It helped that most of the people in triage knew me.
Through the double doors that led to the inner sanctum, I could hear a baby crying--a sad, tired, miserable sound.
I wrinkled my nose at the pervading sour-sharp smell of hospital disinfectant, and winced at the increase in both decibels and scent as I marched through the doors.
A nurse scribbling on a clipboard glanced up at my entrance, and the official look on her face warmed into a relieved smile.
I knew her face but not her name.
"Mercy," she said, having no trouble with mine.
"So Doc Cornick finally called you to take him home, did he? About time.
I told him he should have gone home hours ago--but he's pretty stubborn, and a doctor outranks a nurse." She made it sound like she didn't think that should be the proper order of things.
I was afraid to speak because I might thrust a hole into whatever house of cards Samuel had constructed to explain why he had to go home early.
Finally, I managed a neutral, "He's better at helping people than asking for help." She grinned.
"Isn't that just like a man? Probably hated to admit he trashed that car of his.
I swear he loved it like it was a woman." I think I just stared at her--her words made no sense to me.
Trashed his car? Did she mean he had a wreck? Samuel had a wreck? I couldn't picture it.
Some werewolves had trouble driving because they could be a little distractible.
But not Samuel.
I needed to get to Samuel before I said something stupid.
"I better--" "He's just lucky he didn't get hurt worse," she said, and turned her eyes back to whatever she was writing.
Apparently she could carry on a conversation at the same time, because she continued.
"Did he tell you how close he came? The policeman who brought him in said that he almost fell into the water--and that's the Vernita bridge, you know, the one on Twenty-four out in the Hanford Reach? He'd have died if he made it over--it's a long way down to the river." What the heck had Samuel been doing all the way out at the bridge on the old highway north of Hanford? That was clear on the other side of the Tri-Cities and then some, and nowhere near any possible route between our house and the hospital.
Maybe he'd been running out in the Reach, where people were scarce and ground squirrels plentiful.
Just because he hadn't told me that he was going out hunting didn't mean he hadn't.
I wasn't his keeper.
"He didn't say anything about danger to him," I told her truthfully and followed it with a small lie designed to lead her into telling me more details.
"I thought it was just the car." "That's Doc Cornick," she snorted.
"He wouldn't let us do anything other than get the glass out of his skin--but just from the way he's moving, you can tell he did something to his ribs.
And he's limping, too." "Sounds like it was worse than he told me," I commented, feeling sick to my stomach.
"He went all the way through the windshield and was hanging on to the hood of the car.
Jack--that's the policeman--Jack said he thought that Samuel was going to fall off the hood before he could get there.
The wreck must have dazed Doc because he was crawling the wrong way--if Jack hadn't stopped him, he'd have gone over." And then I understood exactly what had happened.
"Honey? Honey? Are you okay? Here, sit down." She'd pulled out a chair when I wasn't watching and held it behind me.