Chapter Forty Five

 Jay was in surgery by the time we got there.  From there he was going to be sent to an inpatient room, so they had us wait in a lobby.  I called Sara on his phone, and as soon as I mentioned Jay had been shot she said she was on her way.

 Now what? I asked myself.  All there was to do was wait, but I was so restless...  Then I thought of his friend Tristan.  I found his name in Jay’s contact list.  I was nervous, calling someone I didn’t know.  Jay would want you to.

 “Hey man, what’s up?” I heard after a few rings.

 “Um...  Hi, is this Tristan?”

 “Yeah, who’s this?”

 Breathe...  “This is Laura...”

 There was a brief pause.  “Hey...  Is everything okay?”

 I started to cry.  “Jay’s been shot.”

 “What?  Whoa!”

 “He’s okay,” I said quickly.  “I mean, he will be.  He should be.  I don’t know, I’m waiting to find out.  But it was just his arm and leg, so...”

 “Where is he?  I’m coming to see him.”  I gave him the name of the hospital, he said he’d look up the directions.  “Laura, thanks for calling,” he said before hanging up, and I felt deeply that I’d done the right thing.

 I looked at the phone’s screen after ending the call, and saw his parents were in the list as well.  I thought about calling them.  I thought about what Jay had said.  I debated with myself, and slid the phone into my pocket.  Calling them didn’t feel like the right thing.  His friend was coming.

 Madison impressed me with her patience as we waited.  It was two hours after Sara found us when someone showed up to take us to his room.

 We entered to find Beth there, holding his hand.  “Hey guys,” she said quietly.

 Jay’s head turned, and his eyes lit up when he saw us.  “Hey,” he said weakly.

 “Jay!” Madison yelled.  I pulled her back just in time to stop her from jumping on him.

 “Here sweetie, you can sit on this part,” I said, setting her on the edge near the foot of his bed.  “Jay, you’re alright?”

 Beth smiled.  “He’ll live.”

 I stood on his injured side and kissed him, and got half a hug.  “He started talking like he wouldn’t.”

 She laughed and said, “Oh, he just panicked,” gently mocking him.  “Most people who get gunshot wounds live, as long as they make it to the hospital in time.”

 “You didn’t even have to drag me this time,” he said.

 “He did have a close call though,” Beth said in a more somber tone.  She put her foot up on the edge of his bed, and pointed to the outside of her lower leg, where Jay had been hit.  “There’s a bone out here called the fibula.  The bullet smashed through it and struck the main one, the tibia.  There’s an artery here that was almost punctured by part of the fibula.”  She rubbed his shoulder affectionately.  “Something’s looking out for this one.”

 “A kiss...” Jay whispered to me, not needing to say the rest.  “I had another close call,” he said, running his hand over the terrible bruising on his throat.  “Laura, you saved my life.”

 “How’s that?” Beth asked me, and I couldn’t answer.

 “Earl was choking me, and I couldn’t stop him.  Not laying on my back, with only one usable arm.  But Laura stopped him.  Dropped him like a stone, didn’t you?”

 I was starting to blush, and could better understand his eagerness to change the subject when Rose and Beth were going on about his fight with the four men.  “How’s the arm?” I asked him.

 “Muscle damage, nothing serious.  That leg though...  I’m out of commission for awhile.”

 “Oh!” Beth said suddenly.  “Jay, I forgot to tell you!  I think Alyce is fired.”

 “What did she do, spit on a patient?”

 “No, she put her nose where it doesn’t belong.  She pounced on me when I came in that night I took for you, and asked what happened.  That much was reasonable, she’d have seen your name in our list.  But when I said you fell down the stairs, she said that was bullshit.  She told me she looked at your ER report and it said you were in a fight.”

 “What...” Jay growled.

 “Yeah.  So I reported her for it and sure enough, her account had been used to pull up your report.  She went into Tim’s office, and I didn’t see her after that, or today.”

 Jay looked at me.  “Well, I’ll be rich if that’s all true.  That’s way illegal.  Thanks for telling me.”

 “Pursue it, Jay.  You’ve taken enough s**t from this place.  Speaking of, what happened with Earl?”

 “The police took him away and assured me he’d never hurt anyone again.  That’s all I know for now,” I said.

 “I hope not...  What does a guy have to do to get put away for real?”

 “I don’t think he’ll lawyer his way out of this one,” I said.  “He also took a swing at an officer.”

 “How can anybody be that stupid...” Beth mused.

 “I think he’d been up the whole two days doing coke, by the look of him,” Jay said.  He saw that register on my face as I looked at Madison.  He lifted his head to look at her, and changed the subject.  “Madison...  One, two, three, four beautiful girls, all in my room to see me.  Do you know how lucky I feel?”

 “How lucky?”

 His head rested back on the pillow.  “Luckiest guy ever...  Thanks for being here, all of you.  I mean it.”

 “Mommy...”  Madison pulled me down to whisper in my ear.  “Can I give him a kiss now?”

 “Let me lift you, sweetie,” I said.

 “What?” Jay asked, and smiled when he saw my daughter swooping in.  They traded kisses.  “Hey, thanks.”

 “You’re welcome,” Madison said as I set her back on his bed.  She was beaming.

 “You know what the worst part of this is?  You didn’t even get to watch Rapunzel.”

 “That’s okay, Jay.  I own it!” she said.  I smiled at him.

 “That’s right...  How about we watch it together when I get out of here?”

 I heard a beeping, Beth pulled a pager from her waistband and shut it off.  “Gotta run, see you all.  I’ll stop back up, at the end of my shift at least.  Sara, it was nice to see you again by the way.”

 “You too,” Sara smiled in return.  Beth left the four of us alone.

 “How long are you here for?” I asked.

 “They’ll discharge me in a few days, as long as I don’t start bleeding again or get an infection.  Oh, and I hate to say it, Laura, but don’t get any funny ideas.”  He lifted his good arm to display something clamped on his finger.  “This thing is monitoring my heart rate, and if it goes up the nurses are gonna come a runnin’.”

 “Shut up,” I said and lightly slapped his arm.  He didn’t cry out, but winced.  “Oh, your arm!  I’m so sorry!”

 He laughed.  “I don’t give a s**t, I’m full of morphine.”

 “Jay...” I said, nodding toward Madison.

 “It’s okay, Mommy.  I don’t give a s**t either.”

 We couldn’t help laughing.  “Laura, you want me to take her for a bit so you can have some time alone?” Sara offered.

 “Actually, yes...”  There was one thing he’d promised to talk about, but hadn’t yet...  “Maddie, will you go with Aunt Sara?”

 “Are we coming back?” she asked her aunt worriedly.

 “For sure, don’t worry.  Come on, we’ll get some fresh air.”

 “Alright...  Bye, Mommy.  Bye, Jay.”

Reviews

[Sarah]

I can see this story winding down. Curious as to who Tristan really is. I'm assuming he'll be here soon and we'll finally get to meet his character and understand what he means to Jay. There's got to be more than just a friendship there.

I'm glad Jay's alright. I felt like the whole scene was really down-played which isn't necessarily a bad thing. Probably what Jay would've wanted anyways. Doesn't seem to like a big fuss about anything.

I'm curious if the situation with his parents will be brought up again.