In The Blood

Situations

(Adam)

Stool. I had to sit down. Now. Before I was the next one laid out on the floor. I made my way to it on jelly legs, scared out of my mind. I couldn't do this again. I couldn't. This was too much. I sat, pressing two fingers to my forehead, trying to physically force my mind to be still. Not again, not again, not again, please God, not again. I can't. Please. Rob, critically injured. Tim, probably drugged, unconscious. And the scariest of all, Chris with a possible recurrence of AML. I sat there for a good five minutes just pulling myself together, then I stood up, patting a rather distraught Chris.

"Be right back," I told him and he nodded.

I left the lab area, thinking I'd head upstairs to the OR waiting room. Needed to update everyone on the Tim situation and alert them to a growing Chris situation. Too many situations! I'd taken just a few steps past the lab waiting room before Janna caught up with me.

"Adam, where are you going?"

"Downstairs. Got to tell the others what's—" I stopped talking and waking when she grabbed my arm, pulling me back. I turned cool eyes to her.

"I cannot let you do that until the toxicology reports are back. As soon as they clear you from any wrongdoing, I will let you go and do wherever and whatever you want."

I stared at her, uncertain and apprehensive about what she was saying. Was it within her authority to detain me? Could she actually do that? "Are you saying... that you are detaining me and restricting my free movement within the hospital?"

Janna nodded. "I'm sorry, but yes. Hospital security is aware of the situation as well and the will prevent you from leaving or getting away. Tim has been drugged, I am sure of it, and you four are suspects."

I closed my eyes. Fuuuck... fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuuuck. Detained. I was detained and stuck with her until the damn blood tests exonerated me and us. Temporary, but still frustrating and scary. And they better not fuck things up with my Adderall prescription. Without saying another word, I turned and walked away from her, back to the lab. Wonder what'll happen when one of us has to go to the bathroom. We're four males and she's a female.

"Adam—," she said, starting after me.

I shot her a look of utter contempt over my shoulder and passed through the back doors into the blood draw area. She'd have to stay with the Fousts, lest they escape.

"Chris, I need your phone. Please," I said, going back to my stool.

He shifted his weight to the left, easing it out of his right pocket, and handed it to me.

"Thank you." I typed in his password—the last four digits of his phone number—and found his contacts.

"Unf," he grunted a 'you're welcome.'

Kevin and Mitch were the only two with phones at the moment. Of those two, Kevin would be the best choice right now. I pressed his name.

"Hey, Chris, how's it going with Tim?" he greeted me.

"Not Chris. This is Adam," I corrected. "On Chris' phone."

"Oh, OK," he said. "Where is Chris?"

"Right next to me." I eyed my depressed-looking brother. Hell, I was depressed too. "He's OK. I just needed a phone and I don't have one."

"We really need to get everyone back with working phones," Kevin decided. "Just me, Mitch, and Tim. And Chris. And security and all. But the other seven of us need to be in the loop and accessible."