-auroras Pov-
Quietly kenzie and I follow him to the car and buckle us selves in. I'm sitting in the front and kenzie in the back when he turns to face us.
"Something happened and I had to get you two from school. Your parents and Ellie were in a car accident. I don't know anything more than that or I would tell you. They are at the hospital and grandma is on her way there, but I don't know anything more" he says, and my eyes widen and kenzie starts to cry.
"Are they going to be, okay?" kenzie cries and I look down at my hands "i don't know kenzie. I'm not going to lie to you about that. I honestly don't know anything. We are going home right now and wait for someone to call us. We didn't want you to stay in school and maybe have this told to you there if it got out to the media" he tells us.
My head is spinning with all the things that could be wrong. For all we know they could be dead, and no one has come around to tell us yet.
-taylors pov-
I'm sitting up in a hospital bed in the ER and feel like crap. My head is throbbing and my body aches. Everything happened so fast and then things went black and then I woke up here. They have already cleared my neck after a body scan so I can sit up more but my head got a good shake and got thrown to the side, so it hurts a lot.
Ellie is in the hospital bed next to me, and her neck is cleared as well, we are in an acute room waiting for the results of our workups. We have both had CT scans of our heads to look for bleeding and had neurological exams done. Everything happened so fast after we got here and now it's all about waiting for the results.
They haven't told us much about joe other than that they are doing everything they can for him. Ellie isn't saying anything I think she is still in shock. Right now, it's a waiting game and I hate that.
I hate not being at joes' side if something is seriously wrong. They won't tell us anything and that's killing me. We don't even know if he is alive, but I suppose they would have told us that by now if he was dead. With that I'm taking no news as good news, when there is no news at least he is still alive.
The door opens and my mom comes in and joins us. I'm almost in tears when I see her, but I fight them back and accept her gentle hug and she caresses Ellies face as she lays curled up in her bed. Our clothes got cut off, so we are in hospital gowns. Normally Ellie would have gone to the pediatric hospitals ER but it's under construction, so all kids get sent to the regular hospital for the time being. At least that means we get to be together.
"Have you heard anything about what's going on with you guys?" my mom asks, and I sigh "No we haven't. We had lots of tests done but they haven't come back to us yet. I'm taking that as a sigh we aren't too bad though. What I'm worried about the most is joe because the only thing they said is that they are doing everything they can for him" that's when my voice cracks and tears roll down my face.
Even the thought that I might lose joe gives me a panicked feeling inside of me. He is the love of my life, and I can't imagine my life without him. I refuse to let him die, he is everything, he is my rock. Every moment is better when he is next to me, the world makes more sense when we are together. And the girls need their dad, they really do. We are a team in raising them and I don't know how I could go on without him.
"I called Austin and he got the girls from school. They are at your house now" she says, and I nod. At least my mom took care of them. I can't imagine them finding out at school because there were pictures taken or something, that would be a nightmare.
"Do they know what happened?" she asks. "no, they don't. The police are investigating but we don't know anything yet. We don't know about what happened to the driver either. All we know is that it was a front collision and Ellie, and I was in the backseat" I tell her.
Part of me wonder why this happened today. We spent hours at the prison fighting to have Adam stay locked up, and I was relieved when we left, but then this happened. It's like the world is punishing us for giving a statement, but it's a cruel punishment.
The door opens again and this time its several doctors that come in. "first of all we have news about your husband, and we need to act quickly if we want a chance to save his life" one of the male doctors say and my breath hitches. "He has shards of class in his chest, but that's easily removed. The dangerous thing is that he has an acute subdural hematoma that needs immediate surgery if we want a chance to save his life. I just need your permission and we run to surgery right away" he says, and I nod. "of course, do what you need to do" I say, and he runs off and I quickly sign some papers.
Now it's another doctor that speaks "i just wanted to explain to you what that is because most families like to know what we are talking about. A subdural hematoma is a type of traumatic brain injury that is blood leaking out of a torn vessel into a space bellow the dura matter, which is a membrane between the brain and the skull that's there to protect the brain" he goes on to explain that sometimes the bleeding can resolve on its own but joes hematoma is severe and if it's not treated the buildup of blood can cause pressure on the brain.
"After the further testing we know that he has an acute subdural hematoma which is the most serious type. I'm not going to lie to you. With this type of subdural hematoma, the mortality rate varies between 50-90 percent" he continues and my heart drops. Its over 50% likely that I will lose the love of my life today and I can't wrap my mind around that. "What they will do is open up the skull with a craniotomy to get out the blood and then put in a drain to keep the blood from building back up again. We won't know more than that until after the surgery"
"you two on the other hand have a serious concussion. We are setting you up in a double room to keep you overnight for observation but pending any complications you can go home tomorrow. But we want you to rest for at least 1-2 weeks to make sure that you don't develop a serious brain bleed. No physical activities or stress" he goes on and explain the signs we need to look for that points to the concussion getting worse and potentially developing a brain bleed. It can occur in the next few days but I'm just crossing my fingers that we don't get that. He explains how a concussion occurs, but my head is throbbing badly and I'm exhausted and can't stop thinking about joe.
After he leaves two hospital staff comes to roll us to our room and I'm just glad that we get to be together. We also have cuts all over our bodies from the shattered glass so that will be cleaned shortly too but they wanted to get us out of the ER as soon as possible because of the security risk.
Ellie starts to gag and the nurse that's in the room quickly give her something to throw up in and my mom rubs her back. "Is she okay?" I ask. "it's a common reaction from a concussion" she says, and I take a deep breath. This girl has been through so much in her life and this is another thing being thrown at her. I wonder when she will get a break because this isn't fair on her.
"Mom" she sobs out as she lays back down and the nurse wipes around her mouth and take the container away. "i'm right here sweetie"
I turn to my side, and she does too so we can look at one another. "You have a concussion sweetie and need to rest. But otherwise, you're okay according to the doctor. You have some cuts and bruises though" I tell her.
"Where is dad?" she says, and I bite my lip to keep myself from sobbing too "I... he is in surgery... His brain is bleeding, but I don't know much more than that yet" I don't want to lie to her, but I don't want to scare her either, so I'm not going to tell her the odds.
"you're so far away mom" she says, and I look at the nurse "could I come over to her? Is that alright?" I ask her and she nods and get my iv pole with fluids over to her and help me walk. My body is in so much pain taht I want to sob because it feels like I'm broken. But I get into bed next to her and wrap my arms around her body as she snuggles into my side. "i'm scared mom and it hurts to bad"
"I'm scared too. But you and me are here together and we are going to wait to hear what's going on with daddy" I tell her and kiss the side of her face. My mom is sitting silently at the edge of her bed and holding her foot to try and comfort her too. There isn't anything we can promise Ellie' right now other than that we are here with her.
I want to fall apart; I want to scream and break down because I just can't lose joe. But I have a daugther here that's terrified too, and I need to stay strong for her. I can't let myself fall apart because she is and needs me to be there for her. That's what it's like to be a mom, you need to put your kids first because they rely on you. She needs me to hold her close and let her know that she isn't alone, she needs her mom.
Eventually she falls asleep against me, and I ring the bell for the nurse that comes right away. "Is it okay if she sleeps?" I ask and she nods. "She can but we need to wake her up every hour to check on her though" she says and then I get her to help me back into my bed because I need to lay down before I throw up too. I've already thrown up once and I don't want another round.
My back and ribs are really killing me and now the nurse is coming back with stuff to clean the cuts. I have a pretty bad one on my arm that they have just put a bandage over so they could keep more dust from coming into it while they did tests. But now they are going to clean them all.
But before she can do anything I hunch over and throw up into the basinet beside me and groan in pain. "i'm in so much fucking pain I groan" I tell her. "The doctor has prescribed tramadol that's on standby so I can get that for you before I start" I happily accept that because my body is aching, and my head is throbbing. I think they gave me something earlier but it's been hours and now the pain is getting worse again, I also think that my body is coming down from the adrenaline and now really feeling the injuries.
She gives it to me through injecting it into my iv that is running fluids before she helps me take the gown off because I have cuts everywhere that we need to make sure is clean. I'm happy that Ellie is asleep because I look pretty awful right now. "it's going to sting but it's important to get everything out and clean it well. Then I will see if I think the doctor should come and give you some stitches. They didn't look too closely in the trauma room because they wanted to make sure it wasn't something more serious wrong and then get you out of there as quickly as they could"
It hurts really badly so my mom is holding my hand as the nurse gets the glass and dirt out of the cuts. I feel really exposed laying here in just mesh panties, but I know she needs to do her job. I would rather lay here exposed than get a serious infection somewhere. I have three kids to take care of and I can't get an infection.
She puts on some kind of mesh with medication in it under the bandages to keep it from getting infected. I haven't seen something like that before but it's kind of cool that something like that exists. It also gives me a cooling feeling which is nice right now because the cuts feel like they're on fire.
Now she is starting on the one on my upper arm "this one is pretty bad, but I don't think it needs stitches because it's a type of wound that won't be able to be closed with sutures. we just need to make sure it heals and keep an eye on it" she says as she works on it, and I groan in pain. That's the most painful one so far and I feel dizzy from the amount of pain. "Fuck that hurts so badly"
"The tramadol should be working by now, so hopefully it takes the worst of it" she says as she works. I close my eyes and count in my head to try and keep still. If I'm struggling tis much I don't know how Ellie is going to handle having her cleaned, but it's important and I know that.
Eventually she finishes with me and goes on to wake Ellie up who isn't happy with being taken out of sleep. "i'm sorry Elliana but we need to check your neuro status and then clean your wounds" she tells Ellie and reluctantly she agrees. Thankfully she makes sure that Ellie is well medicated to prevent it from hurting too bad, after all she is a child.
The nurse does the same thing she did with me, taking off her gown and start working on cleaning the wounds. My mom and I don't look because we want her to have some privacy, after all she is a fifteen-year-old laying there almost naked. It's not that I mind though, like we are all woman here, but I get that it's not fun for a teenager to lay exposed like this.
"Mom these hurts" she cries out "i'm sorry sweetie, but it's important" I tell her and i hate that I hear her soft sobs. It takes a while to clean them all but eventually Ellie is finished too and get dressed in a fresh gown like me. The once we were wearing has blood on them now so it's nice to have some clean once.
"Are you going to call Austin and tell him what's going on?" my mom asks, and I sigh. "I just don't want them to find out over the phone, can you tell him to bring them here. I want them to see that at least Ellie and I are okay. The girls are probably terrified" I tell her, and my mom gets on the phone with Austin.
Surprisingly my phone made it through all off this by some miracle so I can call joes parents even though looking at the phone hurst like hell I know taht they need to be called too. I can't hold the phone to my ear because that hurts too much but at least I can speak on speakerphone.
Liz picks up quickly "hi Taylor honey. How are you?" she asks, and I bite my lip.
"Liz there has been an accident. I'm not going to sugarcoat things, Ellie and I have serious concussions and cuts, but joe got the worst of it. He is in surgery because he has something they called acute subdural hematoma which is a type of brain bleed. I don't know more than that they are doing everything they can" I tell her the truth. There is no way to dance around something like this.
"oh my. We are on the first plane there. At least I am I don't know if anyone else can go on so short notice, but I'm coming" she says and I smile, joe's mom is amazing. "that would be nice. I can send one of my jets to get you" I tell her and then say that it hurts to talk on the phone so I need to hang up but that I will get a plane in the air as soon as I can.
My mom comes back after I hang up and say that Austin and the girls are on their way and that she texted my dad and he is coming from Florida. "Can you call and get a plane in the air to London to pick up Liz. I don't know who else is coming but Liz wants to come" I tell her and lay back down as I was sitting but it hurts to bend my stomach.
Eventually Austin gets here with aurora and kenzie and the girls are both really nervous when they walk into the room. I press the button to have my bed lifted so I can sit a bit more. "hi girls" I say and force a smile, I don't want to scare them.
"mom" aurora says, and I see that both of them are on the verge of tears. "Are you okay? Where is dad?" she says, and I take a deep breath.
"Ellie and I hurt our head, so they are keeping an eye on us, and we need to rest. But daddy got really hurt and is in surgery on his brain" I tell them.
"How do they fix his brain?" kenzie asks and I actually don't know much about it but at least I will try to explain what I know. "They need to get some blood out and I don't know much about how that works. But there is a neurosurgeon working on him right now. All we can do is wait for him to get out of surgery"
**
Many hours pass and we are just sitting here waiting for someone to tell us what's going on. The waiting part is excruciating because for all we know there could be complications. But eventually the surgeon comes into the room.
"i just operated on your husband---"
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Take the medical stuff with a grain of salt. But thanks to Luma and Estefania for answering my medical questions.
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