Braxton (Station 47)

Chapter 2

TWO

HANNAH

You would think with it being a random Monday afternoon, the emergency room would be pretty quiet, but even though it’s not a full moon, it sure feels like it. I haven’t had two minutes to sit down since my shift started at seven this morning and it’s almost two.

“There’s a car accident victim in room eight,” LeeAnna, a nurse I’ve worked with since day one, informs me as she calmly makes her way around where I’m standing at the raised side of the nurses station desk. “She was unconscious on scene and hasn’t regained consciousness as of yet, but there is a medical alert bracelet on her wrist that says she’s a cancer patient named Christina Davis. It also lists a doctor, Courtney Faulkner, and her phone number..”

Taking the tablet she hands me, I read over the small amount of information we have on the woman. Twenty-seven years old according to the ID they found on her, was unconscious but breathing when EMT’s took her out of the car. No obvious signs of illness, aside from the wig she was wearing due to loss of hair, likely caused by chemo, and a port on her chest.

The next part of her file is what makes me freeze before my head jerks up and I stare, wide-eyed, at LeeAnna. “A child was brought in with her?”

“Mm-hmm,” she murmurs distractedly, her eyes on the screen in front of her. “He’s fine, no injuries, but he was crying for his mama something fierce when they took him into an exam room so Andrew could look him over. Sadie’s with him now. She took him to the play area to try to distract him while we work on mom.”

When I don’t respond, she finally turns her attention away from the screen to meet my eyes. “I promise, he’s fine. Just scared and wanting his mom.” LeeAnna bites down on her bottom lip, her gaze moving beyond me to room eight. Her concern is clear. “I hope she wakes up soon, but I’ll call Doctor Faulkner in the meantime and see what her office can tell me. She’s definitely going through it. Girl is so damn skinny, and her skin is so pale and thin, it’s nearly transparent.”

“At least the little boy is unharmed. We can all be thankful for that.” LeeAnna agrees, then picks up the phone, I assume to call the oncologist for our cancer patient. I’m about to go check on her myself when I hear a loud commotion coming from up front.

Turning, I see Braxton, my best friend Kaydence’s little brother, run through the doors that lead out to the waiting area, head turning frantically from one side to the other like he’s looking for someone. He doesn’t even notice I’m standing twenty feet in front of him, nor does he register me walking over to him and touching his arm.

“Braxton? What’s going on?”

The sound of his name grabs his attention, and his chest rises with a deep breath as he attempts to calm himself. His forearm trembles beneath my hand and his heart is pounding so hard I can feel it against my fingers.

He doesn’t answer me though, and I say his name once more, this time the word coming out a little short. My first thought is something happened to Kaydence, but if it had, she would’ve been brought in here and I’m sure I would know. She’s been here to visit me enough times everyone knows who she is.

“Where is she?” he finally asks, eyes still darting around the circular area that houses the exam rooms and nurses station. Brax starts to move around me, but I tighten my grip on him. That grabs his attention and he looks down at me. His eyes are wide, pupils dilated, and I can tell he’s struggling to focus on me. It looks like his thoughts are racing just as fast as his heartbeat.

Movement behind Braxton distracts me for a second and I see one of the other firefighters coming through the doors. He’s much more calm and when his eyes land on Brax, he looks a little relieved. When he comes up beside Braxton, he places a hand on his shoulder and turns his focus to me. “There was a woman and a little boy brought in, probably not too long ago. Do you know what their status is? We were first on scene and got the little boy out of the car. He latched onto Brax.”

Okay, that makes sense, and slows my own heart. Thinking something happened to my best friend had my own beating harder than normal.

“Follow me,” I tell them, and they both follow me into the closest empty room. “I can’t tell you much, aside from letting you know they are both stable.” The wild look in Braxton’s eyes has me wanting to apologize and tell him whatever he knows, but all three of know that’s not a thing I can do. The firefighters and EMT’s deal with traumatic situations every day, but once they’re in my care, their involvement for the most part ends. I can’t go into specifics without my patient’s permission, no matter how much I want to reassure Braxton. Plus, I don’t really know much yet, aside from the little boy being perfectly healthy and his mom being unconscious two rooms down.

Braxton starts to pace back and forth between his firefighter friend and me. He runs a hand through his hair repeatedly as he moves from one side of the small space to the other and his breathing picks up to the point I’m afraid he’s going to have a panic attack.

“Hey.” I shift so I’m standing in his way when he turns to make another rotation through the room. “What’s going on? Why are you so upset about this? Do I need to call Kay?”

The mention of his sister stops him in his tracks. “No,” he says, voice breaking slightly and his broad shoulders sagging. “I just, I need to know they’re both okay.”

“I’ve never seen you act like this over someone you pulled out of a wreck or a fire,” his friend comments, and Brax and I both turn our attention to him.

Shaking his head, he turns away from us both, and just when I open my mouth to question him again, he speaks, voice cracking when he says the words. “I know her.”

“Who?” His friend and I both ask at the same time.

His hand runs back through his hair yet again, like it’s a nervous tic he doesn’t realize he has. “Christina. I knew her a couple years ago when she lived here.” Once he gets the words out, he turns back to face us, but his focus is completely on his friend. It’s like I’m not even in the room, but I’m too curious to leave. What does it matter that he knows a random girl who used to live here?

“Okay,” his friend says, drawing out the word, and I wish I knew his name. I don’t interact with most of them very much, and names are not my friend. I have the worst memory when it comes to remembering them. “Knew her… how ?”

Ohhh . I know the answer before he says it. “We dated.”

This kinda shocks me. I’ve met the majority of the girls he’s dated through the years thanks to my friendship with his older sister, but the name Christina doesn’t ring a bell.

“You dated her? When?” The friend asks.

Brax drops his head, looking at the floor when he responds quietly, “We broke up like five years ago, Rhett.”

“ Fuck .” The word is barely audible coming from Rhett’s mouth. I’m frozen in place, because he can’t be saying what I think he might be. There’s no way. Kaydence will kill him if he got a girl pregnant. She’s always been more like his mom than his sister.

I don’t even know what to say at this point. Even if he thinks he might be that little boy’s dad, I still can’t tell him anything without the mom’s permission. He doesn’t have any legal claim to him at this point. Thankfully, before I have to point that out, LeeAnna’s head pokes through the doorway.

“Sorry to interrupt, but Hannah, your patient’s awake and asking about her son.”

Okay, so maybe not so thankfully , because Braxton immediately tries to beat me to the door. Rhett has to lunge forward, wrapping an arm around his chest and pulling him to a stop.

“Dude, you can’t.”

I agree. “He’s right. You need to stay here while I go talk to my patient .” He looks like he wants to argue, but after a second, he sags against his friend with a nod. Once I’m sure he’s not going to follow me, I leave the room to talk to Christina.

She’s sitting up in the bed when I walk into the room, and when she sees me, her body jolts forward like she’s going to rush me. “Where’s my son?” Her breath catches and her eyes fill with tears. “Is Nathan okay?”

My heart instantly hurts for her. I can’t even imagine what she must be thinking right now. “Nathan’s fine, I promise. He’s with one of our nurses and they’re playing with the toys in the kids waiting area.”

Christina falls back into the raised part of the bed and covers her face with her hands in an attempt to hide her sobs. Taking a step back to give her a modicum of privacy, I stick my head out the door and find LeeAnna. “Can you have Sadie bring Nathan in? Give me about three minutes, then we can let the two of them reconnect so they know they’re both okay.” LeeAnna nods her agreement and hurries away to find them.

Walking over to the side of the bed, I rub her bicep to comfort her as I talk. “A nurse just went to get Nathan for you, but I need to ask you a few questions before they get back. Can you take a few deep breaths for me so we can get through these?”

She nods, sucking in a breath while I count to four, then out for another four. The heart rate monitor beside her starts to slow down to a much more normal rhythm, and once the tears stop she looks up at me. “What questions do you need to ask?”

“Well, we contacted your doctor back in Chattanooga, but we haven’t gotten a call back yet. Can you tell me a little about your treatments and where you’re at? Do you remember what happened to cause the accident? I need to know how to treat you.”

A tear drips down her cheek, but she doesn’t wipe it away. “I have stage four cervical cancer. I just finished a round of chemo and just found out last week that it’s spread to my lungs and lymph nodes. I’m not going to get better.” The last sentence is said with a sob, and I just want to hug her.

“Oh, Christina. I’m so sorry.”

She only nods. “To answer your question about the accident,” she goes on, struggling to sound emotionless and failing, “I started feeling light-headed all of a sudden, probably because of all the stress, and started to pull off onto the side of the road, but that’s the last thing I remember.”

“It’s a good thing you were pulling off the road before you lost consciousness. That’s probably what kept your son from getting any injuries and you only having a bump and small cut on your forehead.” The two of them are so lucky they weren’t seriously injured. Someone was definitely looking out for them this afternoon.

“I do have just a few more questions for you.” Christina nods, waiting patiently for me to continue. After looking down at the tablet I’m still carrying around, I ask the question that I’m desperate to have an answer for after reminding her that we did contact her doctor but haven’t hard back. “Is there someone I can call for you? Your parents, or maybe Nathan’s dad? Since you were unconscious, we have one of the nurses looking after him, but we can’t do that for very long, and until we are able to run some tests and figure out what caused you to get lightheaded and pass out, you’re going to have to stay here. We can’t have Nathan staying here with you without some kind of supervision.”

Part of me hates bringing this up and telling her she can’t just keep her son here with her, but it’s not like I can just come out and say there’s this guy who was one of the firefighters to show up on scene and thinks your kid might be his.

Christina looks down at her hands where she’s twisting her fingers together and squeezing. A slight flush fills her cheeks before she answers. “I should probably call my parents so they can come take care of Nathan. They don’t even know I left yet, I’m sure. I didn’t tell them I was coming.”

“What brought you to Nashville today? Did you have an appointment with a specialist?”

Her head shakes, telling me that no, that wasn’t it. I want to ask why she didn’t either tell her parents or have them come with her, especially knowing she’s sick and has terminal cancer. It doesn’t seem like the smartest course of action if I’m being honest.

“I actually came to talk to Nathan’s father.” Tears start to fall, hitting her white-knuckled fingers. “He doesn’t know Nathan exists, but I can’t leave my son alone.” When she looks back up at me, her eyes are full of despair. “I can’t leave my son with no parent at all. My parents are great, don’t get me wrong, but I can’t ask them to raise him. I know they would, but I can’t ask that of them.”

The door to the room flies open before I can say anything in response, revealing a very upset Braxton who was clearly listening outside.