Chapter Thirty Nine

 “I don’t have insurance,” Jay said as I pulled out of my driveway.  “This is gonna wipe my savings clean...”

 “We’ll pay them twenty bucks a month for the next forty years if we have to.  Don’t worry about it.”

 “Laura...”

 “Yes?”

 “Laura...  Laura, Laura...  Do you know how pretty your name is?”

 “Jay, are you alright?”

 He sighed.  “Do you still love me?”

 “How could you ask me that?” I yelled without meaning to.  “Of course I do...” I added, softening my voice.

 “You seem mad...”  His voice was growing quiet, and his head leaned back against the headrest.

 I was worried about him falling asleep, knowing I had heard something or other against letting that happen…  In some type of situation…  Think!  The facts wouldn’t come so I tried to keep him talking anyway, just to be safe.  “Jay, why would you think I’m mad at you?”

 “I didn’t kill him when I had the chance.”

 I wiped my eyes hurriedly, and pressed on the gas.  “I told you already, I’m glad you didn’t kill him...”

 “He had to be messing with me.  Right?”

 “He had to be,” I agreed.

 “I’m thinking about it too much, it’s making my head hurt...  Heh.  Damn blood keeps tickling my elbow.”  He brought his knee up and rubbed his arm on his leg.  He sighed.  “Some of the last words my grandmother ever spoke to me were, ‘You have it all in your little hands’.  I’ve pondered what that meant exactly so many times.  Damn it, this is not what she was talking about!”

 “We’re almost there,” I said, trying to distract him.

 “Will you stay with me?  When we get there, I mean.”

 “Of course...”  He fell silent again.  “Jay?  Talk to me.”

 “No way he meant that.  What a thing to joke about.”

 “Let’s talk about something else...”

 “I love you.  I don’t say it enough Laura, but you’re an amazing woman.  You know that?  The best I’ve ever met.”

 “You’re an amazing man, Jay.  And I love you, too.”

 “Hey...  Where’s Madison?”

 “She stayed in her room,” I said, my voice becoming unsteady.  “Alright, we’re here.”  I pulled up to the emergency room entrance.

 “Hmm?  Oh, s**t.  I don’t want to be here.”

 “You need to be here.  You’re scaring the hell out of me.  Will you go in, Jay?  For me?”

 “I’ll do anything for you...”  There was a simple honesty in his voice that broke my heart.  I’m glad the drive’s over.  I wasn’t sure I could have kept the van on the road any longer.

 Someone in scrubs ran out to meet us.  “I’ll get a wheelchair,” he said after one look at Jay.

 “You’re coming in, right?” Jay asked quietly.

 “I’ll park quick, and I’ll be right in.”  Jay just sighed.

 The young man came back with a wheelchair and helped Jay into it.  “If you want to take him inside and start getting him registered, I can park your van for you.”

 “Oh, thank you!” I said, relieved.  I didn’t want to let Jay out of my sight.  I wheeled him in, and was greeted by an older nurse.

 “Oh my goodness, Jay?” she exclaimed when she saw that it was him.

 “Hey, Rose...”

 “What happened to you?  Never mind.”  She looked to me.  “I’ll take him.  You can follow me.”  I let her push Jay down the hallway, and she brought us right into a room.  She filled a bowl with sterile water and had him soak his hand in it, and packed some wet gauze on the cut above his eye.  “So what happened?” she asked as she grabbed a form.

 “Fell down the stairs,” Jay said.

 “Damn it, Jay, no you didn’t!”

 He sighed, and looked at the nurse with more focus than I’d seen in his eyes since we left the park.  “Sorry.  I hate lying but...”  He looked at his hand, soaking in the reddened water.  “Don’t you need to call the police if there’s a knife involved?”

 Rose got up and shut the door.  “What happened, Jay?” she asked softly.

 “I got...  I dunno.  What happened, Laura?”

 “Laura?  I should have known, it’s nice to meet you.”  She offered her hand, I shook it.

 “My...”  What to call Earl...  “Daughter’s father and some of his friends attacked him.”

 “With a knife?”

 Jay grinned morosely.  “Knife, bat, chain, dirty fists...”

 “Why?  No, don’t get into it, sorry.  Are you sure you don’t want the police involved?”

 “Positive,” Jay said.  You’d better explain that later.

 “You have your reasons, I guess...” Rose said hesitantly.  “Alright, so you got attacked and there was a bit of a scuffle, and there was some broken glass on the ground.  Right?”

 Jay’s next smile was a definite improvement.  “Thanks, Rose.”

 She finished taking his information and vital signs.  “I’ll send registration in.  A PA should come see you soon.”  She turned to me.  “We all love him to death here.  I’m glad he found someone like you.”  With that, she was gone.

 “What have you been telling them about me?”

 He smiled again.  “You know what a change you brought about in me.  Anybody could see how much better I’ve been doing since I moved in with you.”

 That was a strange thing to hear, looking at his current state.  “Are you feeling better?”

 “Yeah,” he sighed.

 “Jay, you were scaring the s**t out of me, talking in circles like that.  I was worried something was happening to your head.”

 “No, I’m fine.  I just kinda went...  Really far into my mind, I guess.  I couldn’t keep track of things on the outside, I was too distracted.  Being here, where I work, kinda snapped me out of it.  Heh.  Even laying here in this stretcher, I feel like I’m on the clock.”

 “I’m glad something worked,” I said, and kissed his cheek.  “This one’s from Maddie.”  I kissed him again, and he smiled as he cupped my cheek with his good hand.

 There was a knock, and a short fellow came in with a computer on a cart.  He handed me my keys then quickly took Jay’s information, frowning to himself when Jay said he had no insurance.  “What the hell do you care?” Jay snapped when he saw that.  “It’s not coming out of your pocket, is it?”

 He left just as soon as he could after that, with a hurried, “Thank you.”

 The physician’s assistant who came in had a calming presence, just like Jay did when he hadn’t just been in a fight.  He introduced himself, and asked Jay what hurt.  He checked his pupils, had him move his fingers, and started writing on a clipboard.  “Alright, the nurse will be back.  I’m writing you for Valium and morphine.  We’ll get an x-ray of that hand to make sure there’s no foreign bodies before we stitch you up, some rib and shoulder x-rays, and a head CT.”

 “No head CT, please.”

 “If you hit the ground hard enough to...”

 “I’m refusing the exam.”

 The man looked at him in surprise.  “I’m not going to give you any pain medicine or sedatives until I know for sure you don’t have a concussion.  If you get drowsy, we need to know it’s the medicine and not the head injury.”

 “Alright.”

 “Have it your way.  I’ll be back to stitch you up after the x-rays.”

 “I don’t...”  Jay didn’t get to finish before he left.  “Damn it.”

 “What?” I asked, rubbing his arm.  I was so glad to see him returning back to normal.

 “I’m not getting my ribs x-rayed.  What’s the point?  They’re not going to friggin’ put a cast on them if they’re broken.  I wanted to ask if they could do my hand and shoulder here in the room.”

 “You think something’s broken?”

 He shook his head.  “Foreign bodies are a fancy term for flecks of crap in your flesh.  I didn’t get a look at the knife, it might have been rusty.  And my shoulder...  I might have an AC separation or something.  Earl may be a predictable fighter, but those punches are dangerous.”

 Rose came back in after knocking.  “Refusing the head scan?” she asked as she set his chart on the counter.

 “I just want to get stitched up and go.  Laura barely talked me into coming.”

 “If threatening to drag him counts as talking him into it,” I said.

 Rose laughed.  “Good thing you did.  Your head’s laid open to the bone, Jay.  Here, I brought some acetaminophen.  You’ll take that at least, right?”

 “Yep.”

 He took the pills with a gulp of water.  “Alright, Beth should be here to get you soon.”

 “Hey, I didn’t get a chance to refuse the rib series.  Can you ask her if she’ll just do my hand and shoulder portably?”

 “Sure.  Hang on.”  She called Beth with a phone on the wall.  “Hey, you should be getting a couple orders on Jay soon.  Yes, our Jay.  Don’t worry, he’s alright, but ignore the order for the ribs.  He’s refusing them.  Can you bring your machine down?  Thanks.”  She turned back to Jay.  “Alright, let’s get you cleaned up a bit.”  She took the gauze from his head.  “Wow, you’re lucky he didn’t stab your eye.”

 “That was the chain,” Jay said.

 “A chain did this to you?  Seriously?”

 “Yeah...  It hurt.”

 “Why don’t you want to press charges, if you don’t mind me asking?”

 Yes, Jay.  Why?  “I was fighting too, plus I kinda smashed a guy’s car up.”

 “Is that what started the fight?”

 “No, it was after the fight.”

 “So what did they do, beat you up and run off without their car?”

 “Uh, one guy ran off...”

 Beth knocked and came in.  “Jay, oh my god!” she said, obviously shocked at the sight of the blood everywhere.  “You’re sure he’s okay, Rose?”

 “Okay enough to refuse almost all treatment,” Rose said in a slightly scolding tone.  “No, he’s just banged up it looks like, and the blood is from only a couple of cuts.”

 “What happened to you?”

 “Laura wanted to play it rough, things got out of hand...”

 “Shut up,” I said, rolling my eyes.

 “Jay, quit laughing.  I don’t need a moving target,” Rose said, trying not to chuckle herself as she concentrated.

 “Seriously!” Beth said, unamused.  She pulled over a rolling stool and sat.

 “Remember that ex of hers I was talking about?”

 “He did this?”

 “He had help,” I said.  “Three other guys and him, against Jay.”

 “Okay, so one ran off.  What did the others do when you were smashing up the car?” Rose asked.  I noticed Beth seemed to frown at the mention of one fleeing.

 “Kinda laying there and glaring at me.”

 Rose paused.  “Wait, so you got attacked by four men and won?”

 “He is a black belt,” Beth said.  “Oh, sorry,” she added to tease Jay.

 “Four guys...” Rose repeated.

 “They were just a bunch of drunks, you two,” Jay said, sick of hearing about it.

 “I think I’m done for now,” Rose said.  “Want to step out with me for a minute, Laura?  She’s going to x-ray him now.”

 Six times Beth left the room, yelled, “X-ray!” and hit a button on a wired remote, then went in to exchange films.  “I’ll go run these,” she said as she backed her machine out of the room.  “Come see me when you’re discharged, alright?”

 “I’ll swing through.  Thanks, Beth.”

 Beth waited for Rose to go fetch the PA and said, “Seriously, come over to radiology.  It’s important.”

 “Alright,” Jay said with a note of confusion.

Reviews

[Sarah]

This chapter had so much information, it's heavily obvious that you worked in a hospital. Really shows the reader that you are knowledgeable on the subject and it helped me visualize the scene. Although I think Jay is crazy for refusing all of those Xrays and tests.

The part where Jay was sort of in a daze was interesting. What was causing that? Anything specific or was his mind just rambling?

The part with the girls all talking about Jay beating up the men seemed like typical banter from young women, and I can see they all really value Jay and think highly of him even through the jokes.

The ending left me a little confused and I'm eager to find out what exactly Beth wants.