Page 29 of Torch
Grace
AfterI’dcompletedmyrounds, I made my way to ICU to check and see if I could find Torch. He wasn’t there, but there was one of the bikers sitting in the waiting area, with his head in his hands, and I couldn’t keep myself from stopping by. When I stopped in front of him and he lifted his head, I realised I’d seen him before, but I couldn’t place him, and had probably never been introduced. A patch on the front of his cut said ‘VP’, but that was all I could discern, apart from the fact that he was worried sick.
“Hi,” I said lamely, wondering what the hell I was doing, bothering him in his hour of suffering.
“Hey, uh doc… has there been any change?”
He was looking at me with such hope that I felt ten times worse about disturbing him, because, of course, I knew nothing.
“Sorry, I don’t know. I’m Grace, uh Doctor Adams, I treated Torch when he was here.”
His eyes widened then, and he stood up, reaching out to shake my hand.
“Of course, sorry, I blanked out for a minute, but yeah, you took great care of our boy, thanks. I’m Stitch.” Stitch? They all had such weird names, and I’d never thought to ask what any of them mean.
“Is it… the lady in ICU, she’s your uh-”
“President’s old lady, Alicia, she was hit by a car, but they won’t tell me much, and he hasn’t left her side since she came out of surgery.” I nodded, glancing at the reception to see Rita sitting there. I knew her vaguely, from when I’d been covering in ICU. She rolled her eyes at me, but I knew she’d talk to me, if I asked her anything.
“Let me see what I can find out for you, Stitch. No promises though, okay?”
He sighed, offering me a grateful smile.
“Thank you, honestly, I’m just praying here, ya know?”
I leaned on the desk to see Rita, and she smirked at me.
“You’re begging info for that biker guy? Guess it’s true what they say.”
“What? What do they say?”
She winked at me. “Just that you’re friends with the club now, but you should know that’s not necessarily a good thing. They’re criminals, you know.”
I glanced at Stitch again, and shrugged.
“That’s none of my business, Rita, I just wanted to see if I could give him any kind of update? Is he giving you any trouble?”
She shook her head, tapping at her keyboard.
“He’s been as good as gold since the others left. One of them was rather dashing, with this sexy dark hair, but the other? Scary dude with a tattooed head. Who tattoos their head? Insane.” I nearly argued, but I just wanted the information, so I zipped it, even though I wanted to yell at her for judging Torch on his appearance, not knowing what a gentle, sweet guy he really was.
“Okay, so she had…” she rattled off information, and showed me her screen, and I swallowed hard. That was one serious accident this Alicia lady had been in, and I had a feeling it wasn’t the best news to be passing on, but not knowing was often worse than knowing, and I felt like I wanted to help out because these people mattered to Torch.
“Thanks. Can you make sure he receives any updates? The club is like a family, so whichever one of them is here, they’re here because they care.”
Stitch stood up when I returned to him, so I gestured for him to sit and I joined him.
“Okay, so Alicia-”
“Ally… she prefers Ally,” he interjected, rolling his eyes at himself. “Here I am interrupting the first person who’s been willing to tell me anything. Honestly, I’m such a prick, sorry, darlin’.”
I bit my tongue at the moniker, because I was starting to realise the club members just all seemed to do it, and it wasn’t said in a disrespectful way. Sometimes I could get on my high horse about these things, but he genuinely didn’t seem to mean any harm.
“Ally was hit hard enough to break several bones in her legs, and in addition to that, there was damage to her stomach when she was hit, and her spleen was damaged, so it was removed to protect her from rupture. Her head injury has her in a coma, but it’s not looking as severe as it was first thought to be. I mean, head injuries are always a risk, but they’re optimistic that she’ll wake soon, and we’ll know more then. She has a lot of cuts and bruises, but other than the broken bones, her recovery shouldn’t take too long. As long as she wakes up, and has no issues from the injury to her head, the rest should follow. She really was exceptionally lucky.”
Stitch seemed to sag in his seat, his breath rushing out of him in a heavy gust.
“Fuck me, thank you. Thank you for not poncing around with loads of long words, and making me feel like a dick too. I appreciate this, I really do. Poor fucking Reacher must be losing his mind in there. I wish I could let him know I’m still here, ya know?”
