April Fools?

When It Looks Worse Than It Is

Karen was surprised when she heard her phone ringing just as she was about to leave for her shift at the hospital. Glancing down, she was even more surprised when she read the caller ID.

"Hey, what's up?" She asked, not bothering with a greeting - so soon after they had already spoken.

Immediately, she could sense that something wasn't quite right on the other end of the line - there were tense sounds echoing through the speaker, and hushed and urgent voices hissing hurried words in the background.

"Oh Karen, thank God - I thought you would have left already!" She was worried at the tone of Ant's reply; it sounded relieved, yet there was a lingering edge of panic that simmered just below the surface.

Dropping her bag and car keys on the side table, Karen ignored the curious glance from her husband and frowned into the phone.

"What's up?" She asked again, her own voice sounding increasingly worried.

She heard a huff of breath on the other end of the line, before Ant started rambling in a panicked voice.

"Karen, it's awful. Dec's throwing up again, but there's a lot of blood, and it's coming out of his mouth, and oh God, Karen he's throwing up blood! Something's really wrong, like really REALLY wrong!"

Eyes widening, Karen tried to interrupt him, but he just kept rambling.

"What do I do? I've got no idea how to deal with this!" Ant yelped, and Karen could almost picture him running a frantic hand through his hair as he paced up and down.

She tried again to get through to him and to calm him down; "Ant-"

"I don't know what to do, Karen - this is horrible! What the hell am I supposed to-"

Giving up, she decided to try the shock tactic.

"Anthony McPartlin, you be quiet and you listen to me right now!"

She was surprised when her tactic actually worked, and she heard him fall silent - her unusually sharp tone like a slap to his face.

"Good, now take a deep breath and start again" she instructed steadily, hoping to get a bit more information out of him now that he was a bit calmer.

Ant took a deep breath to settle his raging panic and repeated everything he'd just told her.

She couldn't stop the "shit" that hissed out of her lips as she pictured the scene in her mind's eye.

"Karen, what do we do?" Ant's timid, nervous voice brought her back to the situation at hand, and she immediately stood and made her way over to the door.

"Get him in the car and take him straight down to the ED" she instructed calmly, ignoring the panicked intake of breath that crackled through her ears, "I'll be there as soon as I can, but I'll call ahead and let them know you're coming in. Just try and stay calm, okay?"

Silence, then -

"Okay" was whispered quietly, almost distractedly.

Karen's heart clenched at her friend's tone, and she hurried as fast as she could down to her car.

"I'll be there as soon as I can" she repeated softly, "Everything's going to be okay."

She wasn't surprised when Ant didn't reply.

*****

Following Karen's orders, Ant and Lisa quickly bundled up and helped Dec out to Lisa's four wheel drive. Clambering into the back seat, Ant found himself with a lapful of sick best friend as Dec curled up beside him and leaned heavily against his chest.