Chapter Thirteen
Lawton, Oklahoma
"Did Nate update you on his condition?" Sophie wondered as they made their way through the hospitals hallways.
"He barely said anything Soph," Hardison was keeping a close eye on Parker who had turned in on herself since the news. "I think he was in shock. All I got for sure was that Eliot got hurt and was in the hospital and we needed to get down here quick. Then he started rambling about a drunken idiot and not wanting Eliot to be alone."
"That's the part that doesn't fit." Sophie shared the thoughts that had her puzzled and more than a little worried. "How does some drunk get the upper hand on Eliot?"
"Eliot wouldn't come to the hospital for a simple bar brawl." Parker nearly whispered, Eliot being in the hospital meant it was probably not willingly and that scared her. "He must be really bad."
"Parker I'm sure he's fine." Sophie was trying to comfort her but she wasn't buying it herself.
"Knowing El he's probably found himself some hot nurse to give him a sponge bath." It was supposed to make her smile but Hardison watched as she tensed even more.
"Nate never loses control of himself." Parker shook her head vehemently. "If he lost control then it's . . . Oh God, he's not dieing is he?" Her eyes had gone wide and watery with fear.
Not knowing how to answer Hardison did the next best thing and pulled her into a hug. He himself had never been fond of hospitals and the more he tried to reassure her the more she frightened him.
"Look," Sophie pointed out the waiting room where one very nervous looking Nate sat, head in his hands leg bouncing uncontrollably. "Lets go find out what happened for ourselves."
"Nate" Hardison watched him nearly jump out of his chair from the surprise of Sophie patting his shoulder.
"You're here." He sounded almost as if he was talking to himself. "That's . . . good, I'm just going to . . . the doctor will be . . . I, I gotta . ." Nate didn't even bother finishing those thoughts as he quickly left.
"I'll go after him. You watch Parker and wait here, I think Nate meant a doctor was coming." Her heels clicking on the tile was what she concentrated on, everything else pushed to the side. It was clear that everyone elses emotions had gotten the better of them so she'd have to take the lead on things and not let herself fall apart, at least not until she knew what was going on.
She found him breathing heavily against the wall as he waited for the elevator. "What happened Nate?"
Looking up he blew out a long breath as he tried to figure what had indeed happened. "I called him," He could hear his own shouts still ringing in his ears. "and he turned around and I . . . I shouldn't have done that." Sophie didn't understand but she kept quiet as he continued. "It's my fault, he wouldn't be here right now if I would've just let him go." Nate had held Eliot close on that dirty street, seen his loves eyes roll back and felt as he went limp, a moment he knew would soon be haunting his dreams.
"You need to calm down and start from the beginning." Sophie advised as she pulled him to a chair. "How did Eliot get hurt?"
"I wasn't paying attention on the drive to the hotel so I'm not sure what he said," He shrugged, beyond angry with himself. "something pissed him off and he got out of the truck. I went after him to figure out what I missed and. . . and everything else went by really quickly.
I remember him starting to cross the street and I was calling for him, I tried warning him but then he turned and he saw it too, there was a car and it didn't plan on stopping.
It was too late though, he tried getting out of the way but he didn't make it and all I could do was watch as his head bounced off of the black top like some sort of ball." He shuttered at the memory. "There was so much blood Soph, his hair was coated, his leg, it was. . it was everywhere."
"What about the person that did this?" Revenge was a good thing to focus on when your imagination was offering you pictures of one of your best friends' brain matter painting a random cities road.
"He crashed not even a block up from where he hit Eliot. It was some twenty somethin' kid that thought it a great idea to get plastered before testing out his new car." The rest of the night had melded together in his mind and he wasn't clear on how he'd ended up in the hospital, let alone how he knew the drunken driver was already locked up and in the process of being charged.
"Do you know how he is?" She was glad Parker wasn't hearing this, the shake to Nates voice was enough to leave even her uneasy.
"They took him away a few hours ago." Nate got up from his seat attacking the elevator button with a renewed frenzie.
"You can't leave him alone Nate!" She had to forcefully pull him away from the newly opened lift.
"That's why I called you!" He pulled away looking for the stairwell, he didn't think he'd be able to wait for the next stop.
"That's not the same Nate! Without you he's still alone, you're the one that knows him best!" She wasn't going to allow him to leave. He was the one that the doctors would talk to, who had made up the backstory, he was the one that Eliot would be looking for if, no when he pulled through.
"You don't understand . ." Nate shook his head rubbing his palms repeatedly to rid themselves of invisible stains on the scrubs he had been given. "I've got to get out of here!"
"I understand your adversion to hospitals but you need to have that breakdown some other day. Right now you need to be here, Eliot needs you here."
"It's not the damn hospital Sophie!" He yelled near hysterics, she couldn't possibly know what he was going through.
"Then what? Explain things so I can understand." She kept her distance as not to crowd him but she stayed close.
"I changed but it wasn't enough, I can still feel the wet warmth." He spoke softly as he pressed his back against a wall just in time to slide down it. "I need to wash it away, his blood's on my hands, my arms, it feels like it's seeping into my chest Soph."
"I promise there's no blood, it's only fear and the only way you'll get rid of that feeling is if you face it." Sophie had kneeled next to him, claiming his hand to stop him from rubbing it raw in the process of trying to remove a tarnishment only he could see.
"If I don't remove it soon it's gonna become permanent. If something happens to him before I get it off it's not ever going to go away." The guilt was already consuming him, this time he wouldn't try to drown himself, this time Eliots blood would drown him and he knew it was just a matter of time because he could already feel it pouring into his soul.
"Lets go find you a place to clean up." She would humor him for now, help him to calm down and pull himself together but she would not allow him to run away. They were a family and that stood for both the good and bad, the easy and hard, she'd make sure of that.
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"He was wearing scrubs." Parker refused to sit, to nervous to be still.
"I noticed." He wasn't sure if she was speaking to him or aloud so he decided to answer neutrally.
"There's only a few reasons hospitals give them out." She continued wishing there was a window in the "room".
"Parker it's Eliot we're talking about, the man's probably calculating the distinctive traits of his doctors by now." He refused to believe that anything less than a tank escorted by an oversized army would take down Eliot, not the Eliot he knew.
"Can't you figure out his status. . .or condition . . .just something." She handed him the phone he had set down earlier, she'd go steal him a computer out of the nurses station if need be as long as she got some answers.
"When did Nate call?" He hadn't bothered looking in the hospitals database knowing from experience that the records weren't detailed until after the fact not during the process but if it would ease Parkers mind and pass some time while they waited he'd go along.
"Around 10:30" She sat beside him glad to be doing something as she peered at the screen.
"The time difference would make that 9:30 . . . .take in the time it took for Nate to call us plus the fact he's still shaken up and we've got our search perimeters." Hardison slid his finger over his touch screen looking for someone who'd fit, Nate could have at least told them what alias he had used. "Male from 30 to 40 who was admitted after eight in serious condition."
"Arrived in an ambulance." No way Eliot would even be there right now if he could so much as usher the words no hospital.
"Broken arm. . . Heart attack. . . Tumor removal." Hardison quickly skimmed through files trying to find one that would match his friend. "Tractor accident? . . . .I don't think I wanna know."
"That one." Parker stopped him from moving the page any farther as she double tapped the link that had caught her interest.
"Hit and run victim?" Hardison was confused as to why this one had captivated her.
"Look at the name." She had a bad feeling this was who they were looking for, it was to much of a coincidence to not be him.
"Spencer Elliott," Hardison began reading. "arrived on scene unconcious, victim of a speeding motor vehicle, currently in surgery." He quickly summed ignoring all the technical babble. He hadn't realized how bad their track record was when it came to finding trouble but honestly getting youself run over on vacation was a new one even for Eliot.
"Surgery" She let the word roll around on her tongue for awhile, not really liking the taste. "How long has that been going on?"
"The better half of five hours," Glancing at the clock he sighed. "but closer to six."
"Six hours in surgery. . . that's too long. We should be looking for him!"
"We don't know if it's been a six hour surgery, it could have been more than one, or they could've just started." He had been releaved to see that the record had indeed been very vague without much detail, he wouldn't be able to keep the optimism if he knew exactly what was going on with Eliot. If he did than some of those gruesome images he was currently categorizing as vicious lies would possibly end up as truth.
"Or something went wrong and they're not telling us. How do we know we can trust those doctors? They could be hiding his body right now!" So she was getting paranoid but Eliot would agree with her. In situations like these you had to be on alert and very cautious of others, and he wasn't exactly in a position to do that so she'd do it for him.
"PARKER STOP WITH THE DEATH TALK!" He breathed deeply already regretting having yelled. "He's going to be okay."
"That's what they all say until they come back a few hours later with some meaningless apology! I can't just sit here and wait for the worst . . . . I can't lose another brother." She barely breathed out as she curled herself into a chair ignoring the fact that a few tears had fallen.
"You'll always have me." It was lame even to his own ears but she needed comfort and he needed something to busy himself with.
"Spencer, Spencer Elliott?" A man looking extremely warn and disheveled called, reading from a charts information.
"How is he?" Hardison ignored the chair that had been knocked over as he followed Parker towards the doctor she had began bombarding with questions.
"You're his family?" The surgeon asked skeptically as he eyed them suspiciously, especially Hardison.
"We're together," Hardison pointed between themselves cursing Nate for not telling them what backstory he used, and not wanting to catch themselves up in a lie. "and this is his cousin but he's like a brother to us. I've known the man since elementary school, he's my best friend."
"I'll have to verify that with his brother." A brother was who was charted to have come in with him and that would be who he'd talk to.
"Wait, I'll call . . " but he had snuck away that fast. "Parker where are you going?" Hardison watched as she kicked the fallen chair before storming off.
"To drag Nate back here and get some answers from that quack!" She snorted angrily at the thought of him proclaiming himself to be a doctor.
"Hold up!" He quickly made to catch up with her, already planning payback for the man that had dismissed them so easily and prolonged their suffering.
E/N: Don't ask because IDK, I am just as surprised by what's up there as you are. This was not my intention with the story originally and I took a wrong turn last chapter that has officially got us lost without a map, I don't know what I was thinking but this just goes to show you boredom isn't always a good thing.
On the plus side though :) my boo boo has paved the way for a lot more story line and what was coming to an end is now not even close.
I can officially promise you a journey with at least a dozen more chapters and on the way we'll see if we don't knock some sense into me and get us back on the main road! Thanks for reading, I'd love to hear that you're not mad at me for the randomness that just appeared and Eliot I apologize for bein' the trillionth person to put you in the hospital!
Though how ironic is it that he's dating a drunk and gets hit by a drunk? *-*