Chapter 13

It had been a long night and an even longer morning. Briana still felt a little weak, which was why they had done the stress test with the adenosine medication instead of letting her use the treadmill. God, that thing had been brutal.

She must have been sleeping for some time before sensing some kind of presence in the room.

Turning her head, Briana saw a familiar sight beside her bed.

"Brian," she said softly.

His eyes flew open; he must have dozed off at one point.

"Hey," he replied. "How are you?"

"I'm still here, aren't I? How long have you been sitting there?"

"Uh….I guess awhile."

"You look like you were up all night. Hair everywhere, you haven't shaved, and you have pit stains on your shirt." Briana gave a low chuckle.

"They called me a little after five this morning to say you were here. I just threw some stuff on and came here right away. I was down at the ER before they brought you up."

"You've been here that long?" Briana squinted at the clock. "It's one thirty right now. Shouldn't you go home?"

She doesn't remember what happened in the ER, Brian thought, somewhat relieved. "Maybe, but I wanted to see how you were doing. Look, Bree, I'm really sorry about last night, I–"

She put two fingers on his lips. "It's fine. You showed up here. Not the ideal way to spend my birthday or the holiday weekend, but it could have been worse. Now that you know that I am at least going to survive, go home and get yourself some rest and cleaned up a bit."

He kissed her forehead, giving her hand a squeeze. "Anything you say, my dear."

Later:

"Good God, what happened?" Jean asked anxiously when Brian had tried to contact Tina. He figured the others had been close to Briana as well, so he had broken the news.

"Well, they brought Bree in with some chest pains early this morning and some tests have been done, but so far, it looks like she's going to be okay. In any case, I was trying to get in touch with Tina to let her know."

"Tina's on vacation this week, and normally I don't do this, but I can give you her cell and home numbers," Jean offered. "Would it be all right to let the other girls and Ray know what's happening too?"

"Yeah, sure, and thanks," Brian answered.

"How long is Briana going to be in the hospital?" Jean wondered.

"Well, it's mostly for observation, and so far everything looks okay, so I'm guessing no more than a few days."

"Shame on you overworking her so much," Jean teased, chuckling.

"Yeah, I guess I should take it easy on her, huh?" Brian said. "Anyway, thanks for letting me know how to get in touch with Tina. If I hear anything different, I'll give you guys a call back."

He then finished up the call before dialing Tina's cell number. She picked up on the second ring.

Brian explained what was happening, and that Jean had given him her contact information to get in touch with her about Briana. "I know you guys are close," he added, "and it was important that you should know."

"Don't worry about it. I'm glad you called. Is Briana all right?"

"So far, everything looks good," he replied, giving Tina the hospital information. "She might like to hear from you. Jean's already telling the others, so they will know too."

"Good. Thanks, Bri, for taking care of her. She really hasn't had anyone since Gary died and her in laws went to Florida. At least now it's good to know someone's watching out for her."

"You won't have to worry about that, Tina," Brian said. "I'm sticking by Bree for the long term. I'm going to grab a few hours' sleep and head back to the hospital later. I'll keep you posted on how she's doing."

"Thanks," Tina answered. "I'd like that."

Finished with his phone calls, Brian had been about to head to the shower when it rang. Looking at the Caller ID, he groaned.

"Hey Short Ribs," Paul said. "Where the hell are you? We were supposed to meet half an hour ago."

"One, try checking your fucking voice mail once in awhile," Brian growled. "There was an emergency that came up during the night, and I'm sorry if it disrupted your perfect little schedule. Second, make one more crack about my height and I'll pull you through this phone by your balls."

"Damn, you're cranky today. Who pissed in your canteen?"

"Bree's in the hospital."

"What?! Jesus, what hell happened?"

Brian explained the whole situation and how he'd gotten home only a short time ago, making some calls and was about to shower and get in a few hours' sleep.

"But she's going to be okay, right?" Paul asked.

"Yeah, looks that way so far. They probably won't keep her very long. I wouldn't be shocked that at this time tomorrow, she's raising hell to be let out."

"Well, in that case, go get some rest, dude. We can make plans for another time. Let me know how she is, okay?"

"No problem. Again, check your damn voice mail once in awhile," Brian yawned, and then hung up before shutting off the phone after making one final call. He couldn't wait to hit the bed.

That evening:

Briana turned up her nose at the tray of bland food before her, barely eating any of it. She had just shoved away the tray table when Brian came into the room.

"Don't you have a home?" she joked, glad to see him.

"I do and I hope to take you to it when your happy ass is out of here. How are you feeling?"

"Outside of this God awful food, a lot better than I was this morning."

He held up a fast food bag. "I have come to save the day."

"You know you're going to get us in trouble," Briana laughed, gratefully taking it. "But this will certainly beat dry chicken and weak coffee. By the way," she gestured toward the vase of pink roses, "thank you for the flowers."

"Glad you like them. I see you got a few other offerings too."

"Yes, perhaps because some little birdie told Tina and the gang I was here?" Briana raised an eyebrow and smiled.

"Oh shit. I am so busted."

"It's perfectly fine. That was sweet of you to call them."

"Paul sends his regards too," Brian added.

"I know," Briana nodded. "He also sent that spider plant over there."

"Christ, leave it to dude to send something that grows all over the place. These things have babies like crazy."

"I think it's kind of cute," Briana nodded. "So how was the rest of your day? I guess you got some sleep after you told the world where I was?"

He nodded. "Then I woke up, I took some money out of the bank, got texted by Paul like 12 million times before I turned my phone back off, ate a bagel, picked up some decent food for you because I know about hospital food hell, and here I am."

"Yes." She kissed his cheek. "And thank you for everything."

"A man's got to take care of his help." He blushed a little.

"You're so cute," Briana said, pinching his cheek. "You are just too good to me."

"I'm good to all the lovely thick ladies," Brian replied with a goofy grin.

"Indeed you are," she agreed. "And since it is official I am allowed out of bed, want to go hang out in the visitor/patient lobby? This bed hurts my tailbone after awhile."

Brian nodded, grabbing her robe. "Works for me. Maybe we can walk off your dinner first."

"Speaking of which," she gestured at the bag that contained its remnants. "We need to destroy the evidence."

He laughed, putting an arm around her and grabbing the bag. "Right."