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“The doctor’s with her. That’s all I know,” she said.
I went back to pacing like a caged animal, unable to sit down. I wanted to rip the TV off the wall, the screen that kept replaying a chirpy woman gushing about what a great, award-winning hospital it was. I would have thrown the TV out the window but I knew I’d be thrown out of the hospital and cut off from Julie and any info about her condition. I had been on missions in the military where I had to wait in knee deep water for hours, totally silent while mosquitos bit me. I’d hidden in the desert, so thirsty my lips cracked and the sweat on my neck seemed to turn to ice as night fell, but I never moved an inch, never made a sound that could have jeopardized the target. I was highly trained and experienced. I knew how to wait in a tense, life or death situation. Why couldn’t I sit down and be still in a hospital waiting room? I felt restless, angry, frantic. Kendall slid a look at me from time to time.
“What?” I barked finally.
She shook her head at me. Maybe she’d figured it out, about us and Julie, or maybe not. I didn’t care at that point. So long as Julie was safe, we’d take care of her, we’d protect her.
Jeremy rocketed into the lobby and went straight to me. “Any news?”
“No,” I said.
Kendall chimed in. “Why are the two of you running around like chickens with your head’s cut off worrying about my friend?”
“She stayed with us for weeks. We all got to know her. She’s a great person, deserves better than what she’s been through. I’d think you’d be saying you told me so, that it was about time I acknowledge your superior wisdom and judgement in choosing your friends. And you’re allowed to go back there with her in the absence of a blood relative,” he put in. “Why aren’t you with her?” His voice had turned accusing. I elbowed him. No need to go overboard and be more suspicious.
“They told me to wait out here and they’ll come to get me as soon as I can see her,” she explained.
Just then, a doctor walked into the room and looked around.
“For Julie Romero?” the doctor called out.
We all nodded and stepped closer.
“She’s suffered smoke inhalation, and I’m keeping her overnight for observation. Her ox-sat levels weren’t the best when she came in and we need to monitor that. It’s not uncommon after smoke exposure, but in her condition, we want to be cautious,” he informed us.
We all nodded, equally terrified and anxious to get to her.
“She’s going to be okay?” I asked.
“I have confidence she’ll make a full recovery, yes. She’ll continue to have a productive cough for a few days. If the coughing stops completely before day three, I want her back in the ER in case she has a pleural effusion. It’s uncommon as long as she rests, drinks plenty of water, and gets up and walks around, but we don’t want to take any risks. Will she be staying alone?”
“She’s staying with me,” Kendall declared at the same time Jeremy and I insisted she was staying with us. The doctor gave a chuckle and said it looked like she’d be well taken care of. We were told we could go back to see her and we barely kept from elbowing each other out of the way.
We let Kendall go in first, grudgingly, because she was the official emergency contact. She went to Julie who lay small and pale on a gurney, as white as the sheets beneath her. Her hands lay on the sheet, her nails torn and ragged, bruises on her fingers and knuckles. She’d tried to break out, based on the injuries to her hands. It wrenched me to know she’d been alone and afraid, that I had installed a few bells and whistles and left her there to fend for herself when a madman was after her and, according to what the EMT told me, she’d been trapped in a building that definitely wasn’t up to fire code.
Horror and shame shot through me. The highly paid security expert. Me with my camera and deadbolts, I’d left her in an unsafe structure. I hadn’t checked the fire exits, just put locks on the windows and gone grocery shopping, cheerfully, like the guy that fiddled while Rome burned. I needed to tell her I was sorry for being negligent, for risking her life that way. I felt responsible. I wanted to hold her in my arms until I was sure she was whole and safe.
As I watched her cough and whisper to Kendall, I ached to run to her side and take her in my arms. It wasn’t something I could do because we hadn’t gone public with our relationship, hadn’t even told Kendall who had the most right to know about us, about the arrangement we had with Julie.
