Page 72 of Keeping it Real

A fission of worry raced down Sheridan’s spine.

“Where is Brad?”Claire asked.

“Uh, still at morning skate, I guess,” Brooke replied.“Please, Doctor, is Jackson going to be okay?What’s wrong with him?”Her voice breaking made the baby in Claire’s arms cry harder.

“I’m going to take this little guy for a walk,” Claire announced.“I’ll track down Brad,” she murmured to Sheridan before slipping from the room.

“I’m not sure what’s going on with your son yet, but our job is to figure it out,” the doctor reassured Brooke.“We need to run a few tests.Then we’ll talk more.”The doctor motioned for Sheridan to step outside with him.“You know this family?”

She nodded.

“Anything unusual about life inside the home?”

Sheridan looked back into the trauma bay.Brooke had crawled onto the gurney with her son.The poor woman always looked so overwhelmed.

“Not that I know for certain.”

It was the truth.Sure, Brad was a colossal asshat.But she’d seen things go south quickly when people started pointing fingers based on gut feelings.And when law enforcement gets involved, it’s hard to walk back those kinds of statements.The priority right now was figuring out what was wrong with Jackson and getting him better.For the time being, Sheridan would keep her opinions to herself.

The doctor sighed.“Get someone down here from peds for a consult.And call someone from social work to talk to the mom.My spidey sense says there’s more to this story.”

“We’re waiting on the preliminary test results to come back,” Sheridan told Trent twenty minutes later when he stopped by to say hello.“Jackson is still somnolent.”

Trent stared into the trauma bay where Brooke seemed to be singing to her son as she rocked him against her side.

“What’s her story?”he asked.

“Honestly, I don’t know her well enough for her to confide in me.I do know she always seems harried and afraid?—”

Trent whipped his head around to stare at her.“Do you think something is going on with the husband to make her afraid of him?”

She sighed.“I don’t know.Afraid might not be an apt description.”

“What’s the guy like?”

“Ugh.Just between you and me, he’s a creep.”

Trent pursed his lips before turning back to observe Brooke.“How about I see what I can suss out from her while you wait for the social worker to break free from her other case?”

Sheridan shrugged.“Why not?You’re the expert at getting people to open up.”

He grabbed a bottle of water from the cooler before entering the bay.Sheridan watched as he coaxed Brooke to a sitting position and offered her the water.A few minutes later, he’d charmed her into talking to him.

The doctor came to stand beside Sheridan.“The first round of tests came back negative for any of the usual suspects.The urinalysis won’t be in for another fifteen to thirty minutes.The next step is a CT scan and an LP.We should have sent Trent in with the consent form for that one.Mamas tend to get frantic when you mention tapping their babies’ spines.”

“I wonder why,” she replied sarcastically.

“Where the hell is my son?”Brad shouted as he stormed into the ED with Lori on his heels.“What are you doing to him?”

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” the doctor murmured.He leveled an annoyed look at Sheridan.“I take it this guy is a piece of work off the ice, too, fräulein?”

“Unfortunately.”

“Thanks for the heads-up.”

“Please try to calm down, Merriweather,” Lori admonished Brad.“These people are the ones helping Jackson.”

The doctor blocked Brad’s path.“Mr.Merriweather, we are unable to wake your son from sleep.We are still running tests to determine the cause.As soon as we get a signed consent form, we’ll proceed with a few more tests that will give us additional information.”