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Lake nods in the direction I know they must have wheeled Delta. “She was asking for you.”
I don’t wait another second before sprinting off.
CT is in the basement, along with all the other imaging services, and I don’t bother waiting for an elevator. I vault down the stairs so quickly it’s a miracle I don’t end up in the bed next to Delta’s, but somehow make it to the CT rooms without incident.
I find Dr. Pritchett, the head of neurology talking to one of the radiologists, Dr. Ferguson. Pritchett’s eyebrows raise in surprise when I burst in, gazing over their heads through the tinted glass to where a slight female body is laying prone with her head inside the massive machine.
“Harrison.” Ferguson frowns at me. “Why did they page you? This isn’t an ortho case.”
“She’s my patient.” I look over his shoulder to the computer screen where I can see the scan is still in progress. It’s been a long time since my neurology rotation, and I have no idea what I’m looking at other than the fact it’s a brain. I turn desperately to my bewildered colleague. “How is she?”
Pritchett taps the screen. “Grade 3 concussion by the looks of it. We’re checking for anything else. Page me when the scans finish, Ferguson. I’ve got to be on this.” He looks back at me, clearly stressed. “Did you know she’s an Olympian? River Jacobs’ kid.”
I nod, my throat tight, my eyes on Delta’s motionless feet. “I did.”
Pritchett whistles. “Girl was probably born with a snowboard strapped to her feet.” He leaves the room. I stand there for a moment, feeling lost and useless, before I catch sight of a lead smock on the wall.
If Ferguson is wondering why I came running in here at top speed and am breaking hospital protocol to go into a room where an active CT is underway, he doesn’t say anything.
I don’t look back as I push open the door to the room and duck around the lead wall. Delta is only a few feet away, still motionless on the table.
“Delta?” I say quietly, not sure if she’s conscious and not wanting to startle her. Her foot twitches and my heart leaps. “It’s me. Dr. Harrison. Don’t talk, alright? It will mess up the scans.” I reach the side of the table and take her hand in mine, practically collapsing with relief when she gives it a little squeeze.
I force myself to draw another deep breath, I can’t afford to let the panic take control, it won’t do her any good to see me scared.
The room is completely silent apart from the dull humming of the CT machine. “This is actually perfect.” I joke dully. “You’ll have to listen to me.” Her hand grips mine a little tighter in acknowledgement.
I know I should just be here for her, but every single wall I’d carefully maintained between us came down in the last half hour. She could have died. She could still die.
I bow my head and speak quietly, my voice strained with fear. “I’m not sure if you’ve ever heard this before, but you’re worth so much more as a person than you are as a snowboarder. You’re excellent at what you do, sweetheart, the absolute best, but it’s justone thing.”
Inside the machine, Delta sniffs.
My throat tightens. I want to pull her out of this thing. I want to hold her in my arms and never let go.
I want toprotect her, damn it.
“You light up the whole room when you walk into it, Delta. You’re funny and clever and strong.Sostrong. Anyone who tells you otherwise is fucking delusional. Every time I see you, I wish like hell we’d met under different circumstances.”
I’m edging perilously close to a confession. To a declaration. Any other day I’d be pulling back, trying to minimize my slip, butnot now. Now I’m so fucking terrified that something might still go terribly wrong. I’m a doctor, Iknowthings go terribly wrong every single day.
What if she dies and she doesn’t know I’m in love with her?
What if she lives and she does?
I look up at the graying ceiling tiles and take another long, steadying breath. “It’s time to stop, sweetheart. You can’t keep going like this. I swear I’ll guard the damn chair lift if that’s what it takes, throw you over my shoulder every time I see you trying to get back on that mountain. Your father will respect your decision, and if he can’t then you don’t need him.” I lace our fingers together and lean forward to kiss the back of her hand, my lips suddenly warm as I pull away. “Do you hear me, Delta? You don’t need him. Not his approval or his pride or his respect. None of it.”
Suddenly, there’s a long beep and the machine quiets, so for a moment there’s only the pair of us breathing.
“I’m going to pull you out now, Delta.” Comes Ferguson’s voice through the intercom system and the bed starts to move.
As her face comes into view, I meet a pair of wide gray eyes, and see they’re full of tears.
****
Delta is in the hospital for four days. In one of the scariest moments of my life, Dr. Pritchett reported that she had a brain bleed and would need to be monitored to make sure it stopped on its own.
Bay, Lake, and I form an unlikely alliance in keeping River away from Delta, despite the former complaining to anyone with a pulse in hospital administration. There’s nothing to be done though, in the wake of the accident, something appears to have broken between them. The first thing Delta did when she gotback to her hospital room was fill out the paperwork to makemeher medical proxy and Bay her emergency contact.
