Part 3: County General.

County General had the lingering scent of stale, sterile air; where it seemed impossible for any sort of microbe to live in its antiseptic taupe walls, where no germ could photoreact under its cold, fluorescent lighting. The staff was too nice (and at times too incompetent), and the setting felt like something out of a soap opera set.

The plants in the lobby were real, yet they felt like plastic. The lighting was too right. The computers all hummed at the same, quiet frequency. It looked as if the place had hired an interior designer to correct its feng shui, and in doing so, created uncomfortable spaces where people actually had to talk to each other while they waited.

Leah and Joseph reached the lobby and waited for Mike and Gabriel to show up. It was going to be a ridiculously long night, and none of them knew when it would even end.

Spotting an empty sofa section in one corner of the lobby, Joseph staked their claim on two sofas and two chairs, piling jackets and bags over them. Leah dragged in a coffee table, cleared it of all its prosaic magazines, and began to settle for the long haul.

Gabriel and Mike soon appeared through the automatic sliding glass doors, immediately finding their conspicuously situated friends ready and waiting.

Mike gave Leah a huge hug as Gabriel and Joseph exchanged nods of acknowledgment. As much in a rush as they were in to get to County General, they now wanted to delay as much as possible the inevitability of the next few hours.

Mike looked around at the four of them. "So," he began, "who wants to go first?"

-----

There was no parking in the emergency lot.

Frustrated, Evelyn drove to the enormous seven-story structure right next door, parked in the third floor, and rushed to the lobby, her head inundated with worry, anger, and fear all at once.

He knows, she thought, my God, he knows.

She quickened her pace and crossed the street, under the emergency wing of County General.

-----

Under a tangle of plastic vines and aluminum branches connected to giant trunks of complicated monitoring equipment, David lay.

The scene looked like a cross between an ad for Corona and a hospital: under two giant towering structures, David's bed made a hammock, coconuts replaced with saline drips, white sand replaced with white tile. No waves crashing against the shore; instead, the beep-beep of the heart monitor and the hum of its components composed the sweet summer sound in David's room. Beige walls, white ceiling -- it was as if the color palette was "shades of white." There was a sharp, distinct scent of lemon cleanser wafting about the room.

He wasn't awake, but he wasn't asleep, either.

His face was nicked with little cuts from where the glass particles forced themselves in. He had an enormous bruise on his right shoulder from the force of the seat belt through impact. All over his body, there were scratches, cuts, bruises.

The doctors had stopped the internal bleeding when they received him in the emergency room.

Miraculously, despite losing so much blood and his lungs almost collapsing, David was "in guarded condition," according to the chief surgeon.

He was in some sort of coma, drifting in and out of sleep consciousness, dreaming.

-----

Two doors down, in room 417, Nate was reclined up on his bed. Even more miraculously, even with the driver's side as the point of impact, Nate suffered only mild whiplash, a shard of glass cutting his forehead, and a pinched nerve. He had regained all feeling on the right side of his body, thankful for his luck but guilty for his inattention.

He was stable, at least. The doctors were quite surprised at his injuries, expecting worse things, but were relieved that he only sustained minor blows.

Rest was necessary, but in order to do so, he needed to take the painkillers they administered.

Sleep was a good escape.

-----

Mike stood in the middle of the group. "No takers, huh?"

Resignedly, Leah went ahead and volunteered. "I'll be back in a few minutes."

She headed to the elevators, and expected the worst as she stepped off at the fourth floor.

-----

"Anyone want anything? I'm gonna go get some coffee," said Joseph, standing up.

"I'm good," said Mike.

"Yeah, me too," said Gabriel.

Joseph searched his pockets for change. "All right. I'll be ba--"

"I'll take a coffee," said a woman's voice from behind him.

They looked up and saw Evelyn, keys in hand, at the verge of panting and wanting to slap Gabriel in the face when she saw him. She stared at Gabriel the whole time.

She smiled. "Are they all right?"

Mike shrugged. "We don't know."

Sensing the exponentially growing tension between Evelyn and Gabriel, Joseph looked for an excuse to break it. "Hey, Evelyn, you wanna come with?"

"I'd love to," she said.

All the while, Gabriel tried to avoid eye contact, but couldn't avoid Evelyn's trademark "death stare."

As soon as Joseph and Evelyn were out of earshot, Mike asked, "What's the deal with you two?"

"Nothing, nothing," said Gabriel, out of his element. "It's nothing."

"Yeah, and Nate and David didn't just get in an accident."

Mike pried, but Gabriel wouldn't budge. He gave up after realizing two questions in that Gabriel wasn't going to talk.

Joseph and Evelyn returned with their styrofoam cups, and the tension mounted yet again.

Joseph grabbed an issue of Highlights for Children from under the coffee table, leafing through the colored pictures and the words that were uncharacteristically large. As far as he was concerned, he was just waiting his turn.

Mike looked around, not wanting to deal with the drama. He eyed a vending machine on the other side of the lobby, and figured out that the best way to at least enjoy himself was getting a bag of chips and watching Gabriel and Evelyn duke it out.

He returned, noticed that Evelyn and Gabriel were still exchanging glares, and opened his bag of chips.

This is going to be good, he thought, as he munched satedly on a chip.