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“Perfect. I cleared the surgical schedule for two hours from now. We will be ready when you get here. And Beau?”
“Yes?”
“This makes us even.”
I laugh once. “Yeah. It does.”
We hang up, and I find Elsie and Beth in Peter’s room, silently crying at either side of him. Dr. Warren is with them, and he looks just as tired as the rest of us. Peter, hooked up to wires and tubes, reminds me of my father when he had his heart attack. Only my father wasn’t bruised and battered after a fall on top of it. His heart attack scared the hell out of our family, and seeing Peter like this now brings all of that back.
I clear my throat. “A medevac is on the way, and we are taking him to Manhattan, where my friend and renowned trauma surgeon, Dr. John Roberts, will do everything possible to save him.”
“Thank you,” Elsie says as she wipes a tear.
Beth frowns up at me. “Manhattan?”
“Yes.”
“Oh. Okay.” She looks spacy. “I’ll have to water the garden first—
“Mom,” Elsie says, grabbing her shoulders. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine, dear. Just…someone has to take care of the garden. Peter works so hard on it. I can’t let anything happen to the garden while he’s…” She breaks down again, and Elsie holds her mom while she crumbles.
Elsie barely keeps it together, and it kills me to see her go through this. She sniffles and forces a smile on her face to keep her mom calm. “Mom, when was the last time you ate?”
“I had breakfast—"
“Yesterday?”
“I think so.”
I pass her a protein bar and a bottle of water from my go bag. “That should help.”
Her mother nods absentmindedly and eats, while her eyes are locked on Peter. It’s not long before the medevac arrives. They struggle to find a place nearby to land, but everything after that happens fast. The transfer to the AirMed plane, the flight there, all of it is quick. Once we land, it goes even faster, and they whisk Peter away for surgery. I give John a nod of thanks, and he reminds me, “We’re even, right?”
“Save Peter and we will be.”
He smirks. “I’ll do my best.” Then he vanishes into the labyrinthine halls of NYU’s Langone Hospital.
We settle in for the wait of a lifetime, and Elsie clutches my hand the way she did on the plane. “Thank you for this.”
“There’s no guarantee—"
“I know that. But this is more than I could have asked for. So, thank you.”
“Of course. I… I’m here for you, Elsie.”
She gives a slight smile, before turning to her mother again, and it’s all I can do not to say what’s on my mind. I don’t. Now isn’t the right moment for it. But for the first time in a long time, I had to fight telling someone I love them.
-
28
ELSIE
Ifinally settled Mom down, and now she’s mostly just looking at her phone. It’s a relief. She and Dad have been together since they were children. I don’t know how she would function without him. That thought rolls around in my head. I need a distraction.
Beau is dozing with his head on the wall behind him. There are only a few people around the waiting room, which is nice. No one else is chatty, either. Everyone is here because a loved one is in surgery. It doesn’t breed conversation. Each time a lab coat walks by, heads pop up like prairie dogs. But when the lab coat passes the doors without stopping, there’s a feeling of disappointment and relief in the air. We all want news, but no one wants bad news.
