The other medic joins the conversation, “Yeah, and their excuse is they need the area clear. But you don’t need five inches of baldness for that.”
“Why are there three of you on the rig?” I ask because it’s normally only two.
“I am helping wherever I can while I wait for a solid partner. The one I’m hoping to replace is having a baby, and she’s trying to drag it out. She’ll want to come back I reckon, but I’ll fight to keep my place if that’s what happens. I don’t want a temp position. I want to get my place and hold it.”
“I understand that. I did a year with a great guy and then his old partner came back and I was shifted to form another team. I told them I wanted a solid place, or I was leaving. Then I got with Cal and we’ve been a great team.”
The two of them banter back and forth, but I notice they are keeping a close eye on Victoria. It doesn’t take long to arrive, and I follow as closely as I can without getting in the way.
When Victoria is rushed into a side room, a doctor is waiting, and I attempt to follow behind the gurney. I am told to wait outside, but you know me, I push inside anyway. “This is my girlfriend and I want to know what the fuck is going on. Is she okay?”
Although I’m getting some nasty looks, I don’t give a shit. I stand with my arms folded but stay next to the wall, giving space to the doctor and the two nurses with him.
When they get to cutting her hair, I snarl, “Don’t cut too much or I’ll make sure you are bald when you go home tonight, and I mean all three of you.”
The EMTs grin and give me a nod as they pass me leaving the room. “Good luck. I hope she’ll be okay.” I nod in acknowledgement of their comment but keep my eyes on the bitch who is cutting Victoria’s hair.
Victoria is very pale and hasn’t become conscious yet, which is worrying me now. The doctor orders a scan of Victoria’s head and they rush her away. Turning to me the doctor speaks for the first time. “We are going to scan Victoria’s head. I couldn’t feel any movement in her skull, but as you can imagine we don’t want to be poking at her if something is wrong. The gash is deep, but I have it stitched and the bleeding has stopped. I think we are talking about a nasty concussion, but the scan will verify that. Do you want to wait in the waiting room down the hall until we know more?”
I head to the waiting room and look up when I hear my name. Wings, Meat and Stitch are storming my way. I flick my hand, which tells them to follow me.
Inside the waiting room, I’m still in jogging pants and a t-shirt, but my brothers have their kuttes on so you can believe a woman who was waiting quickly heads out of the room. Why? I never understand because we are known all over this area for helping and not causing trouble. We fundraise and do good deeds, but you know, when this sort of thing happens it makes me think, fuck it, why bother!
“What’s going on?” Stitch asks as the door closes behind the woman.
I tell them what happened, and my girlfriend’s idiocy, which as you can imagine has Wings and Meat smirking like a pair of fools. “What does she look like?” Wings asks with that look that tells me he’s wanting to fuck around with me.
“I wasn’t looking at her that closely. She was bleeding from her head and bleeding a lot. I was more concerned at that thanchecking her out.” I give an eye roll, which is my new habit thanks to Star and Kenzie.
Stitch slaps my shoulder, “I’m going to find out what’s happening. I know a few of the nurses and doctors here now. Get in touch with Forest. Make sure everything is as it seems.”
“What do you mean?” I ask, thinking literally,what is he getting at?
“Well, don’t you think it’s odd that a kid ends up in the river? It’s a distance from the running path isn’t it? Have you checked if the kid is okay?”
“Have I fuck!” I snarl. “The bitch never even looked or asked if Victoria was okay, so I don’t give a fuck about her. The kid was crying his ass off so he was okay from what I could tell.”
Grunting when I speak has me turning to look at Meat, and the frown on his face tells me he feels the same as I do. Wings speaks again, “Why the fuck would you not check how someone is when they saved your kid's life? That doesn’t make fucking sense?”
Before I reply, Stitch walks out of the waiting room, and along with me, Meat and Wings take a seat. I run over what happened in my mind and it’s like a video playing. Me running along the path. I see the woman screaming with the man beside her.
“I’ve called Forest, he’s on his way,” Wings says and I nod to let him know I heard.
My mind is still playing out the scene. They look at each other, then the woman continues to cry out. Victoria stops running,scans the river and thinks nothing of what she’s going to do. She launches herself into the river.
I push my mind to see what the woman and man were doing. Nothing…they were doing nothing! She was screaming but did not get closer to the river. He stands just watching. When I reach them the other two guys appear.
At no time does the woman make any effort to grab the kid. She doesn’t hold him until he’s out of the river, and the man thrusts the kid at her.
Something is not right! I’m going to tell Forest my gut is saying something is not right!
The door opens and Stitch walks back into the room. “They are just bringing Victoria back from scans. She’s going to be admitted because she’s not regained consciousness as yet. You’ll have to keep up the girlfriend shit, Chaos. Did she have a key with her? You could get her some things from her place for when she wakes.”
“I can do that. I have her purse. It’s small but had her driver’s license, a few dollars, and yeah, a key.” I check out the purse again and that is all that’s in it. “I have the address on her license so once we know she’s in her room I’ll go check her place out.” I look up when the door opens again, and the doctor steps inside.
“Victoria has a concussion. She’s in a coma at the moment. She has no sign of a brain bleed, cracks in her skull or anything else that we have to fix. But she is in the ICU as she’s not regained consciousness as we expected, hence we say, in a coma.”
Meat grunts, Wings growls under his breath, and I blurt, “So, what are you saying? She’s not gonna wake up?”
