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Jake handed her the gauze pads from the kit, impressed at how calm and collected she remained as she continued to do an assessment of the elderly man. She didn't appear fazed at all by the situation unlike the two crying women kneeling next to the man.
“His neck looks fine, but I don't want to move him. His skin feels cool. Is there an emergency blanket in the kit?”
A quick search turned up the blanket the doctor wanted. Jake tore open the package and covered the injured man with the metallic-colored blanket. “What else can I do?” He felt useless standing there as she worked.
Charlie didn't say anything, she only nodded toward Jessica who had started to sob uncontrollably the minute she saw the blood.
Nodding to let Charlie know he understood, he leaned down and placed a gentle hand on Jessica’s shoulder. “We should move so we're not in the way.” Jake tugged Jessica and her grandmother to their feet and led them past the driveway where a Honda Accord sat squashed beneath a huge tree and towards the farmer's porch.
“I've never seen a car that flat before. Have you?” It was a stupid statement but his intent wasn't to have an intelligent conversation. He meant to distract the women. In the distance the wail of an ambulance siren could be heard and he feared its arrival would only distress them even more. “I think you might need a new car.”
Jake managed to get Jessica and her grandmother into rocking chairs on the farmer's porch. His ridiculous statement about the car earned him half a smile. “That tree had some nerve falling on the car like that.” The sound of tires going over rocks told him the ambulance had arrived.
Jake kept up as steady stream of chatter and used his body to block Jessica's view of her grandfather as the EMTs secured him to a stretcher. It appeared as if he still had not regained consciousness, and, by the way the responders had moved him from the ground to the stretcher, he assumed they were worried about possible neck and back injuries too. In a young person either of those injuries could be difficult to heal from, but in a person his age they could be life altering.
“I'm riding to the hospital with them,” Charlie called over as they wheeled the stretcher toward the ambulance.
Jake almost suggested that Jessica or her grandmother ride in the ambulance instead, but changed his mind at the last minute. The women weren't exactly calm and they might get in the way. Besides, an extra set of experienced hands might be useful on the way to the hospital. “We'll meet you there.” If the tables were reversed he'd want to be at the hospital and the pancake of a car in the driveway wasn't going anywhere.
Charlie threw him a thumbs-up and pulled the ambulance doors closed behind her.
***
Jake grabbed the box of tissues from a table in the hospital waiting room and brought it over to Jessica and her grandmother. They had been there for almost two hours and already the two women had gone through five of the tiny boxes of tissues the hospital left out for patients.
“Here are some more.” Jake handed Jessica the box and then took the seat next to her again. Like everything else in the room it was cheap but functional. “Can I get you anything? Some water?” His eyes darted across the room to the vending machines in the corner. The row of colorful machines provided the only color in the stark white room. “A snack?”
Jessica pulled out a few tissues before handing the box to her grandmother. “No, thanks. I'm fine,” she said between sniffles. “This is my fault. I should have gone up the ladder.” Her voice cracked as she spoke. “Or made him wait till someone else could come by.”
The anguish and guilt he heard in Jessica's voice had him putting his arm around her shoulder. “It wasn't anyone's fault. It just happened.” What else could he say?
“He's right Jess. Your grandpa wouldn't have listened anyway. You know how stubborn he is.” It was the first time Mrs. Quinn had spoken since they'd left the house.
“I just wish we knew something. What is taking so long?”
“Dr. O’Brien is with him. As soon as she knows something, she'll tell you.” As if by magic the minute he spoke her name, Charlie walked through a door marked “Hospital Employees Only”. When she saw the three of them sitting together she paused briefly before continuing toward them. From her expression he couldn't determine what kind of update she was about to deliver. Unlike the women sitting next to him, Charlie seemed remarkably able to control her emotions. Perhaps one had to in order to be a doctor. He had never thought about it before.
“You can come and see him now. It might still be awhile before he is moved to his own room, but you can both sit with him until then.”
Neither Jessica nor her grandmother waited to hear another word. Both came to their feet and started toward the door leading back to the patient examining rooms. He expected Charlie to follow right behind them, but she didn't.
“Thank you for bringing them over.”
He could see the surprise in her hazel eyes but didn't understand it. Had she thought he would leave the two women back at their house with no way to get here? He had told her he would meet her here. Or was she surprised to find him still in the waiting room with the Quinns? While sitting in a hospital emergency room was rather low on his list of fun things to do, he couldn't in good conscience just drop them off and leave.
“Not a problem.”
Chapter 3
It had been four days since Charlie walked into the emergency waiting room to get Jessica Quinn and her grandmother and found Jake with his arm around Jessica's shoulder in an attempt to comfort her. She'd expected Jake to drop Jessica and her grandmother off and then leave. She'd been even more surprised to find him still sitting there an hour later when she'd been ready to leave.
That afternoon she started to re-assess her opinion of him. From everything she'd seen he was nothing like the man they portrayed in the media. He came across as a caring and compassionate person who wasn't afraid to get his hands dirty, someone she could easily she herself dating if he lived in town. But he didn't. After this crisis passed he would move on to another one and probably forget about this little town. Not that she would blame him. North Salem wasn't the most interesting place in the world, especially compared to the places he could travel to whenever he got the urge.
You haven't exactly lived in a bubble. Charlie poured cream into her coffee and then mixed in sugar. Thanks to the Navy she'd been to parts of the world she never would've seen otherwise. While many of the places weren't vacation hot spots, she'd still gotten away from Massachusetts, unlike her mother and brother. Both of them had spent their whole lives on the East Coast. Had her mom been any further south than Virginia? She'd never stopped to think about it before now, but she didn't think so.
What places had Jake been to? She'd just started to make a mental list of all the places their billionaire guest had probably been when he walked into the dining room.
“Good morning. Please tell me there is more coffee.”
