Chapter 52

CHAPTER 52

SLATE

M y tires squealed to a stop in front of the door outside the emergency room, my heart beating twenty miles a minute. Jeanie hadn't said a word all the way here, and she was awake but slumped in the passenger seat, too weak to unbuckle her own seatbelt.

Parking like an asshole right outside the doors, I jumped out and rushed around the front of the car to lean in to help her get out. She smiled appreciatively, but her eyes shimmered with pain, her cheeks pale and her arms shaky.

"It's okay, Jeanie. We're here now," I murmured, lifting her out of the seat and supporting all of her weight as we straightened up.

"My chest hurts, Slate," she mumbled tiredly, her movements sluggish when she tried to balance on her own two feet.

Fuck .

Terrified she was having a heart attack, I kept a firm grip on her, one arm around her waist and the other helping her keep her own around my shoulders. "Just lean into me. I've got you."

Moving as fast as we could, we burst through the emergency room doors, blinking against the sudden brightness of the fluorescent lights above. I squinted through the intrusion, grabbing the attention of the first medical professional I saw.

"We need help here!" I demanded loudly. "She collapsed about forty minutes ago and came to probably around two or three minutes later, but she's weak."

The nurse responded to my desperation immediately, giving me a curt nod even as she looked over her shoulder and barked an urgent command at the guy behind the counter. "We need a wheelchair over here."

Within seconds, another person came running up, positioning the wheelchair right behind her. The nurse already had her stethoscope in her ears, bending over Jeanie and closing her eyes as she pressed the metal disk to her chest.

"Hi there, ma'am. My name is Lisa. Can you tell me how you're feeling?" She slung the stethoscope around her neck once more, standing up straight before rounding the wheelchair and pushing it quickly into the ward and to the nearest available bed.

Once we were in emergency, I trailed after them, my heart pounding. Worried and feeling completely useless, I looked around, taking in the rows of beds on either side of the room, only a few with the curtains around them drawn.

Any emergency room was otherworldly to me, and even though this one wasn't as busy as some, the very air in here was still tense. I felt like a fish out of water even though I'd spent my fair share of time in hospitals as a visitor if there had been an incident on the rigs or on a job. I was trained more extensively in first aid than most, but I was always completely out of my depth surrounded by all these machines and little containers of supplies.

Especially this time. The lights were too bright after all my time spent on the farm and the sharp scents stabbed my nostrils with every breath I took. Closing my eyes for a beat, I slid my hands into my pockets and wondered just what I was supposed to do next.

Thankfully, the nurse had helped Jeanie onto a bed and she glanced at me while helping her get settled. "The doctor will be here in a moment. You can go check her in."

"Oh, um, I'm a friend of the family. I have her name and age, but not any of their medical information. Her husband and daughter will be here soon."

As I said it, I walked around the hospital bed and decided this was what I could do. I could support her until her family arrived.

"Her name is Jeanie Merrick," I said as I took her hand in both of mine, glancing at the ashen-faced, slack-jawed woman on the bed.

She looked nothing like the vibrant, playful Jeanie I knew, who spent hours on her feet in front of the stove every day and smacked guests when they tried to help her clear up. She managed another weak smile, her eyelids heavy as she slid her gaze to mine. "Thank you, Slate."

Her voice was barely a whisper, but her fingers curled around my own. I squeezed her hand, nodding as I returned her smile. In the meantime, the nurse had jotted down Jeanie's name and had marked down a few things on her clipboard, but she gave me an apologetic smile when she looked up again, clicking her pen before sliding it back into her pocket.

"If you're not an immediate family member, I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask you to go to the waiting room. They're going to need to run some tests and it might be a while. I'll come find you there when I have any updates for you. If you could send her family to check her in when they arrive, that would be very helpful."

Jeanie's grip on my hand turned to steel, her tired, dazed eyes widening as she shook her head. "No. No, please. Let him stay. I don't want to be alone and he's like a son to me. Let him stay."

The nurse glanced at her, sighed, but then nodded a moment later, flashing me a stern look as she reached for the curtains around Jeanie's bed and started pulling them shut. "Do not move away from her bedside. You may stay until her family arrives, but don't touch anything and keep it down."

I nodded curtly. "You got it. Thank you."

After finishing with the curtains, she slipped through the crack, pausing only briefly to look back at Jeanie. "The doctor will be here soon, ma'am. If you need anything, you can use the button right behind you and I'll be back to check on you in a few. We just need to get your paperwork started."

Jeanie's eyes hesitated on hers for a beat, and she gave a barely perceptible nod before her lids slid shut. Panic flew through me, but the nurse just smiled calmly. "Let her rest, sir. I'll see you soon."

With that, she disappeared, leaving us alone in the tiny, curtained cubicle. I gaped at that crack she'd slipped through, wondering if it was a metaphor for what was about to happen here.

Jeanie let out a soft moan and brought her free hand to her chest, gently massaging it like she was trying to ease her own pain. Her breathing was shallow. I bent over, pushing a lock of damp hair gently off her face.

"How are you, Jeanie? I need you to try to tell me, okay?"

"Oh, I'm fine. Just a little short of breath and dizzy. You heard the lady. I just need some rest."

I frowned. Her voice was even softer now than it had been just a minute ago, the few words she'd said seeming to have caused her pain. I scoffed, giving her hand another squeeze before releasing it. "I'll be right back. I'm just going to have a quick word with the nurse."

"Okay, honey," she agreed easily.

Too easily.

Her eyes slid shut again and my heart stuttered, my jaw tightening.

Yeah. No. I'm not having this.

Why that nurse had thought it was okay to leave us alone while her patient was short of breath, dizzy, and in pain, I didn't know, but it wasn't like they were slammed. It shouldn't have taken her more than a few seconds to hand over that clipboard to whoever was in charge of the administration so they could start entering Jeanie's details. But she wasn't back yet.

Shaking my head, I followed her through the crack, striding across the room to a counter that appeared to be a nurses' station. Behind it, one man sat behind a computer, typing while also laughing with our nurse and another.

"We need your help," I said as I approached them, bracing my palms on top of their counter with my arms spread wide. "That woman may be having a heart attack and she can't wait. She needs help right now."

Our original nurse frowned, glancing toward the curtained cubicle. "Has something changed?"

"No, but we're not going to wait. Something is seriously wrong with her and if you don't get your asses in gear and help her I'm going to rain holy hell down on all of you with a lawsuit like you've never faced before. You don't want to fuck with my lawyers. Go help her. Now."

At that moment, Jess and Doug came running in. Relief sped through me as I waved them over, pointing Doug in the direction of Jeanie's bed. "She's right over there."

Jess came toward me, as pale as her mother and her green eyes too big as they flicked from one side to another, taking it all in with parted lips and her curls messy from all the fidgeting she'd done. Doug nodded at me, his jaw locked as he raced to his wife's side.

When I glanced back at the three medical professionals who were all still staring at me, I lifted my eyebrows. "I said now ."

My threats got a flurry of activity going, the man behind the computer picking up his phone and snapping something into it about paging a doctor. Our original nurse was already striding across the room at a clipped pace, her friend hot on her heels.

I sighed, turning to Jess and immediately pulling her into my arms. I held her close, pressing even my head to the top of hers when I realized how much she was trembling. "You can fill in the paperwork in a minute. Let's go see her first."

She nodded against my chest, her hand sliding into mine and taking it in an iron grip as we marched to her mother. The curtains were half open now, the two nurses working furiously all of a sudden while Doug sat by Jeanie's side, his hands on hers and his forehead resting on top of them.

Jess took the other side of her bed, on high alert as a woman wearing scrubs rushed in. With sleek red hair in a high ponytail and radiating an air of authority, she was clearly the doctor we'd been waiting on.

"Right," she said as soon as she reached the cubicle, her eyes intelligent and sharp on the nurses. "What do we have here? I got a page to come immediately."

Our nurse fell over her words as she explained it all, her gaze flickering back to mine every so often as if she was silently asking if she was doing enough to avoid a lawsuit and for a moment I felt like a dick. But then I remembered that they'd all been laughing with their friend over at the counter a minute ago and I felt better.

I'd apologize later for the threats. For now, I was just glad they were finally working on Jeanie. The doctor listened as they quickly got her caught up. Then she slung her own stethoscope off her neck and popped it into her ears, moving in at Jess's side.

"Will you let me in here for a second, honey? I just want to take a quick listen." As gentle as she was with Jess, her voice was like the crack of a whip when she addressed the second nurse. "Let's get some blood drawn and an EKG. STAT."

The nurse nodded and spun around, hurrying to some of the little containers and pulling out what she needed to draw Jeanie's blood. She moved in beside Doug, intently focused on what she was doing as she clipped an elastic around the top of Jeanie's arm.

"You'll feel a little pinch, Mrs. Merrick. It'll be over soon."

Jess averted her gaze as the woman stuck a needle into her mother and Doug moved out of the way as the level of activity intensified, the three women working fast and hard to diagnose her. I stuck close to Jess, trying my best to keep a level head and answer the professionals' questions about how Jeanie had been acting today.

As Jess and Doug dealt with their fear, the man from the computer came back, immediately focusing his attention on me. "I need someone to give me basic details for now. They can't proceed with the tests until we have them."

I nodded and murmured to Jess. "I'll act as your spokesperson. Stay with your mom. If there's anything I need to know, I'll come to you."

I followed the guy back to the counter, hoping like hell I'd be able to give the basic details he needed. Jeanie needed her family right now, and since she was more important to me than he was, I would move heaven and earth to deal with the red tape so that, at least for a few more minutes, they wouldn't have to.