Unfamiliar faces crowded above me. My heart was racing and suddenly I couldn't breathe. I needed space. Everyone around me was speaking and asking questions and I couldn't comprehend any of their voices or put together any of the words. Everything was going wrong. It seemed as if the only thing that could make things worse would be the arrival of Charles. But even then, that didn't seem like an impossible play that could be sent my way. I wouldn't be surprised. The voices continued around me when I wasn't answering any of them. They were touching my skin and securing things around me. Before I realized what was happening, I was lifted up and secured onto a stretcher. Then we were moving. "Kason," I managed to speak up.
"They are putting him in another ambulance," someone spoke barely coherent as my stretcher was lifted into an ambulance.
They started asking me more questions since I had responded once, but their voices were all mixing together. I started choking and spit out the liquid that was filling my mouth. The voices around me seemed to sound more concerned, but I could only make out a few words every now and then, including "bleeding, internal, and stat."
As soon as the ambulance started moving, I was drifting in and out of consciousness. I'd go in and out of blackness to seeing lights and hearing distant, echoing voices. It was weird. I couldn't stay conscious long enough to grasp and comprehend everything going on around me, but every time I slipped away, it was just as if time was void.
At one point I blacked out for a while and when I finally came to, I was laying down in a settled room with a steady beep filling the empty air. I opened my eyes. I was the only one in the modern hospital room. My lower half was covered with a blanket. I didn't bother scanning my body for injuries—I could feel them. My guess was a few fractured ribs and a couple of fractures in her left arm and left leg.
With nothing to distract me, my mind quickly drifted to Kason and Charles. Was Kason okay? Where was Charles? Did the people who hit us get injured too? Surely, they had. Were they in the hospital? Would they even risk that? What would happen now? ...We'd get relocated. Was Daniel on his way? Was he already here? Where was everyone? Was I okay? I was alive. That's all that mattered, right? I just hoped Kason made it.
A loud click filled my ears as the room door opened and a doctor walked in. She was tall, with long red hair tied back in a slick ponytail. Her smile was filled with genuine softness and light. "How are you feeling, Delilah?"
"I'm in a little pain," I told her honestly. "Who are you?"
"My name is Doctor McGee. I've been the one looking after you and the Wesley boy," she informed me.
"How are we?"
"You have a skull fracture and a few fractures and breaks throughout your ribs, along with a break in your left radius and your left tibia. You had a little internal bleeding, but we managed to fix that. Kason has a broken leg and a broken collar bone, along with a few broken ribs and a severe concussion," she said. "He also had internal bleeding, but we stopped it... You will both get a full recovery and be good as new in six to eight weeks."
I nodded, not without pain, and sighed with relief at the good news. "Thank you for all your help."
Dr. McGee slipped me a kind, closed-lip smile and nodded, clasping her clipboard loosely in her hands. "No problem." At that time, the door opened and in walked my brother. He seemed pretty relaxed at the moment. "I'll give you two some privacy." With that, she smiled at my brother with a single nod and exited the room.
"How are you doing?" Gavin asked me, walking over to my bed and pulling up a seat.
"I'm doing okay," I told him.
"Good." He brushed his fingers through his black hair. It was growing long and getting to the point where he needed a haircut. "Kason is awake and doing okay," my brother said. "And Daniel is on his way. Not happy, under the circumstances, but relieved that everyone is okay."
"Where is everyone else?"
"Already on their way back to Ohio...Daniel insisted," he explained, not sounding very happy about it. I nodded, figuring that it was going to happen at one point soon anyway.
Almost exactly an hour later, Daniel walked through the door, looking stressed and overall not okay. "We are going to have to take extra safety measures," was the very first thing he said. I assumed that he had already visited Kason. He was carrying a small, rolled-up stack of papers in his grasp that was most likely paperwork.
"You already tried," I replied.
"Delilah, there is a whole lot more I could and will do," he spoke sternly. Your safety is my top priority...You'll be returning to Ohio as soon as you are released by the hospital. And from there, we will figure out where you will go next."
Before Gavin or I could reply, Dr. McGee peaked her head into the room and told Daniela and my brother that they needed to leave so I could get some rest. Both boys nodded and stood from their chairs. Daniel ran his fingers nervously through his hair before turning and leaving without speaking another word.
"What's on your mind, little sis?" Gavin asked me, looking down at me observantly.
I exhaled. "I'm just really tired of running."
Slipping me a sad smile, he nodded once before leaning down and softly kissing my forehead comfortingly. "It'll be over soon," he assured me.
I took his word for it and nodded as I watched him turn and leave the room. I sure hoped so.