Chapter 1 #3
“Indeed,” she declared, with a big smile. “That’s all you can do right now.”
“They are characters, all of them, and they each have their own personality. Even if Talia doesn’t remember who’s who, it would be easy enough to figure out who they should be.”
She shook her head at that. “I wouldn’t worry about it too much,” she replied, with a bright smile. “I have faith in mothers.”
“I do too,” he confirmed, “but this mother has had a really rough time. And, with the head injury, I’m really hoping there won’t be any memory loss.” When Sammy didn’t say anything, he looked up and asked, “There could be, couldn’t there?”
She nodded. “Any head injury could cause amnesia, all sorts of things, but it’s not necessarily permanent, depending on the type of injury and whether it’s caused by swelling.
That’s part of the reason they’re keeping her sedated—to heal …
because they’re keeping an eye on her brain,” she pointed out.
“Talia’s not out of the woods, but she is making progress.
As for her memory, that’s a matter of wait and see. ”
“Right, wait and see,” he repeated, with a wince. “Not an easy thing to tell the families.”
“No, it isn’t,” she agreed. “Families always want answers we can’t always give.
Right now, we don’t know how this will end up.
Nobody can tell you the outcome. We don’t know what her cognitive or physical state will be.
She did take quite a beating. There was extreme blood loss, though, yes, we’ve replaced it.
We can do a lot physically, but we don’t know where she’s at emotionally.
So, what her mental state could be is anyone’s guess.
Just think about the trauma she went through. ”
He considered Talia quietly for a long moment and then nodded. “I think the biggest concern is how she’ll be emotionally. We don’t know if she knows her husband was behind a good share of it.”
“What do you mean?”
He stopped, then frowned. “I’m talking out of turn anyway, so ignore what I just mentioned.”
“Not that easy to ignore because, as I already told you, I believe he may have been here again,” she pointed out.
“Okay, I will give you crumbs because that’s all there is.
He was behind what happened to his wife, based on what he did—or didn’t do,” he clarified.
“He was supposed to give the assailants some information, but he didn’t want to.
And she was there with him, according to him, and they beat her up because he wouldn’t hand over the information. ”
Sammy frowned, shaking her head. “What?”
He nodded. “So, is he technically responsible? Morally, we would say yes. I don’t know how a court of law would perceive that situation,” he added. “I’m sure you can understand how her brother and I look at it.”
She stared at him and muttered, “That is just so wrong.”
“It is wrong, but, sometimes in life, that’s what happens. You make a choice and then have to live with what you have done.”
“Sure,” she conceded, “but if that’s your wife and those are your kids? The babies. … Jesus, were the babies there at the time?”
“Presumably, but again we only have the information from the husband, and we can’t really trust anything that comes out of his mouth.”
“No, apparently you shouldn’t.” She groaned. “And when people are up against a wall—”
“Exactly,” he replied, with a smile.
“I guess you see all kinds of horrible things in life,” she muttered. She couldn’t imagine, yet she’d seen plenty too.
“I certainly learn a lot about humanity,” he replied. He sipped the coffee, smiled, and said, “This is good. Yet everybody always complains about hospital coffee.”
“Yeah, but that’s from the little bistro around the corner,” she clarified. “So, it’s way better than our standard coffee.”
Burton chuckled. “Right. That makes more sense.” A friendly silence surrounded them.
She turned to face Talia.
“Anyway, if you see anything else, please tell us immediately. If you don’t have my number, let me give it to you. If you even think you see this guy anywhere near the hospital, let me know.”
She nodded, and they quickly exchanged numbers.
“When I came out of the ward a little bit ago”—he frowned and checked his watch—“probably two hours ago, … the door going down the stairwell was closing.”
She seemed surprised, then shrugged. “The other wards are busy, but this area is pretty empty. It could have been anybody really. Maybe someone ended up on the wrong floor.”
“Maybe,” he muttered, not convinced. “This whole floor is empty, which seems unusual for any hospital.”
“It is,” she replied. “Normally we’re full up, but right now everything’s pretty calm. This floor gets the overflow when needed.”
“So, there aren’t many people here all the time, is that it?”
“This floor was due to be redesigned, using these rooms for something else, but budget cuts kept that from happening. So this floor isn’t in use all the time.
” She frowned, thought about it, then shrugged.
“We did have a series of car accidents and had quite a few more people here at the time, so I’m not sure any mystery is here.
Let’s not go looking for trouble,” she said, with a laugh.
“We have enough problems without searching for more.”
“Agreed,” he conceded, with a smile. “I was just trying to figure out why she would have been placed here specifically.”
“I can look and see if there are beds elsewhere. Do you want to move her?” she asked, turning to him with a frown. “Would that be better or worse?”
“I don’t know,” he admitted. “Maybe better … but it would be good to know the options. Let me know if that’s even an alternative and what the other rooms look like.”
Sammy added, “Yet, if somebody knows Talia’s here, it’s just a matter of time before they organize how to handle it.
If she’s here and not discharged, they’ll just know that we’ve moved her.
I don’t think anyone in the particular industry you’re worried about would have trouble finding out where she is. ”
“Maybe not,” he agreed.
“Something to think about,” Sammy muttered.
“Let me know how it all looks.”
“Will do.” She walked over to Talia, did a few checks, then turned to him. “She’s doing pretty well. I’ll be back in a bit.” With that, she turned and walked away.
She headed to the registrar’s office to look at the current inpatient numbers. The hospital was busy but not that busy, and considering that those rooms were out of the way, it was probably a good place for Talia. Yet it was odd that she had been put there in the first place.
One of the younger doctors asked her, “Are you looking for something? You are frowning.”
“Just trying to figure out why that one patient up on the fourth floor is there when we have nobody else on the floor.”
He shrugged. “I asked for it. It seemed she could use the peace and quiet, and that floor is not commonly in use, so she would get less interference and noise.”
“She could have gone into a private room,” she suggested, turning to him.
“We had that whole floor available, so I wasn’t worried about it,” he told her in a brisk tone. As she studied him carefully, he asked, “Why? You got a problem with her getting a little more peace and quiet?”
“No, not at all. Just seems odd.”
He looked at her in astonishment. “Odd?”
“Yeah, odd,” she repeated, then laughed. “A lot of people would be very happy to have a whole floor all to themselves.”
He eyed her in surprise and asked, “Is it a whole empty floor?”
“Right now it is, yes. It’s the one to be redesigned into something else. Was it to be new offices? I don’t know. We’re probably the only hospital in town that’s small but not overcrowded.”
“Yeah, but that’s because everybody’s going to the bigger hospitals now,” he explained. “We have to ship out so many to bigger hospitals because they need a particular speciality or something that we don’t have. We’re literally just keeping this hospital alive.”
“I understand, yet it just seems odd that she’s on a whole floor by herself.” He frowned at that, and she shrugged. “I guess we could just leave her there.”
“I think the same reasons apply,” he noted, staring at her strangely. “It seems like you’re against it. Is it really that many extra steps for you or that much more of a problem going up one more floor?”
“Nope, just don’t want her forgotten.”
“Hardly,” he scoffed. “She’s obviously on the roster. You’re looking after her on your shift, and then we still have everybody else.”
She nodded. “Just seems weird.”
“You’re looking for trouble where there is none,” he muttered, with a headshake. “Surely you have something better to do.”
She checked her watch and then nodded. “That I do. It’s actually my break time.”
“Good,” he said, with a stern look. “Sounds like you need it. A little bit too much work these days, maybe.”