Who: Dallas & Eunah Where: Tulane Medical Center When: Friday Night/Saturday Morning, 1:55 AM What: Dallas has a meltdown.
There wasn’t really a lot going for a person going to the hospital at 2 in the morning because a member of their family was there. If Dallas had to think of a few things, one of the only ones that would come to his mind was the fact that, at the very least, the streets weren’t that crowded. Howard even managed to drive a little faster than normal. Howard, for his part, seemed like he was actually nervous about Lou. Dallas wasn’t that surprised. They butted heads, because that was what they did, but Howard had always respected Lou more than he let on. She was strong and confident. Basically, she was more a guy in the ways that Howard viewed gender roles than Dallas was.
Delia remained silent, save for the occasional sighs of pent up emotion and worry that would escape from her lips from time to time. Dallas thought he heard her say at least twice something along the lines of ‘please be okay.’ The second time that Dallas heard that he simply reached over from the back seat and touched Delia’s shoulder, giving her all of the comfort that he could have possibly given her at that moment. It was enough, since she immediately reached over and covered the hand that he had on her shoulder.
Dallas, for his part, was trying to hold things in as best he could, too. He was worried, way more worried than he let on. Lou was in the hospital. Lou, of all people. It probably wouldn’t have been that hard for him to believe if had simply been something like an accident at the Y. That girl didn’t really like to be told what to do, she liked to push boundaries. But this was something different. Lou was attacked. Someone went to his sister and hurt her. He didn’t even know what it was that was done to her. What if it was something bad? What if she was… he shook the thought out of his head, refusing to think about something like that. He wasn’t going to worry about what was going on with his sister until he knew what was going on with her.
The Foster family pulled up to Tulane Medical Center and found the closest parking that they could. Dallas found himself moving a lot faster than he normally would have, but given the situations he may as well have been the Flash. Wally West version preferred.
The first nurse that he found at the desk was the unfortunate victim of his barrage. “My sister is here. Where is she? I need to see her!”
The nurse blinked, but she had seen enough nervous people to not be that surprised. “What’s your sister’s name?”
He didn’t give her name? Apparently. “Lou Foster. I mean… Lucy Foster.” They had her name. They had to have her name, because that was how they called the family, right?
“Thank you. I’ll find her right now.”
By that time, Howard and Delia had walked in, hand in hand. Dallas noticed that, and was touched by it in some strange way. “How is she?” This came from Howard, surprisingly.
“The nurse is looking for her right now, grandpa.”
The nurse looked up from the computer screen, “I found her. I can take you to her if you’d like. She’s just down the hall.”
“Yes, please,” Delia said appreciatively. The elder Fosters followed the nurse, Delia expecting Dallas to follow behind them, only he wasn’t. “Dallas? Aren’t you coming.”
“I… I have to go to the bathroom.” He said. “I’ll be over there in a second.”
His grandparents were gone around the corner a moment later, leaving Dallas there in the middle of a hospital, alone late at night. He had done so much to avoid processing what had happened to his sister until he knew more of the information, which allowed him to have a certain amount of ignorance about the whole situation. That ignorance was no longer there, especially since he was standing in the hospital.
Dallas didn’t have to go to the bathroom. He just didn’t want to see Lucy hurt. Lou was his sister, she was this tough little firecracker that didn’t take anything from anyone. She stood up to Howard! How could someone like that just be seen on the bed, so still and vulnerable? Dallas wasn’t sure that he could see her like that. At least not right away.
With his hands in his sweater pocket, Dallas felt something there. He pulled it out and found his wallet. He didn’t know why his wallet was in his sweater pocket, but obviously it was. And he was right in front of the vending machine. There was no telling how long the goods inside of the machine had been exposed, but candy wasn’t supposed to go bad, was it?
The starbursts looked particularly appealing to him. Dallas pulled out a dollar and put it in the machine. When he pressed the button he hoped that the machine would drop the goodies into the bottom for him to get it. Only… it didn’t. The mechanical device moved a little bit, but it didn’t do what it was supposed to do.
“Come on!” Dallas exclaimed, frustrated at both the situation in front of him and the situation that was the reason that he was there. Mostly the second one. And there was nothing he could do about his sister being in the hospital, but there was something that he could do about not getting the candy that he had paid good money for!
Dallas grabbed the machine with both of his hands and started to shake the machine violently, or at least as much as he could shake it. It shook, but the candy did not budge, not an inch. This only irked him more and he was able to shake it some more, but that still didn’t do anything for him. Dallas let out a huge groan and just banged his head against the machine before turning his body and sliding down the face of the machine, the fear and frustration there for everyone to see. It really wasn’t his day.