Chapter 3

Claire held the bloodstained gauze in front of Mom. "Can I examine him now?"

Mom's expression tightened. She looked down at my uniform. Blood soaked the dark fabric, but it only showed as a slightly darker patch.

"There was broken glass all over the floor at the wedding. He probably cut his leg."

Claire stopped arguing and called over a nurse to help move me into an empty exam room.

Mom stepped in their way again. "We need those beds for critical patients. He can wait in the hallway. I'll order some tests."

She walked away without ordering anything. I watched her go straight into Evan's room, and she never came back out.

Claire tracked down the doctor on duty and finally got me scheduled for a CT scan. She held up her phone.

[You're next. The scan will show us if anything is lodged inside you.]

I caught her hand and held on. For the first time, I thought I might make it.

Just as a nurse wheeled me up to the CT room, Lila hurried over, still in her rescue uniform. She carried photos from the wedding venue.

"Kyle, they said you keep telling everyone a piece of metal stabbed you. Is that right?"

I nodded firmly and started signing that it broke off inside me.

She caught my hands before I could finish.

"I know what you're saying, but I checked every piece of debris myself."

She held up the photos.

"Every piece of the chandelier's outer frame was accounted for. There weren't any metal fragments with blood on them, either. How could a piece be stuck in your back?"

My hands shook as I tried to make her understand.

I pointed to the chandelier's central support in the photo, then to my lower back.

That was where the missing piece came from. It was still inside me.

Lila understood, but she only sighed.

"Kyle, I'm a fire captain. I know how that chandelier is put together." She glanced at my back. "After what happened to you before, I understand why pain might scare you. But you need to stop assuming the worst."

The CT room door opened, and a nurse wheeled a stretcher out.

Claire started to push me inside when a commotion broke out near Evan's room.

His nose was bleeding. Only a few drops stained his hospital gown, but Mom went pale.

"He needs a scan. Right now!"

Claire blocked his stretcher. "Kyle's been waiting long enough. Evan's already been examined, and he's not in immediate danger."

Sophia hurried over and took my wrist. "Evan has a clotting disorder. He needs to go first. You'll get your scan as soon as he's done."

I tightened my grip on the stretcher rail, but she peeled my fingers away one at a time.

She pulled me to my feet and helped me into a nearby chair. The movement pressed against the metal in my back, and pain shot through me.

My vision went white. I caught her sleeve and signed two things.

[Help me. I'm dying.]

Sophia understood every word, but she looked at me with nothing but disappointment.

"Kyle, you're really going to make me choose between you two? You've been in enough dangerous situations to know how to keep your head. I'm a doctor. I can't neglect a patient who's actually at risk just because you're my husband."

She wheeled Evan into the CT room, and the door shut between us.

Claire took out her phone and called for a surgical consult. She barely got through before Sophia came back out.

"Who authorized you to call a surgeon?"

Claire pointed at me. "Look at him. He can barely sit up! How can you rule out an internal injury when you haven't even examined him?"

Sophia's voice turned cold.

"The incident report ruled out a penetrating injury from metal debris. He was badly wounded on a mission a few years ago. His low blood pressure could be related to that."

She looked at Claire.

"We don't set aside our medical judgment just because a patient insists something is wrong."

Mom overheard the argument and called over the attending physician in charge of the ER. She claimed Claire was alarming the family without knowing the facts and wasting emergency resources.

The attending told Claire to leave the ER and help in another department for the time being.

As someone escorted her away, she turned and called down the hall.

"Don't move him again! He could have a penetrating injury!"

No one listened.