Chapter 13
13
They drove to Hamblehurst general hospital, which wasn’t the closest A&E department to the hotel, but which made more sense considering that’s where they all lived. Carole’s father was in pain, but not in mortal danger, and she was happy when he agreed that rerouting to their home hospital was the best option.
Tom dropped them off at the A&E patient entrance and went off to park the car. When Carole insisted he didn’t have to come back and wait with them, he only gave her a look, as if the idea of just depositing them at the door and then going home simply wasn’t one that was up for discussion.
The A&E waiting room was predictably and depressingly busy. It was Saturday night, Carole reminded herself, probably their busiest time of the week, and many of those waiting for treatment looked like they’d come straight from the pub or from an altercation outside it. The triage nurse who processed Frederick on arrival told them to brace themselves for a long wait.
By the time they’d dealt with triage, Tom had reappeared. Together, they found seats in the waiting area, and while Tom fetched tea from the vending machine, Carole sent a text to Jane to let her know they’d arrived and were now playing the waiting game.
“Are you sure you want to hang around here with us, Tom?” Carole asked once they’d drunk the awful vending machine tea and her parents had gone off in search of the toilets. “We’ve probably got hours ahead of us and you’ve done enough to help already.”
“I’m happy to wait. If your dad gets seen soon and is discharged, he’ll need a lift home.”
“My brother-in-law can come and pick us up. They’re only over in Winchester and it won’t take long for him to get here.”
“I don’t mind staying. Unless you want me to go?”
She didn’t want him to go. He was good company while they waited on the uncomfortable plastic chairs, keeping her distracted with small talk and, more importantly, keeping her father distracted with an in-depth discussion about their favourite football teams while they’d been drinking the terrible vending machine tea. The conversation, she was sure, had kept her father’s mind occupied. Anything that eased his pain and discomfort while they waited was welcome, as far as Carole was concerned.
“I don’t want you to go,” she said. “But I don’t want you to feel obliged to hang around here with us in the ninth circle of hell.”
Tom laughed and glanced around at the other patients waiting to be seen. People were clutching at bloody gashes or broken digits, or hunched over sick bowls, or just generally moaning in pain or boredom or both. It wasn’t a fun place to be.
And yet, Tom stayed with her, kept her father talking, kept their spirits up as time dragged on.
At just after midnight, three hours after they arrived, a nurse appeared in the waiting room and called Frederick through to be seen. With sighs of relief, her parents trundled off to the treatment area.
“Thank goodness for that,” Carole said, rising from the plastic chair and stretching out the many, many kinks in her body. “That was the longest three hours of my life.”
“Want to grab some fresh air?” Tom asked.
“Good idea. I’ll just text my mum in case she comes out here looking for us.”
Text message sent, Carole followed Tom outside, pulling on her jacket to ward off the cool night air. They dodged the wheezing smokers clustered near the doors and walked along the pavement that led away from A&E and towards a path that cut through a small avenue of trees and foliage and the car park beyond.
After the stale air of the waiting room, it was good to get some fresh air into her lungs.
“What a night,” Carole said on a sigh as they strolled along the lit pathway.
“I’m sorry your dad ended up getting hurt and having to wait around in the hospital all this time.”
“Hopefully now that he’s being seen in the treatment room, it’ll just be a case of getting an X-ray and then waiting while they put his wrist in a cast, or whatever it is they do.”
Frederick’s head wound had stopped bleeding hours earlier, and once Nina cleaned it up with some damp tissues, it proved to be no more than a nasty bash to the skin that would heal with time. The medical staff would check him over to be sure while they attended to his undoubtedly broken wrist. Carole was sure her father would have plenty of bruising in the days to come, thanks to the heavy fall onto the hard floor, but there wasn’t much they could do about that in A&E.
“That stupid Steven Weaver,” Carole seethed, not for the first time since they’d arrived at the hospital. “I wish I’d punched him in the face before we left. I’d feel much better.”
Tom laughed. “It looked like he’d just had too much to drink, and he wasn’t the only one at the wedding in that position. I don’t think he meant to hurt anyone.”
“I’m sure he didn’t. But that’s what happened. And you’re right, he wasn’t the only person who’d had a lot to drink, but no one else was flailing around like an idiot and causing mayhem.”
Tom gave her a sympathetic look.
“Sorry,” she said. “I don’t mean to keep ranting about him.”
“It’s fine. You’re worried about your dad. Rant away if it makes you feel better.”
She laughed, her anger at Steven quickly dissipating. Tom’s easy humour and ability to defuse her righteous outrage was soothing and welcome.
They reached the edge of the car park and turned around to retrace their steps.
“It’s nice of you to keep me company, Tom. As far as your job as wedding wingman is concerned, you’ve gone above and beyond the call of duty.”
“I’m with you until the end,” he smiled. “Actually, that sounds a bit grim. I’m with you until your dad has been treated and discharged and I can drive us all home.”
She laughed again. “I appreciate it. I think my sister was glad she could just take the girls straight home, rather than come here with us, and when I texted her to say you’d stay until Dad is discharged, she was grateful neither she nor James will have to get back on the road to give us a lift. Knowing you’re here with your car is a big help.”
“Your nieces were upset when they saw your dad falling over and getting hurt. It’s a frightening thing for little girls to see someone they love bleeding and in pain. They’re better off at home and with their parents on hand to stop them getting too upset about things.”
Back at the hotel, Carole’s heart had broken at the sight of her nieces’ distraught faces. It was obviously a shock for little kids to see someone they loved sprawled on the floor and bleeding. If either of their parents had to leave the house for a late-night hospital run to pick them all up, the girls would inevitably be aware of it and end up even more anxious about what was going on.
“It does make things easier for them, for sure.”
“Would you like more tea or coffee?” Tom asked as they neared the A&E entrance.
“God, no. That stuff is dreadful. I’ll wait until I get home and make some there.”
Tom slid a grin in her direction. “Good call.”
“I’d forgotten how bad the stuff from hospital vending machines. When Jane was having the girls, she was in the labour ward up in Winchester for eighteen hours with Nancy and twelve hours with Lily, and my mother sent my father to a nearby café to fetch hot drinks for us rather than put up with what came out of the vending machine.”
“Shall I find out if there’s an all-night drive-through somewhere near here?” Tom asked, already pulling out his phone. “If there is, I’d be happy to go there and get something decent to keep us going.”
“You’ve done enough already, but thanks for offering. Hopefully, now that Dad’s with the nursing staff, we won’t be here too much longer.”
They were approaching the A&E entrance again. The idea of going back inside the miserable waiting room had her expelling a long sigh. Tom slid her another smile.
“Come on, let’s take another loop back over to the car park,” he said. “If we’re stuck here, we might as well get our steps in for the day.”
“Anything’s better than sitting on those plastic chairs. They should be banned under the Geneva convention as instruments of torture.”
They set off on another lap of the pathway. Tom made idle chit-chat and Carole appreciated the distraction. She was glad all over again that she’d had Tom at her side today. He’d been brilliant company at the wedding and now he was essential moral support at the hospital after performing emergency ambulance duties for her stricken father.
A surge of gratitude rolled through her and she reached out and squeezed his arm as they walked.
“Tom, thank you for what you’ve done tonight. You don’t know how much I appreciate it.”
“I’m sorry this all happened, but I’m glad I could help.”
She was about to say something else—what, exactly, she wasn’t sure—when her phone beeped. Glancing at the screen, she saw a text from her mother.
“Dad’s just gone off to the X-ray department,” she said, reading the message. “The doctor is sure his wrist is broken, but they need to confirm with the scan. Once the results are back, they’ll get his wrist into a cast.”
“It’s good that things are moving for them at last in the treatment room.”
“Mum wants me to buy some cold bottled water and bring it through. She says Dad is thirsty.”
“Then let’s get back to the vending machine,” Tom said, already fishing coins from his pockets. “I’m sure it can be trusted to provide decent bottled water, even if the hot drinks it dispenses are dire.”
They turned back towards the A&E entrance. Carole was relieved her father was now on his way for an X-ray, and hoped the results wouldn’t take too long so that the medical staff could finish his treatment and they could all leave. Her father must be exhausted after the night he’d had and desperate to get home.
Knowing Tom was here to drive them all back just as soon as her father was discharged made it all so much easier.
Without Tom here on driving duty and doing his bit to keep her spirits up, she really would’ve been lost.