Page 16 of Pyg

“I’m afraid there isn’t much to say at the moment. According to the notes, he was awake this morning, but very confused. He doesn’t seem to remember who he is.”

“Oh no, poor thing.”

“They did a few cognitive tests, but he became very agitated and started ranting about pigs again, so they gave him a benzo.”

“What’s a benz?—”

“Ah, it’s a sedative. It’s sent him off into a lovely deep sleep. He looks like he could do with the rest, so it isn’t a bad thing. It buys us a bit more time to try to figure out who he is and get hold of his medical records.”

Alice wrung her hands together as her eyes settled back on the man’s face. She focused on his forehead, specifically that ghastly cut above his eyebrow. “You know the injury on his head? You don’t think that has anything to do with his memory loss, do you?”

“Why do you ask?” Ash’s neat eyebrows pinched together.

“I, er…” Alice swallowed against the bilious churn in her stomach; empty, aside from that awful acidic coffee. Static fizzed in her ears.

“It’s okay, you can tell me.”

“I’m worried this is all my fault. When I found him in the road, lying there and groaning, he was conscious, you know? Incoherent but awake.” Alice paused to steady her shaking voice.

“Go on.”

“Well, I had no phone signal to call for help, so I had to get him into my car… but he’s heavy and… well, I sort of dropped him. That’s how he cut his head.” Alice blinked back the tears blurring her vision. “This is all my fault, isn’t it?”

“Oh, Alice.” The doctor moved closer and touched her hand to Alice’s back, the warmth from it radiating through her. “There’s something called the Good Samaritan Law. Basically, if you’ve stopped to help someone, you can’t be blamed if you unintentionally injure them in the process.”

“I’m not worried about being blamed. I’m worried that I’ve caused him a serious head injury and now he can’t remember who he is and that’s because of me. I’m like a disaster magnet.”

Ash peered into her face with an earnest look of reassurance. “I can’t be one hundred percent certain until we’ve done some more tests, but I doubt that little cut has caused any major issues.”

“Really?” Alice blinked, conscious of Ash’s warm hand still pressed between her shoulder blades and the subtle motion of her thumb moving in small comforting circles.Is this what they mean by bedside manner?Alice bit hard on the inside of her lip.

“Really.” Ash smiled. “It’s a flesh wound. It looks worse than it is. He’s booked in for some scans anyway, but in my professional opinion the worst you’ve done is cause him a few stitches.”

“Okay, that makes me feel a little better, I guess.”

The doctor’s hand fell away and in Alice’s unprofessional opinion, she thought she should return it immediately. But she stopped herself from saying that.

“Oh, and I found this.” Alice reached for the man’s coat. “I forgot it came off when I was pulling him into my car.”

“Have you checked the pockets?”

Alice scoffed. “No, of course not. Why would I go through his pockets?”

Ash raised an eyebrow and took the coat. “To see if he was carrying anything that will tell us who he is.”

“Right. Yes, that makes sense.”

Whilst holding the furry mass of a coat by its collar, Ash patted the pockets. First, she pulled out an ancient brick of a mobile phone.

“Bloody hell, is that a Nokia? I thought they went extinct.”

Ash pressed the buttons but, much like the man, the Nokia didn’t respond. She returned to the pockets and fished out a scruffy leather wallet. “Aha!” She flipped it open and slid out a pastel-pink card.

“Quelle surprise, he’s not called Xavier.”

Alice widened her eyes in mock-surprise. “He isn’t?”

Ash laughed and held out the man’s driving licence. “No. Here we have one Mr George Shaw.” She placed the coat over the end of the bed and waved the wallet. “I’m just going to give this to the team so they can run it through the system.” She turned to leave but looked around and grinned at Alice. “Be right back, okay?”

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