Trifecta (32 page)

Chapter Thirty-One

On the fourth ring Russell wanted to slam his cell phone into something, instead he only squeezed it tighter.  Lauren got him this cell phone when the three of them upgraded to the family plan. 

Now he was on the fifth ring.

Before the sixth ring was over, there was an answer.  "Hello?"

Russell swallowed.  "Dad?"  He tilted his neck from side to side and the bones cracked inside his skull. 

"What's the matter?" 

He lowered his voice not wanting Lauren to hear, if she could hear.  "Lauren was in an accident."

His father grunted.

He ground his teeth together and waited for the magic answer.

"Are the three of you still doing whatever you were doing?"  His father's question was more of an accusation.

He wanted to ask if it mattered.  Wasn't the only thing that was important that Lauren was hurt?  What about his son needing him?  It didn't matter, and if he wanted anything he would answer.  "Yes."  He didn't have any further elaboration.  Yes, they were doing what they were doing as long as Lauren still wanted them when and if she woke.

"How bad is she?" 

Russell could picture his father taking a notepad out of his desk drawer and his pen and he lifted his own notes on Lauren's condition and read them to his father.

After a long silence, his father asked another question.  "Where are you?"  

"Cedar's."  He exhaled. 

"Who is her doctor?"

Russell balled his fist.  The man was going to do something.  "Bryan Roberts."

"We will be there soon." 

A click echoed in his ear.  No goodbye.  No reassurances she would be all right, nothing, but Russell didn't care, he needed to play this hand and he set his phone down.  His father knew people, people who may help, doctor's and specialists who owed the most powerful attorney in the world a favor. For once Russell didn't have the answers.

"Look what I got."  Jason trotted back into the room and held up his find.  "That nurse lady showed me where they keep the good stuff."

Russell took the orange sherbet and wooden spatula to be used a spoon.  "I will never understand how you get these things." 

"Old ladies like me."  Jason grinned for one brief second and then turned to Lauren.  His happiness over his score dissolved like a tablet in a glass of water.

Russell put his snack down on the hospital tray meant to hold a patient's food, only in this case it was only being used to house their snacks, magazines and laptops.  Lauren hadn't eaten a thing.  She hadn't moved in two days.  Hadn't woken up.  Where was she?

They didn't really talk about it. They didn't move from the hospital.  They only sat together trying to keep the other from going insane, but now forty-eight hours after their lives changed, they would have to talk about something other than which vending machine didn't eat dollar bills and trying to play guess the disease with the rest of the patients in their hallway.  "Jase."

"You know I wanted to take a third cup for Laurie but Nurse Nancy told me that after she wakes up she will be on clear liquids, so it will have to wait."  Jason tossed his ice cream cup on the tray as well.  "She really likes tomato bisque, but I guess that's not clear.  I'll smuggle some in though.  Just as soon as…" He stood and turned toward Lauren's IV. 

He supposed it was Jason's turn to lose it.  The man deserved it.  Jason kept it together when he could not and it was nice to have someone take over for once.  But now he needed his control back.  He stared at Lauren's face.  Every hour she remained locked away was another hour lost, their chances of getting her back fading.  They both knew it.   He wanted to demand she wake up this second, he wanted his family back.  His family.  Not the man on the phone, but the two people right in front of him. "I'm going to do something."

Jason spun back toward him.  "What are you going to do?"  He held his arms out.  "What, Russ?  We're trapped.  We've asked for specialists, we've stalked everyone here down to the janitor.  What are you going to do?"

He looked at her once more.  Part of him wanted to grab her shoulders and shake her, the other wanted to lay his head down on her chest and sob.  "I'm working on something."  He pointed at Jason.  "This doesn't end this way, Lauren wouldn't allow it."  He sat back down.  Truth of the matter was they didn't even know what would transpire when she woke up.  Why was she running through Beverly Hills and not driving?  Could they resuscitate their relationship? 

"I called my parents."  Jason shook his head, crossed his arms and resumed studying Lauren's IV bag.  "They're coming down here." 

He put his hand to his forehead and squeezed, wishing he could force a thought in his head.  Yesterday Jason didn't need to call his parents because Lauren would be up and calling them and they could do all the mom and dad things to her.  However, even with that revelation, he could top it.  "I called mine.  They will be here soon." 

Jason ran his hand through his hair.
              "What's the temperature today?  Do you think it’s cold enough for a jacket?" 

Russell frowned, wondering why he would randomly ask that question. "Low seventies, probably need something light."

Jason nodded.  "The nearest gas station, do you know where it is?"

"There are three around here.  One across the street if you go out the front entrance," he said.  "Why?  Are you leaving?"

"No."  Jason waved his hand behind him, shooing his question away.  "Tell me, is today a day to buy stocks or sell them?"

"It's a buying day."  At this second he wished he were buying, even selling if that meant Lauren would be all right.

"Then tell me this."  Jason never looked at him.  "Do you think I'm going to be able to buy Lauren that soup tonight?"

He rubbed the stubble on his chin wanting to ask Jason if they should shave since Lauren hated them scruffy. 

"Do you know what Lauren was doing the day she was hit?"  Jason balled his hand into a fist.

Neither of them knew, they only had speculation and suspicion.

"Oh my God I just heard."  A foreign voice rang through Lauren's room. 

He stood and Jason turned.

"Where's her chart?"  Dr. Dalton rushed inside with a nurse and two other people behind him.  "I said get me her chart!"

The man showed, his blood raced, heating his skin, and both he and Jason moved in front of Lauren's bed. 

The doctor grabbed the requested folder from the nurse and stopped in front of the two of them. 

"Did you expect this?"  Jason elbowed him.

"I'm surprised he didn't come sooner."  Russell crossed his arms.  Until they knew what was happening this man wasn't getting any closer to Lauren.  She would have to tell them herself she wanted the doctor.   "We only want family here right now."

The doctor shook his head.  "I have privileges here, and we can argue about family all day long."

"Do you know why Lauren was running through Beverly Hills?"  Jason took a step toward him.

Russell waited.  It was the first question he wanted to ask as well.

The doctor looked between the two of them.  "Yes.  She was on the way to my office."

***

Lauren was almost there.  She only needed to walk across Wilshire Boulevard, leave one high-end hotel to go to one high-end doctor, but her phone went off.  Maybe her prayer was answered and it was Russell or Jason.

She had to get to her phone.  Where was it?  Why wasn't it in her hand? Or was it?

Wait.  She wasn't on Wilshire.  It was too dark, too quiet. Where was her phone? 

Around her wasn't the buzz of cars and people, only a strange low hum and some rhythmic clicks, and she wasn't going across the street, she was lying down.  Something was wrong.  She swallowed, but her throat was dry, rough, constricted.  She needed Jason or Russell, actually both, right now.  Her hands were weighed down and she couldn't move.  Her breath caught, her heart sped up and she tried to sit up, but her body wouldn't hold her, everything, every inch hurt, throbbing, aching, and burning. 

Where were they?  Where was she?  The pain drowned out her thoughts, but she tried to push it away, tried to think. 

Oh god.  The last time she saw them they were leaving, all separating, Jason put them on display and Russell wanted to keep them hidden.  She wanted them, but her dream died.

Did she die?

Did death have this much pain?  Wasn't she supposed to feel nothing? 

Funny, the falling sensation of the loss of her loves hurt more than the aches.  Maybe that was why she couldn't move.

Still unable to open her eyes, she took a breath, and tried to focus.  Something happened to her, she was injured.  She had to be in a hospital.  The last thing she remembered was being at that hotel by herself.

Alone. 

Like right now.

She concentrated, tried to hear anything around her except for what had to be machines.  She had both Russell and Jason listed as her emergency contacts on all her medical records and at work.  They had to be here.  Didn't they?

Her eyes fluttered, but before she gave in and opened them, she made a deal with herself.  When she left the hotel she knew she had to talk to them.  She was holding the purse from Dr. Dalton, but she needed them.  If they were here…

She couldn't allow herself to finish her deal.  What if they weren't here?  What if they were contacted and didn't come?  No matter what was wrong, she had to see them.  She only had to get out of the limbo that trapped her.  "Please." 

"She's coming to.  Everyone move back." 

A male voice she recognized, but couldn't place, spoke.  It wasn't the right voice, one of two voices she wanted to hear.   Everyone?  Who was everyone?  It may as well be no one if the right ones weren't there.  If they weren't, she wouldn't need any heart monitor to announce hers was broken, beyond repair.  Whoever everyone was may as well leave and let her be.  She shook her head, or thought she did and opened her mouth.

"Lauren.  Wake up." 

A voice she would know forever spoke her name, and it was only the owner of the voice who would demand she wake up.  She wasn't alone.

"Lauren?"

Russell squeezed her hand.  He was on the right side, the side he always took and the weight she noticed before wasn't a weight at all, it was an anchor, it was Russell.  Though demanding, his voice was off, tired and heavy.

But where was Jason?  They both had to be there.  They had to.  She couldn't be the cause of destroying their friendship.  It would never be the same if it weren't the three of them.

"Talk to her," Russell whispered. 

Her other hand was lifted, held by a hand that even through the haze she knew all too well. "Laurie."

The pressure built behind her eyelids, releasing in tears that crawled down her cheeks.  They were both here.  Both of them and some unknown voice, but it didn't matter they were there.

"Don't cry, just open your eyes and say something, please."  Jason pressed her hand to his chest.  "Please."

"You're here."  Her voice didn't even sound as if it were connected to her body. 

"Of course we are."  Russell lifted her hand as well.

Yes, of course they were.  She wanted them to be closer, do more than hold her hands, but she had no idea where they stood.  The deal she wanted to make with herself seemed silly, of course they would come to her no matter what happened before.  Her deals never worked out, she needed to stop shuffling the cards.  "What happened?" 

"I'm here as well," the third person spoke again.  "I'm going to check her."

Russell and Jason's voices were imprinted in her mind, but this voice required a visual and once more she forced her eyes open.  "Dr. Dalton?" Her heart stalled at the sight of him. Before she could focus on her other two men, a penlight was thrust into her face. She flinched as her world became blinded by light.  How did the three of them end up together?  No doubt her fantasy was over if Dr. Dalton was here. Did they make her choice for her?

"You gave me quite a scare."  He checked both eyes. 

Gave him quite a scare, not them. This man also gifted her one of the most expensive purses on the planet, more importantly, her tangible symbol of security. She blinked the spots out of her eyes, and summoned her courage to glance to her right. 

Russell sported more than a five o'clock shadow, she was pretty sure he was wearing Jason's shirt, and his hair was a disaster as if he didn't comb it for days.  She swore he seemed aged, and he was not as much staring at her, as he was Dr. Dalton.

She inhaled and glanced over at Jason.  He now held her hand in both of his.  He wasn't looking at anything in particular, but what she noticed most was the stubble on his face.  Over the years, Russell would experiment with the more rugged look, but never Jason.  Jason was always smooth, as if he willed the hair away.  His hair hung around his face, and his shirt smeared in what appeared to be dried blue paint.

Neither of them spoke, kissed her, or did anything but hold her hand.