I mean, they could easily go crazy, but I knew they wouldn’t. My white lie would get us the update we needed though so I didn’t care what was running through the nurse’s mind.

I re-entered the waiting room and again all eyes fell on me, but when their eyes switched to the nurse behind me everyone stood up. Everyone.

“You,” Keela growled to the nurse.

I raised my eyebrow.

Did something happen that I didn’t know about?

“Oh, damn,” the nurse whispered.

“I told you we wanted a different nurse!” Keela snarled.

The nurse shrugged her shoulders. “We’re short on staff today, it’s me or nobody.”

“You might as well be nobody, you evil cow!” Keela bellowed.

Oh, hell.

Keela. Was. Pissed.

I moved over to my friend. “What’s wrong?” I asked, my voice low.

“That bitch refused to give me any information on Kane. She made the security man outside keep me in reception from the moment they wheeled him through the double doors. If Alec and Ryder hadn’t showed up, I would have still been kept out there.”

“It’s protocol!” the nurse snapped. “I told you that. It’s the hospital’s rules, not mine.”

“I’ll show you fuckin’ protocol,” Keela snarled.

I remained in front of Keela. “Calm it,” I grunted then lowered my voice to a whisper, “just until we get the update on Kane from her.”

Keela instantly calmed herself, but I could see she wasn’t happy about it.

I nodded and turned back to the nurse. “So,” I began, “how is he?”

I held my breath after the question left my lips.

The nurse flipped up a few pages on her clipboard and read a few lines then looked around the room. “Mr. Slater is stable. We have him on oxygen, an IV drip for fluids, and we’re running his blood now to see what could have been the cause of him collapsing.”

I blinked and exhaled a slow breath as I let what the nurse said sink in.

Kane was stable. He was alive!

Thank God.

“Why couldn’t you just tell me that?” Keela suddenly screamed at the nurse. Alec had to jump forward and wrap his arms around her body to keep her from attacking the nurse. “Why couldn’t you just say he was alive? How fuckin’ dare you keep that information from me! You made me think he was dead! You made me tell his brothers that he might be dead. How fuckin’ dare you!”

The nurse was on the verge of tears and I didn’t know if it was because Keela was screaming at her, or because she felt bad for keeping precious information away from the family of a patient. I didn’t care though—I wanted the bitch to cry. She worried us sick until we got here and the brothers could prove they were a blood relation.

“I-I’m sorry,” the nurse stammered.

Keela tried to get at her with her extended arms. “You’re sorry?” she bellowed. “You fuckin’ will be!”

The nurse took a wise step backward. “Ma’am, you’ll have to calm down or I’ll call—”

“Don’t,” I cut the nurse off with a growl. “Don’t threaten to call security and put her out of this hospital when our family is lyin’ on a bed somewhere in this buildin'. I’ll put you in a bed next to him if you do.”

“Shit,” Nico said and quickly moved across the room and stood in front of me. He gently pressed his hands on my shoulders, and nudged me backwards a few steps. He glanced over his shoulder at the nurse. “You better leave; your presence is just further upsetting my girls.”

The nurse mumbled something then scurried out of the room, closing the door tightly behind her.

“You should have let me hit her!” Keela snapped at Alec when she turned in his arms. Alec said nothing, just wrapped his arms tightly around her body and held onto her until she calmed down enough to hug him back.

We were all quiet for a moment until I said, “He is okay.”

Nico put his arms around me as I burst into tears. Bronagh joined us, and Nico took an arm away from me and wrapped it around her, pulling us together. I put an arm around Nico’s waist and then Bronagh’s as my tears flowed.

I could hear the other girls cry with relief, and I could hear a lot of patting going on. I opened my eyes and looked up as Ryder leaned in and pressed his head against the side of Nico’s head and patted him roughly on the shoulder. I cried harder when I saw tears on Nico’s cheeks.

I had never seen him cry before.

Ever.

I stepped back so he and Bronagh could comfort one another. I knew he needed her at that moment and I was glad they had each other to make this easier. The hard part was only beginning and we would all need one another to get through it. We knew Kane was okay, but we didn’t know what happened to him, or why.

I sat down on one of the many plastic chairs in the waiting room and bent forward. I placed my elbows on my knees and my face in my hands. I closed my eyes and focused on breathing. I suddenly felt like I was going to be sick. I wasn’t sure if it was from the immense relief of finding out Kane was okay or if it was because of something else.

“Aideen?”

I looked up when Keela called my name.

“Yeah?” I asked.

Keela sat down next to me and put her hand on my back. “You don’t look so good.”

I snorted and sat upright. “I feel like I’m about to puke. I think it’s me nerves. I was just... so afraid.”

Keela leaned into me and rested her head on my shoulder. “I know. Me too. When he fell... and the noise of him hittin’ the ground. I didn’t know what to do.”

I hushed her. “You got him here, that’s all that matters.”

Keela nodded her head and sniffled.

I frowned and turned so I could put my arms around her.

Out of all of us, she really didn’t need the stress of Kane being ill hanging over her. She had enough going on inside her mind without adding this to the list. I hugged Keela and whispered soothing things to her.

Alec took over for me after a while, so I got up, hugged everyone else in the room, and then sat down in a chair closest to the door of the waiting room. A few hours passed by and I found myself looking out the window of the waiting room, watching the moon as it inched its way across the night sky.

I blinked my eyes and looked at the door when it opened and in stepped the nurse who nearly became Keela’s punching bag only hours before. I was the only girl awake right now. Bronagh was sleeping on Nico, Keela on Alec, and Alannah and Branna both had their heads on Ryder’s thighs as they snoozed. The lads were watching some American football match with the television on mute in the room, but when the door opened, they all turned their heads towards the door.

The nurse nervously swallowed. “My shift just ended, and I’m supposed to tell you that visiting times are over, but I know you haven’t seen your loved one yet. So I pulled a few favours with the night staff, and they’re letting some of you stay with Mr. Slater in his room, and the rest of you can stay in here then switch in a few hours. It’s my way of saying sorry. I-I’m sorry I upset your friend so much, I was only doing my job.”

I reached out and gripped the nurse’s hand. “Thank you so much and I’m sorry. I speak for Keela, too. We acted wrongly. We were just...”

“Scared?” the nurse finished my sentence and gave me a small smile.

I nodded my head in answer to her question.

“I understand,” she said then handed me a sheet of paper. “This has the name of the ward Mr. Slater is on and the number of the room he is in. You will all have to leave this room by morning, as other loved ones of patients in the A&E will need it. The waiting room in the ward he is on is like this so it will accommodate you all if needed.”

“Thank you,” I said and cleared my throat. “We really appreciate this.”

The nurse inclined her head, gave a tight-lipped smile to everyone then left the room. Things were quiet until Alec said, “We should let Keela threaten people more often if it gets us results like this.”