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Alex's eyes snapped open, and then he frowned into the darkness wondering what had woken him up. There was no light coming in through the window—no surprise since according to the clock it was only a little past one—it obviously hadn't been his alarm...
After a minute he dismissed it as an artifact of a dream he didn't remember and was rolling onto his side to go back to sleep when he heard something rustle in the outer room. Jamie was supposed to be at his friend's house tonight, but the only other person who had a key was the neighbor a couple doors down for use in case of emergencies. And while it was possible that someone had broken in, it was pretty damn unlikely. He sighed and got to his feet to investigate.
As he'd expected, when he flipped on the kitchen light he found Jamie, although he had no idea why Jamie was crouched on the tile. Jamie clearly hadn't expected to see him, though, and had pulled himself tight against the cabinet, and Alex held up his hands automatically. "Just me, kiddo. I didn't mean to startle you. Why are you on the floor?"
"Sorry, I didn't mean to wake you up. I was trying to get something else out, but I knocked them out instead, and the whole thing exploded when it hit the floor, and I guess that's what woke you up but—"
"Easy," Alex said, interrupting the torrent of words. "Breathe. What exploded, now?"
"The peas." Jamie indicated a torn bag on the counter. "They sort of went everywhere."
"Ah." That explained why Jamie was on on the floor, anyway. "Well, I think it'd be easier if you went and got the broom from the front closet instead of trying to collect them all by hand. But why are you home? Did something happen with your friend?"
Jamie shook his head and pushed himself to his feet, eyes dropping to the floor. "No. Nothing happened. It's nothing."
An accomplished liar Jamie was not. "Would you care to try—" He realized suddenly that Jamie was holding his right arm close in a way that any experienced doctor would recognize as hurting and cut himself off, holding out a hand. "Let me have a look."
"It's nothing."
"Jamie."
Jamie didn't lift his head, but he did hold his arm out cautiously, and Alex could feel the heat from the swollen wrist as soon as he touched it. "Well, that's not right. What happened?"
"I fell. Or I tripped, anyway, and when I tried to catch myself..." He shrugged.
Sprained, strained, or broken, and Jamie was a more than competent enough EMT to know it. "Do you remember how your wrist was bent when you landed?"
Jamie pulled his arm back, twisting his hand to show Alex and wincing as he did so.
With only Jamie's original description of 'tripped' to work from Alex would have preferred words rather than actions, but the fact that Jamie obviously could move his wrist was a good sign so he continued along those lines. "Can you make a fist?"
Jamie nodded and did so.
"And can you roll it? All the way around?"
"I already checked all of that."
"Humor me."
Jamie heaved a sigh, and this time when he followed Alex's instructions the wince was even clearer.
"That's enough of that." Alex held out a hand for Jamie's arm again. "How bad does it hurt? Say, on a scale of one to ten?"
"I don't know. Not much. Maybe two or something."
Answers like that weren't particularly useful when you didn't know the pain scale of the person in question—Alex suspected that Jamie's was higher than he'd like—but that was something to worry about later. "Okay. I'm going to do one more thing, and this might hurt a little too. If it does, I need you to say so."
Jamie didn't, which wasn't really a surprise, but he did suck in his breath sharply enough to be audible when Alex pressed into the swollen skin, and Alex released his arm. "Let's get you an ice pack." That was probably what Jamie had been looking for in the freezer in the first place, but with the light on it was easy enough for Alex to find one and hand it over. "Take that and go have a seat for a few minutes while I get dressed, all right?"
"Get dressed for what?"
"I suspect you've just got an ugly sprain, but it'll take an x-ray to rule out a fracture."
"I don't need an x-ray. It's not that bad."
"I'm not sure what medical school you attended, but I am sure that you've had enough EMT training to know how similar the two injuries present if you don't have the right diagnostic equipment. Since I don't keep that in my closet, we're going to make a quick trip to the emergency room."
Jamie scowled, hugging his arm to his chest. "I don't need to go to the emergency room."
"This isn't a discussion. Put the ice pack on your wrist, and I'll be back in a couple minutes." He wasn't sure who was working tonight, but as long as the emergency room wasn't swamped it should be a quick trip. Given Jamie's range of motion they'd probably be safe enough waiting until morning, but since they were both awake anyway...well, better safe than sorry.
Jamie still didn't look happy when Alex rejoined him, but he didn't argue further as he followed Alex into the garage.
Alex frowned as he saw Jamie's motorcycle in its usual spot. "Did you ride back here with your wrist hurting like that?"
"Yeah. There wasn't anyone who could give me a ride."
"You could have called. Or used the taxi money." Assuming it hadn't reappeared in Alex's room somewhere, but Jamie hadn't tried that in a while so he should still have it.
"I didn't need to. I mean, I made it here."
Alex sighed. "We'll talk about that later. Hop in."
Despite the hour there was no guarantee that the emergency room wouldn't be busy, but fortunately when Alex and Jamie entered there were only two other people there and both were already clearly settled in.
"Hey, Alex, I wasn't expecting to see you tonight," the nurse at the front desk greeted, and Alex relaxed a little as he recognized Cora Abrahms They tended to rotate new and visiting nurses through the night shift, and given that he worked less of those shifts than most of the other doctors it was always a toss up if he'd recognize them or they him. She'd been a fixture as long as he'd been at the hospital, though, and if it wouldn't lessen the paperwork, the visit would be easier with someone who knew him.
"Hey, this is Jamie, he's staying with me right now. Jamie, this is Nurse Abrahms."
"Hi," she said, smiling at Jamie. "It looks like something happened to that wrist?"
"Yeah, I was over at my friend's house and I fell. It's not that bad, though, really."
"I'm guessing you're looking for a quick x-ray to confirm that," Cora said, looking back at Alex.
"Yes, please."
"Well, that shouldn't be too much trouble. You can see how swamped we aren't, at the moment. Why don't you take this," she handed Alex a clipboard with the standard forms, "and go on through, and I'll let Dr. Beecham and whichever x-ray tech just came on know you're here."
"Hank's dad?" Jamie asked as she turned away.
"I don't know any other Dr. Beechams who work here. He must be the primary tonight. Come on, we'll get these forms filled out while we wait."
"There wouldn't be any forms if we weren't here."
"Jamie."
Fortunately Henry must have been finishing up with whichever patient he'd been with when they came in because he and a young man that Alex didn't recognize offhand joined them only a few minutes after Alex and Jamie got through the stack of forms. With minimum hassle they were able to get a good image of Jamie's wrist taken and examined, and it looked like Jamie had gotten lucky because there didn't seem to be anything broken. He'd still need to keep it in a wrap or brace for a couple weeks, but things could definitely have been a lot worse.
Alex ignored Jamie's muttered 'told you so' and Henry's grin in response and collected the paperwork as the x-ray tech excused himself. "Jaim, I'm going to take these back to Cora—Nurse Abrahms—and get you a new cold pack. Let Dr. Beecham get your wrist bandaged up and then you can join me."
"Why can't you?" Jamie asked, pulling his arm in again.
"Because I'm not on duty, and he needs to ask you a couple questions while I'm not here."
Jamie scowled.
Henry smiled again. "Thanks, Alex. I'll have Jamie back to you in just a couple minutes."
Cora accepted the packet of papers with a nod of thanks and made Alex copies of the ones he'd need to pass along to Sonja. Another advantage to having someone with experience working the front desk. As promised Jamie came out only a few minutes later, still scowling but with a pressure wrap on his wrist, and Alex held out the cold pack. "Here you go. Did you thank Dr. Beecham?"
"No." He kept his free arm cradling the now-wrapped wrist. "I told him you didn't hurt my wrist and I wanted to go home."
"Jamie."
"He's the one who was asking stupid questions."
"He's required to ask, and you're old enough to be polite about it."
"Can we just go home now?"
"Take this," Alex said, offering the cold pack again. "I'll be back in a minute."
Henry was just putting away his gloves when Alex found him, and Alex sighed. "Sorry about that. Thanks for taking a look at him."
Henry waved it off. "We all know how kids can be, especially when they're not feeling well. And probably exhausted given the hour and the fact that you know kids never actually sleep when they're sleeping over at their friend's houses. But are you going to be all right? Hank told me one of the boys from the squad was staying with you, and since I know it's not Tyler...well, it seems like he could be a handful."
"He can be, but he won't. Not about this, anyway. Thanks ag—"
"Ambulance incoming," Cora called back. "Concussion with possible further head trauma!"
Which meant he and Jamie needed to get out of the way, and Alex nodded again and headed for the front. Where Jamie was holding one of the doors open because he was a good kid regardless of the image he sometimes projected.
Ryan's squad, Alex noted automatically as Dave shut the back door of the ambulance after turning the man in the stretcher over to the hospital crew, and Alex assessed the patient as he was wheeled quickly past. Late twenties or early thirties, head trauma probably caused by some kind of fall judging by the shape of the wound, and from the smell of things alcohol had definitely been involved. They'd put a neck brace on, of course, but he was conscious if unfocused, so that was a good sign.
"Jamie?"
Alex hadn't paid any attention to the other man in street clothes following the stretcher until he spoke, and he didn't miss the quick look of panic that crossed Jamie's face at the address.
"What are you doing here?" the man asked, apparently not noticing Jamie's reaction. "I didn't even know you'd left the party."
Alex's jaw tightened. The man in question was younger than the man on the stretcher, but he was most definitely somewhere in his early twenties rather than a classmate of Jamie's.
"Did you get hurt too?" the man continued, still ignoring Jamie's obvious discomfort. "I mean, I might have had a couple, but there's no way I missed another ambulance, and I swear I saw Kenny and Cory and them watching the ambulance guys load Drake up."
"No, I left earlier when I started getting tired," Jamie said. "Except I slipped on the way out and landed wrong." He indicated his sling.
"Well, at least you managed to miss the edge of the bar on your way down. Talk about a mess." The man shook his head and then continued into the emergency room following the stretcher.
Jamie glanced over at Alex and then dropped his eyes almost immediately to the floor, and Alex sighed. "Let's go, Jamie. You can fill me in on what actually happened tonight when we get home."