Just Jump

Chapter 2

Chapter Two

          "You can go see her, now," the doctor said as he walked up to meet Kale in the waiting room.  As he spoke those words, Kale breathed out a sigh of relief and nodded before standing.  The doctor noted he didn't have a shirt on and grimaced. 

          "So, you've been the one distracting my nurses?"  He asked casually, causing Kale to shrug.  Sighing, the doctor kept his mouth closed as they walked down to Elliot's room.  As they reached the door, a nurse walked out and nodded at them. 

          "We have her on an adult dosage of morphine for the pain, so she may not be very coherent when she wakes up . . .  She was asking for you earlier, before she fell asleep," the nurse said with a smile.  Her name tag said Julie and Kale forced himself to smile back at her. 

          She was short, probably around five feet tall and skinny.  She looked a little ridged in her scrubs, but Kale pushed it off, taking in her face.  It was round with a pointed chin.  She had large green eyes that seemed out of place with her olive colored skin and dark black hair pulled up in a bun.  It was easy to see she was Asian, but her eyes really caught him.

          "Excuse me?"  The doctor said, clearing his throat. 

          Kale turned back to him and sighed.  The doctor was holding the door open for him, motioning for Kale to go in and see Elliot.  Swallowing back the urge to just leave, Kale walked into the room and took in Elliot's tired looking body. 

          She was relaxing in the bed, half sitting up and half laying down.  Her eyes were closed, allowing Kale some time to adjust to the new her. 

          Her right wrist was bandaged and set with a metal clamp.  Her fingers were already bruised and slightly swollen.  Her entire right arm was bandaged with gauze and her face had been cleaned and sterilized as well.  She was in a blue, floral gown, like the rest of the patients and her hair was pulled to the left side of her face in a ponytail, most likely to keep it from irritating the cuts and scrapes on the right side of her head. 

          "We had to take her into surgery; I apologize it took so long," the doctor informed Kale, who just nodded and watched Elliot sleep peacefully.  "Breaking her wrist took a toll on her, but we managed to realign everything.  She has carpal tunnel, you know . . .  We managed to put in a metal stint and three screws so everything will heal nicely.  Also, make sure she doesn't hit her hand on anything; it might cause the clamp to push her stint out of place."

          "Why are you telling me this?"  Kale asked, not sure why he was explaining Elliot's medical issues to him. 

          "She said her mother and father considered you a part of her family . . . ?"  The doctor seemed to question this, looking over at Elliot's sleeping form with a slight scowl. 

          "Oh, yeah . . .  Yeah, they do," Kale lied, waving it off. 

          "Alright then.  Do you by chance have her parent's numbers?"  He asked, watching Kale as he sat down in the chain next to Elliot's hospital bed.  He didn't respond to the doctor; he just stared at Elliot as her eyes moved back and forth across her eyelids. 

          "Kale?"  The doctor said his name then, catching his attention. 

          "Yeah?" 

          "Her parent's number; do you have it?"  He repeated himself. 

          "Oh, umm . . .  It should be in her cell phone, in her shorts' pocket," he said, nodding over to the pile of clothes that she'd been wearing from earlier.  The doctor nodded, walking over and pulling out a beat up cell from exactly where Kale had instructed.