Chapter 19: Faye in the Room

The nurses shocked him back into rhythm before Faye reached the building.

I was standing in the hall with the attending when it happened, and I heard the machine count down and the room go quiet.

My father came out of it confused and gray, and he still would not sign.

Faye came through the ambulance doors ten minutes later, with her clinic lanyard swinging and her hair coming loose from its clip.

She was twenty-eight, small as ever, with the same paint on her cuff.

"Where is he?"

"Bay four." I took her by both shoulders. "He's refusing consent unless I go in, and I can't. It's against the rules, and it's against me."

"Okay."

"He may die in the next half hour if he doesn't go to the lab."

"Okay." She nodded. "Do you want me to go in?"

"I want you to do what you want."

She looked at me for a long moment, and then she walked down the hall.

I stopped at the door of the bay and stayed on the threshold.

My father saw her and his face crumpled.

"Faye," he said. "Where's Ingrid?"

"She's right outside." Faye pulled the stool to the side of the bed and sat. "She isn't coming in, Uncle Dennis."

"She's my daughter."

"She called me instead. That's what she's giving you. It's more than you gave her."

He shut his eyes.

A tear ran down into the hair above his ear.

"I can't have it done by strangers," he said. "I don't trust them. I don't trust anyone."

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