ODDS OF LOVE : ONE MOMENT

Episode 2

Dr. DuBuis Lane's replacement doctor in the emergency room of his hospital St. Paul's arrived almost as soon as the two ambulances did that carried the still unconscious Nigel Hawthorne - Cyrus and Pamela Perkins. His replacement showed up at the right time because he was currently torn between being with his husband in the triage room , supporting his brother in law whose face had crumpled into what looked like heartbroken grief as he saw Nigel on the stretcher being worked on as he went into complete cardiac arrest , helping his sister Faith as she arrived to check on Spencer and then saw her lover also being worked on and racing out of the hospital to find whoever had hurt his husband. 

Both Richard and Faith saw the conflict in his face and they almost pushed him into Spencer's triage room , saying to go tend to his husband. As he did exactly that they looked at each other wordlessly and proceeded to wait for news of their own loved ones. 

Faith called Pamela's mother Josie to tell her what had happened to her daughter and tried to restrain the growing feeling of guilt that nearly suffocated her very being as she listened to the woman crying on the phone. Especially when the officers that accompanied the car crash victims into the hospital had given her Pam's phone and she found the damned text from Melinda. Now she knew why Pamela had left. Now she knew why Pamela had been out driving on a night like that one. It was her fault , she thought with a lowered head and much shame growing in her heart. Her fault. How could she have hurt that woman ? She loved Pamela.......

Richard sat in the waiting room chair with the paperwork that the ER staff had practically forced on him. He could barely recall any of the information that the papers required of him. It was all in Nigel's employment record at the firm. But he could not remember any of it at the moment. All he knew was that Nigel was hurt. That he was alone. That he had no family. Except for that roommate of his whose name and contact information Richard did find within Nigel's own phone that the police officers gave him. He called Marco Martinez and got his voice mail. He left a brief message explaining what had happened and then hung up to go back to staring at the paperwork he held in his trembling hands. Then he stood up to go  find  a nurse with tired eyes and unsmiling lips  and Scooby Doo medical scrubs and asked , almost begged , for information on Nigel. The nurse sighed deeply and asked , " And what relationship are you to the patient , sir? " 

Her very simple question gave Richard great pause. Who exactly was he to Nigel ? His boss ? Not anymore. His friend ? His boyfriend ? His..... What was he to the man ? , he wondered. 

Richard closed his weary eyes briefly and then reopened them. He knew that he would not get any information on Nigel if he was not family. He was a lawyer. He knew this. So he looked straight into the nurse's exhausted eyes and lied , " I am his husband. Nigel Hawthorne - Cyrus is my husband. "