Page 35 of Stay with Me
§ § § §
Thirty-two minutes and Drew was off shift. He’d done the overnight for Jennings. Brody was working so it wasn’t like he had someone to cuddle with. Okay, he was sure that Smokey would’ve made himself comfortable next to Drew but… not the same thing. He’d gotten used to listening to Brody breath as he drifted to sleep.
The phone ringing next to Drew’s arm made him groan. Thirty-fucking-minutes. Why?
“Lieutenant Nolan,” Drew said as he put the receiver to his ear.
“Sir, this is Brooke Medical. Could you please send a cruiser to the emergency room to take a report?” a man asked. Drew looked at the call board. All his teams were finishing up shift and he wasn’t the asshole officer to make one of them stay over.
Taking one for the team, Drew blew out a breath and said, “I’ll be there within ten.” Was it his job to take a report? Nope, but his family had taught him that there wasn’t any task that he was too good to do. He could’ve ordered one of the sergeants, but Brooke was on the way to Brody’s. Drew would take the report, then type it up when he got to Brody’s and email it to Steve. Technically, he’d be on leave when his shift ended but they weren’t heading to Kentucky until the following afternoon. Brody had one more shift to work.
Drew grabbed his laptop bag, beret, and travel mug. He walked to the sergeant’s desk. “Okay, I’m heading over to Brooke to take a report then head home. If Spano has any questions, have him call my cell.”
“You got it, Lieutenant. You’re on leave for the next ten days, right?” Sergeant Carlos asked, not even looking up from his computer. Drew didn’t know what he was typing away at but dang, the man could type fast.
“I am. Taking Smokey to his furever home with my uncles.” Drew was really proud that he’d made that happen for Smokey and his uncles.
“Lucky dog. You travel safe. See you next week.” Carlos hadn’t even broken speed as he talked.
It wasn’t long before Drew was pulling into the emergency room lot. Making sure he had his field notebook with him, he grabbed his beret and walked in. A feeling of déjà vu came over him as he stopped at the window. Drew looked around and the waiting room didn’t look overly crowded. Yay for Brody and his team.
“How can I help you, Lieutenant?” the young woman asked from behind the glass.
“Someone called the station for us to send an officer to take a report.” Drew shrugged.
“Dave said they called for an MP. Didn’t realize officers were doing grunt work,” she muttered.
“Taking a statement isn’t grunt work,” Drew snapped. He wasn’t going to let this woman degrade anything his soldiers did.
She had the sense to look ashamed. Good. “Sorry, Lieutenant. I didn’t mean it the way it came out. I just didn’t realize that officers did some of the legwork. Come on through the door. I’ll have Devon meet you.”
Drew stepped into the controlled chaos he remembered from last time. A pretty woman in navy scrubs approached him, already talking. “Hello, I’m Devon. We’ve got the officers from SAPD in back triage for you to talk with. They were first on the scene. We collected the patient’s clothing in a separate bag for evidence.”
“Lieutenant Drew Nolan,” Drew replied, following the woman. He almost knocked her over when she stopped abruptly. Before he could mumble an apology, she was speaking again.
“Wait. Drew Nolan? Like, Brody’s Drew?” she asked. Shit, how was he supposed to answer? He wasn’t sure how out Brody was at work.
“Yes,” he confirmed tentatively. Please let Brody not kill him for this. He knew that Brody didn’t like to be the center of attention.
Devon turned and started in a different direction. Assuming he was supposed to follow, Drew double-timed to catch up. She stopped at a curtain, leaned around it then pulled back. “You should stop here first. When you’re done, just wave and one of us will take you to back triage.”
Not knowing what was behind the curtain, Drew straightened his shoulders and pushed it aside. Brody was lying on the gurney with an ice pack on his forehead. The shock of seeing Brody lying there smacked him as if he’d been hit by a baseball bat on the back of the head and that was a feeling he knew intimately thanks to them all trying to teach Julia to hit a softball when he was ten. He stumbled over to the bedside and took Brody’s hand.
Brody’s eyes fluttered open and he groaned. “Totally not what I had planned when we both got off shift today,” Brody said, causing Drew to snort.
“If you feel up to anything when we get home, my body is yours to do with what as you wish. Were you attacked? Is that why the MPs were called?” Drew had thought working as a nurse was a safe job when not deployed but with the stories that had been in the news about nurses being shot for not saving patients, he wasn’t sure he’d be surprised.
Drew watched as one sole tear rolled down Brody’s face. Fuck. “Are you in pain? Let me get som—”
“It was Jared,” Brody said, cutting him off. “Jared was left behind a gas station, beaten and bloody. I—”
It was Drew’s turn to cut off Brody. Drew felt like ice was running down his spine. Everything had been handled, so retribution shouldn’t have been possible. Provo had been convicted in civilian and UCMJ courts. Provo should be serving time somewhere. Something shuttered in Drew. He couldn’t help it; his first thought was he’d missed something somewhere, fucked it up, and Jared was paying the price.
“Jared was attacked?” Brody nodded. Drew took a steading breath. “Okay, let me call command and get in touch with the investigators from AFSFC. Am I one-hundred percent sure that this is related to his previous attack? No, but I’m not taking any chances on something going wrong if it is.” He wasn’t going to fuck this up again.
Chapter Twenty-Five
He was going to miss being here with Brody. Drew had all his and Smokey’s things packed. He was waiting for Brody to get home before he left. Drew was standing in the middle of the living room, staring at the blank TV. Smokey was practically sitting on Drew’s feet he was so close to him. He’d felt at home with Brody but now that he’d potentially overlooked something and Jared ended up paying the price, he was lost to him. Just one more thing to add to the ‘Drew fucked up’ list.
