Danny Ray (Ray Trilogy) by Kelley Brown

showed her credentials and stated, “I am Danny Ray’s sister. What can you tell me about his condition?”
    Nurse White smiled at Nora and said, “I’ve been expecting you. Danny’s nurse, Shelly told me that you were a doctor, so I knew it was just a matter of time until you hunted me down.”
    Nora smiled and replied, “I guess we’re pretty predictable. What have you got for me?”
    After giving Nora Danny’s vitals, Nurse White looked around to see if anyone was listening, she stated, “We don’t have the final results from the doctor so don’t take anything I say as gospel, but here’s what we think. His knee cap doesn’t seem to be broken, but he has a really badly fractured femur. He maybe has a couple of broken ribs. His concussion should clear up soon but we will watch that overnight at least.”
    “Okay, what about internal damage? I noticed some bruises.”
    “At this point, we don’t anticipate anything there. We will keep a close eye on him though.”
    “Thank you so much for talking with me.” Nora held out her hand to shake. “I will put in a good word for you.”
    “Goodness, thank you,” Nurse White said surprised. “I never expected that.”
    “No problem,” Nora responded. “A good nurse deserves to be recognized.”
    When Nora returned to Danny’s room, Danny was lying there on the bed looking at Laura. She had the biggest smile on her face while she talked to him.
    Nora went to the other side of the bed and talked to him for a moment and then excused herself to go back to Art and Jeremy to explain to them Danny’s condition.
    At the end of all the discussion it was decided that although Danny’s condition wasn’t what they would desire, it looked like his chances of recovery were good. Jeremy and Nora needed to leave for their flight back to Tulsa because they left Lauren with a friend and they both had to work tomorrow.
    Art decided to call Fred at home to ask if he could manage the garage for a few days if necessary. He called his star pupil Ned Graves at the Kuk Sool Won karate classes to ask him to conduct his classes until he could get back. Next he called the airlines to transfer his and Laura’s tickets to Thursday. Art talked to the woman at the front desk for a recommendation for a convenient hotel near the hospital. He called and made reservations to stay through Wednesday night. Finally he was freed up to go back to Danny’s room.
    In spite of it being Sunday night, s pecialists were brought in considering that they were dealing with a Dallas Cowboy star. The media already hounded the public relations department of the hospital which had been called in as soon as they knew that Danny was being brought to Ochsner Baptist. After hours of waiting they took Danny to set his leg and place him in a big cast. Surgery had been rejected.
    The next time they saw Danny he was already admitted and in his room . He lay on his back with a huge cast on his leg suspended in traction at a forty five degree angle. His ribs were freshly bandaged. He breathed deeply; they could see that he was heavily sedated.
    Art and Laura stayed that night to get the doctors report . Dr. Barnes, the orthopedic doctor who reset his leg explained to them that Danny had suffered a supracondylar femur fracture from the blow caused by the three large football players who ran into him. He explained that these fractures often involve the cartilage surface above the knee joint. That’s why it looked like his leg was broken at the knee and bent in an odd angle, but his knee seemed to be in good shape considering where his femur broke.
    When it was well past midnight, the nurses encouraged them to go get some sleep. They went to their hotel and even though they hadn’t eaten anything since lunch, they were too tired to eat. They took long showers crawled into bed exhausted.
    Laura snuggled up to Art and laid her head on his shoulder. Finally she asked the thing that had her stomach in knots ever since the