Heart Beats (Joker's Sin #3) - Davidson King Page 0,47
it was the accident?”
“Roma said the same thing, but—”
“You don’t agree?” He shook his head. “You think he was warning you? That it wasn’t him in some sort of drugged-up hallucination?”
His gaze met mine. “Yeah, what do you think?”
“I think with everything going on, anything is possible.”
We looked up when we heard a light knock. Ledger and I were alone in the ICU waiting room, and I suppose the intensity of our conversation had the doctor not wanting to interrupt.
“My apologies for interrupting,” the doctor said. His white lab coat read Lawrence Reynolds, MD.
“No, it’s fine. I’m Ledger.” He stood and held out his hand. Dr. Reynolds took the few feet toward us and shook it.
“I’m Shane,” I introduced myself, smirking at Ledger when he apologized for not telling the doctor my name.
“And I’m Dr. Reynolds. Now that we have the formalities out of the way”—he chuckled—“I’m here to tell you what’s going on with Mr. Zabel.”
“I was able to talk to him for maybe a minute. I noticed his speech was choppy.”
The doctor nodded. “Right. There’s no way to tell if that’s due to the drugs and disorientation or any head trauma. It’s far too soon to know. What I can tell you is that he is recovering well from his physical injuries. He has two broken ribs, which could also be making speech difficult, even with pain medications. He does have a severe concussion we are monitoring. No bleeding in the brain, and that is very good. We did have to operate to remove some debris from the car. It was embedded in his hip, arm, and back. Fortunately, he is healing well from that. No fever or infection as of now, and we want to keep it that way.”
“That’s good news,” Ledger breathed out, and I took a gulp of air myself.
“Yes. We will be keeping him in the ICU for at least a few more days. My hope is that early next week he’ll be in a room.”
“Do you know how long he will be at the hospital and the aftercare he’ll need?” Ledger asked, and I was ashamed to realize I didn’t think about who’d help Ziggy when this was over.
“He will likely need some rehabilitation after being discharged from here. We have a facility only a mile up the road that I’d suggest. After that, yes, he may need some help.”
Ledger nodded. “I live in Haven Hart, but I have a large place. I can help him.” The fact that Ledger didn’t hesitate to help his friend spoke volumes about what kind of person he was.
“That would be great,” the doctor said. “He will be going up for an MRI later this afternoon. And we will be monitoring him closely. Will you be in town for a while?”
“I have to call work; I’ll let you know.”
“Thank you. Leave your information with the nurse, and if there are any changes and you’re not here, someone will be sure to contact you.” Dr. Reynolds shook each of our hands once more and left.
“Listen, Ledger, you stay here, try and go back in to talk to Ziggy again. I’ll call Atlas or Ciro and let them know what’s going on and what they think.”
Ledger cupped my cheeks, his hands warm, and I wanted to sink into his whole body. “Thank you for being with me,” he whispered and before I could respond, he pressed his lips to mine.
“Thanks for letting me,” I said after he broke away.
Ledger sat with me and had coffee, since Ziggy would be asleep for a while. He told me to let Ciro open the gift and to just tell him what it was. He had zero interest in seeing it. When Roma called the waiting room to let him know Ziggy was awake and asking for him, he left and I called Ciro.
“Hey, Shane,” Ciro answered.
“Hi, so listen…” I explained everything to Ciro—from Ziggy waking to what he and the doctor said, all the way to asking Ciro to open the gift that was left for Ledger.
“Hang on.” The way Ciro spoke didn’t let on whether any of the information I told him was worth being nervous over or anything. If I hadn’t seen Ciro smile, I’d have thought he was a robot.
“Okay, I’ve got the gift, let me open it.” I could hear him tearing the paper. “Fuck,” Ciro whispered, and he may as well have just shouted it into the phone.
“What, what is it?”
“A tiny toy car, another USB, and