Bamboo and Lace (11 page)

When a soft knock on her door brought no response, Bailey quietly opened the portal to the shadowy room. She could see that Lily was in bed.

“Lily?”

Lily moved a little.

“Come in,” she called, although her mouth felt very dry.

“Lily, it's Bailey. Dinner is on.”

“Oh, I'm sorry you had to come for me, Bailey. I must have fallen asleep.”

“Okay. Do you want to come down?”

Lily tried to lick her lips.

“I'm not at all hungry,” Lily finally said, her voice low. “Would it be all right if I didn't?”

“That's fine. Did you burn today?”

“I did, yes.”

“Okay. I'm going to run and get you some aloe lotion.”

Lily didn't move while her hostess did this, thinking how easily she could go right back to sleep. Even when she heard Bailey returning, she could not find the energy to move.

“Here you go,” Bailey said, coming through to put it on her dresser.

“Thank you.”

“You're welcome. Come for me if you need something, Lily. And be sure to drink plenty of water.”

“All right. Thank you.”

Bailey left and shut the door. Lily could tell that she had burned quite badly. Her skin felt awful, but she had no energy to get up and use the lotion. Before she could contemplate the matter much more, she fell asleep again.

When Bailey turned in, a little after 10:00 that night, she checked on Lily one last time. This time the younger woman did not wake up.

Chapter Six

Although Lily had been lying awake since three in the morning, she did not join the family until breakfast. Moving slowly so as not to shift her arms, shoulders, or back, Lily walked in a state of near shock over the way her body felt.

The lotion had done nothing. It felt cool the moment she used it, but the burning sensation was back so fast it startled her. And what was worse, she felt cold. She felt so chilled that she wanted to shake, but she had let herself do that once and knew from the pain it caused she must not let it happen again.

She could hear everyone at the table as she descended the open stairway. They were talking and sharing the paper as they had done other mornings, but Lily didn't try to look up. She wanted to care what her brother thought, but right now nothing mattered. The closer she got to the smell of food, the more she felt she could be sick. But she still forced herself to take her seat.

What Lily didn't notice was how silent the table had become the moment everyone spotted her. The family had looked at her to say good morning but had not uttered the words. Even Bailey's soft “Oh, my,” was lost on Lily. Not until Gabe was suddenly next to her chair did Lily realize much of anything.

“Here, Lily,” he spoke quietly, “I'm going to pull your chair out.”

“I'm not hungry,” she said, thinking he wanted her to sit elsewhere to eat.

“Go for the car, Ash,” Gabe ordered, and Lily heard him leave swiftly.

“Here we go,” he said, his hands coming out to take hers. “Stand up for me.”

“I don't feel well, Gabe,” Lily told him, even as she stood.

“I know you don't. That's why we're going to the hospital.”

“I think I need Jefferson.”

Since the admission tore at his heart, Gabe said nothing.

“Mama crying,” Celia announced, but it didn't register with anyone but Evan, who went to his wife.

Knowing there was little they could do, the two followed as Gabe took Lily toward the front door. Ashton came in just as he got there, and with only Gabe holding her hands, they took Lily to the car.

“Call the number Jeff left,” Gabe told a stunned Evan as he shut Lily's door and Ashton climbed into the back. “Tell him what's happened and that we'll be in touch.”

“All right.”

“Tell her we're praying,” Bailey said, tears still filling her eyes.

“I will,” Gabe said, continuing his own prayers as well.

What followed for Lily felt like hours of being trapped in the same nightmare. The seat belt rubbed her skin because she did not want to sit back against the seat. Then she was in a hot, stuffy room with Gabe on one side and Ashton on the other. Her stomach was so upset, she thought she might die from holding everything down. Then a strange woman was telling her to undress. She was asked to climb into a bed with scratchy sheets, one that felt ten feet off the floor. And finally, a needle was pushed into her arm and stayed there. With that, Lily could not hold the tears. They seeped out at her temples and soaked into the pristine white pillowcase under her head.

Sometime later, she opened her eyes to see Gabe sitting at her side. Without even the energy to drop her gaze, she stared at him numbly, just wanting her father or Jeff to come and take her away.

“I'm sorry,” she said finally. “So sorry.”

“Why are you sorry?” Gabe asked, even as his hand came up to gently touch her hair. He was a tactile person—he wanted to hold her hand at the very least, touch her brow and soothe the hurt, but she was a mass of burned flesh, and with just the slightest touch to the side of her hair, he took his hand away.

“I don't know. I'm just sorry.”

“Lily, this is our fault. There's so much we didn't understand. Jeff tried to tell me, but I didn't get it. I thought if you could come to us we would be just fine. But your culture is so different, and now we've let you get hurt.”

“I can't fly like this.”

Gabe smiled. “You're not going to fly at all. Before I saw you this morning, I would have agreed to send you back to Kashien. You just needed to ask. But not now.”

“Why not now?” she asked, suddenly comfortable with him.

“Because now we're going to take care of you. Now I understand, and everything is going to be fine.”

Lily still didn't know what he hadn't understood that was so clear now, but she had run out of steam to think.

“Where am I?” she asked, her eyes closing.

“At the hospital.”

“I've never been in a hospital.”

“Not even when you were born?”

“No. I was born in Lhasa. My father delivered me.”

Gabe smiled.

Ashton peeked around the door just then and came to stand by Gabe's side.

“How is she?” he whispered.

“She was just talking, but I think she might be asleep.”

“I called and talked to Evan. He said Bailey would be finding a sitter so they can both come.”

“Did they get ahold of Jeff?”

“Yes. They called the number, and he called right back. They set up a time for him to call again.”

Gabe nodded.

“Are they keeping her, Gabe?”

“I think so. She was getting dehydrated, and they've got her on morphine for the pain.”

Almost as if on cue, a doctor came in the door.

“Hello, I'm Dr. Grant,” he said. “I understand that you're friends of Lily's.”

“Yes. I'm Gabriel Kapaia and this is my brother, Ashton. Lily is staying with us.”

“Okay. Was she wearing any block?”

“We don't think so.”

The doctor looked up at them but didn't comment. The nurse came in, and a moment later the brothers were asked to leave.

Even as they moved from the room, they heard Lily wake and say her brother's name. Once in the hall, the men leaned against the wall to talk.

“I hate it that Lily has to suffer for my lack of insight.”

“How are you to blame for this, Gabe?”

“I knew how unfamiliar she was with the culture. Jeff and I certainly talked about it enough times. But then she had had a few days with him, and from that I made way too many assumptions.”

“We all have,” Ashton put in.

While they waited quietly, the doctor and nurse came out and explained what the next few days would look like.

“I want to keep her for a few days, mostly for pain management. As you can see, she's in a tremendous amount of pain, and this way we can keep the morphine going and monitor her pain level. She's also going to need another IV bag, maybe two. If she stays here with the catheter, she won't have to be climbing out of bed just yet. But once you get her home, she's still going to be miserable and want to take it very slowly.”

“We'll see to that.”

“Good. I'll check on her again in a few hours.”

The doctor had no more finished with his explanation when Evan and Bailey showed up. Bailey waited only long enough to hear the doctor's prognosis from her brothers before she went in to see Lily. It hurt to look at her. Bailey thought she might be asleep, but as soon as she bumped the chair, Lily's eyes opened.

“Hi,” Bailey said, thinking on the fact that hindsight was always 20/20.

“Hi, Bailey.”

Bailey sat down. “I'm sorry this happened, Lily. I feel terrible.”

“It's all right. I should have thought more about it.”

“Do you use sunblock in Kashien?”

“No, we stay covered all the time.”

Then I don't know how you could have thought on it
were Bailey's thoughts, but she kept them quiet.

Evan peeked around the corner just then and slipped in when Bailey waved to him.

“Hi, Lily. How bad is it?”

“Oh, it's bad, I guess,” she said quietly, trying not to shiver. “Is Gabe here?”

“Right here,” Gabe answered from the end of the bed, and all watched as Lily looked up at him without prompting.

“Did the doctor tell you I have to stay?”

“Yes, for a few days.”

Lily licked her lips—a labored movement—and Bailey stood to give her some ice.

“I'm sorry I'm so tired.”

“It's all right,” Evan told her. “We'll get out of here so you can sleep.”

Lily didn't respond, but the foursome left, at least for a moment. When they reached the hallway they had a short meeting before Gabe headed back inside to sit by Lily's bed and quietly read the newspaper Evan had brought with him.

“Evan talked to Jeff,” Gabe told Lily when the nurse woke her to take her blood pressure.

“How is he?”

“He's concerned about you. He'll be calling again tonight.”

“Did you tell him I'm all right?”

“No.”

Lily looked at him. “Why not?”

“Because you're in a lot of pain and not all right.”

Lily glanced around the room. Her hot skin hurt so badly, but she was cold. It made no sense.

“You don't have to stay, Gabe.”

“Okay,” he said kindly, and Lily looked to him.

Somehow she knew he would remain. She hadn't wanted to be a bother.

“You're not a bother,” he said, and Lily couldn't believe she had said that out loud; she then realized she hadn't.

“How did you know what I was thinking?”

“I put myself in your shoes. I thought about being in Lhasa and getting hurt. You and your father would be sitting with me instead of getting on with your own life. I wouldn't want you to do that.”