The Hangover: Part III

There were a few sick kids sitting with their moms and dads in the waiting room of St. Vincent's ER, one person had a bag of some sort of frozen vegetable pressed to their face to nurse some sort of bruise or wound, an old lady who smelled greatly of urine was slouched and staring ahead with God knows what problem going on with her. And then there were Phil and Stu, sitting side by side; Alan's whereabouts unknown at the moment.

Stu sat slightly slouched, his hands folded in his lap as he stared at a spot on the floor to avoid making eye contact with Piss Lady who kept looking up at the pair. Phil was fully slouched in his chair, his long legs stretched out so far they almost touched the feet of the young mother sitting across from him with her young daughter who looked to be about one or two years old. His right arm was draped across his lap while his left arm was propped up so that he could rest his head in his hand. For a moment, his blue eyes panned over to the young mother who smiled briefly at him. He smiled back and made eye contact with the little girl who also looked at him. She was an adorable thing that held his gaze like she were staring into his soul. Big brown, doleful eyes that were tired from whatever cold she had. Despite whatever ailed her, she found a way to smile at him without inhibition.

Phil couldn't help himself. He lifted his right hand out of his lap and wiggled his fingers at her in a wave, mouthing a hello. Her smile grew wider, if that was at all possible, and she waved back. The gesture warmed his heart, but no one would ever guess it as his face went blank. His mind, however, was reeling a mile a minute. He was wondering how his kids were doing; if they were having fun in Disneyland. Maybe next summer he'd be able to afford to take them both to Florida to Disney World or Universal Studios. The latter had that Harry Potter park. Eli loved Harry Potter. And his daughter Penny...

"...for your thoughts?" came Stu's voice, disrupting his train of thought.

"What?" Phil lifted his head and looked over at Stu.

"Penny for your thoughts?" Stu repeated.

Phil shook his head nonchalantly. "Nothing really. Just wondering how my kids were."

Giving his friend a quick pat on the leg, Stu smiled almost teasingly. "I've always said the douchebag exterior was a front."

"Really? Is that what you've always said, Dr. Faggot?"

Stu pressed his lips together and gave Phil a withering look. "We're gonna go there again, are we?"

"Always."

"Hey guys, look what I bought."

Phil and Stu turned to their left to find Alan standing there, no longer wearing Stu's green T-shirt but a white T-shirt that fit him properly with I heart New York written across the chest plate; the words were in black letters and instead of the word heart, it was a red heart. But the shirt wasn't what he was showing off. It was a small, brown teddy bear holding a miniature foil balloon on a stick that said 'Get Well Soon' on it.

"It's for Sam," Alan continued as if they hadn't already guessed as much.

"That's really sweet of you, Alan," Phil commented, sitting up in his seat. He craned his neck back to look toward the nurse's station. "I'm gonna see if I can find out anything on Sam. Alan, save my seat."

As Phil stood up, Alan readily obliged and sat down. "Ooh, it's warm."

"'Cause he was just sitting there," Stu remarked, stating the obvious.

Phil walked over to the nurse's station, placing his palms on the counter and flashing a charming smile at the nurse seated there. "Hi, my name's Phil Wenneck. My friend Samantha Simmons was brought in by ambulance. She had a severe allergic reaction to some peanut butter. My other friends and I rode along and we've been waiting here about forty minutes and were just wondering how she's doing and if we can see her or if she's good to go..."

The nurse, falling a little bit in love with his eyes, blushed and just about fumbled all over herself at her desk. She smiled, "Let...uh, let me just check..." she spoke as her eyes became distracted with something or someone behind Phil. "Actually, Dr. Kerwin? Were you looking in on a patient named Samantha Simmons?"

Phil turned around to stand face to face with a female doctor in her early to mid thirties, shoulder length brown hair and a knowing smile. "Hello, again," she smirked at Phil. "Couldn't stay away?"

Phil was confused. "Sorry, have we met before?"

Dr. Kerwin nodded. "You and your friends were all in here early this morning to get one of you stitched up."

"We were?"

"Ms. Simmons told me about your blackout," Dr. Kerwin informed as she glanced over in the direction of the waiting room. "You and your friends can come with me."

As she began to walk away, Phil looked over at Stu and Alan, cupping his hands around his mouth. "Hey, guys...come on," he gestured for them to join him.

Moments later, all three men had followed Dr. Kerwin into an exam room where Sam was sitting upright on a hospital bed, her legs extended in front of her as she looked up to see the others walk in. Alan stepped forward and presented her with the teddy bear holding the get well soon balloon.

"Here, I bought this for you," he announced. "But it's from all of us, really. We're glad you didn't die from my peanut butter."

Sam smiled appreciatively at Alan and took the teddy bear in her hands. "Aww, thanks, Alan." She then looked between Phil and Stu. "Both of you, too. For doing what you could to be my knights in shining armor."

Stu just smiled, glad to see she was feeling better. "So, what's the prognosis, doctor? Is Sam free to go? Not to rush this along but her sister's getting married tomorrow and we kind've lost her and our other friend Doug at some point last night."

Dr. Kerwin gave a nod. "Samantha went into anaphylactic shock, but she's fine now. I've given her a new EpiPen and yes, she's free to go."

"Are you sure she's fine? She passed out even after I tried CPR on her," Phil pressed, his hands on his hips.

"Loss of consciousness is common during allergic reactions like the one she had."

"Okay." For whatever reason, Phil was only faintly reassured. He looked over at Sam, catching her eye for a moment. They held their mutual gaze and broke apart when the doctor began to speak again.

"As I was telling you before," she said to Phil, "Samantha has already told me about how you were blackout drunk last night and woke up this morning with no recollection of last night's events or where your friends are."

"Yeah, and you said we were here early this morning for Alan. He got stitched up here, right?"

Dr. Kerwin nodded at Phil. "Yeah, you all came into the emergency room last night just before 4 AM. It was a relatively slow night so you weren't here that long. No more than thirty, forty minutes tops."

"Did we say how Alan got injured and where? Was our friend Doug with us?"

"You were all going on about him getting into a bum fight down by the Brooklyn Bridge and how awesome it was," Dr. Kerwin explained as if she'd heard stories like this from patients before. Like it was old hat. "That's the extent of what you told me. As for your friend Doug, it was just you four and a blonde, which Samantha told me is her sister. There was no one else with you."

"Shit," Stu cursed. "So we lost Doug before four, but he was with us when we got thrown out of that club around two-thirty. That's an hour and a half gap of where we lost him. And sometime in between there, Alan fought a bum."

"That does sound like something I would do," Alan chuckled a bit to himself.

Phil gave Alan a sidelong glance before looking back over at the doctor. "Was there anything else? Did we mention anything about where we might have come from beside a bum fight or where we were going after here?"

"Sorry, no." Dr. Kerwin patted Sam's feet and began to inch for the door. "I wish there was more I could say to help you finding your friend," she looked to Sam, "and your sister, in time for her wedding tomorrow."

The guys and Sam looked down toward the floor, trying to process the new clues and pieces to the puzzle just as Dr. Kerwin stopped in her tracks and turned to look at Phil, then Sam.

"And congratulations, by the way. I figure if you don't remember anything from last night, you wouldn't remember me congratulating you either."

Phil raised his head and narrowed his gaze at the doctor. "Come again?"

Sam spoke up, too. "Yeah. Congratulations for what?"

"Your engagement," Dr. Kerwin answered frankly. "All the while I was stitching up your friend here you kept showing off the ring you got her." She looked over at Sam with a smile. "Big rock, too."

With that, the doctor left the room, leaving everyone else confused. "You two got engaged last night?" Alan beamed. "That's great! Congrats!"

Phil blinked and looked at Alan. "What did you say?"

"Congrats."

"That's right," Phil muttered, pulling his cell phone from his pocket, searching for something. "You sent me a text last night saying that same thing."

"Oh, yeah," Stu remembered, catching sight of Sam looking down at her left ring finger. There was nothing there and she still looked confused.

"Here it is," Phil announced. "It was from 2:46 AM."

"That was about fifteen minutes after we left the club, give or take a few," Sam finally spoke up, pulled from her thoughts for the moment. "So, my question is, where did you get some big ass engagement ring and when did we apparently get engaged? In the club? In those fifteen minutes between leaving the club and Alan texting you?"

Phil shrugged. "No fucking clue."

"Maybe we should try heading to the Brooklyn Bridge and find those bums Alan fought, and they can tell us if Doug was with us because, no offense, you two supposedly getting engaged isn't exactly important right now." Stu looked between his friend and employee.

"Alright, let's get out of here and catch a cab to the bridge," Sam said, hopping down from the bed and walking up to the guys. She sidled up beside Phil who let her lead the way out of the room.

"After you, my dear," he quipped.



Evening was starting to fall upon the city, but because it was June and summertime, the sun would still be out for several more hours and the temperature was still warm with no hint of cooling off that much. A yellow taxi cab pulled up to Brooklyn Bridge Park, letting the guys and Sam out so they could figure out if they lost Doug before or after the bum fight. As they walked along the small grassy area that was supposed to be a park, they couldn't find anyone who looked the least bit homeless. They walked further along the waterfront which faced the East River and across to Brooklyn. There was no area that looked derelict enough for homeless people to take up residence, if you could call it that.

"This is fucking wild goose chase," Stu whined, throwing his hands up in exasperation.

"I don't see any bums," Alan commented, a little disappointment in his voice.

Phil walked up to the railing beside the walking path that went along the river for walkers, joggers, runners and the like. His shoulder flexed as he looked out across the moving water, staring in the direction of the more blue collared Brooklyn.

"There wouldn't be any homeless people here," Sam remarked, walking up beside Phil to stare out as well. "The city's been trying to clean up places like this in recent years, building more shelters and programs to get people off the streets." She turned to lean sideways against the railing. Phil, feeling her gaze upon him, let his eyes drift to her face, trying to read between the lines of the hint she was dropping. "There wouldn't be any homeless people here," she repeated, her eyes then gesturing across the river.

Phil finally caught on and smiled. "But there might be on the Brooklyn side of the Brooklyn Bridge."

"Exactly."

"Wait, what am I missing?" Stu asked.

Sam gestured over toward Brooklyn. "Look, there's warehouse-style buildings over there. Not as pristine as over here. It would be easy for homeless people to convene around the base of the bridge in the middle of the night."

"So are we going over to Brooklyn?" Alan asked.

"Yeah," Sam spoke, making the decision.

"How are we getting there?" Alan wondered. "We just got rid of our taxi cab."

"We walk across."