Prognosis: Romance (Doctors in Training 4)

“Internal injuries.” Stacy, too, looked at James, as if for reassurance. “That’s not always terrible news, right? It could be something minor?”

“I can’t really tell you anything without knowing more details,” he replied, unwilling to offer possibly false hope. “But the doctors here are the best. Your son is in excellent hands.”

Shannon shot him a look, and he couldn’t tell if she thought he was saying the wrong things to her family. He could read neither approval nor disapproval in her usually expressive face. What would she have him say? That he was sure her nephew would be fine? He couldn’t promise that without knowing the facts, as she must surely understand.

“Isn’t there someone you can talk to, James?” Virginia pleaded again.

Feeling the weight of the entire family’s gazes upon him, James dug into his pocket for his medical-school ID. “I’ll see if anyone I know is on duty in the emergency department,” he conceded, clipping the ID to his shirt and wishing he had on the white coat that opened a few more doors for him. “No promises, though—remember, I’m only a med student. And privacy laws prevent them from telling me much, anyway, since I’m not a member of the family.”

“You have our permission for them to tell you anything,” Stacy assured him fervently.

He didn’t think she would be interested at that moment in hearing exactly how the privacy laws worked. Instead, he merely nodded and headed for the ED, wondering what he’d say when he got there.

Shannon frowned at her mother when James disappeared through the waiting room doors. “James came as a friend, Mom, not as a doctor. You shouldn’t put him in an awkward position with his coworkers here.”

Unfazed by the chiding, her mother simply shrugged. “I’m sorry, but when it comes to my grandson’s care, I’ll pull any string I can find. Maybe someone in there will know James and tell him more than we’ve found out so far.”

A hospital volunteer in a cheery blue sleeveless jacket with a photo ID badge pinned to the chest approached the corner of the large, busy waiting lobby where they milled. “Malone family?”

Stacy and J.P. moved forward instantly with the rest of the family crowding behind them. “Yes?” Stacy said eagerly.

The fiftysomething volunteer smiled kindly. “I’ve been asked to tell you that your son has been taken into surgery. The doctors think it will take about two hours. You’ll be given updates every hour and one of the surgeons will talk to you when they’ve finished. In the meantime, I’ve just made fresh pots of coffee—both caffeinated and decaf—and there are sodas and snacks in the vending machines. Let me know if there’s anything else I can do for you.”

“Let’s sit down,” Shannon suggested, motioning toward an L-shaped arrangement of couches and chairs. She figured they’d better claim seats while they were available. The lobby was ge

tting more crowded. “Mom, are you sure you don’t want coffee? I’m going to get some for myself, I can bring you one, too.”

Sinking onto the edge of a couch, her mother nodded. “Regular, not decaf. I need the boost.”

“Dad?”

He shook his head. “Not right now, thanks, honey.” He sat beside his wife, then gazed out the window into the parking lot, lost in his private concern for his grandson.

Stu accompanied Shannon across the room to the coffee station. “Nerve-wracking.”

Knowing he referred to the entire situation, she nodded. “Very.”

“I think it’s a good thing that Kyle was talking to Stacy and J.P. The helmet probably protected him from head injury. Stacy said the car was moving pretty slowly and the driver was able to apply the brakes before Kyle collided with him.”

She tried to take reassurance from his comments, as she knew he intended. “That sounds promising. The fact that he was talking and he recognized Stacy and J.P. surely means there’s no head injury.”

“Yeah. The doctors will stitch up whatever’s bleeding and set the broken leg and he’ll be as good as new.”

“I’m sure you’re right.”

Neither of them were certain of anything, Shannon thought somberly, but they had to keep thinking positively. She couldn’t bear to imagine any other outcome and she knew it was the same for Stu.

“So how come James was with you tonight?” Stu asked as he poured steaming coffee into two foam cups. “Have you been seeing him since we met at the lake?”

“A couple of times. Just as friends,” she said lightly, slipping packets of sugar and creamer into her pocket for her mother. “We did the gallery walk in the River Market tonight, then had dinner at the burrito place. I was just about to head home when you called. James offered to follow me here when I told him what happened, in case there was anything he could do. I’m not sure he expected Mom to nag him into trying to become our personal medical spy.”

“He didn’t seem to mind, though he’s sort of a hard guy to read. Doesn’t share what he’d thinking much, does he?”

“Compared to our family, most people are downright reserved,” she answered lightly. “Not everyone shares every thought that crosses their minds, the way we tend to do.”

“True,” her brother acknowledged.

Stu was right, though, Shannon thought as she carefully crossed the room again with a cup of coffee in each hand. James was very reserved. Though he’d seemed concerned about Kyle, he’d been notably reluctant to express any speculation about the boy’s condition, optimistic or otherwise. Because he hadn’t wanted to offer reassurances that might prove to be wrong? Or—she swallowed hard—because he’d suspected it was worse than they thought?