Max didn’t. Watching the other doctors and nurses put their hands on Jed irritated him. Often he found himself sitting on his hands to stop from shoving them away, but with Glenn it felt different. Maybe because he knew Glenn had cared for Jed long before Max had ever known him.
Though it didn’t stop him looking away when Glenn pulled the sheets back to examine the gruesome scars on Jed’s left leg. They didn’t usually bother him, but in that moment he couldn’t face another symbol of Jed’s pain.
Glenn swore again. “Man, they did a rough job with that. Looks like a butcher stitched him up.”
Max screwed his eyes shut and put his head in his hands. Glenn said no more, but it was a few minutes before Max heard the rustle of sheets being pulled back over Jed. He raised his head to make sure Glenn didn’t pull them up too high—Jedhatedhaving the bedcovers over his chest—but, of course, Glenn didn’t.
He knows Jed.
With Glenn’s inventory done, the oppressive quiet took hold again, and Max didn’t look up until Glenn muttered a curse.
“Shit.”
“What’s the matter?”
“I need to tell the others where I am. I left them in the parking lot.”
“Them?”
“Luke and Saja.”
Max froze, unsure if he’d heard right. He’d heard both names before.Luke.He’d seen Luke in Paul’s photos, and Saja was a distinctive name.
It means to be calm in Arabic.
“Jed thinks she’s dead.”
“What?”
“Saja. He told me she was probably dead.”
A shadow crossed Glenn’s face. “If he saw what I think he saw, then I understand why he thinks that, but she’s alive, all right. Me and the damn dog were the only fuckers left standing that day.”
Glenn left the room, presumably to find whoever had made the journey to Portland with him and give them the bad news. A little while later, a wiry African-American man stepped into the room and introduced himself as Luke.
He didn’t stay long and he didn’t respond to the few words Max managed to say to him, but that suited Max fine. Dr. Greene was due any minute, and the building dread in his stomach was about all he could focus on. He felt better when Glenn came back and took up his post on the other side of the bed.
The feeling didn’t last. Glenn had only been back a few minutes when Dr. Greene stepped into the room. He nodded at Glenn, like they somehow understood each other, and picked up Jed’s chart. He scribbled something on the top page and stared at Jed for a long moment before he put the clipboard down and sighed.
“Max, could you step outside for a moment?”
TENMINUTESlater, Max returned to Jed’s side in a daze. The news wasn’t good. The medical speak went over his head—talk of vapo-suppressing drugs and organ failure—but the conclusion was all too clear: Jed was tired… his body was shutting down, and for the first time, Max truly had to consider that Jed was losing his battle for life.
As the day slipped away, Max burned with grief from the inside out. The pain was excruciating… crippling in its power. He couldn’t think or speak, he could only stare at the quiet, brooding man who’d stolen his heart.
He sat slumped with his head on his arms, hardly noticing the others coming and going. At some point a nurse forced him out to stretch his legs.
Numb, he made his way to the waiting area and took in the scene through hazy eyes: Dan was pacing the room and Carla stood mutinous at the window, her hunched shoulders warning off any approach. In the corner, Nick and Kim sat huddled together, united in Nick’s grief for a brother Max didn’t believe he deserved. His gaze fell on Hector and Anna, who sat in the corridor with their hands clutched, and his heart broke a little bit more. Their quiet, dignified pain was too much to bear.
Max retook his place at Jed’s side. He took his hand and traced the darkly inked skin of his forearm. It was a gesture Jed seemed to find soothing on the rare occasions he let his discomfort show.
“Where are his tags?”
Glenn’s voice startled him. It had been so long since either of them spoke. “His dog tags? Like yours?”
Glenn twisted the chain around his neck. “Yeah. Did they cut them off him?”
“I don’t think so. I’ve never seen him wearing them.”