Chapter 60: Hospital visit (1)

After breakfast, Sarah, Aiden and Vivian are getting ready to go to the GHC hospital.

Vivian stepped out of the house, and saw that Sarah is almost completely inside trunk of a car, arranging suitcases while Aiden approached her from behind. As Sarah straightened up, he was right behind her and embraced her. Sarah smiled and leaned her back onto him. It was a very sweet scene. Vivian could not help but to remember Gabriel and wish that it was two of them like that.

More than once they held hands, he embraced her, and then they kissed. She was on cloud nine, and the next thing she knows, he disappeared. When she found out that he was in an accident and ended up in a hospital, her heart stopped. Since then she feels like she has a knot in her chest. She looks forward to seeing him and hopes that he is OK. 'I miss him very much.' She stepped toward the car and observed that Sarah and Aiden are wearing bracelets that seem to be matching. "Did you two get matching bracelets?"

Sarah had a huge smile on her face, as she vigorously nodded. "Aiden got them! For Christmas."

Vivian rolled her eyes. "Ugh, you two are so lovey-dovey that I can't look at you. The only thing that can make this mushier is if you start calling each other by some sickly-sweet nicknames such as 'honey-bun'."

Aiden looked at Sarah and smiled. "Mhm, maybe we should work on nicknames."

Sarah smiled while shaking her head. She decided to change the topic. "OK. We are ready, who is driving?"

"I'm NOT driving!" Vivian immediately spoke. "If I drive, you two will end up making out the whole trip. My heart can't stand that." She made exaggerated expression while tapping her chest.

Sarah laughed and turned to Aiden. "Then you drive now. I will drive back."

Aiden agreed.

...

It took them almost two hours to reach GHC in Bend.

As they stepped into the hospital, Vivian was very nervous. She was clutching bouquet of purple irises in her hand. Vivian remembered when she told Gabriel that those are her favorite flowers, and he responded that they are his favorites also. At first, she wanted to get him some fruits, but then thought that he might have dietary restrictions, assuming that he woke up. At that point, she decided to go with flowers.

Sarah saw how nervous Vivian is. She told her to take a seat in the waiting area, and gestured Aiden to stay with her. Aiden was not happy about that but still accompanied Vivian while his eyes didn't leave Sarah as she went toward the reception.

"Excuse me, my friend is staying here and I would like to visit him." Sarah smiled at the nurse who was sitting behind the reception counter.

"Patient's name?", nurse asked.

"Gabriel Long, he was admitted here on December 12."

"Your relationship with the patient?" Nurse didn't lift her eyes from the computer in front of her.

"Friends." Sarah was honest, and she noticed that nurse frowned.

Nurse lifted her gaze to look at Sarah and spoke in a cold voice: "We have strict privacy policies. Unless patient agrees to see you, or you can prove that you are close family member, I can't disclose any information. I can't even confirm to you if he is here, and not to mention room where patient stays."

"I understand." Sarah smiled. "But as you can see, I know that he is here, his family informed me, so you don't need to worry about that. Can you tell him that Sarah Hill is here? I'm sure that he will want to see me." Sarah was not sure if he is awake by now, but she has to try. Three days ago, JoAnna said that he still didn't wake up. However, there is a chance that he is awake and that he will approve them to see him.

Nurse looked at Sarah for some time before she picked up the phone, and talked with someone, giving instructions that Sarah Hill wants to visit Gabriel Long and to check if she can come up.

Few minutes later, nurse spoke to Sarah. "Excuse me, Miss Hill... we are not able to get approval from Mr. Long, so we can't let you go to visit him."

Sarah nodded politely and responded without making a fuss: "I understand, thank you." went toward Aiden and Vivian in the waiting area.

"What happened?" Vivian was anxious.

"They will not let us see him." Sarah was thinking of next steps.

Vivian was visibly more nervous. Sarah patted her on the back and reassured her that they will figure this out.

Sarah pulled out two laptops from her backpack that she prepared in advance. She handed one to Aiden. "Video surveillance. Get in, I will tell you in a minute where to look." Without a word he took it and started working on it.

Sarah turned on second laptop and connected to the wireless network that GHC hospital provided for visitors. She used this to hack her access to GHC private network for employees and found hospital records for Gabriel. "He is in room 715, that is seventh floor." Sarah told Aiden.

Sarah was looking through the information in Gabriel's records. "Good news! He woke up last night. Latest note from nurse is that he is weak, and mostly sleeping... They are giving him some strong pain killers, that must make him sleep a lot."

Sarah looked at Vivian and encouraged her. "He is awake. That is a good thing. He is better."

Vivian showed a small smile. She didn't understand what Sarah and Aiden are doing, but she heard that Gabriel is awake and that distracted her from asking about details of their actions.

"They don't have cameras in rooms. I can only see the hallway." Aiden spoke and tilted his laptop toward Sarah.

Sarah was not happy to hear this. "I was hoping that we can see if he is alone in the room."

"I will rewind and see the foot traffic for the room." Aiden got them to look at the video recording at a fast speed, backwards.

They saw few nurses coming in and out, when Sarah said: "There."

Aiden stopped it and played normally. They saw that about an hour ago two women entered Gabriel's room with their arms linked together, one older and one younger one. Based on their clothes, they are not hospital staff.

"Now we know he is not alone. And there are at least two women in the room." Sarah turned to Vivian. "Now what? Do you still want to go?"

Vivian thought for a moment, and then nodded.

They stood up and took the elevator to seventh floor. No one stopped them. There is a lot of people in the entry hall and first two floors have independent offices where people can freely enter.

They were not sure if the security is so bad, or maybe they reached just at the time of some shift change, but no one stopped them and three of them reached room 715 without any issues.

Sarah noticed that Vivian is hesitating. "Do you want me to go first?"

Vivian shook her head and opened the door. Vivian stepped into the room, and Sarah and Aiden followed behind her.

Gabriel was lying on the bed with his eyes closed. He looks pale, and his cheeks are fallen in. He is attached to several machines. Steady sound of heart rate machine is filling up the room.

'Beep-beep-beep...'

Vivian is staring at Gabriel with a complex expression, not moving. Her heart is aching to see him in such a bad state.

Older woman was sitting on a sofa lifted her gaze from her book and noticed them. "Excuse me, who are you?"

Vivian didn't react, so Sarah stepped in. "Sorry to intrude. We are Gabriel's friends from Tesla University. We heard that he is here and stopped by to visit him. How is he?"

Older lady broke into a smile and almost teared up. "He is much better. Thank you for coming to see him. Gaby is sleeping now. He was not conscious for such a long time, and he got us all worried to death. I am his mother."

"Excuse my lack of manners, Mrs. Long." Sarah stepped toward older woman and politely continued, "My name is Sarah, behind me are Vivian and Aiden we take courses together with Gabriel."

"It's nice to see that he has friends who would come to visit him at such a time. Too bad he is sleeping now." Mrs. Long sighed.

Sarah looked toward younger woman who was playing with her phone until she noticed them. Now she was sizing up Sarah openly.

Mrs. Long noticed that Sarah is looking at her companion. Mrs. Long introduced young woman. "Oh, yes. This is Victoria."

Victoria stood up and walked toward Gabriel with her head held high. Once she reached edge of the bed, she turned toward Sarah. "Nice to meet you, I'm Gabriel's girlfriend."