AllFreeNovel
Share Us
‘I’m going to the hospital,’ she called to one of the committee members, not breaking stride, not even knowing who it was, not caring about the edge of panic in her voice. She should feel guilty, leaving everyone else to clean up, but nothing was more important than getting Tom to hospital. Getting him to a doctor. To Luca. To his father.
Callum. Oh, God, she had to let Callum know. She pulled her mobile out of her pocket and dialled his number, still steaming ahead. It went to his message bank. ‘Damn it!’ she cursed, waiting for the tone. ‘Callum? It’s Hailey. Something’s wrong with Tom. Meet me at Emergency.’ She hit the ‘end’ button and was pleased to see her car was not far away now.
Tom murmured sleepily as she gently placed him in the seat and buckled him up. Her hand shook as she turned the ignition key, her pulse pounding in her head, the thought of Eric’s lifeless little body taunting her, scaring her, sickening her.
She forced herself to drive with care to the General, even though every instinct told her to put her foot down to get around the sudden influx of weekend drivers afflicting the road. To run the orange lights that littered her path. To take right of way from people who didn’t realise the emergency that was unfolding in her car. The trip took ten minutes and each one felt like an age.
She screeched to a halt in the emergency parking bay outside the General’s emergency department, running around the other side and taking Tom out, waking him in the process.
‘Where are we?’ Tom murmured looking around, clutching his torch.
‘At the hospital, baby,’ she whispered, her voice feeling almost strangled by the lump in her throat. She prayed hard to all the deities she’d ever learned about at school. Please, don’t let anything happen to this dear little boy.
She left both car doors open as she strode inside, forgetting about the paint that covered her face, trying to curb her panic, trying to think clearly so she could articulate what she needed.
‘Hails?’
Hailey almost fainted from sheer relief when Rilla called her name.
‘Oh, thank God,’ she half sobbed, passing Tom over to her sister. ‘Is Luca here? It’s Tom. He has a fever and he’s been vomiting and there’s some bruising on his legs. You have to get Luca.’
Rilla looked at an increasingly bright-eyed and bushy-tailed Tom giving her a very cheeky grin. He looked like he’d been sleeping but apart from that he didn’t look too sick to her. Hailey, on the other hand looked almost beside herself. She may have been covered in thick face paint but it didn’t disguise the agitated fidgeting of her hands or the worried shifting from foot to foot.
‘Rilla! Please. Don’t just stand there. He needs his temp taken. He needs a full blood count. He needs a doctor, damn it!’
Rilla looked at her sister. She knew where this was coming from and she knew it would require delicate treatment. ‘Come on, I’ll go and get Luca,’ she said calmly. ‘What about Callum?’
‘I left him a message.’
Rilla nodded, making a mental note to page Callum after speaking with Luca. Heaven only knew what kind of a panicked message Hailey had left. She ushered her sister into a cubicle and pulled the curtain. ‘Sit up here, Tom,’ she said, plonking him on the narrow examination bed. ‘I’m going to take your temperature, OK?’
‘With an ear one or under my arm?’ Tom asked.
‘An ear one,’ Rilla confirmed with a grin. She placed the tympanic thermometer into Tom’s ear canal, laughing at his funny face, and waited for the beep.
‘What is it?’ Hailey demanded, pacing the small cubicle area.
‘Thirty seven point five,’ Rilla said.
Hailey sat down, feeling physically ill. ‘He does have a fever.’
Rilla gave her sisters shoulder a squeeze. ‘It’s hardly raging, Hails.’
Hailey looked at her sharply. What was the matter with her? Didn’t she realise how quickly children could die? Because she did. Rilla was an experienced emergency nurse, she must know this stuff. ‘Get Luca,’ Hailey ordered.
‘Hails.’
‘I want blood tests.’ Hailey tried really hard not to shout or sound too frantic so she didn’t scare Tom, but she was caught on a déjà vu treadmill and already things in her mind had escalated to tragic proportions.
Rilla left the cubicle and came back with Luca. Hailey was pacing again while Tom was shining his torch at the ceiling and making shadow puppets.
‘Hi, Tom,’ Luca greeted the boy, glancing at Hailey and then at his wife.
‘Hello,’ Tom said, not looking away from his torchlight fun.
