Figuring Out Foster

Chapter 24

I sat on a bench down the hall from Foster's hospital room. He's been there since Michael gave the nurses a statement for why he'd needed medical attention. Nervously I bounced my leg waiting for Michael to come back. Visiting hospital never happened after my mom passed, so I uncomfortably sat in silence and looked around the bustling hallway.

As much as it was unnerving being in the emergency section of the hospital, it wasn't what was freaking me out. No, the thoughts that were freaking me out centered on Foster.

To take my mind off of everything, I pulled my phone out of my back pocket and noticed all the miss calls from my dad on the screen. I inwardly cringed from being so involved with Foster that I hadn't realized it had rung. I wanted to call him back but didn't know how to explain something like this to him. But I was saved from deciding when I saw Michael walk out of the room Foster was in.

"How's he?" I tucked my phone back into my pocket.

"They have him resting," he said and stood in front of me.

I nodded my head while the fingers of my good hand effectively pushed my hair out of my face. With my lack of enthusiasm, Michael sat down next to me on the and sighed tiredly as he unwaveringly watched the nurses and random people walking back and forth in front of us. I watched the people passing by too, until I felt Michael's gaze locked on me, "You okay, Maggie?"

Before I could answer, he reached his hand out and touched the bandages that one of the nurses had put on my hand. Shyly, I tucked my injured hand under my other one to hide it from him, "It feels the same as a paper cut... it barely got me."

"Maggie—" He started hesitantly.

"I told you I'm fine, so I'm fine." I realized I was being unnecessarily rude to Michael, and tilted my head up at him, "I'm sorry, it's just... I've never seen anything like that." My eyes flicked quickly to the hospital door where Foster was, "I mean I'm not scared of him, I— he wasn't trying to hurt us, only himself."

"I've never seen him like that either, but my dad warned me about it. Something like that happening. Since it's happened before." Michael rubbed his forearms nervously before relaxing back against the bench.

"...with Hector?" I finished his thought quietly to myself. I didn't need to get a confirmation from Michael, remembering what Foster had told me about that morning with Hector. Was he hearing voices back then too?

Before we could talk about Foster, a male doctor walked out of Foster's room and immediately noticed us sitting across the hall. He stopped, folding his binder under his arm.

"Are you both family members?" The doctor asked us casually to which Michael spoke up as being Foster's brother before reaching out to shake the doctor's hand, while I just stayed quiet.

"I'm Dr. Marshal, and I'm an emergency physician here. I have Foster's previous medical history," and the doctor gestured to the binder he had in his hands, "From the cases he's had before, this is quite a simple one... I can see here that he has stopped taking lithium carbonate, which coincides with his sudden episode."

I tucked my injured hand between my thighs so that the bandages went unseen, my body language only suggesting that the hospital was cold. I really didn't want the doctor to see my hand and start asking questions about it.

At my movement Dr. Marshal glanced down at me but didn't think anything of it, "Have you called your parents?" I noticed that he asked me that. Before I could come up with an answer, Michael stepped in.

"I just called them a couple minutes ago. They should be here soon." Michael stated evenly, before glancing back at me with a knowing look.

We both knew I wouldn't get to hear any of the conversation had the doctor learned I wasn't related to Foster, but Michael knew I cared to know everything. I was grateful to him.