Back to Where We Started From (Miracle)

Chapter 100

The cold air was a relief on Julia's hot skin when she and Tommy snuck out the back door of the Palladium. They walked out into a dimly-lit alley and made their way to the street. Tommy stayed with her as she hailed a cab, wishing her luck as she climbed into the backseat.

"Where to?" A gruff voice asked from the front seat.

"Um...what hospital is the closest to Madison Square Garden?" She asked.

"Mount Sinai."

"Then to Mount Sinai, please," she requested.

She tapped her high-heeled foot impatiently as the cab weaved through Manhattan. The car moved much too slow for Julia's liking, inching its way block by block. With every minute that passed, a knot of worry grew in her stomach. Rizzo made Jack's injury sound bad, and all Julia could think of was months of hard work down the drain. Would Jack end up watching the Olympics from the stands? Would he even want to go if he couldn't play? She thought of her uncle having to cut Jack and nearly threw up on the gray interior of the cab.

"Mind if I open a window? I'm a little warm," she asked in a shaky voice. She didn't wait for an answer as she cracked the window, relishing in the feeling of the frigid air.

"You're warm? Dressed like that in February? Good thing I'm taking you to a hospital," the faceless voice muttered from the front. Julia would've laughed if she hadn't been so unsettled.

She watched the city go by, taking steadying breaths as she hoped they neared the hospital. She couldn't even be sure that she was going to the correct place or that Jack was still there or that she would be allowed to see him. Any logical thinking would've resulted in her calling Herb to find out where Jack was or going back to the hotel to wait for him, but neither of those options would've satisfied her need to be there for him. She only felt any sort of ease now that she was in motion to find him. When she could see the hospital up ahead, she took a deep inhale and held it.

Keep it together. You have to keep it together for Jack.

Getting emotional would only stress Jack out more, and that was the last thing she needed. She let go of the breath and focused on staying composed. Once the cab made it to the front of the hospital, she paid her fare and got out swiftly. Her revealing dress and lack of coat were starting to take a toll, and she wasted no time going into the building. Her heels clacked loudly on the linoleum floor when she entered the emergency room lobby. She stopped suddenly, looking around. She had no plan and no clue where Jack and Doc could be. She looked to the desk, seeing a tired looking woman sitting behind it. She moved her straight hair behind her shoulders and tried to be as pleasant as possible as she approached the desk. The sharp sound of her heels made the woman look up. She looked Julia up and down.

"Hi, how are you?" Julia greeted with a sweet smile. The woman's hard face didn't change.

"Can I help you?"

"I sure hope so," she said, glancing at the woman's name tag. "Dolores. You see, I think my boyfriend is here, but I can't be entirely sure. I was wondering if you could let me know if a Jack O'Callahan has signed in."

Dolores looked her up and down again, but said nothing as she looked down at a paper on her desk. Julia listened to the sounds of doctors and nurses calling orders, the obscenely loud ticking of a clock, and two young children playing with a toy truck in the lobby. She couldn't help but count the seconds as Dolores stared at the paper. As the seventy-third second passed, Julia was about to give up.

"Yeah, it looks like he's here," Dolores finally told her in a bored tone. Julia thought she would jump in excitement. She could barely believe her luck.