Page 34 of Cured

Chapter 12

Colt

Ember was pale, and her hair was wet and stuck to her face in tangles. She was dressed in cotton shorts and a t-shirt and both were almost as wet as her hair. What the hell?

I dropped to my knees next to her, “Ember! Ember, wake up, baby, wake up and tell me what’s wrong.”

She moaned loudly when I spoke to her, and I realized she had both her arms wrapped around her abdomen. I pushed her shoulders back and tried to palpitate the soft tissue. I hit one spot and she almost went through the roof. “Oh, Jesus,” I yanked my cellphone out and called 911.

“Yes, I need an ambulance. I have a female, approximately twenty-five, showing signs of acute appendicitis.” I gave the call taker a few more details and then hung up after he assured me medics were on the way to her apartment.

“Ember, baby, hang on, sweetie. Hang on, help is on the way.”

Ember sobbed quietly, and I did everything I could to try and keep her calm until the ambulance arrived. When I heard the siren, I waited at the front door buzzer for them to hit it. As soon as they did, I let them in and then ran back to Ember’s side, leaving her apartment door wide open.

“Help’s here sweetheart. You’re going to be alright, just hold on, things are about to get bumpy.”

The medics arrived, and I stepped out of the way. Yeah, I was a doctor, but treating someone you cared about was never a good option.

That thought was like a sucker punch to my solar plexus. Jesus, I did care about that woman—and, holy shit, here I’d been thinking she was out partying and picking up some guy, when she was cleaning her home and having a medical emergency. What a shithead I was.

The medic allowed me to sit in the back of the ambulance with her, and I think the only reason he did so was because he knew me from my work. He mentioned something about hearing about what I had done for one of the cop’s kids after he got hurt in a car accident.

It never hurt to be known, especially when it kept me close to Ember right now. I held her hand and tried to keep her calm while the medic did a work over. “You’re right; it does look like her appendix. Let’s hope it didn’t rupture yet.”

I nodded at him, but couldn’t find any words to say what he already hadn’t. I closed my eyes and prayed quickly:Please, God, don’t take her away. Let her make it through this. Let me have found her in time.

The ambulance pulled up to the emergency room, and the EMTs wheeled her in. The medic asked me to go talk to the front nurse, and I watched them take her back to a treatment room. I heard him telling one of the nurses what he knew, and the nurse turned and told someone to call upstairs and get an OR ready, stat.

The word put a shiver down my spine to rival an earthquake, and I went to find the desk nurse.

“Doctor Barnes, what can I do for you?” I’d seen this nurse around the hospital, but if it hadn’t been for her name tag, I would never have known her name was Delores.

“Delores, a friend was just brought in with appendicitis. Her name is Ember Greene.”

She typed on the keyboard, “Is her birthday June 16, 1990?”

“That sounds about right. She lives on Hemlock.”

“Okay, yeah, I have her in our system.”

“Delores, does she have an emergency contact? I’d like to give them a call and let them know she’s here.”

Delores typed a few more things and then made a humming sound, “Strangely, the emergency contact that she has is her family doctor, Dr. Miles.”

“Seriously?”

“Yeah, I don’t see anyone else in here. Do you want me to page him?” she asked as she reached for the phone.

“No, that’s alright. I have his phone number; I’ll give him a call.” I started to turn away, “Delores, I think they are going to be taking her up to surgery pretty quickly. Can you let me know when they do?”

She told me she would, and I made my way over to the waiting area. Why would Ember have Tom Miles as her emergency contact? Was he family? I thought Tom’s kids were young.

I dialed his number, and he picked up on the second ring. “Tom, it’s Colt Barnes, how are you?”

“I’m doing well, Colt. It’s been a while, how are you?”

“I guess I’ve been better. Look, do you know Ember Greene?”

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