I turned and pulled the door open, stepping back out into the hallway, and looked up and down. I spotted a nurse reading a clipboard as she walked in the direction of the doors that led back out to the A&E reception.
“Excuse me!” I shouted and briskly walked down the hallway towards the nurse when she stopped and looked over her shoulder.
“Can I help you?” she asked when I stopped in front of her.
“Yes, please,” I replied. “I’m with the family of Kane Slater, and we have received no information on his current status. He arrived here around twenty-five minutes ago, and his brothers in the waitin’ room down the hall behind me are getting very impatient. Each of them are over six-foot-tall and combined, they probably weigh the same as a full-grown bull. Please come and give them an update before they... get upset.”
The nurse swallowed, but nodded her head at me.
“Thank you,” I breathed, relieved she believed the brothers would be dangerous.
I mean, they could easily go crazy, but I knew they wouldn’t. My white lie would get us the update we needed though so I didn’t care what was running through the nurse’s mind.
I re-entered the waiting room and again all eyes fell on me, but when their eyes switched to the nurse behind me everyone stood up. Everyone.
“You,” Keela growled to the nurse.
I raised my eyebrow.
Did something happen that I didn’t know about?
“Oh, damn,” the nurse whispered.
“I told you we wanted a different nurse!” Keela snarled.
The nurse shrugged her shoulders. “We’re short on staff today, it’s me or nobody.”
“You might as well be nobody, you evil cow!” Keela bellowed.
Oh, hell.
Keela. Was. Pissed.
I moved over to my friend. “What’s wrong?” I asked, my voice low.
“That bitch refused to give me any information on Kane. She made the security man outside keep me in reception from the moment they wheeled him through the double doors. If Alec and Ryder hadn’t showed up, I would have still been kept out there.”
“It’s protocol!” the nurse snapped. “I told you that. It’s the hospital’s rules, not mine.”
“I’ll show you fuckin’ protocol,” Keela snarled.
I remained in front of Keela. “Calm it,” I grunted then lowered my voice to a whisper, “just until we get the update on Kane from her.”
Keela instantly calmed herself, but I could see she wasn’t happy about it.
I nodded and turned back to the nurse. “So,” I began, “how is he?”
I held my breath after the question left my lips.
The nurse flipped up a few pages on her clipboard and read a few lines then looked around the room. “Mr. Slater is stable. We have him on oxygen, an IV drip for fluids, and we’re running his blood now to see what could have been the cause of him collapsing.”
I blinked and exhaled a slow breath as I let what the nurse said sink in.
Kane was stable. He was alive!
Thank God.
“Why couldn’t you just tell me that?” Keela suddenly screamed at the nurse. Alec had to jump forward and wrap his arms around her body to keep her from attacking the nurse. “Why couldn’t you just say he was alive? How fuckin’ dare you keep that information from me! You made me think he was dead! You made me tell his brothers that he might be dead. How fuckin’ dare you!”
The nurse was on the verge of tears and I didn’t know if it was because Keela was screaming at her, or because she felt bad for keeping precious information away from the family of a patient. I didn’t care though—I wanted the bitch to cry. She worried us sick until we got here and the brothers could prove they were a blood relation.
“I-I’m sorry,” the nurse stammered.
Keela tried to get at her with her extended arms. “You’re sorry?” she bellowed. “You fuckin’ will be!”
The nurse took a wise step backward. “Ma’am, you’ll have to calm down or I’ll call—”
“Don’t,” I cut the nurse off with a growl. “Don’t threaten to call security and put her out of this hospital when our family is lyin’ on a bed somewhere in this buildin'. I’ll put you in a bed next to him if you do.”
“Shit,” Nico said and quickly moved across the room and stood in front of me. He gently pressed his hands on my shoulders, and nudged me backwards a few steps. He glanced over his shoulder at the nurse. “You better leave; your presence is just further upsetting my girls.”
The nurse mumbled something then scurried out of the room, closing the door tightly behind her.
“You should have let me hit her!” Keela snapped at Alec when she turned in his arms. Alec said nothing, just wrapped his arms tightly around her body and held onto her until she calmed down enough to hug him back.
We were all quiet for a moment until I said, “He is okay.”