Remote Consequences Read Online Free

the information desk. I found it a few feet in front of me. A gray-haired volunteer sat behind it reading an issue of Redbook . Surrounded by a semi-circle desk with a half-dozen floral arrangements on it, the woman looked up at me with kindness. "Hello, dear."
    I wasn't in the mood for a meet-and-greet. I had to find Paget. Make sure she was okay.
    "I need the emergency room. I thought this was the entrance."
    Why wouldn't the ambulance bay not enter directly into the emergency department? I wished I had my hospital credentials from UAB Hospital with me. Being able to flash that med student identification was something I would pay money for right about now.
    "I'm sorry, dear. We don't have an emergency room here. We do have the Acute Care Clinic. It is right around…" She pointed down a wood-paneled hallway, and I took off in that direction, the woman's words fading behind me. I'd find it myself. I couldn't play polite and wait for a long, drawn-out explanation from the elderly volunteer today. My patience was beyond gone at this point. I needed to know if Paget was safe.
    I heard Paget before I saw her. Her voice, edged with concern but slightly slurred, vibrated against my eardrums before I reached the end of the hall.
    "But why did he have to go? So cute."
    I turned the corner and found my sister on a hospital bed. Head bandaged. Intravenous fluids dripped into one pale arm while a blood-pressure cuff was secured on the other. My heart knocked against the back of my breast like the thwop , thwop , thwop of helicopter blades.
    Paget looked so innocent, so fragile, so little in that huge bed. An image of her as a tiny girl came to mind. A red snow cone spilled down the front of her white Sunday dress. Daddy laughing. Momma fussing. Me embarrassed. Always embarrassed by my sister.
    I swished the dry-erase board of my mind as Paget looked up and grinned widely at me.
    I should be the one embarrassed. I had not been a good big sister, but I needed to find a way to be better. Needed to make up for all the times I wasn't here for her.
    "How're you feeling? What happened?"
    Paget stopped smiling and looked down at her hands. "I was hungry." That was her response.
    I took a deep breath. Reaching for her chart in the clear bin on the wall, I flipped it open and read the physician's notes.
    Minor head laceration to the medial scalp. No stitches required. Monitor overnight for possible concussion. Treat with anti-anxiety meds as needed.
    She must have been very agitated when they'd brought her in. They'd given her a fairly large dose of meds to calm her down, but it didn't sound like a serious injury. Ty Dempsey and his cop cronies had nearly scared the life out of me. Would he ever stop trying to make me take the blame for everything? Even after all these years.
    "You should wait for the doctor. You're not supposed to touch that."
    A bleached-blonde nurse stepped into view. Her face was pinched with an I'm-over-worked-and-underpaid sneer as she snatched the chart from my hand and replaced it in the drop box.
    "Sorry. I'm a third-year medical student from…"
    The nurse pierced me with a look that stopped my explanation. It was obvious that the woman couldn't care less that I had almost been a full-fledged doctor. All that really mattered was that I wasn't a doctor here and I was a patient's family who shouldn't be acting like an almost-doctor at any rate.
    "Sorry," I repeated.
    "Oh, Darlene. Don't give her such a hard time. She's always been a nosy little thing."
    I swirled around to see the freckled face of Dr. David Cavello. I stepped forward and right into the bear hug of his embrace.
    "We missed you at the funeral," I told him.
    He squeezed me tightly and then stepped back to examine me with his knowing eyes. Eyebrows crinkled.  A mix of love, loss, and intelligence poured out of him and into my still-smarting heart. "I couldn't." His chin quivered slightly as he spoke.
    And as strange as it seemed, I understood. I'd loved Aunt