Trauma by CJ Lyons

Author:CJ Lyons [Lyons, CJ]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: EdgyReads

27

As she escorted Tank down the hall to the family room, Gina scanned the board. A bunch of fever and body aches, a few fender benders—nothing serious enough to require a trauma alert—a preterm labor OB-GYN was down for, an ACS on his way to the cath lab, and a kid with a asthma attack. She spotted Jim Lazarov chatting up a nurse in the far corner.

“Hey, Lazarov,” she called. “How’s the kid in two?”

“Haven’t seen him yet,” Jim said with a grouchy scowl. “The nurses are still getting his vitals.”

“You don’t wait around on an asthma attack. Get a move on. That way respiratory can get a treatment started while you’re mucking around with the rest of the history and exam.”

His scowl deepened but he did grab the chart from the rack. Gina kept going, dragging Tank into the family room and closing the door behind them.

“She’s never seen snow,” Tank muttered as he sank into one of the chairs. “It’s all my fault. I just wanted to show her snow for the first time.”

“So I see.” Gina gestured to his wet clothes. “What happened?”

Tank hung his head and seemed to crawl inside himself. “She started to get this headache—at first she didn’t say anything, but I knew something was wrong. I told her we could go back, get a nurse, but she said no, she wanted to stay and watch the storm. Even though it wasn’t really snow—not the pretty kind, anyway.”

Gina started to interrupt, to tell him to forget about the snow, but then she remembered how Lydia often got people to spill their guts just by listening. Worth a try. So she said nothing, but merely perched on the arm of the chair beside him.

“But she was crying because of her headache, so I gave her a joint. I didn’t know it would hurt her, honest!” He looked up at her, pleading.

She almost gave in, almost did what Jerry and everyone did whenever she screwed up: tell him it wasn’t his fault, tell him everything would be okay. But one look at Tank and she knew he’d had a lifetime of that, just as she had, and he wouldn’t be fooled. Instead, she took another page from Lydia’s book—and Ken Rosen’s as well.

“You didn’t think sharing an illegal drug with a thirteen-year-old girl with a serious medical illness would hurt?” Her voice was more accusing than either Lydia’s or Ken’s, so she backed it down a notch. “Or you just didn’t think?”

Tank looked up at her in surprise, ready to argue, but she merely stared back. He looked away, miserable as he hugged himself, scratching at his arms. “I did think,” he said defensively. “I thought about how a little pot gets me through the rough times, makes everything feel okay.”

“No one is accusing you of trying to hurt Narolie,” Gina said. Tank scratched more furiously, his nails digging into his forearms and palms. “But we all know you weren’t using your best judgment. You’re smarter than that, Tank.

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