Author stuff: Back at it again. Still not feeling %100 but we're getting there.
Trigger warnings: There is more medical stuff in this chapter, specifically a seizure. And seizures are openly discussed within the chapter as a whole.
Drawn From Stone
Chapter Eight
The three way call with Jim and Claire the evening before could have gone significantly worse. She was fairly certain that before Claire had called her and told her about Jim's panicking she would call him and tell him what was up.
Toby had been occupied with making sure James didn't hurt Dr. Lake — which was totally reasonable — so he couldn't call. The nurse — who'd been unfazed at seeing Toby with a warhammer — was furious about the man sneaking back in. It… was a whole ordeal.
She'd been relieved when Claire called. She'd actually been more than happy to inform Jim that his mom was more than fine. She was practically spitting fire. The problem wasn't just that James wanted into Trollmarket, it was the fact that no one could figure out why Barbara Lake had had the seizure in the first place.
Neither she nor Toby wanted to leave Dr. Lake alone, mostly because they weren't sure how Mr. Lake had gotten into the ventilation system in the first place. She gave her dad a quick call and set up to have the doctor's room watched until she was released. That was all she could do.
Toby left with Steve, Eli, Krel, Aja, and Mary. And Mr. Lake cramped in a bench seat between them. She should have joined them…
Still, one of them needed to stay with Dr. Lake for a little while. Darci decided she liked the doctor. She was funny and they traded stories about Jim in and out of school.
She sent Toby a selfie in the interim while she waited (well over an hour ago) and told him her father had picked her up. It was almost ten by the time he could make it. By that time, she'd nearly fallen asleep on one of the chairs by the desk. Her main comfort was a cup of overly sweet tea with a bitter after taste, given to her by a nurse.
To her surprise, Darren was with her father — although he was conked out in his booster seat.
"Hey, dad," she said, climbing in the back to sit next to Darren before getting her hair too wet from the drizzle that had started. She leaned over the arm and the headrest to give him a kiss on the cheek. She shrugged off her schoolbag and set it at Darren's feet.
Darren didn't wake but he mumbled in his sleep.
"Hey, little guy," she said, adjusting the blanket over his legs.
"How's Dr. Lake?" her father said.
"She's talking and laughing, but the doctors don't really know what's wrong with her. I feel kind of bad, you know? Jim's all the way out east, and Mr. Strickler can't exactly walk into a hospital looking like he is. It doesn't feel right leaving her alone."
She saw her father nod, but he didn't say anything.
Some synth based song from the 80s played quietly from the speakers — the original version of the one that was covered in that Shrek movie. She just looked out the front, lights streaking against the rain that picked up.
The drive there was quiet save for the terrible music her father liked, the whirring of the wipers, and the rain outside. She could feel herself being lulled into sleep, resting her head against the cold glass of the window.
She was jerked awake when they stopped at a red light. She sat up straight and looked around. They weren't too far from home.
"Sorry," her father said. "Didn't mean to stop like that."
"It's okay," she said.
"Hm?" Darren said next to her. He sat up and wiped his eyes. "Daddy? Dee?"
"Hey, little guy," she said, fixing the blanket that had started to slip off him.
"Where are we?"
"We're almost home," her father said. "Surprised her hooligan boyfriend wasn't with her."
She kicked the back of his chair.
"Toby wasn't guilty of any of those crimes and you know it." She matched his glare from the rearview. "Okay, maybe he, Jim, and Claire stole Señor Uhl's truck, but they were being chased by goblins. Pretty sure fleeing for one's life is a defendable offense."
He mumbled something she couldn't hear. He reversed the car and started towards their home.
"No T-man?" Darren said. He scrunched up his face as he thought. After a beat, he shrugged it off and offered her his palm. "Hold my hand?"
She chuckled and took it, placing a kiss on the knuckle of his thumb. She noticed it was trembling slightly.
"Hey, little guy, you okay?"
His eyes, glazed and wide, looked up at her. His breathing turned labored and uneven. A moment passed before his head jerked from side to side.
"Dad, pull over," she said. "Pull over, pull over!"
She wasn't sure if her father listened, but Darren had already started seizing. His head jerked back and rolled.
What was she supposed to do? Move him from the booster seat? Hold him in place? Call 911?
Her father was opening the car door and unbuckling Darren.
"Move to the floor, and I'll lay him on the seat," he said. "Make sure he stays in the seat – don't restrain him – put your jacket under his head, and time it. I'll get us to the hospital."
She did as she was told and watched as Darren was laid on the seat in front of her. She held him in the crook of the seat and kept an eye on her wristwatch, stroking his head and mumbling incoherent words.
He was still seizing when they reached the hospital, seven minutes later.
She didn't get any sleep that night. And she wasn't surprised.
La'Wanda had managed to filch her phone from the storage closest where they held onto items patients weren't supposed to have. She'd called Jim first. It went straight to voicemail, which probably meant they were traveling again or it needed to be charged. She let him know what was going on. She didn't tell him about the vision she'd had though — she hadn't told anyone yet.
She sent a quick text to Claire, telling her to make Jim charge his phone so they could talk.
Walter was third. He couldn't exactly come to the hospital as a Troll, and someone needed to be home with Willoughby. He was relieved to hear from her, of course.
"I'll be released sometime tomorrow," she said, lying back on the extra pillows a thoughtful attending had brought her. "I should be home before noon, if all goes well. Think you can make bacon mac and cheese?"
"Not like Jim," Walter said, "but I can most certainly try."
"Thank you." She felt her lips tug up at the thought of eating Jim's works of art. What she wouldn't give to eat meatloaf or an omelette or even those pancakes he burned after James left them and he was done with eating takeout. Those pancakes had been terrible, but it had been a start.
Thoughts of that and the start of it all brought her back to the present. James. She wasn't sure if anyone had told Walter yet. She trusted Toby, almost as if he was her own son, but she didn't put it past him to not inform Walter of her ex being back in Arcadia.
"Walt?" she said.
"That," he said, "that doesn't sound good. Is something wrong? Are you about to have another seizure?"
She shook her head, realizing a moment later that he couldn't see her.
"I have something to tell you. It's about Jim's father."
"Barbara, this can wait until you're back home and can rest here. Telling me about him over the phone isn't going to go over very well. Will might interrupt us. He's not sure what's going on, but he can sense something's wrong."
"Please, Walt, this is —"
"Rest for right now. We can talk when you're home. Goodnight."
His words weren't harsh, they never were with her. Not after… everything. He'd been unbearably gentle. He had the need to be. It still stung when he ended the call, though.
She sat there, holding her phone to her ear for a moment longer. She lowered it slowly to her side, hand coming to rest on the mattress. She looked down at the glowing screen casting a warm glow against the spotless, white sheets. A cheesy selfie of Jim and Claire was set as her background. (Claire had taken it and sent it to her a week after they'd left. It was accompanied by a long draft of a text about everything that had gone on in that week, as well as some details that had been left out during their explanation of the fight.)
The selfie made her smile. It was sweet and a bit goofy, and utterly adorable. No matter what, Jim still looked like her Jim. There was no doubt in Barbara's mind that Claire and Toby and Blinky and everyone else felt the same way.
She wondered how James would react to their son's transformation. Considering he knew about Trolls, Avalon, and who knew what else, he might take it… well.
A sharp wrap on her door alerted her to one of the attendings coming in to check on her. She quickly hid her phone under the blankets.
"Dr. Lake?"
It was Gatik. He was stocky and a bit soft around the edges. Intelligent brown eyes peered at her through square framed glasses. He shuffled inside, checking behind him to look over the guard Darci had called him. The officer looked nonplussed. A simple gold band gleamed on his right hand — ah, so his boyfriend proposed then. Good.
"Hey, Gatik," she said.
"You, uh, cellphone?"
She winced. He had seen it. She pulled it out from under the blankets.
"You're going to confiscate it, aren't you?"
"No, no, no! I, um, Nurse Gray told me and a few others. We, uh, we aren't to tell Dr., um, Dr. Stevens about it. She told us, uh, that your son. He, um, he's on a, a road trip, yeah?"
"Yeah. With his girlfriend. They're going to New Jersey."
"If I, uh, can I ask why?"
"The Pine Barrens. They're going cryptid hunting."
"Cryptid?"
"The Jersey Devil. You ever hear of it?"
"A podcast might have mentioned it. But, a whole year?"
"The Pine Barrens are big. A lot of ground to cover." Although, it wouldn't take a whole year to explore.
"Ah."
"So, what'd you come in here for?"
"Oh, right," he flipped open a manila folder. "Dr. Lake, if you, uh, don't mind, I have a few questions for you?"
"Alright."
"Was there something you ate or drank that might have caused the seizure?"
"Not that I can recall. Will I need to do a blood and urine test?"
He shook his head.
"What activities did you engage in yesterday?"
"Spent some time with my boyfriend and our adopted son. Spoke to Jim and Claire for a little bit. Got ready for work. Not much else."
"There's nothing you can recall?"
"I went over this with Dr. Peng earlier. It should all be in my file."
"We're just… double checking." A stone sunk in her stomach as she saw the way his eyes darted off to one side and the way his fingers fidgeted.
"Someone else had an unexplainable seizure," she said, sitting up. "Who was it? Are they still here?"
He held up the folder between them, as a makeshift shield, and backed away two steps.
"I, um, I'm not allowed to disclose that information."
"Gatik —"
A knocking on the door and a soft call for her drew her attention away from the attending.
"Dr. Lake?"
Darci Scott cautiously tiptoed into the room. Her eyes were red and her makeup had started to run. Her lip trembled, though she clenched her jaw and set it high.
"Hey," Barbara said, getting up out of her bed. The machine she was attached to started to beep furiously. Gatik went over to turn it off as she unhooked herself. She pulled the girl in for an embrace. "Hey, shh, what's wrong?"
Darci tucked her head under her chin and sobbed into the stiff fabric of the hospital gown.
Author stuff cont'd.: I like Gatik. He's a pretty cool dude.
Two more chapters will be posted today. Please stand by.