Cut and Run 4 - Divide and Conquer

the bay.
    He hung back, practically vibrating with the need to get
    information and see how Zane was doing. Then he saw Zane slowly
    turn his head away from the door toward one of the doctors, who was
    talking to him in low tones. Zane was awake .
    Ty held his breath and stepped into the bay. The nurse must have
    seen the movement out of the corner of her eye, because she turned to
    look at him in alarm.
    The doctor turned as well. “And you are…?”
    Ty merely flipped his badge open to show it to the doctor. He
    could be an officious ass too.
    The doctor wasn‟t impressed. “Unless you‟re Special Agent
    Garrett‟s family, you shouldn‟t be here, sir. I‟ve been informed of no
    guard assignment.”
    “Consider yourself informed,” Ty said to him in a low voice.
    “I must insist—”
    “Ty?”
    At Zane‟s soft word, the doctors and nurse turned back to their
    patient. Ty stepped closer to the bed, looking at Zane with a mixture of
    relief and guilt. “Hey,” he responded weakly.
    Zane‟s hand shifted and his chin turned, but he just blinked lazily
    and stared out into the bay with unfocused eyes. “You okay? You were
    in the truck,” he said. The words were so garbled it took Ty a few beats
    to decipher them.
    “Yeah,” Ty answered carefully as he studied Zane. He knew that
    look. It took him a long moment for it to register, but he knew it. It was
    Divide & Conquer | 103

    the same one his great-grandmother had always had when he‟d been
    little, staring past him as she listened to the sound of his voice. “You
    can‟t see,” he blurted.
    “Excuse me,” one of the doctors interrupted. “Special Agent
    Garrett, is this man okay to stay with you? Do you know him?”
    Zane blinked slowly. “He‟s my partner,” he said, the words
    coming out a little more clearly, though still labored. “Tell him. He was
    in the truck.”
    “Tell me, my ass. He can‟t see,” Ty grunted to the doctor as he
    pointed at Zane accusingly.
    The second doctor spoke. “You are correct, Agent…?”
    “Grady,” Ty told the man in annoyance. “Why can‟t he see?”
    “Ty,” Zane said softly, the tone clear, asking Ty to calm down
    and let the doctors explain.
    The first doctor flipped a page on the chart. “As we were just
    explaining to Agent Garrett, there was a lot of swelling from the blow
    to the head. While most of it has subsided and we‟ve confirmed there is
    no further internal bleeding, we think there was enough to form a few
    blood clots. We started him on the appropriate drugs, and in a couple of
    days, we‟ll run another CT scan to determine the extent of the
    damage.”
    “The clots are very near the optic nerves, possibly even inside
    them,” the second doctor said. “That‟s why he can‟t see.”
    Ty stared at them, trying to decide if he was justified in hitting
    one or both of them. He didn‟t suppose he was. “Clots,” he repeated.
    “So it‟s not… permanent, right? It can be fixed?”
    “We chose a very successful drug for dissolving clots,” the first
    doctor said. “Once we have a chance to repeat the CT scan and run a
    retinal exam, we‟ll have a better idea, but I would say it‟s only
    temporary and won‟t require surgery to resolve it.”
    Through this conversation, the nurse was changing out an IV, and
    Zane didn‟t even flinch as she set in another port. “Can I get you
    anything, Mr. Garrett?” she asked. “Are you in any pain?”
    104 | Madeleine Urban & Abigail Roux

    “Headache. I‟ll live,” Zane slurred.
    “Well, Agent Garrett, try to get some rest,” the first doctor said.
    “You may find it easier to just keep your eyes shut. I hesitate to cover
    them until we know more about your condition. We‟ll be back to
    evaluate you in a few hours.” With that, the two doctors nodded at Ty
    and left.
    The nurse slid the call button cord inside the curve of Zane‟s arm.
    “If you need anything, just buzz, and I‟ll come running. My name‟s
    Bree.” Then she left them alone.
    Ty stood in place, uncertain of what to do. He couldn‟t fight the
    feeling that this was all his fault somehow. If he‟d just gone in with
    them….
    “Stop it,” Zane murmured.
    “What?” Ty asked defensively.
    Zane turned his face toward Ty. “Stop beating yourself up. Are
    you okay? You were in the truck,” he repeated for the third time, his
    voice low and exhausted.
    “You really do have a concussion, huh,” Ty murmured. The
    heavy chair he‟d sat in