"See if you can find a phone on her." Doctor Yates calls as another paramedic checks her pockets. The small vehicle has two doctors and the driver inside. Each available one is crowding the girl.
He tosses Doctor Yates something that I'm guessing is her phone. She turns it on. She sighs when there isn't a lock on it.
She opens up the contacts and presses the first one. "Hanson, check the computer for a Nicole Aretha Benwell."
"On it." The paramedic that checked her pulse earlier grabs a tablet and gets to searching.
Doctor Yates puts the phone up go her ear. "Mister Benwell?" She starts before walking from the back and toward the front where she called Zach earlier.
I stare at my hands as they yell back and forth commands and such. With no distractions, the agony intensifies by the second.
None of them seem to notice me, bloody and broken as I am. Though, I don't really blame them. While a blinding pain in my side made it's self abundantly clear with a sharp and sudden pain - I seem to be the picture of health compared to the woman who looks as close to death as one can get.
The ride to the hospital takes ten minutes at most, possibly the worst ten minutes of my life. So far.
The doors burst open. The emergency responders rush Nicole out of the ambulance and into the building. I jump out the back. Doctor Yates escrots me through the front door. The guys are sitting in the waiting room. The hotel must have been closer to the hospital than the wreck.
"Mister Tedder," Doctor Yates starts. "We're going to do a quick examination to make sure there are no life threatening injuries. If there's not, I must ask you to sit and wait in the waiting room for a few minutes. We are under staffed and have quite a few people here tonight."
"I understand." I assure, cradling my left arm in my right.
She leads me to a room with pale walls, a single bed, a couple of cabinets, and not much more space than the ambulance. Still, it seems bigger with the absence of all the others.
I sit while I wait to be examined. The doctor runs a sink-full of water and places a few towels next to it. "I'll give you a few minutes to wash some of that blood off." She says and opens another cabinet. She hands me a washrag and a hospital gown. "I'll knock on the door in about ten minutes to see if you're finished, but take all the time you need."
I lock the door the second she leaves. The room is cold, like most hospitals tend to stay. It chills me to the bones.
It takes most of the time just to get my shirt, shoes, and pants off while using only one hand. The front of my legs burn and I'm not sure I want to know the amount of damage inflicted.
My entire left side - the leg, arm, and side itself - received the worst of it. It looks worse as well.
I dip the rag in the warm water, sending goosebumps up my arms from the touch and spreading across the rest of my body in a few seconds.
I start with my face, stopping every few seconds to rinse the rag of the little streaks of blood trapped in it and to pick tiny pieces of glass out of my skin. I'm just glad nothing went through my eye.
The water is tented a slight shade of pink when I'm finished with my head - and the counter is covered in glass I brushed out of my hair using my fingers.
There's a knock at the door. I tell the doctor that I need more time.
I touch the rag to my left arm and have to suppress a scream. Even the slightest touch shoots pain throughout my entire body. Skipping it, along with the other arm, I sit down on the bed and start on my legs. My left one has quite a few large shards of glass sticking out of it. I sit down the rag and pull them out, grunting in pain and shaking worse after every piece is removed. By that time, my hands are soaked in blood once again. I stagger back over to the sink to wash them off and wet the rag another time.
I wipe the blood from my leg, but fresh starts to run down the moment I do. I try again only to have the same result. I give up and let it run.
The other leg is nowhere near as bad. A bit of blood, a speck of glass here and there. Nothing I couldn't handle on my own.
I wash off my stomach and chest, but I can't reach my back all that well. I'm sure there's not much blood on it anyways since it was against the seat.
I slip the hospital gown on. Remembering what Doctor Yates said about sitting in the waiting room, I grab my pants and start to put them on. I don't want to sit anywhere with only my underwear and a thin shirt on - let alone someplace public. After a few minutes of struggling with a single hand, I get them up and zipped.
Someone knocks frantically at the door. I unlock it and open it. I expect it to be Doctor Yates again, but a couple doctors rush in with a patient. They quickly transfer him from a gurney to the bed and get to work immediately.
Doctor Yates emerges from around a corner. "I'm sorry you had to leave the room so unexpectedly, but we had another emergency."
"It's fine." I say. She gives a slight nod and start to walk me back to the waiting room.
Her footsteps echo through the halls as we walk back toward the waiting room. I regret not putting my shoes back on. The floor is colder than the air. My feet are freezing.
She opens the double doors that separate the waiting area from the emergency part of the hospital. She steps aside to let a doctor through. "Doctor James." She adresses him.
"Evening, Doctor Yates." He gives a slight smile as he passes by and then disappears into a nearby room.
All of the band members' eyes are on my when the doors open. I'm not sure if they have looked up every time or if they just had a feeling this time. They all have different looks in their eyes.
Eddie looks terrorized, Zach looks concerned, Drew surprised. And then there's Brent, who looks like he's either questioning if I'm really standing in front of him or if he's gone mentally insane.
Zach is the first to say anything, to stop staring at me and actually do something. "Ryan, are you okay?" He stands up and starts to walk my way. Doctor Yates walks back through the door as a nurse hollers her name.
"They probably wouldn't let me back in here if I wasn't." I say as-a-matter-of-fact. "Though this arm they haven't looked at yet feels like fucking rainbows and sunshine."
"Yep, he's fine. He's spitting out sarcastic comments." Eddie states and leans back in his seat; all his troubles seeming to melt away.
There are a few seats in an "L" formation that they have decided to sit at. There are three seats to each side with a table connecting them at the vertex. Drew, Zach, and Eddie sat in the three seats facing the double doors. Brent is sitting alone next to the table, which doesn't seem to bother him. He's charging his phone on it.
Zach says that he's going to the cafeteria for something to eat, and for someone to come and get him before they take me back into a room. I sit in his seat next to Drew.
I hear the entrance open and the running feet seconds before a woman runs up to the front desk; tears in her eyes and sweat on her face. "Is. . ." She tries to catch her breath. "Nicole Benwell. Is she okay?"
"Let me check." The woman behind the desk says calmly and starts to type in the computer.
The girl keeps breathing hard, whimpering and not caring who sees. She keeps repeating, "Nicki, please be okay," until her voice cracks and she can't any longer. She's broken. She's broken because Nicole is not okay. I broke her. . .
"Miss?"
"Barnes." The woman in boots replies to the lady behind the desk.
"Miss Barnes, it seems she's still in surgery. I don't know when she'll be out since it was an emergency surgery."
The woman chokes and a tear slides down her face. "But will she?" She whispers, "Will she ever be out?"
The woman looks at her sympathetically. She doesn't say a word.
"No," Miss Barnes drawls. "Oh my God, this can't be happening. No." She clutches the counter and forces her teeth together, fighting a war to keep the tears in her eyes.
"Have a seat, Miss Barnes and I'll make sure you're the first to know as soon as I get some news. All right?"
She nods her head, lowering it. More tears stream down her cheeks.
Eddie squints at her. Brent seems shocked by her at first, but then tries to hide his emotions. Still, you can see the shadow of worry and sadness across his features.
"Safire?" Eddie asks, a little dumbfounded.
The woman turns around and dries her eyes. "Eddie?" She asks, her long brown hair flying across her shoulders from the momentum. "Not to be rude, but why are you here?" She moves her gaze over to me. It must be a sight. She gasps a bit. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fine. Thank you." I say.
She nods in response. She looks over to Brent. They lock eyes for a split second, his deep blue eyes asking her something, but they both look away from each other almost as soon as they swap gazes.
"You okay?" Eddie asks her.
She nods, and then shakes her head. "I don't know." She whispers.
"You can sit with us, if you want too." He offers.
"Thank you." She says and takes a seat next to Brent. He looks at her with a sad expression as she hugs herself and holds back her tears. She glances at him and looks down again. He puts a hand on her shoulder and smiles. The smile spreads onto her own face slowly.
I lean closer to Eddie. I whisper into his ear. "Who is she?"
"Safire."
"Well, no shit, Sherlock."
"You asked." He defends. Then he starts to smile. "How about we all get to know each other over some food in the cafeteria? I'm half starved!"
"When are you not?" I think to myself.
"Why not?" I agree. What else would I do anyways, besides have my mind destroy me from the inside out?
"I could go for some food." Drew says.
Eddie looks to Safire. She looks up from her hands, the smallest hint of a smile lingering on her face. "I think I have a few dollars."
Brent nods in agreement.
"So it's settled." Eddie claps his hands together. "Now, to the cafeteria!"
Everybody stands. Eddie practically runs in the direction of the food. Drew follows him. Brent and Safire next. And as I walk in the back, I can't help but to notice how Brent's arm keeps rubbing against hers, and how his eyes are begging for her to understand something. Something. But what?
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Happy with that mini cliffhanger? 😏 I thought you might be.
Chapter Five Made me cry. I don't think I'm emotionally ready for Chapter Six, which is supposed to be even more sad. But then again, nothing usually goes as plan when I'm put in charge of it, so Chapter Six may end up being the happiest yet.
Well, onwards to Chapter Six!