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“She’s fine. You need to come back to bed now, hon.” The nurse caught Grace’s elbow. “Everything is okay.”
“Let me go right now or you’ll find your ass on the floor,” Grace growled, and pulled her arm away. “I need to see to make sure Molly is okay.”
“Grace?” A weak voice called from one of the cubicles.
Grace turned in the direction from which she’d heard the voice. “Molly?”
“Here. I’m in here.”
Grace walked unsteadily toward the sound of Molly’s voice. She slipped into the cubicle and found Molly in bed. “Oh, Molly! I’m so glad to see you.” Grace felt tears welling up and spilling over. She hadn’t realized how much she’d come to care for Molly in only a couple of days. Sure the days had been intense with everything that had happened, but still, it felt like she’d known Molly a lot longer than she had.
“Oh, don’t cry,” Molly said, her face streaked with tears of her own and reached for Grace.
Grace hugged her gently and gave her a soft kiss.
“I’m okay. Really,” Molly said.
Grace noticed Molly’s return hug had been one-handed. The other arm was immobilized. “What happened?”
“They think it’s broken. It’s nothing. Just a little fracture. A tiny crack. Maybe not even that. We’re waiting on the x-ray.” She cocked her head. “What about you?”
“I’m fine,” Grace said, her voice firm but whispery.
“You don’t sound fine.”
The curtain slid back, and a security guard stood in the opening. “Ma’am? You need to get back to your bednow.”
The nurse was there, too. “Please, Ms. Conroy, you need to get back to your bed.”
“Grace! What did you do?” Molly cried.
“Nothing. She tried to keep me from finding you. I don’t know why she had to get security involved.”
The security guard looked like he’d just sucked a lemon. “Just get back in bed, please. You may have a concussion. You need to lie down.”
“A concussion! Oh, Grace, honey, go lay down.” Molly gave Grace a slight push with her good hand. “I’m fine. It’s just my arm. I’ll come see you as soon as they’re finished with me here.”
Grace sighed heavily but did as she was told. As she walked past the security guard, she gave him the stink eye. The nurse took her arm again and escorted her back to her cubicle.
“Ms. Conroy?” A male doctor in a white coat with a stethoscope hanging around his neck poked his head into her cubicle. “I’m Dr. Char. I have the results of your x-ray. It seems you have a slight concussion but no evidence of a brain bleed. I’m going to release you but with strict orders to rest. That means you stay in bed for at least two days, except when it’s absolutely necessary for you to get up. No activities at all. I don’t even want you to read or play video games — I want your brain to rest, too. Are we clear?”
“Yes, sure. Just lay in bed. Sounds like a horror.”
He chuckled. “Most people find it more difficult to do than one might imagine.” He took out an iPad and made a few notes. “I’m going to order something for your pain. Use ice packs on the swelling and follow up with your personal physician. If the pain gets worse, if you start to see double, or there’s any vomiting, bloody discharge from your nose or ears, or really, anything out of the ordinary, you are to come right back here. Understood?”
“Gotcha.”
He nodded. “Okay, then. You can pick up your prescription in the hospital pharmacy next to the gift shop. Oh, and there’s somebody outside here who wants to speak to you.”
She brightened, thinking it was Molly. “Okay, sure. And thanks, doc.”
He gave her a nod and a smile and stepped out.
Chapter 8
Grace had no idea how many hours passed before Sheriff Maverick paid her a visit. It was hard to tell time in the ER, and she didn’t have her phone, although she was dozing when her visitor came in. For all she knew, it could’ve been the following morning.
`?“Did you find out who hit us?” Grace blinked, bleary-eyed, and asked before Maverick could say a word.
