The Outsider Series

Chapter 6

Chapter Six

The elevator doors slid closed, and Brad pressed a button. An elderly woman hunched over with a cane was also in the elevator. Andy hesitated and didn’t get on, but he said he’d call Rodney and give him an update. Again, Diana wasn’t consulted.

She could feel Brad’s heat, his energy, beside her. He was definitely not a man who took orders from anyone. The elevator dinged, and the door opened. Brad pressed his hand into Diana’s back. “This is it, this way.” He guided her down to the nurse’s station, where doctors, nurses, and other hospital personnel bustled.

“Doctor Hardy,” Brad called out.

A tall man in light blue scrubs, with a solid, heavy build, like someone who worked out in a gym, was scribbling something on a chart. He glanced up.

“This is Diana, Jed’s wife. She just got here.” Brad’s large hand rested against Diana’s lower back.

The doctor clicked a pen and popped it in his pocket, then handed the chart to another man as he issued orders about some tests Diana had never heard of before. When he glanced down at Diana, he pushed away from the high counter. He had short gray hair and light blue eyes, and he gave Diana all his attention. “Mrs. Friessen—”

She held up her hand. “Diana… Please, call me Diana.” She realized too late that her response sounded quite sharp. “Sorry.”

“Diana, we need to get your husband into surgery sooner rather than later. As I explained to your brother-in-law here, the fall fractured his spine in two places. Anita, can you hand me the chart for Jed Friessen?” A short, blond woman handed a chart to the doctor. He flipped it open and yanked out what looked like an x-ray. “Right here and here.” He slid his finger over a white spot on the spine, and Diana stared at what she assumed were two lines showing the spinal fractures. “We need to get in now and relieve pressure at the earliest for the best outcome, but the primary concern is the skull fracture. When your husband fell, he suffered what is called a depressed skull fracture.” He pulled out another film from the chart and held it up, showing the image of a skull, but this time she could see the cloudy spot he spoke of that was pressing into the brain. “We need to get in and relieve the pressure now.”

Diana nodded, wondering why she couldn’t pull it together. “When can I see my husband?”

The doctor hesitated only a second when he looked at Brad, then reached out and touched Diana’s shoulder. “Come with me.” He walked her to the end of the corridor. Every room had a glass wall so visitors could see inside, and a patient was in each bed. The door swished open, and the doctor walked Diana in to where Jed lay in a hospital bed, a tube down his throat. One machine was pumping air, another beeping. Fluid bags were hanging, tubes in his arm. To Diana, it looked overwhelming, as if he were hooked up to everything, and what she saw was his too-long wavy brown hair sticking out everywhere, as if he hadn’t brushed it in a week. Diana started to hurry to his side to grab his hand, but the doctor stopped her and said, “You can hold his hand, but don’t try to hug him or move him.” He said it in a way that she took as informative and not overbearing, as both Brad and Andy had been with her.

Diana glanced up at the distinguished-looking doctor and then slid her shaky hand under her husband’s limp one. For a moment, she willed him to squeeze hers as he always did. She skimmed his large, dry palm, which normally swallowed her hand. She traced the calluses on his hand and then squeezed, again hoping he’d squeeze hers back. But nothing happened. He lay there, unmoving, his eyes closed, and it was the loneliest feeling Diana had ever experienced.

“Did he open his eyes at all?”

“Your husband has not regained consciousness. Take a minute with him. The nurse will be in shortly, and we’ll need your signature on the consent.”

Diana stared at Jed, her strong, overprotective husband, lying there helpless. The door slid open, Brad touched her arm, and she glanced up at him.

“Diana, I’ll be right back. I just want to talk to the doc.” She knew Brad was worried about her and trying to protect her. She got that. It was different from Andy, because what she sensed with Brad was an unspoken understanding he had with Jed to look after her. She watched Brad outside the room with the doctor, and Andy strode up and joined them. He shook the doctor’s hand. His dark glasses were gone, but there was something in his eyes, the way he glanced through the glass at Diana as the doctor talked, that had her stepping closer to the bed—closer to Jed. She glanced down at Jed, swallowing. The door swished open, and she glanced up at Brad. Andy waited outside the room, speaking with a floor nurse, his back to Diana.

“What did you say to the doctor?” Diana touched the back of Jed’s hand. The glass door slid open, and a nurse walked in and checked his IV bag. When Brad didn’t answer, Diana looked up at him.

“Jed’s always done things his way.” His expression softened, and he winced. “Sorry, I asked the doc to give me best and worst case scenarios for Jed from the fall he took.”

“And what did the doctor say? Is my husband going to wake up? Will he be paralyzed? I need to know, Brad.” Diana watched Brad as he winced and dropped his gaze.

He put his arm around her and said, “He said to get him in surgery before he’ll give a prognosis, and the first twenty-four hours are critical.”

“Mrs. Friessen,” a nurse with a clipboard strode in, “I need you to sign the consent, and we really need to get your husband prepped for surgery now.”

Diana accepted the clipboard. She read over the legalese, which should have come naturally, but every sentence was a jumbled mess she could make no sense out of. “For God’s sake, I’m a lawyer, Brad. This should be easy.…”

Brad squeezed her shoulder. “Diana, it’s okay.” He leaned closer, reading the release with her, and then handed her the ballpoint pen. “Diana, sign it.”

Their eyes locked, and she nodded because she trusted Brad. She clicked the pen and scribbled her name.

The nurse reappeared and took the clipboard. “We need to get him ready. There’s a waiting room around the corner. Someone will be down to let you know when we take him in.”

“Can’t I stay with him, please? I won’t get in the way,” Diana pleaded.

The nurse bustled around the bed and set the chart on the side table as she checked his IV tubing. “No, I’m sorry. We need to get him ready.”

Diana wasn’t ready to leave him. She wanted—needed—more time with her husband. She took his hand in both of hers and stroked the tanned, freckled skin on the back of his hand, and she leaned over and kissed his cheek, willing him again to respond to her. But he didn’t.

It was Brad who touched her shoulder, slid his hand down her arm. “Diana, come on, honey.”

She stepped back and studied every inch of Jed in a faded blue hospital gown, covered with a sheet to his waist, hooked up to tubing, filling every inch of that hospital bed.

Brad led her out, his arm loosely around her shoulder, to the waiting room, where Andy was leaning against the window ledge, one booted foot crossed over the other.

“They’re getting him ready for surgery. Did you call Dad?” Brad asked.

Andy nodded. “They’re on their way.” He glanced at Diana. “I called Laura. Danny’s fine. I sent one of the ranch hands over to your place to look after things, feed and water the horses.”

Diana said, “I forgot, I’m sorry…. I forgot about the horses. Oh, God. And Danny, he’s never been away from me.” She pulled her dingy t-shirt from her full breasts, pinching her bra. “I’m still nursing him.”

“I’ll go and get him. I didn’t realize.” Andy brushed her arm and looked down at her with tenderness before snapping his gaze back to Brad.

Diana felt Brad press his hand tighter, as if holding her closer.

“Mom will be here soon. She’ll help with Danny,” Brad said. The Friessen men were all tall and handsome, each of them with a body every woman dreamed would hold her at night. But it was Jed she pictured, lying helpless in that bed, the one man who took her breath away. Out of nowhere, she felt tightness in her chest, and she struggled to breathe when she realized in a flash that she could lose him forever. Her knees weakened, her eyes burning as the uncontrollable floodgate of misery broke free, wave after wave of uncontrollable, soundless agony. Brad hugged her close. “Shh, it’s okay, Diana. It’s going to be okay.” He just held her and let her weep.