Nobody stopped Tora as she ran into the emergency room of St. Christopher Hospital. For a moment, she became lost in the chaos until a familiar voice pulled her out. "Tora."
An older woman in a white coat stood in the middle of the reception area. She had her arms wide open, and Tora rushed straight into them.
"Mom." She said, her voice breaking. "Darren, how is he?"
The doctor tapped her ID badge on the panel before the double doors opened. "He's in ICU. We had to give him anesthesia, or else the pain for the burns would be torturous." They walked through several long hallways before they made it to the second set of glass doors that spelled "Intensive Care Unit" in bright red bold letters. "We gave him a wide range of antibiotics and put him in a cleanroom to lower the chances of an infection. The Burn Unit will take care of him."
"We're getting an ECG now. Later, I've scheduled a CT to see if there are any internal bleeding or injuries to decide whether or not he needs surgery. I have a cooling vest on him to help with his burns."
They walked up to the glass windows to see inside the white room. Darren was laid on his chest, his eyes closed with a tube in his mouth attached to the ventilator. There were several doctors and nurses in Personal Protective Equipment surrounding the bed. Bloody bandages and towels were thrown into the trash as they cleaned the blood from the great wound on his back.
Tora brought her hands to her lips in horror. Tears flowed from her eyes as she looked at him. It was not the first time she had seen a burn victim, but it was the first time the burn victim was someone she had an attachment to.
She released a shaky breath.
Dr. Carlisle placed her hand on Tora's back. "Tora, he's alive because of you. If you hadn't been there to perform CPR, he might've died." She turned her daughter to face her and pulled down Tora's chin so their eyes could meet. "You did well."
Tora nodded her head. She wiped the tears from her eyes and took a deep breath. Something else came to her. "What about the little girl, Abby?"
"She only has some minor burns on her hands. Thanks to Darren, she wasn't heavily injured. We bandaged her hands and gave her antibiotics. She's unconscious, but we're monitoring her closely," said the doctor. "I've contacted the police. They on their way to take her picture and find out who she is and if she has any family."
Tora nodded before backing away from the window. She rested her back against the wall, letting her body sink to the floor.
She did not even get a real chance to rest before an alarm began to blare. "Code blue, Code blue." When Tora saw the look of her mother's face, she quickly got up and followed her mother to the room. "Darren! Darren!"
Tora tried to follow her mother in, but Miriam stopped her at the door. "Etora, you know you cannot go into that room." The code team followed in ahead of them. "I am in charge of Darren's case, and I will pull out all the stops to help him, but you have to give me some space. I have the best doctors helping him. You have to let them do their jobs."
Tora knew that. No matter how much she wanted to be by his side, there was nothing she could do to help him at the moment. Tora's breath trembled, and tears resurfaced before she nodded in agreement. She watched her mother go into the room, and slide the glass doors close before closing the curtains. She could no longer see or hear what was happening behind the doors.
She passed her fingers through her hair, anxiously pacing around the hallway. Her whole body jittered, she began to twist the ends of her long hair. It was something she had not done in a long time, but she was too stressed to even think about stopping tonight. She placed her hand over her mouth as she began to sob.
Tora did not turn around when she heard the hospital room door slide open. She could sense movement behind her, but she did not turn to look at her mother. She faced the wall as she asked, "Is he okay?"
Miriam placed her hands in her coat pockets. "He's stable right now. We still have some more tests to run, but we'll keep a close watch over him tonight," said Miriam.
"Okay." She wiped her tears away before she turned around and walked away.
"Where are you going?"
Tora stopped for a moment. She turned around to face her mother, her eyes red and swollen from all the crying. Her eyes drooped as if she was in a daze, her movements almost robotic. "I'm going to pick up Darren's things from his hotel. Then, I'm going to go home to eat, take a warm bath before going to bed. Darren will be fine with you watching over him, and I'm sure you don't want me here in this unstable emotional state."
There was nothing more she could do, so there was no use for her to remain in the hospital any longer. No matter how worried she was, she wasn't a doctor or a healer who could restore the damage done to Darren's body. And crying certainly wouldn't solve anything. All she could do was hope and pray that Darren would pull through. Tora knew her mother would make due to her promise to help Darren as much as she could.
Tora walked out of the ICU presence was not needed there.
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