Chapter 43 Admitted

• Leonard sat besides Ashley’s hospital bed and watched her silently. She was rushed in two days ago. He couldn’t recognise her at first sight neither could he recognise Henry when he brought her in. He was a far cry from the Henry Allen he knew. Yes he still had on the designer suits and watches and still had on his expensive Italian shoes but he was without the composure that was typical of Henry Allen. His hair was ruffled, he had tear stains on his face indication that he had been crying. His always impeccably clean white shirt was stained with blood. Leonard would have taken a picture of him and sent to the tabloids when he recognised him if he had not been worried about his friend who was dying.
• Even he too had discarded his etiquette as a doctor, when he saw Ashley, instinctively he had reached for Henry and gave him a hard blow, it was nothing serious but Henry was spotting a bruise. Leonard was hysterical after he had calmed down, his best friend was fighting for her life and on the other hand he was expecting an assault suit to be filed against him. When he didn’t get served the following day he had blamed it on the fact that Henry was busy. And it wasn’t with work related stuff or anything but he was busy with caring for Ashley. He spent hours unending in the hospital, no amount of coaxing from the doctors would deter him. He would go back occasionally to get things but he spent most of the time here. On the first night he had brought Asher along and they both spent the night in the hospital. He was even cooperative with the authorities and told them what happened. It was not what Leonard had feared happen.
• Leonard had not acted any different from Henry, he had cleared out his schedule with help from his friends so he could give Ashley his undivided attention. It was a head injury, it was not terminal but out of routine the doctors had sedated her for a Magnetic Resonance Imagery scan. They were yet to receive the test results. Leonard watched as she slept.