“Holy shit, that was nuts,” Corey stated.
“That was great. I think I broke my freaking hand, but that was great,” Amanda said as she looked at her knuckles that were red and swollen.
Bill wrapped his arm around Amanda’s shoulders. “You need to be more careful with the cowboys you decide to hook up with. Those guys had bad intentions.” He gently ran his thumb against her cheek.
“I need a drink,” Davie said and they all started laughing.
“I think I need some ice,” Sage said, as they rounded the corner outside one of the other hopping bars on the strip. Corey stopped to look at her arm.
“Shit, Sage. This is bad.”
“What is?” Davie asked as he walked closer.
“Aw hell, was that from a beer bottle?” Davie asked.
“Yes.”
“Crap, you might need stitches,” Mary told her.
“Oh no, does that mean the night is over?” Amanda asked as she laid her head on Bill’s arm. Sage could tell that Bill was happy with Amanda leaning on him. Bill and Corey adored Amanda but they had been friends forever.
“No, of course not. Let’s go into the bar, have some more drinks, and I’ll wash this up and deal with it later,” Sage said. Amanda cheered and they all headed into the next bar.
Sage swallowed hard. She didn’t want to be here. She just wanted to go home, or maybe she did need to get stitches.
She felt the arm go around her again. It was Corey.
“I can walk you down the street to that urgent care facility while these guys continue to party?”
She smiled at him.
“You think it can’t wait?”
“Honey, you’re a trooper, but that looks really bad. Let’s go.” Corey told the gang where they were headed, and they walked to the urgent care facility a block down the street in Turbank.
* * * *
“She’s what?” Kenny asked as the call came over the radio from dispatch.
“Is she okay? What happened?” he asked as Rosie, the dispatcher, said Corey Jacobs was with Sage and that she needed stitches.
“I’m on my way.”
Fifteen minutes later Kenny pulled up to the urgent care. The call came over the radio about a bar fight at the dance hall in Turbank. As he passed by, he saw the local police department patrol cars, and some people were under arrest and paramedics on the scene were treating others. Kenny was furious.
As he headed into urgent care, he saw the nurse at the front desk and then was directed to the room Sage was being treated in.
He opened the door just as Doctor Montgomery, a good friend of Kenny’s father, was pulling out shards of glass from Sage’s forearm.
“Kenny?” Corey said, and Sage turned her head to look at him, her eyes widened and then she pulled her bottom lip between her teeth. The doctor stopped a moment.
“Hey, Kenny, how are you? Annie said you were working tonight, and that she saw you outside of Francine’s.” Annie was Ray Montgomery’s sister.
“Yep, sure did. She said she was bringing you by some dinner,” Kenny stated, making small talk as Dr. Montgomery went back to pulling glass from Sage’s arm.
“Yeah, that was hours ago. You know they give the graveyard shift to the young doctors,” he said and winked.
“I hear you. So how is the patient?”