Amnesia (a short story)

Black and White

Nial battled with the decision to tell Michael about Carlisle's condition that night, or wait until the next morning when he showed up for his usual visits.
  As a doctor his personal feelings always managed to intermingle with his professional ones, leaving him an anxious mess for hours on end.
Running a hand through his hair, an anxiety induced habit he'd developed early on into his career, he sighed and picked up his phone.
It would be easy to tell Michael that they needed to talk, but what could Nial say next? 'Sorry Mikey, but Lyle is awake, he doesn't know who you are! Good luck!'
   Tapping away at his screen, Nial held the phone to his ear and let the phone ring, praying to whatever higher power existed that Michael wouldn't answer.
   It rang for a few seconds and just as Nial was going to hang up the phone, Michael's voice came on the line.
  He sounded breathless, almost as if he'd been doing something physically straining when he'd called.
   Michael muttered a brief hello before Nial cleared his throat, "He's awake, but before you see him, we need to talk."
    Nial had been expecting questions to follow, but instead the line went dead.
Michael had hung up on him, which was strange. From what Nial could tell about Michael and his personality, he didn't appear to be the kind of person to pass up questions about somebody so close to him, though Micheal probably wanted to speak in person rather than over the phone.
  With a shake of his head, Nial had roughly fifteen minutes to finish up somethings before he watched the mess that was sure to follow, sliding his phone into his pocket, he sighed quietly and headed down one of the hospital hallways.