Deanna immediately noticed Xavier approaching and frowned slightly.
The reason was simple: Xavier looked very pale, clearly forcing himself to stay upright.
"Mr. Nelson, are you trying to get yourself killed?" Deanna said disapprovingly.
Xavier forced a smile. "I'm not trying to get myself killed. It's just that I couldn't relax until you arrived, Dr. Deanna. Now that you're here, I can rest easy."
Hearing this, Deanna's heart sank again.
Obviously, Lance's condition might be worse than she had imagined.
At this moment, Gregory and Chloe greeted Xavier obediently.
"Uncle Xavier, are you sick? You look terrible."
"If you're sick, you need to rest well."
Listening to the children, Xavier felt a warmth in his heart.
He looked at them gently and said with a faint smile, "You're right. Now that your mommy is here, I can rest properly."
After speaking, he led Deanna and her two children to the ward.
Watching them walk further away, Braylon finally snapped out of his daze, his eyes full of shock and disbelief.
A few minutes later, they arrived at the VIP ward.
Upon entering, Deanna saw Lance lying unconscious on the hospital bed, his face pale and his body covered in tubes.
At that moment, she felt as if an invisible hand had gripped her heart tightly. It hurt, it hurt a lot.
The two children also saw Lance lying motionless on the bed and looked worried.
"Uncle Lance, my brother and I came to see you with mommy," Chloe said cautiously as she tiptoed to the bedside.
She looked at Lance expectantly, thinking that he would respond gently as he always did whenever she spoke.
But this time, she waited for a long time without any response or smile from her uncle. She couldn't help but tear up.
Deanna watched from the side, feeling very uncomfortable.
She turned and asked, "Mr. Nelson, who has been Mr. Mercer's attending physician these past few days? I need to understand Mr. Mercer's condition."
Just as she finished speaking, Braylon, who had just caught up with them, overheard her.
Without waiting for Xavier to introduce him, Braylon walked over and introduced himself.
"Hello, I'm Lance's attending physician."
As he spoke, Braylon couldn't help but look Deanna and the two children up and down in surprise. "I can't believe it. Lance and I were college classmates. When did he get married? He didn't even tell me. Now he has kids this big while I'm still single! I am so jealous!"
Deanna was at a loss for words and didn't know how to respond.
However, she was also a bit surprised that Lance's attending physician was his friend.
Just as she was about to inquire about Lance's condition, Braylon's voice rang in her ears again.
"I didn't expect Lance's wife to be a doctor like me. Xavier speaks highly of you. We should exchange ideas sometime."
"No need to wait. Let's discuss now," Deanna said seriously, looking at him.
Her mind was preoccupied with Lance's injuries, leaving no room for small talk. Because of this, she ignored Braylon's way of addressing her.
Xavier noticed that Deanna didn't correct him and naturally didn't bother to explain further.
Moreover, in his view, Mr. Mercer and Dr. Deanna were practically in that kind of relationship already.
After all, Mr. Mercer had made his feelings very clear. And besides, the two children were theirs too.
Braylon didn't realize he had misunderstood.
Seeing Deanna's serious expression, he also became more focused and began explaining Lance's condition. "For now, we've temporarily suppressed the toxins, but it's only a short-term solution and has some adverse effects on the patient's body. Most importantly, the suppression isn't thorough. The toxins could resurface in less than half a month."
"I understand. So we need to eliminate all toxins within half a month?" Deanna asked with a serious look.
Braylon nodded. "Theoretically, yes. But this toxin is very difficult to remove. We even failed when we tried using an antidote serum."
He explained the current situation and the nature of the toxin in detail.
After listening, Deanna frowned deeply and looked somewhat perplexed.
After all, she specialized in ancient medical arts and had no experience with Western medicine, so she didn't fully understand some of Braylon's technical terms.
But that didn't matter much.
She asked Braylon for details just to get an overview of the situation.
If treatment was needed, she would have to diagnose it herself.
Therefore, she didn't plan to ask Braylon any more questions. She stepped forward, took Lance's hand out from under the covers, and began diagnosing his pulse.
Seeing her actions, Braylon immediately frowned.
"Are you trained in traditional medicine?" he asked Xavier with a disapproving look and an urgent tone. "This is ridiculous! Even we can't treat him effectively, and you're bringing in a herbalist doctor? This will only delay his treatment!"
It wasn't that he looked down on traditional medicine; it was just that in his experience, most traditional medicine practitioners were frauds.
Even if there were one or two genuine experts, traditional medicine treatments were usually slow and lengthy.