James half expected the entire Gambill family to be gathered in the children’s hospital waiting room when he entered behind Shannon. He noted quickly that her many nieces and nephews were absent, which he privately considered a wise call. Other children whined and dashed recklessly through the large, open area filled with couches, chairs and magazine-littered tables, but he’d never considered a hospital lobby a healthy or appropriate environment for kids. He supposed there were times when parents couldn’t find other care for their offspring, but Shannon’s family seemed to have managed.
At a glance, he identified her parents, Hollis and Virginia, her brother, Stu, her sister, Stacy—the distraught mother—and a uniformed man he’d never met before, whom he assumed to be Stacy’s police-officer husband. Only Stu’s wife, Karen, was missing—she must be on child-care duty.
The names came easily to him and it was obvious they remembered him, too. Virginia reached out to him immediately, as if greeting a longtime, trusted friend. “James! I’m so glad you’re here. We need a doctor’s input to help us understand what’s going on.”
“I was with Shannon when she got the call,” he explained, glancing at Shannon, who had her arms filled with her weeping sister. “I followed her here to see if there’s anything I can do to help. What happened?”
Virginia’s eyes were red and damp, but she seemed to be holding on to her composure for the sake of her family. “Kyle—you remember him—the one you rescued from drowning?”
“I remember.”
She blinked rapidly. “He was playing with his in-line skates in their driveway after dinner. It was such a nice evening and he loves playing outside until he absolutely has to come in. Stacy told him to stay away from the street and he said he would. It’s a long, smooth concrete driveway, plenty of room for him to skate safely. The twins were playing outside, too, and Stacy felt comfortable leaving them alone while she put the baby to bed. The next thing she knew, the twins were screaming that…that Kyle had been hit by a car.”
Overhearing, Stacy pulled away from Shannon with a sob, though she looked as though she were trying to pull herself together. “He wasn’t anywhere near the road when I went inside,” she insisted. “Baylee said he built a ramp out of some concrete blocks and a piece of plywood he found in the garage. He wanted to do skating tricks. He jumped over the ramp and then couldn’t stop himself and he…he…”
“He skated right out into the road and into the path of a car,” Hollis finished when his daughter choked on a fresh spate of tears. “He was brought here by ambulance. He was conscious when he came in, and Stacy said he talked a little to her before they sent her and J.P. out here to wait, so we’re hoping for the best.”
“It’s a good thing that he was awake and talking, isn’t it, James?” Virginia asked, looking rather pleadingly at him.
“It sounds encouraging,” he answered cautiously, though he was reluctant to make any judgments based on what little he’d heard so far.
“He was wearing a helmet and knee pads,” Stacy said quickly. “I always make him wear them when he skates or bikes.”
Helmets saved many lives, but when a child was hit by a car, a helmet provided only limited protection, James thought with a grimness he didn’t want the family to see.
“J.P. got a call from the dispatcher, who had recognized the address,” Stu said, nodding toward his somber-looking brother-in-law, whose shock of silver hair stood out from the sea of redheads surrounding him. Despite the hair color, James doubted J.P. was much more than thirty-five. “J.P. got here about the same time as the ambulance. He got to see Kyle for a few minutes with Stacy.”
“Where are the other kids?” Shannon asked.
“Our neighbor saw the ambulance and rushed out to see if she could help,” Stacy replied wearily, wiping her face with a snowy handkerchief her dad had given her. “She said she’d stay at our house and watch the twins and the baby tonight.”
Still looking rattled, Shannon pushed her tumbled red curls from her face and motioned toward her brother-in-law as she glanced up at James. “I guess you’ve realized this is Stacy’s husband, J. P. Malone. J.P., this is James Stillman.”
“Dr. James Stillman,” Virginia correctly quickly. “The man who saved Kyle’s life at the lake, J.P.”
“Just James.” He shook J.P.’s hand, liking the man’s agreeably plain face. “I’m a fourth-year med student, not a doctor yet.” He saw no need to add that he already had one doctoral degree, so the form of address wasn’t technically incorrect.
J.P.’s voice was deep, with a slight country drawl. “I’ve been wanting to meet you and thank you for what you did for Kyle. The whole family’s been talking about the hero they met at the lake.”
“What have they told you about Kyle?” Shannon asked before James had to come up with a response. “You said he was talking to you when he arrived?”
Stacy nodded. “J.P. and I were with him until just a couple of minutes before you got here. He didn’t say much because they’d already given him something for pain and he was groggy, but he knew who we were. They needed to prep him for surgery, so they told us to wait out here. They said they’d give us regular updates about his progress, but we haven’t heard anything yet.”
“Surgery?”
“They had me sign a bunch of forms authorizing surgery and blood transfusions, if necessary. There was some internal bleeding,” J.P. explained grimly. “He has a broken leg, too, but they said they aren’t going to worry about that just yet.”
Her face pale with worry, Virginia tugged on James’s sleeve. “James, dear, do you think you could go into the operating room and check on Kyle for us?”
“No, ma’am, I can’t go into the O.R.,” he answered gently. “They’ll send someone out with an update as soon as they can. In the meantime, can I get you anything? Coffee? A soda?”
“No, thank you. You’re sure you can’t go back and check on him? Don’t you have an ID or something to show them you’re a doctor?”
Shannon sighed. “Mom, he said he can’t go back. Don’t make him sorry he came with me, okay?”
Virginia frowned. “I just asked.”
“It’s okay,” James murmured to Shannon. “I know she’s worried.”