Work Text:
“How is he doing?” asked Gansey.
The woman at the front desk sighed. “Just like the first fifty times you’ve asked me that in the last couple of hours –”
“It’s been one hour and forty four minutes.”
Her grape coloured lips puckered sourly. “There is no news about your friend. I’m sorry.”
“Well–”
“And no amount of money will change that. As I told you before.”
Under normal circumstances, Gansey would respect this woman for not taking a bribe, but currently he wished someone weaker willed was at the front desk. Someone who would let him see Adam.
He went back to what he’d been doing; pacing around the cramped waiting room. He knew intellectually that he should be quietly journaling or reading here, but he just couldn’t. His mind kept replaying the way Adam had looked in the car, the rest of his face seeming small and pale beneath the bruise on his head. He almost definitely has a concussion.. it’s all my fault..
After what felt like hours passed, a different woman, with strawberry blonde curls came to inform him that Adam Parrish had a minor traumatic brain injury, but he was fully conscious now and so would make a full recovery. Gansey thanked her. “May I please see him?” She was hesitant, but Gansey kept smiling warmly, and asked her a few questions about herself. Now that he knew intellectually that Adam would be all right, he could at least feign a serene composure. As it so happened, this woman had no problem with allowing Gansey to see his “cousin” even though he wasn’t listed as a family member. And he hadn’t even had to pay her, so Adam would not quarrel over it. Gansey was relieved on that note.
When he entered the hospital room, he saw that Adam was indeed awake, was sitting up in bed and that he was holding a compression cloth against his head. His alice blue eyes pierced Gansey, their expression both intent and wary.
“You alright, Tiger?” Gansey asked.
All the fight seemed to leave Adam’s body at that. “I shouldn’t have made you take me here, it’s not that serious and now there’s — I should have just dealt with it at home.”
“Don’t be ridiculous,” Gansey snapped, before chastising himself. He searched for something Adam would accept. “If you had gone about as normal, you could have injured yourself far worse. Maybe badly enough it would have interfered with your work or school, this is better.”
When Adam didn’t say anything, Gansey sat down in the chair by his bed. When Adam spoke again, it was very quiet. “I don’t want it to keep being like this.” Gansey wasn’t sure what he meant.