Chapter 34 Not Horrible
NOT HORRIBLE
“Why didn’t you get me out of court?” Matt rushed into the room to see Anya and Amber sitting in the corner.
“You look out of breath,” she said.
“I ran,” he said. “Difficult in these shoes too.”
He’d sat in court waiting for his client to be called up. Family court cases weren’t his favorite thing to do, but like everything else in the practice, he had to put his time in.
If he was going to take over the firm with Phoebe in the future, he had to experience it all.
“You didn’t need to rush,” she said. “We’ve been sitting here for hours waiting for news.”
Amber looked like hell. Her eyes were red, her nose too. Her hair stuck up in many directions from fingers running through it.
Anya wasn’t much better, though her face didn’t appear as swollen from crying and her hair was on top of her head in a messy bun.
“You could have called the office to get me out of court. Why didn’t you?”
The last thing he needed to do was unload his hurt on her that she didn’t find any way possible to get to him.
“Matt, your job is important. You need to be there for other people.”
“I need to be here for you,” he said. “Tell me what is going on. Your message was brief.”
Which was another frustrating fact. All she’d said was her father got hurt and they were at the ER.
Amber nodded her head for Anya to speak. “My father was at the store. He somehow got on a ladder with no one knowing and slipped and fell off it. As far as we know, he’s unconscious, but we have gotten little information. We know he broke his leg, but nothing more.”
He frowned. “No one will give you answers?”
“No,” Amber said. “They told us to wait thirty minutes before we even asked the nurse at the station. We waited, but they are so busy they pushed us off another thirty. Then they said his tests were still underway, and his chart hadn’t been updated.”
“How long ago was that?” he asked.
Anya looked at her watch. “Ninety minutes. They said they’d come out and get us when they had information.”
“You haven’t gone back in to ask?”
She shook her head. “They are busy. Riding their butt nonstop will not make things go faster.”
“Come with me,” he said. “One of you. I don’t care who. We’ll get some answers.”
“Go,” Amber said. “I’ll just start crying again.”
Anya stood up and moved out of the room with him. “She’s not doing well,” he said.
“She blames herself. I told her she can’t be his keeper. She can’t watch him every minute of every day. There is no blame, but she won’t believe me. Her mind races on how to care for him.”
“We’ll figure it out,” he said.
“We’ve got a plan,” she said. “At least one in relation to his broken leg.”
They moved to the desk. There were two nurses behind it. “Excuse me,” he said when neither made an effort to look at them.
“Yes?” one of them said.
“I’m checking on my father again,” she said. “Elliot Emerson. They brought him in over two hours ago. Is there any update?”
“I’m not sure,” the nurse said. “We’ve had several emergencies.”
“Can you check?” Matt asked. He was holding her stare. She was making no attempt to even look up Elliot’s information.
“I’m in the middle of something that I’ve got to finish. Someone can come in to get you when the doctor has information.”
His mouth opened to ask for a supervisor, but then Matt heard his name called.
He turned. “Patrick.” One of his old high school classmates. “How are you doing?”
The male nurse came forward and shook his hand. “Good, good. Are you here with a family member?”
“They brought my girlfriend’s father in over two hours ago, and we don’t know what’s happening.”
Patrick looked past him to the nurse behind the counter. “Sandy, go check on the patient that has been buzzing for the past five minutes.”
“What?” the young nurse asked. “I’m not supposed to leave here.”
Patrick tossed his hand up. “Who told you that?”
“Marjorie. She said not to leave until she tells me.”
“She left her shift an hour ago. You can’t stand around doing nothing. Go,” Patrick said, moving behind the desk. “She has worked here for one week and can’t figure out how to put her badge on her neck without step-by-step instructions. She won’t make it here.”
Matt looked at Anya. “That explains some of it,” she said. “She’s the one I’ve talked to twice and she hasn’t given me anything.”
“She probably needed someone to tell her she could or didn’t know enough to ask. What’s your father’s name?”
“Elliot Emerson,” she said. “He came in unconscious and with a broken leg. We know nothing else.”
“I’m sorry about that,” Patrick said. “You shouldn’t have had to wait like this.”
Matt wanted to tell her she needed to push more, but it wasn’t the time or place for it.
“Can you give us an update? And if he’s in a bed somewhere, can Anya and her mother go see him? He’s got dementia, so he’s probably confused.”
“He’s in radiology right now,” Patrick said.
“Looks like they took him in about an hour ago to that wing, but there is a backlog of patients. The orders are for a CAT scan to his brain. His X-rays are finished, but the radiologists haven’t read the results yet.
There isn’t anything else, but I’ll make sure that the minute he’s back in this wing, we’ll come get you to see him. ”
“Do you know how long any of this might take?” he asked.
“If I don’t come get you in thirty minutes, come back and ask for me. Don’t talk to anyone else. I’m here until seven. They will get me if I’m in another room. If he’s not back, something might at least be updated.”
“Thanks, Patrick,” he said, shaking the man’s hand. He put his palm on Anya’s lower back and moved her to the side. “You came directly from Fierce. Have you eaten today? Has your mother? You both need to keep your strength up.”
“I ate before I went to work,” she said. “I’m not sure I could get anything down even if I wanted to. Thank you. I don’t know that we would have gotten anything if someone didn’t notice you.”
“You would have,” he said. “Because I was ready to ask to speak to someone else. Anya, push.”
“I know. I would have eventually. We don’t know much though.”
“You know he’s not sitting in a bed awake and not being cared for. They are taking steps at least. Let’s give your mother an update and go for a walk. We’ll get her something to eat and drink. It will do you well to move.”
She nodded. They returned to Amber and shared the update, then left for the cafeteria.
“I can’t stop thinking about how this is going to work for my mother,” she said. “Then the other part of me is almost relieved she’ll have a brief break in his care. That’s horrible, isn’t it? But he’ll be here at least a few days, I’m sure.”
“It’s not horrible to think that,” he said. “Cut yourself some slack. Things are rough and they will get rougher. You know it. Your mother will need help after your father returns home, but I suspect they will place him in short-term extended care once the situation improves.”
She sniffled a little next to him. “We think so too, but that isn’t the worst. I’ve read so much that many decline faster there.”
“Don’t get ahead of yourself,” he said. “It will not do you or your mother any good.”
“It’s like my mother can’t catch a break,” she said. “Why do things happen to one person more than another?”
“One of the mysteries of the world. What does your mother like to eat or drink?”
They passed several small takeout options, and Anya moved to Dunkin Donuts. “A coffee and muffin might be good. She can pick at it.”
They got in line. “Get something for yourself too. I hate to say you might be here for a while.”
Her cheeks puffed out with air. “Not the best way to spend my night. For any of us, but I’m sure you’re right.”
They placed their orders, he paid, and they moved to the side for it to be ready. He had his credit card out before she could complain she didn’t have her purse with her. She’d left it with her mother when they’d gone to the nurse’s station.
Twenty minutes had passed by the time they returned with everything.
“We can check in with Patrick when we are done eating,” he said.
Amber was sipping her coffee and nibbled at her muffin.
“You did that to kill thirty minutes, didn’t you?” Anya saw right through it.
“It worked,” he said.
When their thirty minutes were up, Matt stood, but Patrick came into the waiting room. “Your father is on his way back. Once he’s here, I’ll grab you so that you can see him.”
“No update on anything?” she asked.
“No,” Patrick said. “I’m sorry. I just know that he’s en route back. It should be about five to ten minutes. I don’t know anything else though.”
“Thanks,” he said.
“There, Mom. You’ll at least be able to see Dad. That will make you feel better.”
“Or worse if he is looking helpless. I don’t know if it’s worse for him to be out of it or awake and agitated.”
“I’d think if he was awake and agitated, Patrick would have seen that in his chart,” Matt said. “If they had to give him something or needed someone to calm him.”
“I didn’t think of that,” Amber said.
Ten minutes went by and Patrick popped his head in and waved his arm for them to come.
Everyone sprang up and followed him down a hall and behind a curtain.
Elliot looked to be resting peacefully, his leg in a splint, IVs in his arms.
“The doctor will be in next. I checked. The X-rays are being read now and you’ll get some answers.”
“Has he been awake at all?” Anya asked. “Do you know that?”
“There is nothing in the notes that he has. I’m sorry.”
Patrick left and Matt moved back to let Amber and Anya get close to Elliot.
Both were talking to him, trying to get a reaction, but there wasn’t one.
All he could think of was if this were his father and how helpless he’d feel having no answers.
It was almost as bad as him not being able to help Anya.