Help!

The one that got away

„Hi, what's up?"

„First of all, I want you to not panic."

It was quiet for a second.

"...what happened?"

Eddy took a deep breath.

"No one is seriously hurt, but there was a tiny accident on the playground. Don't panic!"

"Where are you?"

He could hear rustling from clothes and the jingling of keys on Bretts end of the line.

"St. Marys Hospital."

/

When Brett arrived, he looked as furious and panicked as Eddy expected. Panicked, angsty, stressed and lots of other emotions that Eddy never liked to see on his friends face. Brett announced his arrival in the car via text so Eddy waited for him in the lobby.

"Where is she?"

"She's fine, Brett."

"Clearly not considering we're in a hospital", Brett yelled-whispered the last word and Eddy succumbed, just taking his friends elbow to lead the way. He could feel Bretts skin vibrating during his touch and the guilt was settling deeper in his stomach. He opened a room further down a hallway.

"Baba!"

Lynn was propped on a gurney, smiling from one ear to another while a nurse was putting finishing touches on the cast on her arm.

"Look how nice pink! Eddy helped to pick it."

Her enthusiasm was scurrile considering she had a broken wrist and was crying rivers just an hour ago.

"Oh, Lulu", Brett said and scooped her up, her little monkey legs automatically going around his waist and her arms around his neck. Eddy winced slightly, when he saw her cast slamming against Bretts shoulder during that notion, which, surely, must have hurt. Brett pressed her just a bit more tightly onto him, his eyes closed and his face buried in the dip between her shoulder and neck until she squirmed and protested and he started to loosen his grip a bit.

"What happened?"

"I just turned around for one single second, but I think she fell from the bar-thing, the overhead ladder."

Brett didn't even look at him when he talked but kept on studying his daughter. Her face didn't show any pain though and just smiled at him.

"Only slip, Baba", she said finally and with a sigh, he put her down and turned to the nurse. She explained patiently where the bone was broken, a very simple fracture, how long it would take and what he needed to pay attention to. Brett listened quietly, asking questions where necessary but was erringly silent for someone as outspoken as him. Eddy was ridden with guilt at this point. He watched Lynn during the afternoon, while Brett tended to his mother who was sick and he was usually so attentive and he nearly had a heart attack when he heard Lynns cries and turned around to see her lying in the sand, holding her arm.

At the end, Brett signed the release papers and just picked his daughter up again, against her protest that she could walk and left the room, literally ignoring Eddy.

"Brett?", he called after his friend and hurried out as well.

"It was an accident."

Eddy tried to keep up with him, which was surprisingly difficult considering the other man had significantly shorter legs but Brett was stoic.

"You didn't pay enough attention."

"That's not fair", Eddy mumbled, still feeling more guilt than anything else and faltering in his step. He looked after Brett and Lynn vanishing down the parking lot and getting in the car.