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“Are you Luke?” Dane suddenly asked before Luke could get his next words out. Luke nodded and Dane seemed to visibly relax though Luke had no idea why. “Jax said you were staying with Gray. Everything okay?”
Luke had been rehearsing how to make his request since he’d left the cabin and it was only his eagerness to get back to make sure Gray was okay that had him saying, “He’s not feeling well and has gotten pretty dehydrated. You carry saline, right?”
Any tension that had eased from Dane’s frame came back in an instant. “You want to administer Gray an IV?”
The man’s disbelief had Luke cringing. It did sound completely ridiculous. “I did some research and it looks like normal saline is the same formulation for animals as it is for humans - .9% sodium chloride.”
“Are you a doctor?”
Luke shook his head. “I had some combat medic training.”
Dane studied him for a long time before saying, “It’s more than just the flu, isn’t it?”
“What?”
“I saw Gray last week when he came to pick up Ripley. He said he was getting over the flu.”
Luke wasn’t sure how much to say. “It’s more than just the flu,” he confirmed. “Look, I know this is a lot to ask and believe me, if it wasn’t necessary, I wouldn’t be here. He’s not critical yet but he will be soon if he doesn’t get some fluids in him.”
“I could lose my license if I do this,” Dane said softly.
“I know,” Luke admitted. He’d known that before he’d looked up Dane’s name in Gray’s phone but that hadn’t stopped him – hell, it had barely slowed him down. “Gray refuses to go to a hospital. If I need to, I’ll go over his head and call 911…I just want to do everything I can before it gets to that point.”
Dane nodded his head. “Makes sense that he doesn’t want to go to the hospital,” Dane said. “I’m sure the press would love to track him down to get his side of the story. Come with me.”
“What story?” Luke couldn’t help but ask as he followed Dane towards the back of the building.
“There’s a rumor going around that Gray was having an affair with the actor who’s going to be starring in the movies based on his books. The guy’s supposedly straight and engaged to his very pregnant girlfriend so the press is having a field day.”
Gray’s reluctance to go to the ER had much greater meaning now. But Luke knew for a fact that it wasn’t a scandalous relationship Gray was trying to hide.
Dane led him into a small room full of medical supplies and grabbed an empty box from underneath the counter which he gave to Luke to hold so he could start loading it up.
“What are his symptoms?” Dane asked as he worked.
“Dry skin, sunken eyes, he’s easily confused. Chapped lips, rapid pulse.”
Dane nodded. “And you’ve done this before?”
“Yeah. My unit didn’t always have a medic on hand so things kind of fell to me.”
Dane’s eyes flipped up to his. “I want you to text me every hour until he’s out of the woods and if there’s no improvement by” – Dane glanced at his watch – “three, promise you’ll take him to the ER and call me so I can meet you there.” The man’s tone left little room for argument. Not that Luke would have argued anyway – Dane clearly cared about Gray.
“How do you know him?” Luke asked Dane, though a part of him was nervous about learning the answer.
“I’ve been a fan of his books for a while but we met a couple of months ago at the bookstore in town.”
“So you two weren’t-”
“No,” Dane said quickly, sparing Luke a brief glance. “Just friends…though maybe not even that,” Dane said sadly.
“What do you mean?”
Dane shrugged. “Jax and I were having some problems then…well, I was having the problems and Jax was just trying to figure me out,” he said with a self-deprecating chuckle.
“Did Gray come between you or something?”
“No…God, no,” Dane said quickly. “Jax was the only one I wanted. Gray actually helped me figure that out. He told me to fight for what I wanted and never let go because life was too short for anything else.”
