A Family Affair

15

"Dad, you're getting a call." Olivia points out, looking down to the phone sat in the cup holder between hers and her father's seat.

Will keeps his eyes on the road in front of him. "Who is it?" He questions.

Olivia takes a second to respond as she takes a closer look to the caller ID before sending her dad a smile from the passenger seat. "It's Maggie."

He sighs. Today was meant to be his day off out of the ED. He debates the next thing he was going to say for a moment before deciding to pick it up rather than letting it ring - something might have happened that caused the ED to get slammed, he couldn't not answer the phone. He sends a very brief look to Olivia. "Could you answer it and find out what she wants?"

The girl nods, leaning forward and taking the phone out of the cup holder and raising it to her ear as she accepted the call. The smile remains on her face as she greets the woman on the other side of the line. "Hi Maggie."

Maggie sounds a little shocked by who answered the phone. "Olivia, hi, aren't you supposed to be in school?" She questions.

Livvy nods, even though Maggie wouldn't be able to see that bit. "Yeah, but I had an early dentist appointment, they didn't have one for after school, so dad's taking me in now."

"Is he there?" Maggie asks curiously.

Olivia looks to her father beside her. "He is, but he's driving so he can't have the phone."

She can hear Maggie sigh on the other end. "Is there any way I could talk to him? This is kinda important."

"Is everything okay?" Livvy questions, furrowing her eyebrows deeply, which grabbed Will's brief attention - as much as he could give before having to look back on the road.

"Yeah, there's nothing you need to worry about, I just need to talk to your dad about important work things," Maggie responds calmly, which was a change having sounded nervous the whole time. "Are you sure I can't talk to him right now?" She asks again.

Olivia shakes her head. "No, sorry."

"Okay, just can you tell your dad to call me back as soon as he stops driving?"

Livvy nods. "Yeah, of course." She says before taking the phone away from her ear after Maggie hangs up.

Will furrows his eyebrows, watching Olivia put the phone back in the cup holder in the corner of his eye. "What did she want?" He wonders.

"You need to call her back when you're not driving, apparently it's important." Olivia replies, and the car falls into silence.

The rest of the drive to the school was quiet and Will reaches for his phone just before he pulls to a stop in front of the school. He stops the car and puts the piece of technology against his ear, surprised at how fast Maggie picks up on the other end.

"You needed me." He says to greet her.

Maggie gets straight to the point, choosing not to put off telling him. "Will, Jay's just been brought into the ED."

Will's face drops as he sinks into his seat. "When?"

"About five minutes ago," she replies, answering his next question before he had a chance to ask it, "He and Hailey got caught up in a drive-by shooting, he wasn't shot but he hit his head pretty hard and he's lost a lot of blood. He was in and out of consciousness in the ambulance ride over and he's severely hypotensive and his heart rate is very high."

He scrunches his face up and puts his hands on the wheel in front of him. "How hypotensive?"

Will can hear Maggie slowly shake her head on the other end. "He's my patient, you know I can't share that with you."