||6x Featured|| Mirna Conlins has a confession: She likes being a runaway. And now, given the chance, Mirna wants to disappear. She just needs some cash before she goes. Watch how her plan unravels as the new boys in town get tangled in her web of l...
"Deb!" Kathryn hurries toward me, her eyes glassy with tears. "Oh God, Deb. Jim just came in with Mirna. They were in an accident."
"What?" The blood rushes from my face, leaving a sickening cold tingle in my cheeks.
"Mirna's okay. But Jim ... It's bad Deb."
"Where?"
"Trauma One."
I take off down the hallway. Jim ... Jim! Please be okay. This can't be happening! I scramble to a halt at the elevator and smash the button in. Unable to stand and wait, I turn to the stairs instead. I hold the railing and fly down the steps as fast as I can. I'm barely aware of Kathryn following right behind me. I hit the door at the bottom, wince as the handle bends my faux nail back and snaps it off. Then I'm running down the ER hallway toward Trauma.
Eddie is suddenly right in front of me, holding me back, then hugging me. "Deb, I'm so sorry. Deb ..."
No! Please tell me that doesn't mean what I think it means! Please!
I try to pull away, to catch a glimpse inside the trauma room, but Eddie holds me fast. It's too quiet. No sounds of any monitors, people working, nothing. Suddenly my legs give out, and Eddie and I are on the floor, tangled together, and I can't hold back the hysteria. No no no, not my Jim! JIM!
After what feels like an eternity, I pull away and wipe my face, which is clammy with tears. Eddie stops rubbing my hair and gazes at me, his eyes powerful, but soft with concern and his own sadness. And he knows there's nothing to say, no way to make it better, no reason to speak the cliché lines we're trained to use at this moment.
"Do you want to see Mirna?" he asks me.
No, I don't want to see anyone. I want to scream at the top of my lungs and smash my fine china. I want to run to the edge of the earth and throw myself off. I want to find the reckless driver who smashed into my family and ripped it apart and do-I don't know what-to him.
"Come on, Deb," Eddie says. He helps me to my feet, takes me to Trauma Two, where Mirna is lying on the bed, her arm black and blue in a sling, her face a mirror image of how I feel inside.
We lock eyes, connected by this, but also ripped apart by it. Then I catch the question burning in her eyes, and I realize she doesn't know. And I have to tell her.
All I can manage is to shake my head.
Eddie walks me in, and I reach out to Mirna andhold her in my arms. She squeezes me, the tight death grip of someone who'safraid to let go. Unable to utter a single word, I sink down onto the bed withMirna in my arms, and the ground-shattering tears come again in full force.
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