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He glances at Garrett and me. Dried tears stain his dirty face. “Daddy’s getting X-rays.”
“His mom’s on the way,” Noah informs me. “How’s the arm?”
“Just waiting to see the physician. But I wanted to check on Christopher and his father first. And how are you doing?” My question is directed to the boy.
“I’m getting an IV because of…” Face scrunched in a confused frown, he glances at Noah.
“You were dehydrated,” Noah says. “Your body was incredibly thirsty.”
Christopher goes back to looking at the phone and tapping at the screen, his expression one of concentration.
It’s the same expression I’ve seen on Nova’s face when she’s playing one of her games on her mom’s iPad.
“You playing a game?” I ask him.
He turns the screen to show me. “Minecraft.” He nods at Noah. “It’s his phone.”
Noah shrugs. “My five-year-old nephew likes playing the game. So I downloaded it on my phone for him.”
Garrett and I stay with them until Christopher’s father returns from radiology, appearing grateful. Grateful to be alive. Grateful his son’s okay. Grateful he’d told his wife where he was taking their son camping. Things could have gone so differently if he hadn’t done that.
The nurse walks into the room with an orderly. “We’re sending you up to get that shoulder of yours X-rayed now, Troy,” she tells me and gives Christopher a warm smile.
I give the wheelchair the orderly is pushing a disgruntled glance, which must have looked funnier than I realized. Christopher bursts out laughing.
I flash him a grin and climb into the wheelchair.
“I’ll call Lucas and Kellan while you’re up there,” Garrett tells me as the orderly pushes me toward the door.
“Can you text Jess that I’m here?” She still hasn’t responded to the one I sent earlier.
“Will do.”
Once I’m finished in radiology, another orderly wheels me to the ER and into a different exam room than the one Christopher and his father were in. “Any luck getting through to Jess?” I ask Garrett.
“Nope. I can try calling her if you want.”
“No, that’s fine. I’ll call her once I’m sprung from here.”
Samuel enters the room with an intern. “Hey, Troy. Garrett.” We fist-bump Zara’s older brother. Then he switches to ER-doc mode, his gaze directed on my fucked-up shoulder, eyebrows raised. “What happened to your shoulder?”
“A cliff and I had a minor disagreement, and the cliff came out the winner. My shoulder slammed into it while I was climbing.”
“I heard you were in the mountains on a rescue mission. Let’s have a look.” He checks the X-ray on the viewer attached to the wall. “Have you seen the latest pictures of Jerome and Kim’s daughter?”
“You mean the ones Kim sent two days ago?”
“Nope. She sent out a new batch today. I swear my niece is the most photographed baby around.”
I chuckle. “That’s because Sidney wins the prize for being the cutest baby. And her mother is a highly successful photographer.”
“True.” Samuel examines my shoulder. “You have an anterior dislocation, but no broken bones or fractures. I can easily pop it into the socket. You need to ice it for twenty to thirty minutes every three hours for the next few days and wear the sling. I’ll give you a prescription for an anti-inflammatory drug to help with the pain.”
“How long will it take to heal?”
“About twelve to sixteen weeks.”
“Great,” I grumble. I’d suspected as much. “Looks like I’ll finally have time to catch up on my paperwork, huh?”
