A nurse looks up at me, raising an eyebrow at my bloodstained dress.
“Do you need help?” she asks.
“Calum Fordham,” I shout. “He came in by ambulance and I need to be with him—“
The nurse holds up a hand, trying to calm me down while she types something into a computer. “Okay. Hold on…”
Behind me, Lucas arrives. I see him sweep his gaze around the waiting room to our left, his expression guarded.
The nurse clears her throat. “Are you family?”
I claw at Lucas’s arm. “He is.”
“I’m Calum’s brother,” Lucas supplies.
The nurse bobs her head. “Mr. Fordham was brought in twenty minutes ago. He was in critical condition when he arrived. Aside from the…” She pauses, looking at her screen. “Gunshot wound… he also has a collapsed lung. Mr. Fordham has been taken straight up to emergency surgery.”
I pale. “Emergency surgery?”
As I say the words, my eyes fill with tears.
She stands up, ushering us over to the waiting room. “Yes. He’s being taken care of by best thoracic surgeon in the state right now.”
I blink, a tear running down my face. Lucas puts his arm around my shoulders. “How long will my brother be in surgery for?”
The nurse shakes her head. “I have no idea. I’m not qualified to guess. But if you both will wait here, you’ll be the first ones to know about his condition. Okay?”
I turn and bury my face against Lucas’s arm. This can’t be happening.
Calum is the strongest man I know. For him to be hurt shakes the very foundation of everything I know to be true.
Lucas is far more practical than me. “We’ll need updates. How frequent can we get updates?”
The nurse gives him a cool little smile. “Like I said, I will let you know as soon as I know anything.’
Lucas glares at her. “Do you have any idea of who I am?”
The nurse turns on her heel and flounces away.
“Unbelievable,” Lucas mutters. After a moment, he sighs. “I should call the board. Will you be all right here for a few minutes?”
I nod, holding back a fresh round of tears. He gets up, reaching in his tuxedo jacket. And then I’m left all alone in the oddly quiet waiting room.
2
Without opening my eyes, I’m awake. I feel strange, like the entire world is wrapped in gauze or cotton wool. It sticks to everything and makes it very hard to open my eyes.
I shift ever so slightly in bed and then I’m smacked with pain.
A searing, ripping pain that radiates from my chest, just above my heart.
What is it from?
Balling up my face, I groan. I try to touch the spot that hurts without opening my eyes.
“Calum?”
It’s my brother’s voice. What is Lucas doing in my bedroom?
Opening my eyes is a monumental task. I peel them open and try to focus on the white walls that surround me. Lucas comes into view, hovering, looking concerned.
“What… what’s going on?” I croak. My throat is dry as a desert.
My shoulder throbs.
“Jesus,” Lucas says. “You fucking scared me, Calum.”
I squint at him, trying desperately to string thoughts together. I don’t recognize this room but clearly I’m in a hospital room.
The image of Kaia rushes to the surface. I struggle to sit up.
“Where’s Kaia?” I wonder. “What happened to my shoulder? It hurts.”
Lucas’s brow furrows. He reaches forward and presses me back against the bed. “You were shot, Calum. You’re in the hospital.”
I scrunch up one side of my face, reaching for a memory. All I get is a fuzzy flashback of Kaia’s tear strewn face.
“Where’s Kaia?” I demand.
He looks over his shoulder. “Here she comes.”
Kaia appears in the next moment, as if by magic. Her blonde hair is tousled and she is dressed in oversized hospital scrubs. She has enormous black circles under her eyes and looks as though she’s only recently been crying. She’s holding a Styrofoam cup, her eyes down as she heads through the doorway.
“Kaia,” I call to her.
Kaia looks up, her blue eyes widening. She drops her Styrofoam cup and launches herself toward me. “Calum! Oh god…”
The breath is knocked out of my lungs when Kaia buries herself against my uninjured shoulder. The feeling of comfort is instant, knowing that she’s safe and in my arms. My shoulder aches but I ignore that, leaning closer and pressing my face against her hair.
My heart thuds loudly in my chest. The feeling of holding her close is pure relief.
“I’m okay,” I murmur. “It’s going to be okay.”
She wipes at her eyes, pulling back and looking up at me. “I am so happy to see you awake and talking, Calum. I thought you were dead.” She sucks in a breath, her blue eyes hard on mine.
“Apparently I was shot?” I joke. “I can’t actually remember anything.”
Kaia scrunches up her nose. “Maybe it’s better that way.”
Lucas clears his throat. “The young dancer who shot you is in police custody.”
I nod. “That’s good.”
A sharp pain begins to shoot from my shoulder down my arm. I wince right as a young Black woman comes in wearing a long white doctor’s coat. Kaia blushes and climbs off of my bed, which makes me frown.
“Mr. Fordham, you’re up,” the doctor says, smiling. “I’m Dr. Smith. I was your surgeon. You were hit by a bullet, which collapsed your lung on its way out of your body.”
I flex my arm, sending shooting pain down to my fingertips. “I gathered as much.”
A rueful smile plays about Dr. Smith’s lips as she checks my chart. “Funny. Let’s check out your wound.” She lifts my arm and instructs me to move it back and forth. Then she purses her lips. “How is the pain?”
I shrug my uninjured shoulder. “Honestly? It feels like I got hit by a speeding train.”
She nods, scribbling a note in my chart. “I’ll have the nurses give you something for that. The hospital administration has made it abundantly clear that you are a major donor. So if you have any questions, the nurse will page me to come answer them. Okay?”
My lips curl up. “Sure. Thanks.”
“This machine here adjusts your pain medication,” she says. She waves to an IV pump, demonstrating its use. “Give it a try.”
She hands me the button trigger and I squeeze it. The pump makes a noise. “Ah. Okay.”
“Be careful with that,” she warns. “That is straight morphine. So only use it when you really need it and don’t mind sleeping.”
“Ah. I want to be weaned off the pain medications and all the machines as soon as possible.” I cock my head, beginning to feel tired. “When will I be ready to leave?”
Dr. Smith frowns. “It would be best if you stayed with us for a few days. Two days, if you’re really ready to go.”
I squint at her. “Thank you, Dr…”
She flashes me a cautious smile, looking around at Kaia and Lucas. “Dr. Smith. I’ll be back in a few hours to check in on you.”