The bright red light

The front desk of the OR department was a stark contrast compared to the one at the general area of the hospital. There were two women behind this desk and they were in state of high energy, working five things at once as it seemed. They looked stressed yet in control of the situation. Both of them were busy answering phones and typing in files, having the flickering light and repetitive sound of the ringtone of the phone to remind them that there were other calls waiting for them as soon as their current call was finished. They grabbed clipboards from doctors and nurses passing by, while handing them a different one as they left. Sometimes they would cover the phone as they answered a question or two from one of their colleagues before they continued what they had been doing.

The two women wrote, they typed, they asked, they answered while Laila and Maria waited for what seemed the longest minutes in their lives. While they waited, Laila took the time to send Noah a message so he knew where they were. That way he could come up straight away without making the lady at the general front desk look up Steve's file a second time. She got a short reply containing just the words. 'Ok. I'm coming now.' Laila had just read Noah's reply and looked back up when it seemed that their waiting was over.

Finally it seemed their turn had come as one of the young women looked up with a plastered smile and asked, "How may I help you two?" The moment had come so sudden, that both Laila and Maria seemed a bit lost for words. In a stammering voice Laila ended up being the one answering the woman. "Oh, uhm, yes, we are here to ask about Steve Branson. He was brought here not too long ago after being involved in an explosion. We were told he had been brought into emergency surgery."

The woman immediately knew who they were talking about and nodded with a serious look on her face. "Yes. Mr. Branson was taken into the operation room a few minutes ago. Are you family of the patient?" Laila shook her head. "No, we aren't blood related but this is Mr. Branson's girlfriend and me and my husband are his closest friends. His family does not live nearby. So, we are here in their stead to look at how he is doing. My husband was involved in the same explosion that caused Mr. Branson current state. Fortunately he wasn't hurt too much and is coming up here as well as we speak. But we would like to know why he needs surgery and if he will be okay. Could you tell us that even if we aren't related to him?"

The woman looked at the two of them hesitantly as they aren't allowed to give medical information on a patient to just anyone. Usually it needs to be someone related to a patient and even then not everyone will be entrusted with such private information as someone's state of health. So, when Noah came up and walked up to them and placed his arm on Laila's shoulders, asking her, "How's Steve doing? What is going on?", Laila could only reply by saying, "We don't know yet. We aren't related so we asked this lady if she can relay that information to us. She was just about to tell us and that is when you arrived."

Noah nodded and looked at the woman behind the desk as well. By arriving here and showing the woman the damage to his clothes, the torn skin on his arms, the bruises, proving that their story was true, the woman no longer had a reason to not say anything. She let out a brief sigh before she told them what they wanted to know. "Usually I can only tell family members information like this but for today I'll make an exception."

She then began retelling the situation and the damage Steve had suffered. "Mr. Branson was brought in after being involved in an explosion. His body had been shot forward with a great force by the blast and he landed against another parked car. The impact caused heavy trauma to his body. When the doctor examined him, she discovered multiple internal bleedings along with several broken ribs. It appears that he also has suffered trauma to the head during his fall, causing a concussion. I was the nurse who assisted his examination and I want you to know that he was responsive when the doctor was examining him, which is a good sign. Right now they have brought him into the operating room to stop his internal bleedings. If they manage to stop the bleeding successfully the doctor expects that Mr. Branson will make a full recovery. So, for now we have to wait for the result of the surgery. You can take a seat over there. Once the light goes off and the doctor comes out, she can inform you on how the surgery went."

That entire story felt like a full rollercoaster ride for all three of them but especially for Maria. Her heart sank when she heard the word explosion and heavy trauma, she stopped breathing and blinking when she learned about the severity of Steve's situation and felt hopeful again when she heard the words 'full recovery'. With that shred of hope they headed over to the seats that the nurse had pointed to them after thanking her. After taking a seat, they each turned quiet. Laila had her arm around Maria, comforting her by stroking her arm up and down, while her other hand was holding on tightly to Noah's hand.

Noah was staring off into the distance with a dark glare on his face. His mind was all over the place and his concern for his friend was making his anger, towards the man who caused his current condition, grow.

Like this the three of them waited for the bright red light to turn off and for the doctor to end their worrying.