Fragile (24 page)

“Dr Jackson.” Dr Brooks met me at the nurse’s desk, handing over a chart. “Patient presents with chronic headaches and memory lapses.” I followed her to where the patient was waiting. She pulled back the curtain and started to introduce the patient, “This is Dr...”

“Mark?” Dr. Brooks stopped talking as I walked toward him, starting my examination of him. “Dr. Brooks, is there anything other than what you told me outside?”

“No, Dr. Jackson. He’s only been here a few minutes. He asked for you.”

I checked Mark’s pupil response. “I want a CT scan, blood tests, the works.” I turned to look at her, “This has priority. Drop whatever you’re doing. You’re with me now, and I need my schedule cleared until Mark leaves.”

“Yes, Doctor.”

“Ok, Mark, tell me everything that’s going on.” It was then that I noticed Rick standing by the window, watching us.

Mark sat up a bit straighter in the bed, and Rick came to sit on the other side of him. “Well, I’ve been having these headaches, big mean ones.” He put his hand toward the back of his head.

“There?” I asked, placing my hand on the spot to have a feel around for any obvious lumps or bumps.

“Yes.”

“Brooks said you were having memory lapses as well. Tell me about that.”

“Ah, well...” he started.

“Dad has moments where he forgets what he’s saying or doing,” Rick filled me in.

“How long has this been going on for?”

“Not long,” he admitted.

“Why didn’t you tell me?” I was a little hurt that he felt he had to come to the hospital instead of directly to me.

“I didn’t want to worry you. You’ve got too much going on right now.”

I patted his hand in understanding. “I’ll get you fixed up, Mark.” He smiled and leaned forward to kiss me on the cheek.

RICK

“You better do this quickly, Son. I’m not having anyone cut into my head.”

“No one’s going to cut into your head, Dad.”

“I’m just saying she’s put a rush on everything, so hurry up and do what you’re planning on doing.”

I rolled my eyes at him, “Yes Dad.” We were moved from the ER after a while, and we’re waiting for Lu to come back and tell us what was next. When Lu returned, she was carrying a silver tray with her. We watched as she placed it on the small table that she then wheeled beside her.

“What’s that for?” Dad asked, panicked. He always had a needle phobia.

“I’m just going to put a drip in you to make sure you don’t dehydrate and then I’m going to take some blood.” Dad pulled his arm away and tucked it behind his back. Chicken shit.

“I’m drinking plenty, honey. I don’t need a drip in my arm.”

“Dad hates needles, Lu.”

She looked over at me and then to Dad, “I’ll be as gentle as possible, Mark. Promise.” He looked unsure as he shook his head at me then passed his arm over to Lu. I needed to be close to Lu, so I went and stood beside her. Dad swore as Lu inserted a needle into a vein on the side of his wrist. “Sorry,” she whispered.

“It’s alright, Lucy. You’re family so I’ll forgive you.” She smiled as she hooked a bag up to the drip, and then picked up little glass vial.

“This won’t hurt. I promise.” Dad nodded and looked away as Lu took a few vials of blood, labelled them, and put them back on the tray.

She started to leave and I was losing time. “How are you feeling?” I asked, walking up to her and putting a hand on her waist. I needed her to stay a bit longer.

“I’m good.” She stepped away from me, and my hand dropped to my side.

“The babies? They’re good too?”

Lu stopped and looked up at me, “Yeah, we’re all good.”

I looked over to Dad, who was watching us, and then back to Lu. “I love you.”

She stopped again and turned to face me. “You love me?” She sounded pissed. That wasn’t good.

“Yes, Lu. I love you.”

She picked up the vials and wrapped up the rubbish in a blue cloth, “You have one fucked up way of showing it.”

LUCY

After handing in Mark’s blood to the lab, I went back to sit by him. Rick wasn’t in the room when I entered and I let out a sigh of relief. I didn’t want to see him right now. “Your blood is being tested. We’ll have the results in a few hours.”

“There’s no rush, honey. Take your time.” I pushed a chair next to the bed and sat down.

“Have you told Tray you’re here?”

He spread his hands out over his blanket, smoothing it out. “No, I didn’t want to worry him.”

“He’ll know something’s up when you’re not home.”

“Yeah, I know. He’s a good boy. Mather did well with him.”

“You did well too, Mark.”

“Thank you, Lucy.” I smiled and sat back, getting comfy in the uncomfortable hospital chair. “I told him to do it. He didn’t want to. He honestly thought, well, I honestly thought that it was the right thing to do, but all it did was cause more heartache.”

“What are you talking about, Mark?”

Mark took a deep breath. “I told him that if he was in your life, the family would bring nothing but hurt to you. With Ireland, and...he didn’t want to do it, Lucy. He really does love you, and now you’re having his babies. He just wants to try and fix things.”

Rick chose that moment to walk back into the room, his hands full of cups from the café and a paper bag. “Did I miss anything?” He passed the cups around and opened the paper bag.

“Lucy can’t drink coffee, Son.”

“I know. It’s hot chocolate.” He unpacked the paperback, laying its contents out on the table.

“You didn’t miss anything. The blood is still being tested,” I told him while taking a drink. He passed a sandwich across to me, watching me as I took it and started to unwrap it

Mark fell asleep after he ate, “You should call Tray.”

“We will.” We stayed silent as we listened to the hustle happening in the hallway. I caught Rick watching me and was just about to call him out about it when he spoke, “Marry me?”

Rick pulled a ring out of his pocket and my eyes widened at the sight of it. It was beautiful, with tiny diamonds on the silver band, little diamonds that lifted off the band and into the shape of leaves, four of them in total, sitting in the middle of the diamond leaves was a large, clear cut diamond, mounted proudly on a silver embellishment.

“Will you marry me, Lu?”

I started to hyperventilate at the enormity of the situation. When I didn’t answer he got down on one knee, and lifted my right hand, “I know this is sudden, Lu. I love you, and I know that I’ve put you on the spot right now, so I’m going to put it on this finger,” The ring slid onto my right ring finger, “and when you’re ready,” he picked up my left hand and kissed my ring finger, “we’ll put it where it belongs.”

RICK

Lu went to check on Dad’s test results, leaving me in the room with my sleeping father.

“Smooth, Son.” I looked over to him to see his eyes open and looking at me.

“She freaked out.”

“Didn’t sound like it?”

“She didn’t answer me.” I rubbed my hands over my face. I didn’t know what to expect when I asked Lu to marry me, but I didn’t expect for her to not answer or to stay completely silent.

“It did come out of nowhere,” Dad pointed out.

“Yeah, I guess. This is not how I imagined ever doing it. The day before I broke up with Lu, I bought her a ring. I had this plan. I was going to get down on one knee, roses and the whole thing. Then Luke and Ireland fucked it all up.” I took a deep breath, “I never got the chance to go through with it.”

“Mark, I have your results,” Lu came walking back into the room.

“That was fast. Is everything ok?” I stood up and went to her side.

“The blood tests show nothing abnormal, which is normal in some cases. We’ve scheduled a CT scan for you, and we’ll get in there and see what’s going on.” Dad shot me a look of panic. Yeah, I’m going to pay for this later.

Lu stayed, and we talked further about what was going to happen next. She never brought up the topic of my proposal, but she was wearing the ring. That had to be a good thing, I think. Dad picked it up and gave it a spin around her finger, but didn’t say anything about it.

“Dr. Jackson, CT is ready for you now,” Dr. Brooks said as she walked into the room.

“Thank you, Brooks.” She stood up. “Let’s get you ready, Mark.” Dad threw me a look of pure panic. I smiled and waved by to hi, there was no turning back now. He was prepped and wheeled out of the room. They were gone a long time, and when they return, Dad was not happy.

“Where’s Lu?” I asked Dr. Brooks when she wheeled Dad back into the room.

“Dr. Jackson is double checking the scan results. She’ll be back soon.”

As soon as she left the room, Dad jumped up from the bed, “We have to get out of here now.” He looked around, searching for his clothes.

“Relax, Dad.” I threw him his clothes. He disappeared behind the bathroom door and returned dressed.

“She would know...”

“Going somewhere, Mark?” Lu walked back into the room wheeling a small table in front of her.

“Yeah, honey. I’m feeling so much better. Whatever you did worked. Headache is gone.”

“I can’t let you do that, Mark.” She stepped closer to Dad, walking away from the trolley, and put her hands on his shoulders. She gently pushed him back until he was sitting on the bed again.

“Why not? I’m fine. Really. One hundred percent.”

“Yeah, we need to talk.” She sat down beside him, and my heart started to pound in my chest. This was not part of the plan. I saw Dad starting to panic too. He looked around the room, pinning his eyes on me. “We need to do one more test,” Lu continued. “Your scans revealed something that I can’t clearly see on the CT.”

“What? What did you find?” I stumbled with my words as I asked the heart stopping question. I grabbed Dad’s hand. He was shaking.

“Well, I don’t know, Rick, which is why I’m going to do a Cerebral Angiography.” She got up and went over to the trolley she wheeled in, pushing it over to where we were all sitting.

“What’s that?” Dad asked, eyeing the giant needle sitting on the top. Even I was scared of it.

“I’m going to insert this needle into your groin area.” I winced, “Don’t worry, it will be numbed. A tube is then going to be inserted in to the main blood vessel, and it will be threaded through and up the vein until it reaches the neck. A dye will then be released, and we’ll be able to get a better look at what’s going on in there.”

We remained silent, in a silent pain really, before Dad jumped up from the bed. “That’s not necessary. Honey, there was nothing wrong with me in the first place. It was all Rick’s idea. He made me do it,” Lu looked at me, eyebrow raised. I opened my mouth to say something. My jaw moved, but no sound came out.

“I told you last time that you pulled a stunt like this, Rick, that I’d admit you and it wouldn’t be pleasant. So, who’s going to undergo this procedure?”

“Rick, Rick is going to do it.” Dad moved to stand beside Lu.

“Rick, are you ready?” She held up the needle.

“How did you know?” I asked, giving in to her. She gave me a look that spoke volumes. “You wouldn’t talk to me or be around me. I needed to talk to you.”

“So you used your father as bait?”

“I was desperate,” I whispered.

“You were desperate.”

“You’re having my kids...”

“Get out of my hospital right now.”

LUCY

Pissed, hungry, tired and sore, I laid down in the dark of an on-call room and stared at the blacked-out ceiling. I couldn’t believe Rick’s stunt. A whole day was wasted on him. I got suspicious when the blood work came back clean. Mark is a very healthy person. The CT proved what I suspected; they faked it. THE WHOLE THING.

Mark had rung repeatedly apologising. He even sent me flowers. I ignored Rick’s calls though. I was too angry to talk to him. I guess I was being a little hard on him, but he couldn’t just pull a stunt like this and expect for me to run into his arms.

I sighed and lifted my right hand up, the silhouette of the ring illuminated in the light that crept under the door. He asked me to marry him. I was worried that he asked me for the wrong reasons. That thought lingered in my head and I needed to know. I need to put the question to rest. Put the uncertainty to rest. Not having anything but time, I got up and left the hospital.

I still had a key to his place. The apartment was dark when I entered. His car was there, which meant that he was there. I found my way upstairs and headed to Rick’s bedroom. Opening the door, I was stunned to find his bed empty. Confused, I stood staring at the empty space. A light turned on behind me. I turned, stunned and found Rick standing in the doorway of the room I once slept in. He was surprised to see me standing in his hallway. I was surprised that I was there too.