Chapter 7
Visiting Hours are for Pussies
Van
This room is hell. Sterile, cold, bright. It’s harsh and reeks of hand sanitizer, wet bandages, and the soul-crushing wages of exhausted workers. But the beeping and whooshing of all the machines is the worst of it. Like a tic in my brain reminding me again and again.
This is bad. This is bad. This is bad.
Skye is completely out, and to my surprise, I’m grateful.
As much as I want her awake, I also don’t want her to see herself like this.
To look around and see the severity of this room.
The whiteness of the walls. The graveness in the voices of those checking on her.
The incessant sounds of the fucking beeping and whooshing.
What am I going to do if she doesn’t wake up?
My father is a shell of a human. He came home the week after Christmas to spend some time with Saoibhin.
Seeing her was like medicine for a dying man.
That’s exactly what he looked like. A dying man.
Ever since my mother died, he’s been a nomad without a purpose.
In one fell swoop he lost his entire identity.
He was no longer her husband. He was no longer my father. He lost his home.
So much of who he is was built around her. And I realize I am the same as my dad. It is both comforting and disheartening. Knowing that I am more him than Grady. Knowing that everything I am is dependent on this woman.
I picture Skye dancing in the kitchen, singing Janis Joplin at the top of her lungs with Saoibhin.
Janis’s thoughts on freedom were spot on.
I had hoped my father would stay a while, but he continues to flutter about the globe, trying on different identities. Hoping one of them fills the hole inside him.
My mother’s shoes are difficult to fill.
Skye’s would be impossible.
A nurse comes in. “I’m sorry, but you’ll have to come back tomorrow. Visiting hours ended a little while ago.”
“Yeah, that’s not happening. I’m staying here tonight.”
“Sir, it’s not allowed in the ICU. You can’t stay.”
“I don’t think you understand. I’m not leaving my wife.”
“Lots of spouses feel that way. Believe me, we get it. But it’s best for them if you let them rest and let us do our job.”
“So she can wake up alone and not know what the fuck happened? So she can be scared and alone in a hospital room? The first thing she’s going to ask about is our daughter. About what she knows and what she saw. You won’t be able to answer her, and then she’s going to fucking kill you.”
“Please don’t make threats.”
I huff out a laugh and run my hands through my hair. “I’m not making threats. That’s exactly what she’ll do.”
“If she wakes up and is irritated or behaves irrationally, we can restrain her.”
“Well, now I’m definitely not leaving.”
She puts her hands on her hips over her light pink scrubs. “Yes, you are. I’m calling security.”
“Go ahead. Call security.”
She storms out of the room and returns with the security officer who is —because someone is on my side—Ben McHale.
Ben was one of my buddies from high school.
We weren’t very close, and I haven’t seen him in a while, but he was always good for a laugh and a fun time.
He once jumped from the roof of Skye’s house into the pool bare-ass naked while half of our high school watched because Jake dared him to.
I’m not surprised he ended up in a profession where he gets to carry a gun, but I am a little surprised somebody gave him one.
He walks into the room ready to be all security-guard strong, and his face softens when he sees me bedside next to my very ill, unconscious wife.
“Van. Holy shit, what’s going on? Is Skye okay?”
“Not really, man. Good to see you, though. Not under these circumstances, but, you know, life.” I shrug.
“I hear you. I’m sorry to see her like this. If there’s anything I can do…”
“Um, you can escort him out,” the nurse in pink scrubs interrupts. “That’s what you can do. Your job.”
I don’t even have to answer. Ben turns on his heel and rests his hand on the butt of his gun. He doesn’t unholster it or even unclip it. He just rests his hand there. “This is Skye Monroe. Do you know that name? Did anyone tell you that’s who is in this room?”
“No, they didn’t.”
“And that’s her husband, Van Bennett. I’m willing to bet his uncles are nearby. Van?”
“Front lobby.”
“The O’Leary family are guests in this hospital.
They will not be escorted anywhere. They paid for the fucking wing of this hospital that you are standing in, and they probably paid for your school lunches.
Now why don’t you go take care of a patient or do something useful instead of harassing this family? ”
“I’m caught up on my patients.”
“Then go see if his uncles need a coffee.”
“You’re not in charge of me.”
“No, but I am.” Another nurse wearing royal blue scrubs walks in, moves past the chaos, and immediately over to Skye. She touches her arm as if to check her body temperature. “Go get me a heated blanket and then get the O’Learys some coffee. Then go home.”
“My shift’s not over for four hours.”
She turns and glares at the girl, who scurries out of the room.
“Hot as always, Quinn. Love when you throw the nurse manager big guns around,” Ben says and smiles before dropping the smile and turning to me.
“Van, I’ll be around till midnight. I’ll check on your uncles and back here a few times.
I won’t come in unless you need something.
You’ll just see me doing my laps. A few extra here for Skye.
You shout out the door if you need anything. ” He nods and leaves the room.
The previous nurse quickly drops a blanket on the chair by the door and leaves.
The new nurse in blue, Quinn, takes the warm blanket and covers my wife gingerly, paying special attention not to disturb her stomach in any way and resting her arms above the blanket so the tubes and wires don’t get kinked.
“Thanks.”
“My pleasure. I hate that bitch. She’s a float with a bad attitude.
I’m also a friend of Marnee’s. She called me.
I’m taking the night shift. As an extra.
Skye is my only patient tonight. We’re not allowed to do that, but I’m fudging the log-in sheets.
You are in for a long night, you need to know that, but know this… I’ve got her.”
“Thank you.”
“Thank Marnee,” she says.