Standing By

Alphabet Soup

(Rob) 

When we got back to the ER, I wasted absolutely zero milliseconds. I jumped out of the cab, leaving Chance and Adam to deal with cab fares. I'd pay them back later. I ran as fast as my legs could carry me, which isn't extraordinarily fast, but very little gets me up and running anyway. I nearly collided with Kevin, who had come running over to me.

"They won't let us back in the ER," he told me. "They won't tell us anything."

"Next of kin only," Scott grumped.

"You try, you go back there," Kirstie begged me. "Y'all are the closest to next of kin he's got right here, right now. "

"Where's Adam and Chance?" Avi asked.

"Cab," I gasped out. "I left them to sort out fares. I'll pay 'em back later."

"Go back there," Mitch ordered "And make them let us back there."

"I'll try," I promised, then ran up to the triage nurse.

"Yes?" she asked me, looking down her very long, very pointy nose at me. "Can I help you?"

"My friend is back there. Tim Foust. Can I please go back there with him?"

"Next of kin only. Family only," she said and pointed me back to the direction I came from.

Chance came sprinting up next to me. "Tim Foust, need to see Tim Foust."

"Family only," she repeated.

"We're as close to family as you can get here in New York!" I snapped. "His wife is in Tennessee. His parents are in Texas. And we are his best friends and we're here so let us see him!"

"Thanks, Scott!" Adam yelled, jogging up over to us. "He wouldn't take my credit card, so Scott threw a fifty at him and he stopped his foreign belly-aching and let us go."

The nurse glared at him. "You supposed to be family of Tim Foust too?"

"Yes," Adam lied. "He's my cousin."

She eyed his long blonde hair and light blue eyes. "Yeah, right."

"Just let us back there," I ordered her. "You can ask Tim. We're a group. A band. Best friends. Please." I felt my eyes start to water again Oh my God. Ugh. I hadn't cried this much in months but tonight I was a regular little geyser, spraying tears everywhere. I yanked my glasses off and rubbed my eyes. By tomorrow morning I may not have eyes anymore— I'd just have two hazel pools for eyeballs.

She watched me for a minute and I did my best to look pitiful. I took my glasses off and rubbed my eyes again for good measure. Pentatonix wandered over to us and the lady looked at Avi for a minute. He just stood there with his hands in his pockets, looking sad. Finally, with a great sigh, she muttered about going to ask him if it was all right for us to come back.

"I will storm the ER if I have to," Adam said determinedly.

"Ditto that," I agreed, trying to peer past the nurses' desk. There was a whiteboard back there and I poked Mr. Perfect Vision net to me. "Hey, can you read that?' I pointed back to it.

Adam saw it and moved closer to me to get a better view. "Err, let's see...." He leaded over the desk a little. "Um.. oh, Room 4, TF, WM, CC- CP, SOB, R/U AMI. Dr. Matthews." He looked at me. "That mean anything to you?"

I shook my head. "Alphabet soup to me."

"WTF?" Mitch agreed. "IDEK that."

"Blah blah blah, Dr. Matthews," Kirstie grumbled, trying to look at it herself.