A Dog's Life

“Look we just want to know how she is!” Zack raised his voice at the nurse on the A&E reception. The nurse looked up from her paper work and starred at him as if he was stupid.

“I have told you, family only,”

“Look I don’t fucking care-“

“Well start caring before I have you escorted from this hospital!” Brian’s hand fell on Zack’s shoulder, pulling him back from the reception desk and away from the less than impressed nurse.

“Dude I-“

“I know you wanna know! Me too, but she quite clearly isn’t gonna let us anywhere near Sarah, so we might as well go, leave a phone number for Sarah, and she can let us know herself,” Zack just nodded, even though he felt the need to see Sarah for himself. None of this was his fault, she’d be the one to blame, but for some reason he still felt a little guilty. It was obvious for anyone else why there was this guilt, he’d been less than pleasant to her on the phone and the screamed at her after the accident, there was clear motive behind this guilt; Zack just did not want to admit it.

“Excuse me I got a call!” A tall woman pushed Zack straight out the way in her bid to get to the receptionist. “Something about Sarah Jones,”

“And you are?”

“Family, Louise Jones, sister” The nurse just nodded, tapping into her computer before looking back up. “Your sister is being treated at the moment, someone will come get you when you-“

“I don’t want to see her,” The nurse raised her eyebrows. “I just got called cause I’m her next of kin out here, is she ok?” The nurse gazed down at her computer screen.

“I can get a doctor to explain her situation if you’d like?” Louise sighed and shrugged. “Is that a yes or a no mam?”

“Fine,”

“If you’d like to take a seat,” The girl nodded turning on her heel and going towards the seats, she fished her phone out of her pocket to text Shell and let her know what was going on. Shell should have been here not Louise, as soon as she knew Sarah was ok she could go.

Zack had watched whole scene unfold. Instead of snapping at this Louise girl when she pushed him out the way, he’d held back and listened to her.

“No,” Brian muttered noticing the look on his friends face, intrigue as Zack’s mind whirled trying to come up with a plan. “We hardly know the girl, you can’t go harassing her sister,”

“Why not?”

“Cause she might blame us for the fucking accident, or think that’s what we’re blaming her sister,”

“I’m just gonna leave my number and get her to pass it on to Sarah,”

“You’re hitting on her now?”

“Fine leave yours, I just feel I should know she’s ok, alright dude!”

“Fine,” Brian sighed and grabbed a leaflet off the reception, jotting down his phone number and a quick message to Sarah. “Happy?” He flashed the leaflet at Zack who nodded. “Thank fuck,” He muttered walking towards the girl who claimed to be Sarah’s sister. “Hey,sorry to bother you but your Sarah’s sister? We overheard you, we brought her in,” He pointed towards Zack to indicate who this we was. The girl looked up at Brian and just nodded.

“And?”

“Well if you could give her this, just wanted to make sure she’s alright,” Brian looked down smiling but was welcomed with a blank stare.

“I can’t, I won’t be seeing her,” Brian raised his eyebrows.

“Could you at least give it to her doctor so he can leave it by her bed?” The woman shrugged and snatched the leaflet off him.

“I guess so,” She muttered turning away from Brian to signal their conversation was well and truly over. Brian shock his head backing away from the woman and turning towards Zack, who had a I told you so look plastered all over his face.

“Fuck off,”

“We should just wait to-“

“We are not waiting to see her cause Nik is already gonna fucking castrate me for being this fucking late, we are going and Sarah I’m sure will call us later!” The woman, Sarah’s sister, was watching the two boys trying to figure out how they knew her sister; she’d surely never seen them before.

“Fine,” The slightly shorter one snapped at the other as the pair turned away from her and towards the door, leaving slowly as the taller one got his phone out. Louise fished her own phone out of her bag to text Shell and let her know what was happening. Louise predicted she’d probably be here a while, much to her dislike. She would quite happily leave if she could, but knew Shell would want a full update to make sure her little sister was ok.

Louise couldn’t care less. She would never forgive Sarah for breaking up her relationship, ruining what could have possibly be the one for her, and destroying her chance at happiness. Whatever Sarah’s arguments had been about Cliff coming on to her, she doubted their validity. Sarah had been single for two years now, she’d been on a few dates with awful, in Louise opinion, guys who had no chance.
Whereas Louise had this high flying banker, and Sarah was clearly just jealous.

“Miss Jones,” She gazed up hearing a charming southern accent call her name.

“Yes?”

“My names Dr Markus, your sister Sarah?” She nodded clarifying they were related. “She’s stable,”

“Oh good,” Louise hated to admit it but she could fell the worry she was ignoring lift, slowly relief washing over her. “I’m so glad, can I see her?” She wasn’t quite sure where that had come from.

“Of course but I must warn you she’s not awake at the moment and I think it would be better if she stayed asleep for now, she has been through a lot,” He paused and put a supportive hand on Louise’s shoulder. “She needs her rest, but you can sit with her?”

“Umm,” Louise paused trying not to seem nasty but she really didn’t want to stay her. “I’ll pop in,” She reasoned with herself. “But then I need to go get some stuff for her,” That was kind of the truth, or at least she was going to go back to the flat notify one of Sarah’s friends and get them to deal with it.

“Of course, she’s going to be here for a little bit, we like to monitor head injuries as you can imagine,” The nice looking doctor replied to Louise as head lead her towards her sister. “Any questions you have?”

“She’s going to be okay right?”

“Oh yes,” The doctor nodded indicating to a bed a with the curtains drawn around it. “Fine, she just needs to rest and won’t be able to do much with her arm for a few weeks, he had injury has stitches she will have to have them out in a few weeks, and there’s a lot of bruising, however she will make a full recovery, I am confident of that,” Louise just nodded as she sneaked through the curtains, though the sight in front of her made her gasp. “I know it’s a little shocking to begin with,”

“A little,” Louise mumbled staring at the bruised body of her sister. “She looks like she’s had ten rounds in the ring,”

“The facial bruising is substantial, but nothing is too damaged,” Louise just nodded imaging herself in Sarah’s position how much of a knock her self-confidence would take if she looked like that. She instantly felt sorry for Sarah; that was something she never imagined herself doing again.

“I should get stuff for her, pajama’s, toiletries,” Louise muttered making a list in her head.

“I will leave you too it, any questions don’t hesitate to ask,” The doctor told Louise, leaving with a polite smile and nod.

“Thanks,” Louise watched over Sarah for a few minutes before memories of her sister starting clouding her memory and that brought unwelcome images of the past few months. She found herself rushing out of the hospital and focusing on picking one of Sarah’s friends to deal with all this instead of her. Louise wanted to be back north, in her room at Shell’s house, not near Sarah and the flat.
Louise made it to her car and was already dialing numbers on her phone. She waited patiently for someone to answer.

“Taylor’s phone,”

“Is she there?”

“Yeah I’ll get her for you,” The male voice replied dryly clearly not impressed with Louis’s bluntness.

“Hello?” Taylor’s cheery voice flew down the phone.

“Taylor, it’s Louise, Sarah’s in hospital and she needs you,”

“What? Shit, is she okay what happened?” Louise bit her lip and took a deep breath in.

“Stable, but I can’t stay, she needs some stuff from her flat and work stuff sorted out,”

“I see, what happened?” Taylor’s voice had changed to somewhat more annoyed now.

“There was a car accident,” Louise replied checking the time on her car clock. “She needs someone,”

“She needs her family,” Taylor replied.

“Well yes, but I can’t, and you live here,” Louise tried to ignore the nagging pain in her head; guilt.

“Taylor please,”

“Fine, I’m doing this for Sarah, not you, you need to grow up and Shell should be telling you that!”

“Fine, I’ll text you the details, goodbye Taylor,”

“Bye!” Taylor snapped back slamming the phone down in her office and groaning in dislike. Why those girls could not just get on and stop this stupid argument was beyond her. Taylor had sat by Sarah’s side the night Cliff pulled his stupid stunt, Taylor had been there the night Louise had walked out and disowned her sister, Taylor had stood by her friend and she was so angry that Louise could not see the truth of the matter; Cliff was a dick and he’d managed to ruin a bond that should have been stronger than anything.

If she ever saw him again she’d hurt him, seriously hurt him.

“Karl?” She called her partner who’d been helping her refurbish her office all day.

“Hmm?” He turned still holding a nail in his mouth and gazing towards her.

“You look hot,” At least he was the good constant in her life that kept her going. He dropped the nail into his hand and placed it on the half made selves.

There was something about a man doing DIY, particularly one as well built and chiseled as him.

“Not too bad yourself, though a little stressed?” He questioned walking over to her to her desk and placing his weight on the old wood. His dark eyes bored into hers, tiny beads of sweat dripped down his tanned forehead; Taylor wished she could just slam the office door shut and have her way with him now.

“Sarah’s in hospital, that was Louise on the phone, refusing the deal with it,” His dark eyebrows piqued, either because Louise and Sarah were near each other or because of the word hospital.

“She ok?”

“Apparently she’s stable; Louise wasn’t exactly a fountain of knowledge. She’s gonna text me the details, will you be okay here?”

“Sure thing, you don’t need me?” Karl brushed a lose strand of Taylor's wavy hair off her face.

“All the time, but I need the office finishing more, can’t have it looming over me for another week,” Karl nodded a smile forming on his lips as she stood up to kiss him softly. “Thank you,”

“Anytime darling, anytime,” Taylor smiled kissing him again and letting herself melt into his hard body. “Sarah will be fine,” He added lowering his voice and pressing a kiss against her forehead.
“Don’t worry, and I’ll have food and a bottle of wine ready and waiting when you get home,”

“You are incredible,”

“I am, now go,” He smirked pushing her towards her bag and coat. “Stop distracting me from my work,” Taylor just laughed, grabbing her stuff and jogging out the backdoor of the restaurant.