by Sara Marion
The rest of the inning, Duke was into the game trying to bring his players to life. He figured he had some making up to do since he seemed to have zoned out earlier in the game. They were now in the last inning and some life in the team had returned although it felt forced for Duke. It was the bottom of the last inning and they needed three runs to win this game. He headed out to third base sideline to coach his runners.
The inning was well underway when Duke signaled his two players on base. His player on second was getting ready to steal. The pitcher threw the ball and the catcher missed it. His running was sailing towards him when he saw the catcher throw to third. For a moment he thought about sending his player back but he saw the throw was off. His runner pushed forward and slid. “Safe!” the baseline ump called. Duke smiled and clapped as his player stood up to brush the dirt off.
Another pitch was thrown and the ball flew into the outfield. He sent his runner on third home, he signaled for the runner behind him to go home. He told his batter to stop at second. There was a throw home and his runner was out. They had one out left before the game would be over.
He watched Chase go up to the plate. He wasn’t a star hitter but he was working his way up. Duke had faith in him. First pitch delivered, a ball. The second, a ball. Duke was trying to hold back his smile. The feeling of winning was so close yet so far away. He watched the pitcher deliver the third pitch, a strike. Chase was ready, Duke could see it in Chase’s stance. Duke turned to look at his runner. He heard the crack of the bat realizing he missed the next pitch. He attempted to turn to see where the ball went so he can direct his runner. Before he could react properly, the ball made contact with his temple as he started to turn his head towards home plate. It knocked him off balance and he fell to his knees in the dirt.
He heard the collective gasp of the spectators behind him. Duke grasped the side of this head. Everything around him seemed to slow down as he tried to focus on his surroundings. His vision was blurry, his surroundings spinning, and suddenly his world went black.
Duke felt two hands grab him. He couldn’t open his eyes even though he willed them too. He heard shuffling around him and soft voice calling out to him. The voice itself seemed muffled and far away from him. He found himself in a world of black.
“Are you okay Coach?” his assistant asked. Duke couldn’t respond. He was busy swimming in blackness, trying to find his voice and open his very heavy eyelids. “Coach?” Voices seemed to echo around him.
Duke finally pried his eyes open slowly. When the light pierced into his eyes, he shut them again. When he slowly opened them once again, Jennah came into focus. Her hands were on either side of his face, keeping his head in a direction where he could see her. If it weren’t for her hands, Duke was sure he would not be able to hold it up let alone being able to see right in front of him. His head was aching.
“Hey there Coach, I need you to stand up. Can you do that?” Jennah’s voice flooded his ears.
He slowly nodded his head as he winced. His assistant helped him up. He stood still unbalance. His assistant coach quickly moved to his side and propped him up. Duke was thankful someone was helping him keep balanced otherwise he may have face-planted in the dirt.
“Easy their Duke,” his assistant quietly said.
“Okay Coach, close your eyes and open them,” Jennah’s voice filled his ears again.
Duke closed his eyes as he followed her instructions. He felt his world shift and he lost his balance. His assistant coach caught him before he fell on the ground again. Duke couldn’t remember what happened to him. He felt two small hands clasp his head. “Open your eyes back up Coach,” she instructed again. They hadn’t moved yet, they just got him up off the ground.
Duke slowly obeyed her. The light made him wince once again. Pain lanced through his head. His eyes slowly focused on Jennah in front of him. “Hey there beautiful,” the words slipped past his lips before he could stop them.
“Alright,” Jennah laughed, “Let’s get you in the dugout. You may need to go get your head checked out.”
With the assistance of the staff, they got him to the dugout. Jennah sat beside him, turned towards him and smiled. She made him follow her finger with his eyes and checked a few other things as he sat there.
“Well Coach, I think you have a concussion thanks to my dear old nephew. We should get you in and checked out as your eyes were lagging a bit. I can take you to the emergency room.”
“I’ll be fine. I can go later.”
“Duke you need to go get checked out,” his assistant butted in. “You can let her take you or I will call for medical staff to come get you and cart you off.”
“Fine, she can take me but I swear I’m fine. I just need to shake it off.”
“Sure big guy, let’s go,” Jennah smirked.
She helped him all the way to the car and the ride was silent, at least on Duke’s side. She kept asking him questions when all he wanted to do was close his eyes and sleep.
“Can I ask you something?” Duke turned the tables on Jennah.
“Sure.” She seemed delighted to keep him talking.
“How come you ran on the field to help me?”
Jennah was silent. She didn’t respond right away.
“I want to be a paramedic one day. I spend a lot of time studying medical books, learning until I figure out how to get into a certification class.”
Duke sat their silent. He never would have thought a waitress at a bar and grill would possess skills like that. Not that they couldn’t, it just blew his very aching mind at the moment.
“You still with me over there?” She reached out and touched Duke’s arm.
Duke looked at her hand. He felt her smooth skin and the little electric current it sent up his arm. He closed his eyes and relished in it. He saw Ella there before him. Duke missed his wife and never thought he could feel her touch again. He sighed.
“Coach? You with me?” She shook his arm. Duke slipped deeper into the darkness, images of Ella dancing before him. The warmth of her hand spreading throughout his body.
“Shit,” Jennah said as he felt the car accelerate as he continued to fall down into the darkness behind his closed eyelids.
***
Jennah knew that Duke passing out after the fact wasn’t good. From what she read in her medical books, head injuries can be dangerous. Concussions are no joke. He could be bleeding out but she won’t know that until she got him to the hospital. She felt an undeniable constriction in her chest. Something about this man drew her in but she swore off men after her last relationship. She still wanted to make sure Coach Avery was okay, despite her current view on men.
Pulling into the hospital emergency room entrance, she raced in and got some nurses to help. They quickly took him back as she was stuck trying to fill out what paperwork she could. She looked over the form and realized she could only fill out his name and incident section. She had no idea who this man was, where he lived or his emergency contact information.
Sighing she went up to the desk and handed over the clipboard of no information. The administrator took it and her eyes went wide at the name.
“Sorry I can’t fill out more,” Jennah quickly apologized. “I don’t know about his insurance or where he lives, who is contacts are…”
“It’s okay, we know him very well. He’s a close friend with one of our surgeons here. I’ll just give her a buzz for the info.”
“Great, will I be able to see him or get updates?” She didn’t know why she was so worried about her nephew’s coach. Just the thought of him being seriously injured brought about a gut-twisting pain.
“Unfortunately you are not family so I don’t believe you can get news on his updates. Are you a friend?”
“I guess so. We recently just met. I was at the game watching the team when this happened.”
“I see. Well, let me get working on this and I will see what I can do Miss…”
“Carsten, Jennah Carsten.”
> “Alright Miss Jennah, if you have a seat in the waiting area, I’ll see what I can do for you.”
Jennah smiled and got up from the chair in front of the intake desk. She walked to the waiting room, wondering why she wanted to stay. Maybe it was just her wanting to make sure he was okay. She was sure Chase would ask about him when she got back to the house after picking up Dobry from the sitter’s. Jennah decided that was reason enough to stay. Just make sure he was okay then she could leave, have something to report back to Chase. She picked up her phone and let her babysitter know she would be running late and offered to pay her a little bit more.
She sat waiting for about an hour when the friendly face from the intake desk approached her. “Miss Carsten?”
“Yeah,” Jennah looked at her with hope, “How is he?”
“I can’t give you specifics, but he should be fine. I shouldn’t tell you this but the doctor wants to observe him overnight just to be sure.”
“Okay, thanks. I don’t want to get you in any trouble. I just wanted to make sure he was okay.”
“No problem sweetie,” she turned and left.
Jennah felt like she could finally breathe. She was relieved that he would be okay. She sat there for a few moments letting the relief wash over her before deciding it was time for her to leave. Even thought the intake papers proved that they didn’t know each other very well, she knew she really stayed for her own piece of mind and not for Chase, no matter how much she tried to convince herself otherwise. She could tell Chase that his coach would be okay. She wasn’t sure how Duke would get home, but he had friends here in the hospital and he could surely call someone he knew. Her job was done. The butterflies that she just now noticed as she sat there thinking about Duke, settled down as she walked away from the waiting room and out to her car.
SEVEN
Duke woke up to bright lights shining above him. There was a throbbing pain in his head, right behind his eye. He tried to raise his hand to touch his temple but he felt weak. The last thing he remembered was being two runs down at the game. Everything from that point on, he couldn’t remember.
Duke found the remote for his bed by his head and looked for the button that would let him sit up. He grimaced as he pressed the incline button. Once in a sitting position, he pressed the button for the nurse. He waited patiently, closing his eyes once more.
“I was just about to come in and wake you,” a familiar voice came.
Duke opened his eyes and saw Susie walking to his bedside. “Hey Susie. Long time, no see.”
“Yeah, it has been a while. We should stop meeting like this. Call for coffee next time,” she joked. Duke let out a small laugh. “How’s your pain level?”
“Bitchin’, pain is right behind my eye. Why am I at the hospital?”
“You got hit by a line-drive foul ball. One of the player’s relatives brought you in. Apparently you passed out in the car on your way over.”
Duke tried to remember the line drive but couldn’t. He looked over at Susie trying to grab the missing pieces of his memory.
“It’s okay Duke. You may not remember anything. Let me grab the doctor and they can check you out.”
Duke smiled as she turned and left the room. He looked around still trying to grasp the missing pieces when he wondered who brought him in.
After a few moments, he gave up trying. The pain in his head was distracting him. He closed his eyes realizing the light overhead was too much for him to handle. He wondered if his pain medication wore off and he needed more. Hell, he didn’t even know how long he had been in the hospital at this point.
“Hey there Mr. Avery,” a male voice filled the room.
Duke raised his head and looked at the doctor. He squinted trying to block out the light.
“I’m Dr. Maclyn,” he smiled. “How’s your pain level? Scale of one to ten, ten being the worse.”
Duke stared at him for a moment, “Probably an 8, my head is throbbing right now. Can we turn out the light?”
The doctor gave a friendly smile and pulled a light pen out of his pocket. Duke scowled at the doctor, not wanting any more light in his eyes.
“We can turn them off in a moment, let’s check you out first. Look straight ahead,” he paused clicking on the light, checking his pupils. “Earlier one of your pupils was dilated and the other was not.” He flicked the penlight from one eye to the other, “It looks like there is some improvement but one is still a little dilated.”
“So what does that mean?” Duke closed his eye trying to recover from the bright light.
“Do you remember what happened?”
“No, but Susie said I took one to the head.”
“Yes, you were standing by 3rd base from what we were told. You suffered a cerebral contusion. It’s affecting your temporal lobe. The MRI showed slight swelling but nothing we are too worried at the moment since you are awake and talking. I didn’t see any bleeding either so that’s a good sign.”
“So what does that mean?” Duke wasn’t sure he understood.
“It means your brain is a little swollen from hitting your skull. You said your pain level was high, which doesn’t surprise me, you may feel tired, irritable, dizzy at times and of course some memory loss, which we seem to have from the time of the injury. Do you remember the car ride here?”
Duke thought about it. “No, who brought me in?”
Dr. Maclyn looked at the paperwork. “It looks like a Ms. Jennah Carsten.”
Duke stared at him. He wondered why out of all the people at the game, Jennah brought him to the Emergency Room.
“So I want to keep you overnight just to monitor you. We will be waking you up every so often to check on you, make sure the swelling isn’t getting any worse.”
“Okay, so I get to go home in the morning?”
“If all goes well tonight, possibly, more than likely the afternoon so we have a full twenty-four hours.”
“Can I get something for my headache?”
“Not at this time. If you have a minor bleed we can’t see, it may prevent blood clotting. We don’t want you to continue to bleed and cause more pressure and swelling. In fact, you won’t be able to take anything for the next couple of days.”
Duke sighed and the doctor gave him a tight smile.
“Can I get you anything else?”
“Am I able to use my cell phone? Is it even here?”
“It is here. You may use it if you feel up to it. You still want the lights out?”
“Yes, please.” Duke turned his head and closed his eyes.
The doctor handed Duke his phone that he grabbed from the drawer where his personal belongings must be. Duke smiled and the doctor turned and left the room after turning out the lights.
Duke stared at his phone not knowing who to call. He just set it aside and laid back down. His head was too much for him to bear at the moment. He closed his eyes. He hoped sleep would come soon, especially if they are going to be waking him up every so often. He knew with concussions it would be every 15 minutes or so but he prayed it wasn’t going to be like that. He would become one grumpy patient.
EIGHT
Duke awoke to a nurse shaking his arm gently. He groaned. This wasn’t the first visit of the night.
“What?”
“Sorry sweetheart, just have to check on you.”
“I’m in a hospital, my pain is at an 6, I’m tired, it’s 2013, what more do you want from me?”
The nurse smiled at his irritation. Duke hated this. He just wanted to sleep.
“Well your vitals seem to be fine. Get some rest, your ride just went to get some coffee. You should be released within a couple of hours.”
Duke groaned. They had the blinds closed so only a soft light filtered through them. He figured it was still early in the morning but apparently not, if they were releasing him already. The doc said it would be the afternoon before he could go.
“The doctor should be in shortly,” the nurse smiled and then walked out
of the room.
Duke closed his eyes. So much for having a good night’s rest, he thought. He understood they had a job to do but did they really have to wake him almost every hour, asking the same exact questions? It just irritated him.
His door opened and Duke whipped his head up to see who it was. The pain following caused him to wince.
“Hey there, how you feeling?” Jack asked as he took his seat.
“I’ve been better, how’d you know I was here?”
“I got a call from Susie. When I brought Paxton in this morning, I thought I would check on you. So we found out what room you were in. I figured you needed a ride, so here I am.”
“I see.”
“I wasn’t sure if you would be up and ready to go or what. I’ve just been hanging out, watching some TV.” Jack nodded towards the TV. Duke didn’t even realize it was on, probably because it was muted.
“The doctor should be coming in shortly. The nurse just came in to check on me. It might be a couple more hours,” Duke informed him.
“Not too bad then,” Jack turned his attention back to television that.
“If you want you can turn it up. I can’t get back to sleep anyways.”
“You look tired. I guess they kept you up most of the night?”
“You could say that,” Duke stared at the TV. He remembered seeing Paxton’s ring on her finger. “Why are you here?”
“I told you, Susie called me.”
“I know that Jack, but why are you here helping me? Why are you and Paxton trying so hard to help me out? Is she the one that told you to sit here with me? Does she want you to figure out where I stand with her?”
Jack flipped off the TV. Duke knew it wasn’t the time to address the issues between them but he just needed to know. Hopefully he would still have a ride home at the end of it. He watched Jack take a moment to form his answer. He leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees and folding his hands together. He looked Duke in the eye. “What’s going on between you and Paxton, that’s your business to handle. You two have unresolved issues. I’m sure some, if not all are because of my actions. I regret walking out on Paxton and I’m ever so thankful for you. You took care of her when I didn’t. When she got out of the institution, you were still there while I was in New York, running away from her. I ran and it took my father dying for me to realize that grief,” he paused staring blanking at the wall. “It takes it toll on a person, it changes them and that’s what you’re still dealing with. Because you took care of Paxton, you put your own grief on hold. She tore you apart when she told you about the baby. I don’t condone you yelling at Paxton and tearing her down like you did the other night, but I understand that you are grieving and I’m going to chalk it up to that. I won’t fix what’s going on between you two, I have no intention to. I can’t force it or I’ll lose one of you in the end and I don’t want that to happen. So I’m here to be your friend, because you need me. I’m not running or turning my back on you, Duke. You’re my best friend.”
