Page 52 of Between the Pipes

“Nicky, no, don’t wake him up. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to call you. Everything’s fine.” I can hear Sam’s muffled voice and I groan.

“What’s going on?” Troy asks again. “Why are you awake? Are you driving?”

“Yeah, I’m heading over to St. Bruno’s. I got a call and I guess Nico is in the hospital. I’m really sorry for waking you up, go back to sleep.”

“Fuck, is he okay? Nico is in the hospital; Lawson is on the way there. Yeah…I’ll ask.” I wait, letting Troy get Sam up to speed. “Sorry about that, Sam was asking about you. Can I put you on speaker?”

“Of course.” The soft rustle of bed sheets and then I can hear Sam. “Hey, Sam. Sorry I woke you up.”

“It’s fine. Do you want us to meet you at the hospital?”

“No, no, it’s okay. I want you to go back to sleep.” Unlikely, given that I’ve woken them both up and freaked them out. “I don’t even know what’s going on, the nurse wouldn’t say anything over the phone except that he’s fine and he’s resting.”

“I don’t think they can say much,” Sam says, fairly, “until you talk to the doctor. But she wouldn’t have said he’s fine if he wasn’t.”

Blowing out a hard exhale, I try to calm down. That’s a good point, and something I might have picked up on myself if I wasn’t so focused on the wordshospitalandNico Mackenziebeing used in the same sentence.

“St. Bruno’s is pretty far from your house, isn’t it?” Troy asks. “Are you speeding?”

I check the dash. Yes, I’m speeding. “No.”

“No speeding!” I take a little pressure off of the gas pedal. “We can meet you there, Lawson, really, it’s no trouble.”

“Hold off for now, okay? I’ll go and see what’s happening, and then give you a call back.”

“You’ll let us know if you need anything, right?” Sam sounds less unnerved than Troy, his voice coming across as calm as the nurse’s had been.

“Yeah, I’ll text you once I’m there.”

“Drive safe,” Troy adds, “please."

Deciding that I’ll just send Corwin a text once I get there, I concentrate on driving and getting there in one piece. In what feels like an eternity later, I pull into the nearest parking spot I can find and half jog through the automatic sliding doors. There’s a line—a fuckingline—at the check-in desk like this is the place to be at two a.m. on a Wednesday morning. By the time I reach the front and it’s my turn, I’m damn near crawling out of my skin with impatience.

“Hi, nurse Rebecca called me about Nico Mackenzie—.”

“Name?” The girl behind the plexiglass window looks completely unbothered by my urgency. Her eyes skate over the parts of me she can see and remain unimpressed.

“Nico Mackenzie,” I repeat, and she sighs expansively, like I’m trying her patience.

“Your name, sir.”

“Oh, right,”duh, you idiot, “Anthony Lawson.”

She checks something on her computer, agonizingly slow. Eventually, I’m directed to have a seat in the waiting room and wait for someone to come and get me. I remain standing, but use the time to send a quick text to Corwin, and then a separate one to both Troy and Sam. Troy responds immediately, as though he were waiting by the phone. I tell him again that he should go back to sleep.

Twenty-nine minutes later, I feel like I’ve been waiting for hours. Pacing, I consider going back to the front desk when one of the lobby doors slides open and a man in scrubs scans the waiting room.

“Anthony Lawson?” He calls, checking a piece of paper.

“Hi, yeah, that’s me.” I walk up to him so fast he startles, slightly. Stepping aside to beckon me through the door, he walks a pace in front of me as we head through the Emergency Department.

“Thanks for coming. My name is Dr. Lopez, I’m in charge of Mr. Mackenzie’s care this evening.” He checks his watch. “Or, morning, rather. We’ve got him in an inpatient room just over here. He fell back asleep, but you’re welcome to be in the room.”

As he holds open another door for me using his left hand, he reaches his right toward me to shake. He doesn’t look old enough to be a doctor.

“Anthony Lawson,” I introduce myself unnecessarily, shaking his hand. “What happened? Is Nico alright?”

“Yes, sir. As you know, we’ve had a particularly rough flu season,” he glances back at me as he says this. He’s obviously recognized me, and must be enough of a fan to know that we’ve had our share of disease pass through the locker room this season. “Mr. Mackenzie picked up a particularly nasty strain of Influenza A, that has turned into pneumonia. Not a common occurrence, but it does happen. He came in through the Emergency Room by ambulance on Monday evening.”

---