Catherine stormed over to the desk, her anger rapidly replacing fear as she thought of how this hospital was to blame for the entire situation in the first place. "I'm looking for Sam Gerard. Where is he?" She demanded of the nurse, Nurse Hancock by the name tag, as she flashed her badge.
"Marshal Walsh, we've been expecting you." the nurse said as she hurried around from behind the desk and motioned for Catherine to follow her back towards the treatment area. Catherine let out a slight sigh of relief when she saw where the nurse was leading her. Treatment area meant he was alive, had to mean he was alive.
"Hey!" Nurse Hancock called as she saw Nurse Owens in the hallway. "Do you know if they've taken Marshal Gerard back to CT yet?"
"They took him back about ten minutes ago," the blonde nurse said as she approached, offering a friendly smile when she realized who the woman with Nurse Hancock must be. She still couldn't believe that someone had made such a big mistake and nearly killed that poor man. She didn't even want to think about how upset his friends had to be, going through this like some sort of yoyo. "Marshal Walsh, right? I was the one who called you. Do you want me to take you back to radiology?"
"What's his condition?" Catherine asked as she followed the nurse to the elevator. A CT scan didn't sound good but surely with how hard Sam's head was....
Nurse Owens hesitated, not sure exactly what she ought to tell Catherine. She knew that the marshal's condition could easily go either way but at the same time she felt like she ought to offer some sort of hope, especially after the blunder that had been made with saying the poor man was dead.
"His temperature's out of the danger zone right now and he's breathing well on his own," she finally said as they stepped into the elevator. "The real concern right now is the head injury. It's not uncommon for there to be an intercranial bleed when the head takes a hit in the location Marshal Gerard was hit in so they're going to be looking at him really closely." Just then Nurse Owens noticed something odd. The marshal only had one earring on. Her hand went into her pocket and she pulled out the small object she had found in Marshal Gerard's hand when they were working on him. "Um, is this yours?"
Catherine nodded and reached out, taking it and slipping it back into place as the elevator doors opened. Nurse Owens started to lead Catherine to the waiting area but changed her mind when she noticed the expression on the marshal's face and headed in the direction of the CT scan area instead. "Let's see if they're done with him, yet."
They had just reached the door when it swung open and the neurologist came out followed by a short balding doctor.
"Doctor Bradshaw, this is Marshal Walsh." Nurse Owens told the neurologist. Oh, she hoped the results for poor Marshal Gerard were good. A man like that shouldn't have to go through this.
"Marshal Walsh, I think I have some good news for you." the neurologist said with a smile as she reached out and shook Catherine's hand. "Dr. Tompkins and I just finished reviewing the CT scan and it appears negative for an intercranial bleed. The area where he took the blow is prone to bleeding though. We're going to admit him to ICU for the night so he can be monitored closely and run a followup scan tommorrow. He's being moved upstairs right now and they've got a plastics consult coming in to take a look at the laceration on his head. If you want, you can go on up. It shouldn't be long before he can have visitors."
Catherine let out a small sigh of relief. This was definately sounding better than she was hoping for. Sam's hard head was finally coming in handy for something. Now if he would just be bellyaching about being stuck in the hospital when she got up there. Then she would know everything was alright.