Page 2 of Stick Around
As Grace watched the three of them work, moving around Mr. Avery as if they’d choreographed it, images of Lauren and Madison paraded through her mind. Then her own father appeared. The noise and chaos in the room faded to silence. She didn’t notice her legs wobbling underneath her.
“Grace!” Bernice shouted, snapping Grace back into the present. “Go watch for Dr. Mackey and get him straight in here.”
“Got it.” Grace turned on her heel and jogged back down the hall. “Dr. Mackey?” There was no reply. She jogged out the glass doors into the parking lot and stopped dead in her tracks.Billy was still standing there, shivering in the wind. Eyes like a wild animal. Holding his bloody hands out in front of him.
“Billy.” Grace ran to him. “Are you hurt?” He locked eyes with her and a flash of recognition crossed his face. “You need to answer me, okay? Is this your blood or Mr. Avery’s?”Billy wrinkled his forehead, then lowered his gaze to his hands.
“I’m fine,” he replied. “It’s Brian’s. It’s not mine.”
Grace looked past him to the white SUV pulling into the parking lot.“Don’t move,” she said.
She shimmied across the ice to meet Dr. Mackey as he opened his door. “They need you in there fast. Patient fell and hit his head, lots of blood. Paramedics say he was conscious on the ride in, but he isn’t now.”
Dr. Mackey shuffled across the ice as quickly as he could. “Who is it?”
“Brian Avery.”
He snapped his head toward Grace. “Fuck.”
Grace hurried Dr. Mackey down the hall into the exam room, where Bernice and the paramedics were still racing around Mr. Avery. Another nurse from the palliative care unit had also arrived.
“Brian, it’s Jack Mackey here.” The doctor tossed his jacket onto the floor in the corner. “I hear you hit your head, but I’ll get you stitched up and back under a hood in no time, okay?” He pushed up his sleeves and scrubbed his hands in the sink.Grace watched Mr. Avery’s face for any sign of response, but he lay motionless.
She waved to Bernice. “Billy Miller is still in the parking lot. I’m going to bring him in and check him for injuries.” Bernice nodded, and Grace headed back out to the parking lot.
Billy stood frozen where she’d left him, his bloodied hands hanging in front of him like he wasn’t sure where they belonged. His jaw hung slack and his eyes shone with fear, staring right through Grace.
She approached him delicately, reaching out her arms to him as she stepped closer.She’d never seen him like this. The picture of Billy tattooed in her mind was a strong, confident man. With a commanding posture that spread up his back and across his broad shoulders. Laughing through his dark beard, deep brown eyes twinkling.
This man seemed smaller.
She placed a gentle hand on his forearm. His plaid flannel shirt was rolled halfway up his forearm, revealing a black and gray cross tattoo with the words Lest We Forget scrolled across. Her touch seemed to stir him back to the present, and he blinked a few times before turning his attention to her hand on his arm.
“Are you hurt?” Grace moved closer, dipping her face to meet his gaze on her hand.
Billy lifted his head to her, and they met one another’s gaze. He sighed and the corner of his mouth upturned. “Little Gracie Campbell. You’re home?” Grace’s face flushed with heat. He was only three years older than her, but Billy had been calling her ‘Little Gracie Campbell’ since they were kids.
“Yeah, I’m home.” She shook her head. “Listen to me. You and Mr. Avery were in some kind of accident, okay? I need to bring you inside and check you for injuries.”
The horrible shine flashed back into Billy’s eyes and he stepped back. “No, I wasn’t in an accident. It was just Brian. I’m not hurt. You need to go help him. Please. I’m fine.”
“He's with the doctor right now. And the nurse and the EMTs are still there, too.”
“Which nurse is on tonight?”
“Bernice and Diane are both in there,” Grace said, tilting her head and giving him an encouraging smile. Billy nodded. “Come on.” Grace held out her hand. “Let’s go inside.”
Billy lifted his hand to run it through his hair, but stopped when his palm reached eye level and he saw the layers of caked blood. He lifted his eyes back to Grace and submitted with a small nod.
Grace ushered Billy into the hospital and sat him down in the waiting room.“Are you okay to stay here for a minute? I want to check on Mr. Avery and figure out the best room to put you in.” Billy nodded and shifted in the chair, placing his elbows on his knees and gripping his fists together.
After checking with Bernice and finding an empty patient room, Grace headed back to the waiting room. Billy was pacing the floor when she returned.
“Is he okay? What’s going on?”
“I’m sorry. I don’t have an update for you yet. But the paramedics said he was talking in the van on the way here, which is a great sign. And Dr. Mackey hasn’t called for a transfer yet either, so that’s another good sign. Head injuries can be scary when there’s a lot of blood, but that doesn’t indicate it’s going to be serious. We don’t know yet. Dr. Mackey will know more once he’s examined him and the bleeding stops.”
“Can I borrow your phone?” There was an edge of panic in his voice. “I gotta call the girls. They don’t know that anything happened.”
