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“She’s unconscious. Pulse is there but thready. We need something to stabilize her neck—” she broke off, seeing that the one EMT already had a neck brace with him and grabbed it.
“Ma’am, let us—”
“I’m a doctor,” she insisted. “Now help me get this on her.”
I moved back, letting the three of them work in sync to stabilize Gabby and get her onto the gurney and into the ambulance. But when Reese headed for the back of the emergency vehicle, too, I reached out and stopped her.
“Reese—”
“I have to go with her,” she declared, her bottom lip quivering. “I have to make sure she’s okay.”
I nodded slowly. “I’ll be right behind you.”
Behind her. Beside her.With her.I was with her—wanted to be with her. If she’d just give me a chance.
ChapterEleven
REESE
Water drippedfrom the ends of my clothes into a puddle at my feet. Around me, I heard the bustle of the hospital. Beepers and codes. Sounds that were familiar to me but felt foreign in this moment.
I rode in the ambulance with the paramedics—and it should’ve been the first indication at how short-staffed they were. I wasn’t family or personnel. I shouldn’t have been allowed, but they let me anyway.
When we got to the emergency room, a team of nurses rushed out to meet us along with a PA, and instinct took over. I ran down a list of stats. Pulse. BP. Oxygen. I told them my suspicions. Concussion. Possible bleeding in the skull. They told me they understood—that they’d wait for the ER doctor, and he’d take it from there.
Except there was no doctor in sight.
One look around the emergency room was all I needed to get a clear picture of the situation: this wasn’t the first accident that had come in tonight because of the crazy storm, and it was all hands on deck.
I watched. I waited. I swore I waited. But no one was coming.No one was available to help her.
“What can I do?”Decker had found me by then, both of us covered in rain, mud, and blood.
I looked up at him and heard myself answer,“Don’t let them stop me.”
I grabbed a disposable gown off a nearby cart and tugged it over my clothes. I pulled the sleeves up to my elbows and found the nearest sink, scrubbing furiously to get the mud and blood off my fingers. By the time I reached Gabby’s side, they were still only monitoring her vitals and waiting for the doctor to arrive.
“We need a CT scan right away.”I needed to know if there was blood or swelling keeping her unconscious.
“You don’t work here,”the head nurse protested.
“That doesn’t mean I can’t help her.”I held her worried stare for a long minute.“I promise Dr. Kay will be okay with it.”
I had no idea if he would be—if he was even here right now—but it was a Friday, and he had said he was the only one in the ER on Fridays.
Maybe it was enough. Or maybe she saw the writing on the wall—there were more patients coming in than they knew what to do with. If they waited for one of the hospital doctors, her chances of surviving significant trauma to the brain went down drastically.
The two other women looked at the nurse, and she nodded, instantly directing them to take Gabby for the scan. Then she brought me over to the nurse’s station—to one of the computers—and logged in.
“I’m Tanya. What’s your name?”
“Reese Barker.”
“Well, Dr. Barker. The CT scan will show up here once it’s done.”She pointed at the screen and then looked over my shoulder.
“Go.”I knew what she saw—more people who needed her when it was clear I didn’t.
And then I waited. Waited and waited for what seemed like forever for the scan to show. And that was when Decker appeared by my side.
