“Sage? She’s the best patient I ever had that took a beer bottle to the forearm like this. I’ve had grown men lay on this table and moan and groan. She’s a tough one.” He winked at her.
“It’s not her fault, Kenny. There was a bar fight at the dance hall and we were trying to get out when beer bottles were flying everywhere. It could have hit her in the face, or even the head if she hadn’t ducked.”
“Just what I want to hear, Corey. Where is the rest of the crew?” Kenny asked.
“Down the road at the bar, we’re supposed to meet up with them afterward,” Sage stated.
Kenny bit the inside of his cheek and tried to maintain his calm. He didn’t want to let on how worried he was about Sage. She wouldn’t take it well. “I don’t think that’s going to happen.” He held Sage’s gaze.
Kenny looked at the doctor. “Does she need stitches, Ray?”
“Unfortunately she does. But at least there are no broken bones. Only some bruising already. Take a look,” Ray said, and Kenny stepped around to see the multiple shards of glass, the deep cut to the center of her forearm on the bone right above the elbow.
“We’ll clean this up, make sure I get all the glass out, and then we’ll work on the stitches. This is going to take a while.”
“Corey, if you want to head back out, you don’t have to stay,” Sage told him.
Corey placed his hand on Sage’s shoulder. “I’ll stay with you. It’s all right.”
“I’ll take her home when the doctor is done. You can go,” Kenny said just as the door opened again.
Kenny turned around to see Matt and Quaid. He wasn’t sure how to handle it, but then again, he was there once himself. When Lena was hurt and tried to take care of herself instead of ask him or his brothers for help when they cared about her. Quaid, Matt, Virgo, and Dale cared for Sage. They made their desires known to him, so he had to respect them for showing up like this.
“Are you okay?” Matt asked, sounding angry and abrupt.
“What are they doing here? You called them,
Kenny?” Sage asked.
Kenny went to reply but Quaid cut him off.
“No, he didn’t call us. We heard the call over the police scanner about the bar fight at the dance hall. I called dispatch and Rosie told me about Kenny coming out here and that you were hurt, and needed stitches.”
“So you drove out here at midnight?” Sage asked, sounding shocked.
Kenny looked at his watch. “More like three o’clock in the morning, honey.”
“Oh God. I wish I drank more.” She closed her eyes and leaned back.
* * * *
Quaid had finally started to calm down once Corey left to meet the other friends at the bar down the block. Quaid watched Sage as the doctor cleaned up the cuts and then stitched up the gash in her arm. Twenty-two stitches and her arm was all wrapped up. The doctor gave her some painkillers and told her she was lucky she wasn’t drunk or hadn’t drank more than two beers or he wouldn’t let her take the pain meds.
As she sat up and prepared to get down off the table, Quaid reached for her. “Take your time.”
“Make sure you get Doc to look at that sometime over the weekend. I’m sure you’re in good hands and will have plenty of people looking out for you, Sage,” Doctor Montgomery told her and then shook Kenny’s hand then Matt’s and Quaid’s.
“Thank you,” Sage whispered as Quaid placed his arm around her waist.
“We’ll give her a ride home if you need to head back to work, Kenny,” Matt stated, and even to Quaid it sounded more like an order than an offer.
Kenny looked at Sage. “You’ll be safe with Matt and Quaid. I should get back on duty or Marco is going to be pissed that I left him in charge of the two rookies.”
He leaned down and kissed Sage on the cheek. “We’ll talk about this over the weekend.”
* * * *
Sage was exhausted, and yet filled with nervous energy. She couldn’t believe that Quaid and Matt showed up in the middle of the night because they heard she was hurt. She didn’t know how to handle that at first. She was kind of pissed off, but then she was touched.