"Hey man, are you okay?"
"I'll be better once I can see Marie," Kevin said.
Naomie nodded. Kevin walked over to the desk and asked,
"I'm looking for Marie Ellis, what room is she in?"
"She's still here in the emergency room, they haven't found her a bed yet, but you can't go back there, she already has a visitor."
"Who?"
The young man consulted the screen on his computer for a moment and said, "I don't know. An older gentleman who showed up ten minutes ago."
"You didn't get his name?"
"It's not required. Either way, you'll have to wait for him to come out."
Kevin shuffled the deck and cut to the aces. He couldn't see her. Closing his eyes, he shuffled again, trying to compose himself.
"I've got to get back to Rebecca," Naomie said. "She's all alone, none of her family lives close."
At the mention of family, Kevin groaned. He knew who the older gentleman was who had beat him to the punch. Edward Michael Coren, Marie's father, who would have been called if they pulled the card out of her wallet and used it to identify the next of kin. How many times had he said, he needed to be on that card? It didn't matter. He was going to have to wait. Probably all night.
Ray kissed Naomie on the forehead then asked,
"You sure you don't want me to stay here?"
"I'm fine," she said. "Just concerned and I have my car." Naomie's party shoes clicked on the tile floor as she turned. "I'll be fine."
"As long as you're sure." With Naomie headed for the doors of the emergency wing, Ray eyed Kevin. "You sure you're okay?"
"No. I want to see her, but her father's here."
"Oh."
"Yeah."
"Definitely not the president of your fan club," Ray said.
"No."
"So what are you going to do?"
The cards slipped back into his pocket and into the worn place where they always settled. It was time for a new coat. This one was going shiny in places.
"I'm going to go see her."
Ray had a skeptical look on his face. Kevin shrugged and headed for the same door that Naomie had come out of. There was an older woman who smelled of White Diamonds perfume standing there holding it open as she talked to a younger woman with a baby on her hip. The baby noticed him before either of the women did. Once they did, Kevin flashed them a stage smile, beautiful but empty. The younger woman smiled back while the older gave her a disapproving look.
"Do you ladies mind if I squeeze past? My wife is back there somewhere."
"Where's your guest badge?" The older woman indicated the tag she wore around her neck which said 'Guest' in bright green letters.
"They wouldn't give me one. Something about she already has a visitor, but I really need to get in to see her. She's been in a car accident and I just want to make sure that she's all right." He told nothing but the truth. It was easier to persuade people with the truth. Most humans, regardless of intelligence, could spot a lie by the way you moved. Kevin might have run a stage show, but he never lied when he did it. Might have been why his act was not quite sought after, but got repeat business.
"Momma," the younger woman said. "Why don't you let him use your pass? Dad's asleep anyway."
"Excuse me," the older woman said. "You don't get to decide whether or not I spend time with my husband. You're only interested in helping him because he's cute." The woman moved forward and out of the doorway. Kevin caught the door and slipped through. Behind him, he heard,
"That's what got you in trouble in the first place..." The words trailed off as he made his way into the rat's nest of corridors that was the emergency wing.
Several minutes of wondering whether he should have taken a left or a right at his first crossroad later, Kevin found himself standing at the end of a hallway lined with patients. They were up against the wall so that there was a corridor wide enough for a wheelchair, but that was it. None of the sleeping faces looked familiar to him. Down the hall, a door opened and someone he did recognize came out. Edward Michael Coren looked as if he had just taken a few rounds with a boxer much better than him, but he was standing upright. His lined face was, for a time, older than his years. The close cropped white hair stood out florescent in the light. He saw Kevin moments after Kevin saw him and a grimace coated his face.
"What are you doing here?" The exchange happened over a few feet, but it wasn't loud enough to wake anyone. Mike Coren had a tea kettle whisper, it wasn't to boiling yet, but it would be.
"I came to see Marie," Kevin said. The urge to just brush past the elder Coren and into the room he had just vacated was strong, but Mike would just follow him. There was no getting out of this. "Is she alright?"
His question got a look of 'are you stupid, son' and a grunt. At least they weren't passing cusswords in the hall. Kevin didn't want to deal with security; he was already in a secured area with no pass. Getting dragged out by security would just be another one for his highlight reel.
"I really just want to see my wife. I can always talk to you some other time." It was an out. One he was almost certain the elder Coren wouldn't take. He wouldn't miss a chance to rub Kevin's nose in his wrong doing. It always came back to that these days.
"I think you ought to tell me where you've been and how I beat you here, boy." Mike obstructed the door with his frame, not stocky but not skinny. He could stand to lose a few without doing any harm.
Despite wanting to scream, Kevin straightened his jacket and stared Mike straight in the eye. He could ask for anything he wanted there in the hallway of a hospital, but that didn't mean that Kevin had to play his game. The younger man took a deep breath of air that smelled like so much disinfectant and held his peace. Neither man moved for long seconds.
"Well," Mike finally said.
"I don't owe you any explanations," Kevin said. He shook his head. "She can ask where I was, if she wants to know, but you don't get to ask those questions and expect an answer."
"You see here," Mike started.
"No, you see here," Kevin interrupted. "My wife is in a hospital bed and I want to see if she's alright. I have no interest in playing twenty questions with you over something stupid. Now get out of the way or I'll move you."
Maybe that wasn't the right thing to say. Mike stiffened and his crossed arms became two balled fists at the ready. If Kevin was going to move him, he would find himself on the wrong end of a fight.
Just what he needed to have a fistfight with her father in the middle of the emergency ward of the hospital over visitation rights. Someone groaned in their sleep and turned over, distracting the two men for a moment.
A nurse, passing through, looked at them both and asked,
"Can I help you?" She wore her hair knotted into a bun on the back of her head and shamrock colored scrubs. Not pretty in the conventional sense, but to Kevin she was an angel of mercy.
"This man is here to harass my daughter," Mike said.
"I'm sorry," she said.
"I'm her husband, this is her father. We don't see eye to eye and he has a problem with me coming to visit her," Kevin explained. He kept his stance neutral as he could. If Mike was going to be aggressive, he needed to not be.
"Oh." The nurse looked them both over and nodded once to herself. "Sir," she addressed Mike. "You can't keep him from visiting in a public facility unless you'd like to get the police involved. Is that what you want?"
For a moment, Mike was silent and Kevin was almost certain he was going to have the police called on him. It was the kind of thing that Michael Coren would do in order to protect his daughter and it wouldn't be the first time he'd called the cops on Kevin. However, after a few long moments of the sound of papers rustling, footsteps, and position changes, Mike shook his head no.
"Then I suggest you get out of that doorway and be on your way," the nurse said. It was another thirty seconds before Mike moved. Kevin counted. The nurse waited. Once he was on his way down the hall, Kevin t
urned to the nurse and said,
"Thank you."
"No problem," she said. Then she turned to go into the room as well. "I'm Pam by the way. The night nurse in charge of your wife's case until they can get her a room."
"Pam, I really appreciate what you did just now."
"Really, it's nothing. Hospitals make people antsy. He's just as worried as you are."
He didn't burden her with the history between him and Moll's father. It was a long story worthy of a court deposition, but not exactly the kind of thing you talked about with someone you'd just met. He entered the room following her. There was a strong scent of iodine in the air as if the room hadn't quite been aired out properly. In the bed at the center of the room, Moll lay with bandages around her head. There was also a machine hooked up to her beeping periodically.
"Can you tell me anything about her condition?"
"She's stable. We've been unable to wake her, but we're pretty sure that she's just got a concussion. We'll be taking her down for an MRI soon." Pam was checking something off on a chart she had in her hand. Coming forward, she squeezed Moll's hand and watched her face. There was no reaction. Pam checked that off as well.
"Can I stay with her?"
"Is her father coming back?"
"I don't know."
"Well, you can stay as long as he doesn't come back. There can only be one person back here with her at a time. Space constraints."
Pam turned to leave and Kevin almost let her go without saying anything else, but as she moved through the doorway he said again, "Thank you."
She didn't reply but kept moving about her rounds. There were a couple of uncomfortable small chairs in the room and Kevin found himself sitting in one. He moved it close enough to the bed that he could take his wife's hand and put his head down. It was going to be a long night whether she woke up or not. Better to get some rest. It took a few minutes of listening to Moll's breathing and the beeping of the machine before he nodded off.
They woke him once when he moved her down to MRI and then again when she was finally granted a room. That took them to the third floor where he met a new night nurse. It was nearly dawn and he was hardly rested. At least the chairs in the new room were more comfortable. He reclined the chair and curled up to sleep. When he woke up again, it was daylight.
His back was uncomfortable and stiff from how he'd lain, but he was glad to still be near his love. Her brown skin looked a little ashen under the heavy lights, but her chest rose and fell with regularity, so he was pleased enough. His only wish was that she would wake up so that he could see her beautiful brown eyes. He was staring into her face when a nurse showed herself in with the breakfast tray.
"Good morning, I hope you slept well," she said. "I'm Julie. I'll be taking care of Mrs. Ellis. Are you Mr. Ellis?"
"Yes, I'm Mister Ellis."
"Oh good. One can never be sure," she said putting the tray down on the bedside table. "They have her currently listed as short term comatose following a car accident."
Kevin looked at her with minor shock. Of course this was the diagnosis he'd been given the night before, but it seemed more far-fetched in the light of day and now that his understandable panic had worn off.
"Hopefully," Julie continued. "That won't last long. It usually doesn't. The brain just needs some time to reset, then it comes back good as new." Her smile wasn't forced, but the cheer was a little fake and Kevin felt it. What was she lying about? His wife's chances? He hoped she wasn't lying about that. Losing Moll would hurt worse than any part of himself being taken away.
"Right," he found himself saying. "What's for breakfast?"
"Well, for you, there's a cafeteria on the main floor. I think today is French toast." Julie was looking at the heart rate monitor. "For her, it's eggs, toast, sausage, some orange juice, and a little coffee if she wants it. The stuff they always send up when they don't get an order from a patient."
The patient was comatose. Of course, she wouldn't be ordering breakfast. Without looking, Kevin took Moll's hand and stroked his thumb over her knuckles. Her heartbeat was slow and steady, the monitor said so. All he had to do was wait and things would be fine. Looking up into her face, he had to believe that. Otherwise, the fears waiting at the edge of his consciousness would take hold and he might never find his way back.
"Is there anything you need?" The question had already been asked once, but Kevin missed it when Julie said it the first time. He shook his head no, his hair doing small waves in the air. Then the heavy door swung shut and he was alone in a quiet room with the woman he loved. He rearranged her covers and sat down again. More sleep would be ideal, but he didn't want to be sleeping when she woke up so he forced himself to stay awake. However, his eyelids drifted shut after ten minutes. It had been a long night.
The sound of Moll screaming woke him. He started up so fast he was on his feet before he was ready and collapsed in a heap at the side of the bed. Julie came rushing in followed by another nurse. Once Kevin managed to collect himself, he reached out to sooth his wife only to have his hand thrust away by the other nurse. They were trying to get her to calm down by speaking to Moll in quiet tones, but she was so busy screaming one had to wonder if she could hear them at all. Finally, in a moment of daring, Kevin leaned forward and planted a kiss on the side of his wife's face.
She shut her mouth though her eyes continued to rove back and forth in her head as if looking for an escape route.
Julie and the other nurse retreated to a safe distance, close enough they could come to the rescue if needed but far enough that a whisper wouldn't carry to them. Kevin scooted closer, pressing his face to his wife's. She mumbled something almost inaudible. He leaned in to hear the rest as her lips moved. All he could make out was Gravekeeper. Then she was quiet again. With a blink, he sat back. Her chest had returned to its quiet rise and fall as if the moment of pure terror hadn't happened. Other than the two women hovering in the corner, this could have been ten minutes ago when Marie hadn't awakened yet. Kevin waited. Something else had to happen.
"Is she okay?" he asked finally.
"Her vital signs are stable, so I would guess yes." Julie was subtly shaking, her hands quivering as they checked for a pulse. The machine said Marie's heart was beating and in a once again steady rhythm. Kevin would have just trusted it. Julie went outside and came back with a penlight. She peeled back one of Marie's eyelids and shone the light directly into it.
"Her pupil contracted, so something is awake in there."
Trying the other eye, Julie attempted to rouse Marie.
"Mrs. Ellis?" She shook her a little then rubbed her hand briskly. "Mrs. Ellis, are you with us?"
Kevin sat on the edge of his seat watching for any possible flicker of her eyelids. Marie's eyes were always the first thing to wake up. They started to move before anything else. When her eyes flickered, Kevin drew in a breath and held it. As they opened, he let out that breath and rose from his seat.
"Mrs. Ellis," Julie said again. "Are you with us?"
Disoriented Marie looked first at Julie then at Kevin. Her mouth worked without words. Blinking against the room's light, she shook her head.
"Marie," Kevin said. He put one hand to her face and stroked her cheek. "It's okay. You're in the hospital."
"The hospital," her voice came out sounding desert dry and Kevin reached for the small container of orange juice on the breakfast tray. Popping it open, he offered it to her. It wasn't much. She gulped it down. "Why am I in the hospital?"
"You don't remember being in an accident?" Kevin asked.
She stopped, obviously considering what she remembered, and shook her head no.
"From what Naomie told Ray, you and Rebecca were in an accident coming back from The Reach. You really shouldn't have let Rebecca drive if she'd been drinking."
"I'm pretty sure she was fine when we left the bar," Marie said. "How is she now?"
Kevin had exactly ten seconds to feel like a heel for not checking on their f
riend before Marie said,
"I'm ready to go."
"You can't just go," Julie interjected. "You have to be checked out. You've been nonresponsive since last night."
"So I have to wait on a doctor to sign off on me," Marie said. "He'd better hurry up then."
Shaking his head, Kevin then laid a kiss on his wife's forehead.
"I'm glad you're alright."
She didn't respond immediately. He let that go.
It didn't take much convincing to get Marie to eat something, though the breakfast was a little cold, after the two nurses left. Julie had made it clear she would be back with a doctor just as soon as she could manage. Of course, she left Kevin with the job of keeping Marie occupied while they waited. There was nothing good on television, not that he was surprised. It was day time. The domain of soap operas and sitcoms. Neither of which he found all that interesting. Marie, who would normally be grading papers or teaching a class, also found them insipid. The television was on for all of ten minutes, then they were looking for something else to do.
Though it was hard to play cards with only two people, they managed it until the doctor showed up. Marie had just won the hand when he entered and introduced himself as Dr. Raja. His skin said India. His accent said Boston. He did a few small tests, asked a few probing questions, and seemed satisfied.
"So when can I leave?" Marie asked.
"I'd like to keep you here at least another day for observation. Sometimes it takes time for symptoms to show up and I don't want you passing out at home with no care available."
"I'd like to be out of here right now, thanks." Kevin shook his head. Dr. Raja was about to find out how stubborn Marie could be. For once, Kevin was thankful it wasn't him on the receiving end.
"That really isn't advisable."
"I don't care what's advisable. I want out of here."
"If you're willing to sign a waiver clearing the hospital and me of any wrongdoing, then I suppose I can't stop you."
"I'm willing. Bring me the paperwork."
Knowing her as he did, Kevin wasn't surprised by Marie's hatred of hospitals. They'd bonded over it with a beer or two between them during their courting phase. Once upon a time, Marie had been a sickly child and that led to many more hospital visits than she cared to remember. Kevin could only wince in sympathy as she described being used as a pin cushion by nurses over the years. Despite each actual visit being somewhat okay, the sheer volume of them made them each appear horrid.
Dark King Rising Page 3