I felt utterly helpless as he interrogated me about the attack. I’d come in near the end and couldn’t give him any details about the fucker who’d done this to Drew, other than he was tall and wide, wore a ski mask to conceal his identity, and that he was wearing a black hoodie, jeans, and boots you’d expect to see on a construction site. When they loaded Drew into the ambulance, I insisted on going with him. No way in hell was Drew going to be alone.
“Are you family, sir?” the paramedic asked as he continued taking note of Drew’s vital signs. He called out a bunch of stats which didn’t mean shit to me, but I still tried to remember them.
“No, he’s my roommate,” I responded, wishing I could reach out to hold Drew’s hand and make sure he knew I was there with him.
“According to his driver’s license he’s from Belmont,” the paramedic pointed out. “Are you guys in town visiting?”
I wasn’t sure whether I was relieved or annoyed by the question. It was apparent this guy wasn’t a baseball fan. Drew wasn’t the star of the show or anything, but he’d put up the best numbers of his career this year. “Um, no. He still has his parents’ address listed as his permanent residence. He works and lives here now.”
“Oh, okay.”
The ambulance pulled into the emergency bay and I jumped out of the way so they could get Drew inside. A nurse stopped me from entering the room with him and I nearly lost my temper. “I have to stay with him,” I demanded, trying to push past the guy who looked like he’d be more at home in a football uniform than scrubs.
“Sir, I know you want to be with him, but the doctors have to have room to do their job,” he responded calmly. I imagined calming down upset family and friends was part of his typical job duties. “I’ll take you to the waiting area and someone will be with you shortly.”
“Is there anywhere private to wait?” I asked as I followed him down the hall. As much as I didn’t want to leave Drew, I knew the nurse was right. Still, the last thing I wanted was to sit in the waiting area in my blood soaked clothes. The nurse stopped by a closet, looked me up and down, and then pushed a clean shirt and pants against my chest. He motioned toward the restroom and told me he’d wait for me. “Thank you.”
When I stepped out of the room, I caught a glimpse of the nurse’s phone display. Unlike the paramedics, it seemed the nurse knew exactly who Drew was. “You’re Eric Sapp, aren’t you?” he asked as we walked down the dim hallway.
“I am, but I’d appreciate if you kept that quiet,” I pleaded. I knew better than to assume word of what’d happened wouldn’t become public knowledge, but it felt imperative that I ask the nurse to show some discretion. While they were technically forbidden from talking to anyone about their patients, we’d all learned over the past year and a half that anyone’s juicy gossip could be purchased for the right price and the promise of remaining an anonymous source.
“Of course, sir,” the nurse assured me. He opened a door at the end of the hall and flipped on the lights to reveal an empty conference table. “This isn’t exactly comfortable, but it’s all I can offer you. Should I assume there may be others joining you later?”
“Yeah, I think that’s a safe assumption.” Fuck, I really didn’t want to call the guys, but I had to. They needed to know where we were and what was going on.
“Okay, tell them to call me at this number and I’ll sneak them back here.” The nurse offered me a scrap of paper with his phone number on it. This might all blow up in my face, but I didn’t get the impression he was being devious.
“Won’t you get in trouble?”
“I might, but you let me deal with that.” The nurse, Devon according the scrawled name above his phone number, plugged in the single serving coffee maker and filled the water reservoir. “I know what it’s like when a teammate is hurt, and I can only imagine what something like this is going to do to those guys after tonight’s loss. I’m here until eight tomorrow morning, so until then, feel free to text me if you need anything.”
“Thanks. I will.” I slumped back into one of the high backed leather chairs, suddenly exhausted. Devon brewed a cup of coffee and set it in front of me, telling me he’d check on Drew and let me know if he heard anything.
The click of the door closing behind him echoed in the sterile room. I flipped my phone around in my hands, trying to work up the strength to call Jason. In the end, I chickened out and sent him a text asking him to go outside and then call me. Yes, it’d raise red flags in his mind, but I’d rather that than deliver this news while he was around everyone.
It took less than thirty seconds for my phone to ring. “Hey, that was fast.” My greeting sounded lame, but I was trying to come across as calm and unaffected.
“Cut the shit, Sapp,” Jason growled. “Where the fuck are you and why aren’t you here?”
I sucked in a deep breath, steeling myself for what I was about to say. I really didn’t want to give him the gory details over the phone. “There’s been an incident. Can you meet me at Aurora?”
“What happened? Are you okay?” Jason’s voice drifted in and out and then became nearly inaudible over the music in the background.
“I’m fine,” I assured him. I wanted to tell him to get his ass down here and then I’d let him know what was going on, but knowing Jason, that’d lead to a speeding ticket at the very least. “Look, I’ll tell you what’s going on when you get here. Something happened to Drew and the doctors are looking at him now.”
“What the fuck?” Jason bellowed. I heard him relaying what I’d told him to someone else, and then trying to convince whoever it was to stay put. “I figured he’d punked out and headed home after the game. Fuck!”
“Hey, I know it’s a lot to ask, but if you talk to Cam, could you not mention this to him right now?” Jason’s boyfriend, Drew’s best friend, was at the audition of a lifetime, but there was no doubt in my mind he’d jump in the first cab he could hail to get back to Milwaukee if he knew Drew was hurt. Luckily, I didn’t have to explain that to Jason.
“Yeah, there’s no point until you tell me what happened.” Jason sounded pissed off, but at least he wasn’t arguing. “Be warned, Mason and Sean are coming with me because Mason’s the only one sober enough to drive.”
“Okay. I’m going to text you a phone number. When you get here, call it and let the guy who answers know you’re here,” I told him. That led to more questions, but he seemed relieved to hear that we weren’t going to be congregating in the main waiting room. The last time that’d happened for this group of guys was when Mason got hurt, and that turned into a nasty media shitstorm.
With the only call I could make taken care of, I bent over to rest my head over my forearms on the table. I doubted I’d be able to sleep, but I needed to block out what was going on outside this room.
I’d actually managed to drift off when the cavalry came storming into the conference room. Apparently, no one had heeded Jason’s advice to stay behind so the hospital wasn’t overrun with baseball players. Half the team and their significant others filed into the room, leaving poor Devon playing doorman. He seemed unfazed by the chaos which ensued, and actually offered to run to the store on his lunch break to get us some food to soak up the alcohol seeping out of the pores of most of the guys.
“Thanks, Devon.” I pulled three twenties out of my pocket and handed them over to him. “Seriously, when this is all over, I owe you big time.”
“Don’t mention it, Mr. Sapp. As I said earlier, I know what it’s like when a teammate is down.” As the big guy walked away, I noticed the way he favored his right leg. I wondered if he was the injured player he kept referring to, and knew how his own teammates had responded.