Page 67 of Backdraft
Karen placed a hand on his shoulder. "Taylor, are you okay to drive?"
He swung his gaze to Karen and saw the concern in her eyes. Yes, he needed to calm down.
Taylor nodded. "Yeah, thanks, Karen. I'm fine. This all happened so suddenly, and I was out on two calls, so I had no idea what was going on." He wasn't going to say anything more than that.
"If you leave now, you'll get there in an hour or so. But drive safely. We don't need to worry about you as well."
She gave him a hug, which surprised Taylor, but it also did him the world of good and settled him down. He hugged her back.
"Thanks, Karen. I appreciate it."
Back in the van, he headed toward Mercy Memorial. Drea had been airlifted to a level-one trauma center. Mercy was better equipped than Oak Creek Gen to handle burns and severe head injuries.
On one hand, he was glad she was getting the best care, but on the other hand, he didn't like that she needed the high-level facilities.
The drive seemed to take forever. Taylor gripped the steering wheel until his knuckles hurt. An array of emotions barreled through him, forcing him to bite back the nausea building in him He rolled down the window, and the dawn freshness blew in, helping him breathe.
He was a doctor, for crying out loud. He shouldn't be this affected. But he was, which proved to him how much Drea had grown to mean to him. He had to switch his mindset. Instead, he found himself thinking of the worst-case scenario. He would get to the hospital, and she would be dead. The sound that came out of him was foreign. It was a strange, strangled gasp.
Taylor swallowed and forced himself to snap out of it. He sourced all the calming techniques the therapist had taught him during their sessions after… Well, after.
It wouldn't do Drea any good if he crashed both physically and mentally.
So he called on all his sessions to help suppress the torment that tried to take hold of him. After a few calming breaths and squeezes of the steering wheel, he settled down and focused.
For the first time in years, he switched into his ER doc mindset. He'd let that part of him fade when he changed his career to medical examiner.
The dead don't die.
But the living do! And that's what he had to prevent now! He stepped on the gas, forcing the van to its limit. He had to get to Drea.
The drive seemed never ending, but he finally pulled into the emergency entrance parking at Mercy and parked in a spot reserved for medical staff.
This time, when he approached the doors, there was no hesitation. He sailed right through and walked up to the locked door to the nurses’ station with his doctor identification in hand.
The door clicked open for him.
"I'm looking for the charge nurse, please." He glanced at the board to see if Drea's name was on it. It wasn't.
"Can I help you?" a woman in scrubs asked him.
"Yes, please. I'm looking for a patient that was air lifted in from Oak Creek. She should be here by now."
"Yes, Doctor—" The nurse glanced at his I.D. "Doctor Peel. The patient was taken straight to the ICU burn unit."
Taylor's stomach dropped. It must be bad for her to be taken there right away and not brought to the emergency room.
"Do you know her status?" He asked.
The nurse shook her head. "No, I'm sorry."
He glanced at her hospital I.D. "Thanks, Jessica."
"Take the elevators through there." She pointed past the curtained assessment rooms to the emergency exam rooms. "It's staff only."
"Thank you." Taylor rushed down the hall and punched the elevator call button.
Finally on the ICU floor, he again had to ask what room Drea was in and show his ID.
