Chapter 7
The room was quiet at last as Elsa sat beside the bed, Tyler's hand in hers. A nurse slipped into the room, adjusted the IV drip and checked his pupils.
"How is he?" Elsa whispered in a voice made hoarse by calling for help on the sidewalk when she thought Tyler was dying.
The knees of her jeans were still soaking wet where she'd knelt on the ground beside him until the ambulance had come.
Her eyes still burned from the tears that had poured down her face when he finally opened his eyes on the ride to the hospital, only to gasp in pain at his broken ribs.
It had all happened so fast. She'd barely had time to register that a car was coming toward them, when he'd pushed her out of the way and been knocked down by the impact. If he hadn't reacted so quickly, they'd have both been crushed.
The driver of the sedan had leaped out full of apologies and had nearly fainted himself at the sight of Tyler's blood on the snow. It had taken seven stiches in the emergency room to close the gash made by a particularly savage chunk of ice on the sidewalk.
At last the nurse finished her check of Tyler's IV site and answered her question. "He's doing fine. They've given him something to help keep him comfortable with those broken ribs. The scan showed only a minor concussion from the head injury and no bleeding. The doctor just wants to keep him quiet for a day or so and do some observation to make sure he comes around okay. Has he woken up since the ER?"
Elsa shook her head.
"We'll give him a little while and then we'll try to rouse him, just to make sure he's still with us," the nurse added. "If he wakes up, let me know. In the meantime, do you need anything?"
Elsa shook her head, never looking up from her study of Tyler's face, so pale and still. The nurse quietly left the room.
Down in the ER, he'd woken up again very agitated as if he wanted to fight the staff who were trying to help him. Then the pain from his ribs hit him and he lay back on the gurney just trying to catch his breath against what had to be agony judging from the look on his face.
"Elsa!" his voice had been weak as he called to her and they'd allowed her to go to him. "Are you okay? Are you hurt?" he kept asking over and over.
"I'm fine, Ty. I'm not hurt. But you are. Be still so they can check you over." She'd tried to reassure him, but it never really sunk in. Every few minutes, he'd ask her again if she was sure she was okay.
Once the staff decided it was safe to give him something for pain, Tyler had gone to sleep with her to watch over him in the privacy of one of the ER's small rooms.
"He's actually lucky," a voice said from the doorway. Elsa turned to see a young man in a white labcoat thumbing through a thick medical record. She remembered him as one of the attending physicians. "A fall on ice like that can be deadly."
"Yes, but tragedy is in the Bahamas right now," Elsa heard herself reply, more than a little hysterical by that point.
The doctor gave her a long curious look, so she shook her head and laughed a little. "I'm sorry. I've just been so terrified," she admitted.
The young man patted her shoulder briefly as he approached Tyler's bedside. "I'm sure Mr. May is going to be just fine," he responded. "I'm David Hope."
"Elsa Sweet," she introduced herself in return. "So you're Dr. Hope? That has to be a source of all kinds of teasing around here."
The young doctor just laughed. "It's not so bad. My patients seem to like it."
Elsa had to admit she felt better herself. "I like it too," she agreed. "So what's next?"
"Right now I need him to wake up and talk to us," Dr. Hope replied. "Do you want to do the honors? Are you family? Friend?"
"Fiancée," she heard herself answer. "We're getting married."
"Congratulations," the doctor offered with a warm smile. "Now see if you can get him to wake up and talk to you."
"Tyler!" she called to him softly. "Wake up, honey. We need you to talk to us."
"You're probably going to have to speak up a little louder than that. He's had a good bit of pain medication."
But Elsa had no intention of yelling at Tyler. Instead she ran her fingers through his hair and kissed him softly on the forehead. "Come on, Ty. Wake up for me."
His eyelids fluttered a little and he whispered an unintelligible response.
"Mr. May, do you know where you are?" Dr. Hope spoke to him in a loud, clear voice.
Tyler winced a little. "In the hospital again, I think. Is Elsa okay? Was she hurt?"
"No, Tyler, I'm fine. You pushed me out of the way," Elsa assured him, beginning to be concerned that this bit of information still hadn't processed for him.
"Do you remember what happened?" the doctor asked.
"He hadn't updated his gps. It gave him bad directions. We were just in the wrong place. I'd call it Mayhem with a touch of Injury," Tyler replied, his eyes closed. "I've gotta see about repaying Injury the twenty I owe her."
Elsa gave the doctor a long questioning stare.
Dr. Hope asked him a few more questions, then once he was satisfied with the rest of his answers, he asked Elsa to step into the hallway.
"I wouldn't worry too much right now. The pain meds have got him a little uninhibited." Dr. Hope smiled at her and for the first time she took an actual look at him. He was taller than Tyler by a couple of inches and had blond hair that brushed the top of his jacket collar. He looked like he should have been a model in a ski catalog instead of a doctor.
"So when will Tyler be able to go home?" she asked, having already dismissed the doctor's good looks as none of her concern.
"Let's shoot for tomorrow afternoon. I'm working on getting him a room overnight. Someone from registration will be by to take care of the paperwork," he replied. "Be sure to let the nurse know if you have any concerns, okay?"
Elsa thanked him and frowned as she re-entered Tyler's room. What would she do when registration came around? She didn't even know his middle name or his birthday.
And she told that doctor she was his fiancée. What was she thinking?
Quietly she opened the door, glad to see that Tyler hadn't appeared to hear the conversation outside his door.
She'd just closed it behind her when someone knocked, none too softly. The door opened and a woman in a black dress suit with a head full of curly red hair entered the room.
"Damn it, May. What have you done to yourself this time?" the woman began, then stopped short when she saw Elsa standing there.
On the bed, Tyler's eyes flickered open in recognition and he attempted to sit up, only to be forced back by the pain in his ribs.
"Don't move," Elsa instructed, putting her hands on his shoulders. "You've got two broken ribs."
"Shit, that sucks," the woman stated then strode over to the bed to peer down at Tyler. "You look like hell."
Tyler laughed a little, but very carefully. "I can always count on you to shoot me straight, Des," he replied.
The woman turned to Elsa and stated, "I've got this if you need to go see about somebody else." Then she pulled up a chair and proceeded to have a seat.
"No, that's okay," Elsa responded as evenly as she could manage. "I'm Elsa Sweet. I'm a friend of Tyler's." She held out her hand across the bed to the other woman.
The woman's eyes opened a little wider and she extended her own for a firm handshake. "Desdemona Astor," she offered in return. "Everybody but May here calls me Mona."
"Sorry, ladies," Tyler interjected weakly. "I should have made the introductions."
Both of them assured him at the same time that they were perfectly happy to introduce themselves.
"I work with Tyler," Mona explained. "His emergency contact at the hospital is the office, so they called to let us know he'd been in an accident. Honestly, I think they've got me on speed dial."
Tyler shook his head a little, but any comment he'd planned to make slipped away from him as his eyes drifted shut once more.
"What happened?" Mona asked more quietly as she leaned back in her chair. "The nurse that called just said he'd been hit by a car. Is he okay?"
Elsa informed her briefly about Tyler's injuries as the other woman just shook her head and sighed. "He doesn't listen to his instincts like he should," Mona commented. "He gets hurt way too often."
"Just what does he do that's so dangerous?" Elsa asked. "What kind of job does he have anyway?"
Mona looked back at her, her brows wrinkled together in thought. "I think May ought to be the one who fills you in on the details," she finally stated. "How long have you known him?"
"Not very long. Only a few days," Elsa admitted.
Just then a soft knock at the door announced the registration clerk. "I'm looking for Mr. May's fiancée," she began, but Elsa did her best to interrupt.
"I'm Elsa Sweet," she interjected firmly over the word fiancée. "I came in with him."
The clerk fortunately did not begin asking any hard questions, but merely asked if Mr. May had any identification on him.
Elsa pulled Tyler's wallet out of her purse and fished out his license and insurance card. The young woman took them and headed back out of the room to make copies.
After she left, an awkward silence hung in the room as the two women just sat and watched Tyler sleep. At last, Mona stood and scribbled her phone number onto a piece of paper.
"Listen if you need anything or if he takes a turn for the worse or something, give me a call. Chad's out of town, but I can be back here within half an hour." Mona stood and passed her the slip of paper.
Then she stood there and looked down at Tyler. "He doesn't have too many people in his life to look after him. God knows, I didn't do a very good job of it. And he doesn't look after himself very well. So you need to know what you're getting into," Mona declared straightforwardly.
"So you and Tyler used to be more than co-workers?" Elsa ventured as she read between the lines.
"That's been over for a long time now." Mona didn't hesitate. "We are just friends these days. But I don't want to see him hurt or jerked around. Make him tell you what he does before you get too deep. Our line of work is . . ." Mona hesitated before finishing, "Unique. But necessary."
Before Elsa could press her further, she opened the door. "Call me if you need me," Mona repeated, then left, leaving Elsa to ponder what she meant by 'unique.'
AN: Well, presumably you've all given up on this one since I'm not hearing back from anybody. But hey, I'm still updating. Meanwhile, if you ARE actually reading, please let me know. I'm down to the wire on this and then I've got original stuff to work on, so I'm pretty committed to getting this one done! Your reviews would mean the world in encouragement!
