“Yeah, I know, you hate that, but Dr. Steve really needs to see what’s going on in there,” Kerry told her. “So you just keep your eyes closed, and it won’t be that long, I promise.”
“Promise?” Dar mumbled.
“I promise,” Kerry repeated, as they rolled over to the big machine.
“Just keep your eyes closed, okay?”
“Okay,” Dar agreed. “Just stay here with me.”
Ooh. Kerry eyed the plethora of machinery, then her lover’s pale face. “Don’t worry, I will. I promise.” She took hold of Dar’s hand and squeezed into a corner, as much out of the way as she could manage.
The technician came over and glanced at her. “Ma’am, you can wait over there.” He pointed toward a low bench, giving her a friendly smile.
Dar’s fingers tightened on hers, and Kerry met the tech’s eyes squarely. “No, I can’t,” she said. “My friend here is extremely claustrophobic and has a concussion. You don’t want her freaking out.”
The man glanced at Dar, then at Kerry. “Okay,” he agreed cheerfully. “I can buy that. Just try to stay as clear of the machine as you can.”Kerry was pleasantly surprised by the easy capitulation. “Thanks.”
She relaxed. “I will.”
The tech, a young blond-haired man about Kerry’s age, expertly arranged Dar on the table and moved the machine to cover her. “Was she in a car accident?”
“Ah, no,” Kerry replied. “She...um...” Got hit in the head with a rifle?
No, you can’t say that. “It’s complicated.”
“Okay.” The tech signaled to his partner, who was behind a console. “Whatever you say. I never argue with a lady wearing two cell phones and three pagers.”
Kerry glanced down at her belt, then felt herself blushing. “Ah, yeah.” She heard the machine start humming and felt Dar’s grip tighten painfully. “I’m carrying for both of us right now.” She chafed Dar’s fingers. “Easy, Dar, I’m here.”
The grip lessened, just a trifle. “I’ll always be here,” Kerry whispered.
“OKAY.” DR. STEVE ENTERED the emergency room alcove they’d been assigned. Andrew and Ceci were standing on one side of Dar’s rolling bed, and Kerry was on the other, all of them attempting to comfort her. “Sweetie pie, you did quite a job on yourself.”
Dar had her eyes open a little more now, having been pumped full of several syringes of things. “Yeah?”
Red Sky At Morning 263
“Yeah.” Dr. Steve walked over and rested his hands on the bed.
“I’m admitting you.”
Dar grimaced.
“Ah, ah, ah.” The doctor shook his finger at her. “It’s all your own fault, young lady. If you’d have stayed at home and rested like I told you do, you’d still be there, and not here.”
Dar’s lips twitched into a scowl. “I had something I had to do,” she protested tiredly.
“Uh-huh, and now what you have to do is spend some time in here, letting me fix you,” Dr. Steve replied. “You have a concussion, honey, and there’s some swelling in there because of that. You’re not going anywhere until I’m sure that’s gone.” He touched the side of her head, which was dark with bruising. “And I’m calling in an orthopedic surgeon to look at your shoulder.”
Dar’s blue eyes popped wide open, but then, so did Kerry’s, Ceci’s and Andrew’s. “What?”
Dr. Steve put a finger on Dar’s nose. “What part of that wasn’t in American English? Now you relax, and let them take you upstairs and get you comfortable.” He patted his profoundly unhappy-looking patient’s arm. “Don’t give the nurses a hard time. I like the ones here, and you’ll give me a bad name if you do.” With that, he left, after giving Andrew a reassuring pat on the back.
“Shit,” Dar exhaled.
“Now, Dardar.” Andrew put a hand on her shoulder. “Just you relax, like Steve said, and get you some rest.”
“In here?” Dar eyed the white ceiling. “Not likely.”
Kerry actually smiled. “I never thought I’d be glad to hear you griping,” she admitted. “But I know it means you feel better, so I am glad.”
Dar eyed her. “Easy for you to say. You get to go home,” she grumbled. “I have to stay here and be poked, prodded, messed with, and put up with God knows what.”
Kerry exchanged glances with her in-laws. “Honey, I’m going to go give them your insurance card, okay?” she said diplomatically. “I’ll be right back.” She tweaked Dar’s toe, then left, passing through the divider curtains and letting them fall closed behind her.
DAR CLOSED HER eyes and counted to twenty. Then she counted to twenty again. Then she opened her eyes and found she was still in the hallway, waiting to be shoved into the elevator. She closed her eyes again.
Dar didn’t like frustration. She usually dealt with it in one of two ways: she got rid of it by getting rid of its source, or she went out and did something physical until the feeling of rage faded. At the moment, neither of those two options was available to her.
264 Melissa Good If she was being very honest with herself, it wasn’t the hospital she hated. The gurney started into motion with a jerk, and she opened her eyes to see the walls moving past. It was the lack of personal control over what was going on, and the fact that she was forced to allow strangers to invade her personal space and strip away her dignity.
Not to mention the damn gowns. Dar had let them put one on her, but she’d refused to remove her jeans, even after Dr. Steve had threatened her with a pair of surgical scissors. She still had them on now, providing extra warmth beneath the thin hospital sheet that covered her, smelling of bleach and antiseptic.
The elevator doors closed, and she listened to the nurse’s tuneless whistling as the car lurched into motion. That made her still-aching head hurt more, and she sighed, biting her tongue to keep from snapping at the man. The nausea had faded, and Dr. Steve had firmly strapped down her arm again, making the pain bearable; but the various aches and the aggravation were wearing very hard on her temper.
And Kerry had disappeared. Dar spent a moment glumly wondering if her cranky ill temper had finally pushed one button too many, even with her lover’s usual patience. The thought brought an irrational jolt to her chest as the fatigue wore down her defenses and let her darker insecurities surface.
Fortunately, she didn’t really have time to dwell on it, as the elevator doors opened and her porter pushed her out onto a relatively quiet hospital floor, with shoe-squeakingly clean floors and weave walls the color of road kill. Dar hated it immediately, especially when she was guided into a half-darkened room midway down the corridor.
“Here we are,” the man pushing her announced cheerfully. “Let me just swing you over here, and we’ll get you settled into this nice bed.”
Dar realized she was too tired to even be disgusted. She eyed the bed, then glanced around the room, realizing it was the only bed in it.
Could she have gotten that lucky? She’d been hoping, at the best, for either no room neighbor or a sleeping one. It was a fairly sizable room, too, with a wide bay window and a sort of padded daybed lounger near that, presumably for the patient to relax in.
Hmm. Maybe they were out of double rooms. Well, Dar wasn’t going to argue with that. Sharing the space was one thing she’d been truly dreading. She waited until the rolling bed was even with the stationary one and the nurse had lowered the rails, then before he could grab hold of her, she moved herself from one to the other in a single, fluid motion.
“Hey,” the nurse blurted. “Honey, I was going to help you.”
“I know,” Dar exhaled. “It’s okay.” The effort had exhausted her, and she lay back against the pillows and allowed the nurse to fuss with the blankets.