Haunted

Chapter 10: Hospital

Anyone would have thought it was a Friday or Saturday night considering how busy Beacon Hills Memorial Hospital was when Clark, Jackson and Lydia approached the front desk. The seats that lined the corridors were all but taken up and medical staff were rushing forwards and backwards, exchanging patient notes and maintaining organisation rather well considering they were rushed off their feet. Clark knew from the moment that they stepped into the hospital that they were going to be there for a while. Overhearing one nurse mentioning something about a car pile up a few miles outside the town not only cleared up why the place for so busy but also made it clear that Jackson was not going to be top of their priority list.

Approaching the front desk, Clark was surprised to see a familiar face. The woman sat behind the desk, typing away at the computer, was the same woman that had answered the door to him at the McCall house; the woman he had assumed to be Scott's mom. She must have felt the presence of someone watching her for she looked up suddenly, before Clark had worked out what to say. A flicker of recognition crossed her face when she looked at Clark and she smiled at him, "You're Scott's friend, right?"

Clark's eyes widened slightly at that statement and he hurriedly glanced over his shoulder, letting out a small sigh of relief when he saw that Jackson was preoccupied with Lydia as opposed to listening to their conversation. After Jackson had spent the entire car journey from the school to the hospital angrily ranting about Scott, Clark did not feel like trying to explain why Scott's mom had referred to him as 'Scott's friend'. Despite not thinking of himself as Scott's friend - the only reason they even talked to each other was because of the whole werewolf situation - Clark hoped to use Ms McCall's assumption that he was to his advantage and try to get Jackson seen as soon as possible. The last thing three teenagers wanted to do was hang around for hours on end at a hospital.

Clark returned Ms McCall's smile and added a nod of confirmation. "That's right. I'm actually here with some of my other friends," Clark told her and glanced over his shoulder again to find that Lydia had found Jackson a spare seat to wait at. He waved a hand in their general direction to point them out to Ms McCall. "Jackson landed awkwardly on his shoulder during lacrosse practice. He keeps trying to insist that it's not as bad as it looks but we're forcing him to get it looked at.

"It's things like this that make me wish Scott had stuck to tennis," Ms McCall commented as she turned to the computer. The imagery of Scott playing tennis was one that Clark struggled to entertain after watching him play lacrosse so well thanks to his newfound abilities.

"I guess you don't share his excitement at making first line," Clark commented to make conversation as he waited for Ms McCall to pull up the computer program that would add Jackson to the electronic waiting list.

"I'm proud of him for achieving what he wanted. He worked hard for it. I would just be a lot more comfortable watching him play tennis," Ms McCall responded, her eyes focused on the computer screen as she spoke. "I'm going to need his full name and date of birth to find him on the system and get him into the waiting line." Ms McCall looked past Clark to where Jackson was sitting with Lydia behind him, almost as if she was expected Clark to have to call him over to get that information.

"It's Jackson Whittemore, and June fifteenth nineteen-ninety-five," Clark supplied her with the information and received a look of surprise from Ms McCall, making him confused as to why she had been so sure that he wouldn't have known that information.

Ms McCall appeared to pick up on Clark's confusion pretty quickly and hastily explained, "Sorry, I told Scott that you had dropped by the house and he told me you were new to the school. I wasn't expecting you to know your new friend's birthday."

Clark nodded in understanding. "He's not a new friend. I lived here until I was almost ten years old so he's an old friend that I'm getting reacquaintanced with," Clark explained.