them from her chair next to Brian’s bedside where she watched him sleep.
They motioned her out of the room to the hall. Toni gave Julie a weak smile, but Julie pulled her into her arms for a hug. “Have you been here all night?”
Toni nodded and gestured toward the hospital room. “He doesn’t have any family or anyone else to sit here with him. I didn’t want to leave him alone. They weren’t sure if he would make it through the night. He lost a lot of blood. If he was going to die, I couldn’t let him die alone.” Toni’s eyes filled with tears that quickly flowed down her cheeks. She seemed so lost.
Chris pulled out his cell phone. “Toni, go home. We’ll stay with him. I promise you, we won’t leave him alone anymore. I’m so sorry we didn’t realize you were here. You should have called one of us.”
She was already shaking her head. “No, I don’t want to leave. I’ll stay.”
Chris and Julie exchanged a concerned look.
Julie laid a hand on Toni’s shoulder. “Have you eaten anything?”
“I’m fine, really.”
“Tell her to go home and sleep,” said a low, gravelly voice from within the room. All three of them turned to look in shock at Brian, who was lying in bed scowling at Toni.
“Ignore him. Being hurt makes him grumpy,” Toni said, but her worried glance toward Brian said a lot more than her words. She sighed and closed her eyes for a moment as she leaned against the wall.
Julie didn’t know how much of it was physical exhaustion and how much of it was mental exhaustion, but as someone who’d spent a lifetime controlling emotional upheaval, Julie could recognize the signs. Toni was on the edge of breaking and using Brian to take the focus off her own pain. As she glanced back over at Brian, she realized this could be perfect. Brian obviously needed someone in his life and Toni had taken it upon herself to fill that position. She needed him right now as a distraction, too. They just needed to make sure she didn’t get exhausted doing it.
Turning to Chris, she instructed, “Don’t call anyone. Go sit with Brian while I take Toni down to the cafeteria to get something to eat. We’ll be back in a little bit.”
Toni began to argue, but Julie didn’t give her a chance. She just pulled her along. Luckily, Julie had slept the night before so she could push the exhausted Toni around.
Julie stopped her once they were further down the hall. “You have two choices right now, although it really doesn’t matter which you choose, because you will be doing both before you’re allowed back into his room.”
Toni clenched her jaw, but didn’t argue, even though her eyes shot sparks. Julie figured that was a good sign the sassy girl was still in there, regardless of the awfulness of the day before.
“You need to shower and change your clothes, but you also need to eat. Which would you like to do first?”
“Are you saying I stink?” Toni discreetly checked her pits and the sides of Julie’s mouth quirked up.
She couldn’t keep the laugh from escaping. “No, but there’s a shower and I have a change of clothes down in the Physical Therapy department. You’ll feel better for it. It will help as much to fix your exhaustion as you can without actually going home and taking a nap, which I gathered you wouldn’t even consider. Right?”
“Right.”
“So which first, shower or food?”
Toni wilted, the fight going out of her.
Julie swallowed against the lump in her throat. It would take a while for this girl to get over the trauma from the day before, but Julie planned to be there to physically and mentally prop her up.
“Do you think we could get a cup of coffee on the way to the shower?”
“I think that could be arranged. Come on.” She steered Toni toward her office to pick up fresh clothes.
When Toni got out of the shower, they were chatting about inane things and ignoring the elephant in the room when something occurred to Julie. “Who’s taking care of Sam, your dog?”
“Jake and Cassie took him to their house. They were here yesterday when I decided to stay.”
“Okay, good.” Toni seemed so tired. She wouldn’t have even been there if it wasn’t for Julie pulling her into the house yesterday. “Listen, Toni, I’m so sorry that I drug you into that situation yesterday. You tried to leave and I