smiling critters

chapter 10 - hospital

Meanwhile, Georgia, hollie, and Neil were on their way to Grand Strand Medical Center to get Neil the help he so desperately needed. Hollie kept a close eye on her friend making sure he didn’t fall asleep while Georgia made a call to her work telling a coworker she was coming back in with a post-kitten in dire condition. Hollie looked out the window before looking back at Neil, who had his eyes closed and looked ready to pass out.

“Hey, nini. C’mon just gotta stay up a little longer,” she gently shook him as he sleepily opened his eyes back up. He responded by quietly humming and grabbing her paw before weakly squeezing it. She squeezed back. They just sat there, squeezing each other’s paws until neil started to let go, and hollie responded by gently shaking him again. He woke up and squeezed her paw again. They kept this up while georgia sped off to the hospital, running a few red lights along the way. Once they got there, georgia and hollie got neil inside and were met with multiple nurses who took him away with georgia, leaving hollie on her own in the waiting room. She decided to go out for a small walk around the building while she both collected her thoughts and waited for georgia to come back out. As she walked, she pulled out her phone to text kai; ‘hey just got 2 the hospitl, georg went back w/ the nursis 2 help em out w/ stuff. Idk wats wrong w/ him yet, but gorge said shed tell me when hes stabl’ she hastily typed out before stuffing her phone back in her pocket. She kept walking until she was calm enough to go back into the waiting room, which was lucky because georgia came in right around the same time.

“How is he?” she asked hastily.

“I’m gonna be honest with you, he’s not good. We got a blood sample and the lab is doing blood work right now, but for now we’re not sure he’ll make it. Don’t tell the others until we have a definitive answer because it might change, so just keep your chin up and be patient, baby. i gotta go back, stay here," Georgia explained before going back into Neil's room only to see him with his phone by his bedside typing something in.

“Neil, baby, you shouldn’t be on your phone, can you turn it off for me?” she asked going over to him and kneeling to be at eye level with him. He tapped on his contacts app before looking at her.

“Call,” he paused and pushed his phone away from him. “Donna,” he finished before dropping his paw, but still breathing. Georgia picked up his phone and scrolled through before finding a contact labeled ‘donna’ and tapping it and hitting the ‘call’ button. It rang a few times before someone picked up.

“Hey, Neil sweetie, is something the matter? I know the wind storm is pretty rough tonight, are you sure you don’t want me to drive you?” a high pitched feminine voice with a light toronto accent asked.

“Hi ms. Donna, I'm Georgia, I'm one of Neil's friend’s moms. And he just told me to call you, so I assume you’re his emergency contact?”

“Yes, is something wrong?” she asked.

“Well Neil's in the hospital right now, he came over to my house barely conscious and with a really weak pulse, so i rushed him over just to be safe. The lab is doing blood work right now and I will make sure to get back to you once they’re done, but he’s breathing, he’s stable, and we’re gonna take good care of him," Georgia explained, trying to be as gentle as she could with the news.
Donna hummed. “oh, it must be that nasty medicine Elliot gives us.”

“Medicine? What kind of medicine?”

“A red gas that he says is supposed to reduce pain and help us sleep, but it’s been a little hard on neil.”
Georgia’s heart sank hearing that. Were they getting fed popine? The blood work would answer that. But for now, she just wanted to make sure she could help Neil and his family in any way she could.

“Ok, I'll keep that in mind. For now, I'll keep you posted on his condition. You have a nice night, stay safe,” Georgia nodded and smiled.

“Ok, have a nice night,” Donna bid back before Georgia hung up. She took a second to breath and look at Neil, who was still relatively peaceful, before looking at Donna's contact and taking out her phone and typing Donna's number in. Once she was done with that, she put her phone away and went back to paying attention to Neil, who was knocked out. She stayed and made sure he didn’t start flatlining until she was called to the lab.