told them what they needed to know, I placed their father’s simple gold wedding ring into Nate’s hand.

“DAD, TAKE MOM
home. It’s late. There’s nothing more you can do here. He’ll be in surgery for a few hours.” I held my dad’s arm, encouraging him along. “Go and get some rest, okay? I’ll call the second I have an update.”

He nodded stiffly, unable to fully converse with me.

I held his vacant stare, hoping he’d listen. “He’s not in good shape, Dad. You understand what I’m saying?”

He ran a hand back through his peppered hair. His voice hitched when he softly muttered, “Yeah.”

“Are you going to be able to drive home? I could drive you.”

My father shook his head. “No, no, I’ll be all right, sweetheart.”

I glanced over at my mother. She was holding Chris, consoling him. They both still had hope Uncle Cal would pull through, sharing their thoughts of his rehabilitation already. I, however, knew better. Part of me felt obligated to stay at work so a family member would be present when the Chaplain administered last rites. I’d seen too many traumas to know the difference, and my uncle was dangling on a very fine precipice.

Nate started crying again, breaking my thoughts. I could tell he was trying to hold it in, but it was too much. Seeing such a formidable young man brought down to his knees was unbearable to watch.

Tears of my own were stinging my eyes again. I wiped my cheeks. “Okay, then I’m going to go home. I’ve been here for almost fifteen hours now, Dad. I need to get some sleep.”

My mother sobbed again, tearing another hole into my heart.

My father frowned at first and then shook off a bit of his stupor, gently rubbing my upper arm. “Okay, sweetheart. Let me gather your mother.”

We walked outside to the open parking lot. Dad brushed his hand over my back. “Erin, are
you
going to be all right to drive?”

I pulled my purse up onto my shoulder; the frigid February winter wind sent an icy chill though my body. “Yeah, Dad. I’m okay.” I hit the button on the key fob. My car lights flashed, illuminating the darkness as my doors unlocked.

I’d never been one to believe in ghosts but the tall, dark figure that seemed to pop out of shadows from nowhere, slinking and ducking in between the cars in the lot, spooked me a little. I squinted, trying to make out some discernible features on the darting figure, noting it was definitely the shape of a man. After a few steps, the stranger stopped walking. All I could see was his darkened silhouette. Shortly thereafter, he became dimly lit by the glow of a cell phone. I hated that uneasy feeling that swept over me, making me question my safety in the city.

Dad pulled my coat hood up as if I were still a child, tucking my long hair in away from my face. “Okay. Call us if you need anything. Please be careful going home.”

I wrapped my arms around his waist and hugged him tightly, realizing how often I take his constant presence and affection for granted. My cousins had their entire world destroyed tonight. Had fate tipped her hand my way, this tragedy could have very well been mine to bear.