Kerry murmured encouraging words, and Owen sat back on his heels. Bailey lifted one hand, but it flopped back to the ground.
“Hey there, take it easy. Keep your head down for me, okay? Did she hit her head on the way down?” He looked across at Kerry, who met his gaze with detached professionalism.
“I don’t think so. I was at the back of the pack, but Lore was right there, and I think she caught Bailey on the way down.” She looked around, and the bartender stepped forward, her face worried and pinched. “Is that right, Lore?”
“Yeah. She fell back into me, and I couldn’t hold her.”
“Sounds like you broke her fall. That’s great.” Didn’t sound like there was a risk of a neck injury. Owen hovered over Bailey, who blinked her eyes open, but then closed them again. “Hey, there. Take your time. But in a minute, an ambulance is going to pull up, very exciting stuff.”
“Nooo,” she groaned. “I’m fine.”
“How does your head feel?”
She made a weak face. “It hurts.”
“Anything else uncomfortable?”
“No.”
He rocked back on his heels. “Let’s try to sit you up, then. Careful.”
Kerry took one side and he took the other, and they eased her up to sitting—just in time for Matt Foster and Dani Minelli to pull up with their lights going, too.
“Hey, boss,” Dani said as she got out of the ambulance. “What do we have here?”
Bailey waved at her. “Nothing.”
“We’re still figuring that out,” Owen said. “Syncopal episode, LOC duration of three minutes—”
“Three minutes and thirty three seconds,” Kerry interjected.
He corrected himself, then finished giving his paramedics the report. Dani took over from there, getting a history from Bailey as the young woman adjusted to sitting, then standing.
Owen stepped away from the group and reported in to dispatch. He could leave now, and maybe he should, but he didn’t. Instead, he went back to the circle, where Bailey was insisting she was fine.
“We can transport you to hospital,” Dani offered. “Let the docs take a look at you. Or you can sign off saying you’re good to go home, but you shouldn’t be alone for the next few hours.”
“I’ll stay with her,” Kerry offered.
Owen bit his lower lip, but Dani was on it. She listed the potential causes of a syncopal episode, quickly and without drama, and reiterated that if this was a first instance, it might represent a new medical condition worth getting checked out.
Kerry nodded, but she turned back to Bailey. “What do you want to do?”
“I just want to go home.”
“How about we go back to your place, but we can call the hospital, too? Maybe they aren’t busy.”
The conversation went back and forth a bit, and by the time they were done, Bailey was in Kerry’s car, and they were going to swing past the hospital on the way to Bailey’s house.
Which meant Owen had to watch Kerry drive off—without a backwards glance at him—and the apology still sat unsaid and heavy in this throat.
He followed Dani and Matt back to their ambulance so he could add a line to their report.
“That was slick,” Dani said to him as he scrawled his signature. “How she convinced Bailey to go the hospital even though she was reluctant.”
“Yeah.”
“Isn’t she Becca’s midwife, too?”
