The Irish Rose

Chapter 3

A few days later I was released from the hospital, with the promise that I would take care of myself and come back for a check up in a couple of weeks, just to make sure that I hadn't done anything to cause my brain to bleed again.

So Dr. Aedan had let me leave the hospital, I was somewhat happy, but at the same time, I couldn't stop thinking about that brown haired brown eyed handsome doctor. I swear, that man was going to be the death of me yet. But at this point, I was just so ready to go visit Scath and rain see them again.

As I walked out of the hospital, I hailed a hackney and had it take me to my flat so that I might prepare for the drive out the barn. The hackney driver was quite sweet and made it in 10 minutes to my flat, where I proceeded to grab all the necessities that I needed in order to ride my babies. I grabbed an apple and several carrots for Scath, and Rain's favorite treats. They would never forgive me if I didn't bring snacks to give them as a peace offering for leaving them alone for so long. They never truly liked it when I left them for long periods of time. I mean I couldn't blame them, but the least I could do was try to be understanding and bring peace offerings. So that is what I did, I came prepared. I walked down the stairs of my flat, locking the door behind me. I walked to the street, unlocked my car and got into my car, turned the key in the ignition, and the car roared to life.

I drove through the streets of London in my BMW, winding my way through the streets of London, occasionally drinking in the view, as I soared farther from the heart of London. It took about 30 minutes before I arrived at my destination. I drove my car down the lane that took me straight to the border barn. I was filled with excitement as the barn neared closer and closer, until finally I arrived in the parking lot. I parked my car, threw open the gull door, and practically running into the barn. I stopped for but a moment to take a whiff of the smells that you only find in a barn. The smells of 50 different horses came wafting up to my nose with the hint of well oiled leather. I knew then, that this was home, this was where I belonged!

After drinking in the scene that my eyes beheld, I made my way down the isle and to Scath's stall. "hey handsome! how are you today?" I said with a smile on my face. Scath replied by nickering back to me, while showing a hint of his famous smile. "I am sorry that I was gone for so long, my handsome black beauty. I brought you your favorites, to make up for it." I then showed my hand full of carrots and an apple. Shadow gleefully neighed his enthusiasm and sniffed at my hand, a silent question being understood between horse and master. I kindly opened my hand, and allowed him to eat the goods in which I procured just for him.

Once shadow had finished, I decided that today would be a beautiful day to go out for a ride. I unlocked the stall door, slipping Shadow's leather halter over his ears, and leading him down the main aisle to the groom station. I carefully tied him up in the stall, and set out on my quest to find my tack. "hey Lilly! I haven't seen you since you almost got run over by the hackney the other day" Elizabeth exclaimed "I'm happy to see you too Elizabeth! I'm sorry I haven't been out, I was held up in the hospital!" Elizabeth audibly gasped "What happened?! Are you -" I quickly interrupted my best friend so that I could put her mind at ease. "Yes, I am fine. After I left you that day, I was on my way to an Irish bakery that I found, when I was knocked unconscious by a man who was coming through the glass doors of the bakery. I was apparently then taken to the hospital where I met Dr Hot..." my face immediately started to heat up, a blush rising to my cheeks. "ummm I mean Dr Aedan. He took care of me while I was in the hospital. I was there for serval days, where I under went surgery to fix a bleed that I had in my brain. It was all quite a lot for a few days in the hospital." Elizabeth gasped again "What?! You had brain surgery?!" I took a calming breathe before I kindly replied "Yes that is what I said." "Oh my gosh lilly! I can't believe you didn't tell me! I would have come to visit you in the hospital!!" "I know you would have, but between the seizures, and the time that I was unconscious I really didn't have time to inform anyone" I said. Before Elizabeth could make a reply, I took a breath and spoke "I really must get my tack now, Shadow (Scath) will wonder what has happened to me, and I just won his forgiveness but a few short minutes ago. I do not wish to fall back into his disfavor." Elizabeth nodded her head in reply and I turned on my heel and left on my mission to retrieve my tack.

Once in the tack room, I gathered my bridle, saddle, saddle pad, girth, and groom kit and made my way back to shadow. I spent extra time brushing his silky black fur making sure I gave him the extra tender love and care that he had missed out on while I was gone. Shadow was loving every single minute of it. He was especially happy when I began to stroke his muzzle and whisper sweet nothings in his ears. Once I knew that shadow was content, I placed the saddle pad gently across his back, straightening it out to make sure that there were no wrinkles. I then grabbed my saddle and girth gently placing the saddle atop his back and fastening the girth the side of the saddle before walking to the other side of shadow, reaching underneath his belly to pull up on the girth and fastening it to the other side. Once all of this was done, I placed the bit into Shadow's mouth and carefully maneuvered the bridle around his ears, fastening the throat latch and chin strap. I took up my reins walking out of the barn to the mounting block. I made my way up the stair steps, placing my foot into my stirrup, before hoisting my leg up and around shadow's back so that I could sit securely in the saddle.

I gently kicked shadow forward, and we made our way toward the jump course. I spurred him on into a canter. We warmed up going from walk, to trot, to canter, to walk, to trot etc.. When I felt he was fully warmed up, we tried some smaller jumps. Shadow was easily flying over these jumps, loving every single minute of air time that he got. We continued to jump over the smaller jumps for another few minutes, before I had the jumps raised to various heights around 2ft 6in to 2ft 8in. I started Shadow on a small pattern to get him used to the new height of jumps. He was doing splendid, until we came around on our final line. I was suspended in midair with shadow, we landed, and were making our way to the next jump in the line. Shadow was preparing to jump right when Elizabeth's horse thunder decided that he had had enough of being led around. Thunder reared, pulled the lead rope out of Elizabeth's hands. Thunder came barreling straight towards Shadow and I. There was nothing stopping thunder, because we were out in an open field jumping jumps. Just as Shadow was about to jump, Thunder came running right in front of the jump we were preparing for. In that split second, Shadow came to a screeching halt, and making a 90 degree turn, he launched me out of the saddle. Everything went into slow motion... One minute I was in the saddle, the next I was in the air, and the very next, I was lying on the ground and in a hell of a lot of pain. I fought back a scream, though a small whisper of one managed to escape my lips. My heart was racing as I laid sprawled out on the grass right by the hooves of Thunder. Just as if things weren't already good enough, Thunder reared up, raising his front feet, he gave them a quick kick each before he came back down to earth, landing one of his hooves on my leg.

As his hoof made contact with my leg, I heard the audible crack followed by my scream of pain. "Oh my gosh Lilly!!" Elizabeth exclaimed as I lay on the ground tears visibly streaming down my face. I couldn't contain myself, as the pain from my leg radiated throughout my body "Just call me an ambulance and get your devil of a horse away from me!!" I screamed as I channeled all of my pain and agony towards my best friend. "I need someone to take care of my horse!!!" I screamed out again.

Soon after, an ambulance with paramedics arrived. "Miss, I'm going to have to put this C-collar around your neck, just until we can make sure that you have no spinal injuries" the gentleman said as another prepped my arm for an IV. I closed my eyes as I felt the needle glide in. "Alright, now we are going to box up your leg, this may hurt a bit" another paramedic said as he began to moved my leg. I howled in pain as my leg was lifted into the air and it was put into a splint. The tears began anew, coming down in streams on my cheeks. At that moment, I wished that I would just pass out, so that I would not have to endure this pain. "Alright Miss, your doing great! We are just going to roll you onto your side and place you onto a back board." I let out a quick "Ok" before I was rolled onto my side and then placed atop the flat backboard. I was then hoisted up onto a gurney and loaded into the back of the ambulance. "Please, Please knock me out! The pain is unbearable!" I managed to say before I felt a cold rush through my IV. "I'm sorry miss-" "Lilly" I replied "I'm sorry Miss Lilly, but we can't give you anything to knock you out, but we gave you some morphine, hopefully that will knock the pain down for you." I thanked the gentleman. Before long, we were at the hospital, It felt like deja vu.