if it was anyone else, but I knew he’d told Ash all about us.
“Hey Ash, it’s Roman. He’s sleeping,” I said, letting him know right away it wasn’t Trey on the phone. At first, there was just silence followed by what sounded like a sniffle. “Ash, are you okay?” I asked.
He took in a shaky breath and said, “I’m okay now, but can you get Trey for me, please?”
I could tell by the sound of his voice something was wrong, so I shook Trey awake. “Hey, Ash is on the phone, and he needs to talk to you, he sounds upset.”
“What?” he asked, obviously not fully awake.
“Ash is on the phone, he just called, and he said he needs to talk to you, he doesn’t sound so good.” At that, he sat up quickly, rubbed his eyes, and reached for the phone.
“Ash?” he asked, swinging his legs off the side of the bed and reaching for his clothes while he listened to Ash talk.
“Okay, just tell me which hospital and I’ll be right there.”
“No, don’t worry, Roman will bring me. I won’t come alone.”
“Okay, St. Mary’s.” He turned to me. “Do you know where St. Mary’s is?” I nodded that I did as I also got up and searched for my pants.
“Okay, Roman knows where it is. We’re on our way.” He hung up the phone and rushed to finish dressing.
“It’s about twenty-five minutes away,” I said. “What happened?”
“Ash was attacked. He’s okay, but they won’t release him unless someone comes to get him. They said he has a slight concussion.”
“Maybe we should pack a bag in case we need to stay there for a couple days?”
“Darn it. Ash has a tiny studio apartment. There’s no way we’ll be comfortable there, and I can’t bring him back here.”
“We can take him to my house. Just pack enough to stay for a couple days. You guys are about the same size, so toss in a few extra things for him. The next rally isn’t until Saturday. I’ll message Fredrick and tell him something came up I had to handle, and it seemed safest to take you with me.”
“Make sure he knows we’ll be back for the rally so they’ll leave us alone.”
“I will,” I assured him. “Now, let’s go get Ash.” I hadn’t met Ash yet, but Trey talked about him a lot, and I knew how much he meant to him. “Did he say anything about who attacked him or what happened?”
“No, he said he would tell me all about it when we get there, but he can’t be hurt too badly if they’re letting him go home after just a couple hours, right?”
“Right. Let’s go get him so you can see he’s okay.”
Trey
I wanted to be dropped off at the emergency room door, but Roman wouldn’t hear of it. So I tried to be patient while he found a place to park. Once we were inside, I rushed up to the counter and asked the young woman behind it where I would find Ashby Sutherland.
“Are you a family member?” she asked.
“No, I’m his best friend. He called me to come get him.”
“Okay, just have a seat, and I’ll have someone take you to him.”
“Thank you.”
I found a place to sit, but it didn’t take but a minute before a nurse stuck his head around the corner and said, “Who’s here for Asher Sutherland.”
“That’s me,” I said, standing up and going towards him.
“Great, come with me, he’s ready to get out of here.” I followed him down a narrow hall to the end where he pushed open a doorway. “He’s right in there. He’s been discharged, so you can leave as soon as he’s ready. He has a sheet that lists the doctor’s instructions, but you’ll want to read them over. He was still kind of out of it when the doctor went over them with him. The main thing is just to keep an eye on him for a couple days. He took a hard blow to the head, so he could have some headaches, vertigo, and he could be a little slow to respond or answer for a few days or so. The most important thing is that he gets plenty of rest over the next few days.”
“Don’t worry, we’ll make sure he’s taken care of,” Roman said from behind me, and it was almost ridiculous how relieved I was to know he was here.