"Mom!" Elena cried out from the backseat. "Dad?!" Their car had just been run off the road and had fallen down a steep ditch. Elena didn't know how many times the car rolled, but she knew she was in an immense amount of pain. She shook her mom's shoulder violently, not noticing the stream of blood falling onto her from her mom's wounds. "Please..." Elena sobbed, "Please wake up!"
"E…Elena?" Her father stirred in the driver's seat, trying to meet his daughter's eyes. He saw the raw fear in Elena's eyes and knew that he couldn't focus on himself and the pain he was in now. All that mattered was his wife and his daughter. He knew Elena was alive, but he couldn't say the same for his wife. Sadly, his pain was too great and his eyes began to flutter closed again. Being a doctor he realized that if he fell asleep he may not wake up. If anything, either he or his wife Miranda had to make it out alive to take care of their two kids.
"Daddy," Elena grabbed his hand, holding it with more force than necessary, ignoring the screaming pain in her fingers. "You have to stay awake, Mom's hurt. We need to get help!" Hearing his daughter's cries brought something up inside him, he recognized that his body was in flight or fight mode.
"Elena, you're going to be okay. I need you to listen to me." He made sure to lock eyes with her, showing her that this was serious. As if she didn't already know that. "Find your phone. Get out of the car, lie down on the grass and call 911." Grayson shifted his eyes back to his wife and gritted his teeth as he leaned his wife's seat back, straddling her at the waist. Elena frantically searched in the backseat for her phone while her father pressed his fingers against his wife's carotid artery, searching for a pulse. The pit of fear in his stomach grew as he noticed that he couldn't find one.
"I found it!" Elena cried out, sending a rush of relief through them both. Ignoring the crushing pain in her chest, she kicked out the backseat window and twisted her body so she could get out of the car.
"Dammit Miranda!" She heard her dad scream in frustration. "You can't leave me alone! I can't do this by myself!" Elena recognized that her father was crying, something she had only seen him do one other time in her life. "1 2 3 4" He began chanting to himself as he tried to preform CPR on his wife. It was then that he noticed the blood pouring from a gash about two inches deep. Grayson went into doctor mode and ripped his shirt from his body, tying it around the wound as he continued CPR at the same time.
Elena's hands shook violently as she tried to dial 911, her heart beat pounding in her ears. She knew that her mom's survival more than likely depended on her being strong and she willed her hands to stop shaking. "911, what's your emergency?" A calm female voice came over the phone while Elena tried to find the words.
"My... My family has been in a car accident," she sobbed "We got ran off the road. My mom has a huge gash on her head and she's bleeding really badly. I have a crushing pain in my chest," Elena was struggling to get oxygen into her lungs. "Help us, please!"
"Aright ma'am I need you to calm down. Take a deep breath. What's your name?" She asked calmly, Elena's pain turned to anger. Why did it matter what her name was?! She dropped the phone on the grass as she realized she had no idea where they were or where they had gone off the road. Her dad glanced to the side and saw his daughter's phone lying in the grass as Elena stood there, watching him try to save her mom.
"Elena! Stop watching me and tell them where we are!"
"I don't know where we are, dad!" She raised her voice, beginning to get kind of pissed off that her dad was making it seem like Elena was doing nothing. Didn't he realize she was in a lot of pain, just trying to be stoic for her mom? Did her selflessness even matter?
"Tell them we went off the highway at junction 101 near exit fifteen. NOW!" He screamed at her. He knew it wasn't helping the situation but he was beginning to lose control and he was the type of man that had to always have control over the situation.
"Ma'am?" The operator raised her voice, hearing the yelling in the background. She tried desperately to get a trace on the girl's phone, but so far, she was having no such luck. Elena grabbed the phone off the grass and cringed as her dad yelled at her.
"We went off the highway at junction 101 near exit fifteen." She repeated, her voice cracking in between words.
"Alright, I need you to stay on the phone with me this time. How many people were injured?"
"Three. My mom's the most serious. My dad is a doctor at Seattle General Hospital, he's trying to stop the bleeding. Please, you've got to send help!"
"Breathe. Help is on the way, you're going to be okay." Elena tried to focus on the operator's words but found it increasingly difficult as the pain in her chest continued to grow. It was as if she was trapped underwater.
Grayson continued to perform CPR, but there had been no change and he had been going at it for at least five minutes now. He knew that it was too late for his wife, she had most likely been killed on impact. Tears streamed down his face as he pressed a kiss to his wife's bloody forehead. His best friend of nineteen years, gone in the blink of an eye. He faintly heard his daughter's cries. His eyes snapped up and his head whipped to the side, his daughter. Grayson knew that he had to be strong for Elena, she needed him.
Elena was startled when her dad rushed to her side so abruptly, confused as to why he wasn't continuing to help her mom. That's when it hit her; her mom was dead. Elena swore she felt the ground disappear from underneath her and she collapsed, a strangled cry forcing its way out of her throat. Her dad sat down, sweeping his daughter into his arms and holding her against his chest. Grayson noticed how his daughter was struggling to breathe, he just lost his wife. He couldn't lose his daughter too.
"Daddy…" She coughed violently and cried into his chest. Elena didn't know how much longer she could keep her eyes open, the tightening of her chest from lack of oxygen increasing by the moment.
"Hold on baby, just hold on." He stroked her hair softly, trying to calm his daughter down while keeping a hold of his emotions for her sake. Relief flooded through the both of them as the blaring noise of the sirens became apparent. Elena was beginning to lose consciousness, her grip on her father growing weaker. "Elena! Stay awake!"
'So, this is how it ends, huh? Killed by a car wreck?' she thought to herself as tiny black dots danced in her vision. Elena laughed quietly as she succumbed to the darkness pulling her further under. 'I always imagined that it would be a little more painful, I guess I should be thankful for this.' It was going to kill her to leave her dad and little brother behind but she simply couldn't handle it.