And now for something completely different...
(The part of Rick will be played by Jason Makiaris)
Ocean View
rated not for under 13
Claire walked out to her SUV after another long day at work. Darien and
Bobby along with Alex were off on a mission. There last report from
the field had been positive. So she thought it was safe for her to head on
home and sleep in her own bed. She was always available if something
should happen that required her attention.
She unlocked her the door and climbed inside. Placing her brief case beside
her on the floor of the passenger seat and pulling on the safety harness.
She was driving up Ventura Blvd in the after rush hour traffic. The sun was
low on the horizon but was still a good hour from setting. She had her window
rolled down so that she could breath in some fresh air for a change.
She turned off the main road onto a side road that climbed up above the
center of town to take the scenic route home. It wasn't busy usually because
it was the long way to get just about anywhere, unless you lived off the road.
Traffic was moving along at a steady pace, she noticed two cars dodging
in and out of lanes. Almost as if they were chasing each other. Then the
next thing she knew she was broadsided by a large pickup truck. Claire
hadn't even seen what hit her. Her SUV was pushed sideways into the gravel
on the roadside. Horns blared, she heard someone scream. Her head
impacted something hard. She felt blood trickling down the side of her head.
The entire left side of her body was impacted when the truck struck her car.
Claire had a glimps of what was happening, just before her car tipped over
the side of the embankment, rolled over several times and landed on its roof.
Two cars and the truck were all involved in the crash and they were still
assembled on the road in a tangled heap. The brush beside the road was
over grown in the lush California environment, when the ambulance and
police arrived no one knew that a forth car had been involved. They didn't
look for her.
Claire was unconscious for several hours. It was past night fall when she
woke up with a pounding head ache. Still strapped into her seat, her left side
bruised, her left hip aching. She attempted to release herself from her shoulder
harness, but the buckle wouldn't budge. She saw her bag no where that she
could reach. Her cell phone was in the bag. She tried yelling for help believing
it had only been a short time since the crash. But that made her head hurt
worse than ever. She must have passed out again the next time she woke up
she was still trapped and it was growing chilly. The sounds of the road noise
were down to almost nothing.
Claire against tried to free herself from the straps. But she wasn't having any
success. Then she heard a rustling noise outside the car.
"Help please, I'm trapped." She called out. "Help me!"
Then she stopped to listen, she heard more rustling, "Help, please, can you
help me?" She called out again.
There was still more rustling, then she saw outside the mashed in side of her
car a small black and white dog wagging it's tail at her and sniffing at her threw the window.
"Oh, Hello." Claire felt like laughing, but she hurt to much. "Where's your owner?
Can you go get help, pretend you're Lassie and go get help." She told the little
dog, not hoping for a second that it understood her. The little dog wagged at her
leaned in the window and gave the side of her face a couple of licks.
"Oh, you know I'm in trouble don't you. Go home and get help little one."
Claire said in an urgent voice.
The dog cocked it's head to the side as if really listening to her and then turned
and trotted off. He ran back up to the road and jumped on Rick's leg.
"There you are, where did you get off to?" Rick patted Mikey's head for a second. The dog jumped down, and ran towards the undergrowth again.
"Hey, no we need to go this way." Rick called after him. Mikey was a smart
dog and he usually listened well on their walks.
Mikey stopped looked back at his owner then ducked into the bushes.
"Hey, come on, we don't have time for this game." Rick walked a few feet
towards where the dog had gone.
Mikey stopped woofed one then went even further into the woods beside
the road. Rick followed him, "Hey, come back here."
Mikey trotted faster once he had Rick following him. He stayed just far enough
ahead so that he couldn't get grabbed and put back on his leash.
"Oh, you're back, did you bring help?" Claire asked, she was feeling very light
headed after backing out and being upside down for hours.
"Mikey were are you?" Rick called out he was still twenty feet away and the
car wasn't visible in the darkness.
"Help, please!" Clarie called out.
"Hello? Where are you?" Rick called back. "What's wrong?"
"I"m stuck, my car went off the road." Claire called back.
"Hang on I'm coming." Rick followed her voice and was soon standing beside
the smashed car. He knelt down and looked in her window. A very pretty blonde
lady looked back at him. She was still strapped into her seat. And she was bleeding.
"Oh, wow do you want me to go get an ambulance? Are you hurt bad?" Rick asked.
He didn't know much about broken bones and stuff, he didn't want to hurt her
worse by moving her.
"Thank you for coming. I don't think anything is broken, I'm not having trouble
breathing, I hurt but I think it's busing mostly. If you could help me get out of
this harness." She suggested.
"Are you sure, I don't want to make things worse." He reached in and tried to
release her buckle. It didn't budge for him either. So he pulled out a pocket
knife and sliced threw the harness. Claire slide down on to her shoulders
in an awkward position. Rick grabbed her under the arms and pulled her out
into the ground beside her car.
"Do you have a cell phone?" She asked a minute later, once the pain of
being moved subsided a little.
"No, I didn't bring it." He shook his head.
"I have mine, it's in a black brief case, in there." She nodded towards the car.
"Mikey go get the bag." Rick pointed towards her car. He saw a bottle of water
laying in the ceiling and handed it to her.
Mikey moved past the two people and into the wrecked car, he searched for
the bag, and found it wedged between the door and the passenger seat. He
tugged on it several times then sat and woofed.
"Good dog, can't you bring it here?" Rick asked looking over at his dog.
Mikey turned to look at him and kept sitting.
Rick crawled back inside the wreck and pulled out the bag after tugging on it
several times. He found her cell phone but it was dead.
"Great it's broken, or dead. I'll go up to the road and get some help."
Rick told Claire.
"Thank you," She sighed. She was feeling cold and didn't think she could
walk if she tried.
"Mikey stay here with the lady." He ordered. Mikey moved in beside Claire
and lay next to her.
Rick hurried back up to the road and then ran up the street to the nearest
house. There was no one home. So he continued on up the hill, he knew there
was a Quick Mart at the top of the hill. It took him twelve minutes to get there.
He ran to the payphone, grabbed it off the hook and dialed 911. "I need
an ambulance there was a crash on Ocean View Drive, A lady is hurt."
"I'll send EMS right away sir." She women on the other end of the line said.
"What location on Ocean View?" She asked.
"It's half way up the hill, between La Cecnica and the parkway." He told her
" Hurry please."
Rick rushed down the hill, and waited for the ambulance to arrive. He waved
them over to the side of the road.
"She's down there, her car flipped over." He pointed as they pulled up on the
side of the road.
"I'll show you," He waved to them. The two Emergency firemen grabbed up
their work gear and followed him down the side of the hill. They all found
Claire with Mikey. He was laying close to her side, her hand resting on his
fur.
"Mikey, good dog, come here." Rick praised his dog, and then moved out
of the way.
The two firefighter/EMT's went to work on her, the though she had a
concussion at the least. They strapped her into a carry litter and carried
her up the hill to load her into the ambulance.
A police officer arrived and took down Rick's name. For his report,
"Man it's a good thing you and your dog came along, she might have died
down here." The officer told him.
Claire woke up in a hospital bed, with Eberts standing nearby.
"What happened?" She asked.
"You were in an automobile accident, don't you remember?" Eberts stood at
the foot of her bed and looked concerned.
"Oh, yes my car went down the embankment, what day is this?"
"Thursday, I've seen to Pavlov. How are you feeling?" Albert asked.
"My head hurts, my side hurts. Owe and my leg hurts." She moved to sit up
a little, then remembered the bed would move for her. She pushed the button
on the remote control and it hummed her into a sitting position.
"Your physician doesn't believe you have any serious injuries, but you were
a getting close to being hypothermic when they brought you in, and you do have
a concession." Eberts told her.
"I hope they'll let me out of here soon." Claire didn't like hospitals much it's
one of the reasons's she'd gone into research.
"The Official was here this morning, he said you should take several days off
and rest." Albert informed her.
"Yes, it's looks like I have very little choice about that." She reached for the
glass of water on her side table.
"Thank you for being here Albert, I'm sure you have to go back to the office
soon. Are Darien and Bobby still on assignment?" She asked curious.
"Yes, I did send them a message about your accident, but I only said that you'd
been in a fender bender. I didn't want to alarm them." Albert added.
"Oh, I see." She'd kind of hopped they would come and see her during her
convalescence.
"I'll stop by later and see if you can be discharged." He said as he left.
"Thank you." Claire sighed.
It was past two that afternoon when she was trying to find a comfortable
position, when there was a soft knock at her door.
"Hello, may I come in?" A male voice asked.
"Yes, please do."
"You might not remember me." He started to say, but she stopped him
"I know you, you helped me the other night. Thank you." She smiled at Rick.
"Rick Papplos and Mikey, but they don't have therapy dogs in this hospital
so he had to stay home." Rick introduced himself.
"Rick, and Mikey I guess I owe him a nice big dog bone."Claire responded.
"He'd be happy with a pat on the head." Rick told her. " I just wanted to
stop and see how you were doing. The officer at the accident sight told
me your name. " He placed the small bundle of flowers he'd brought on the
table across from her bed.
"Thank you Rick, thank you for everything." Claire smiled again.
"I'm glad Mikey found you, I had no idea there was a car off the side of
the road." He admitted.
"I don't even know what happened, a truck I think hit me, then I woke up
upside down." She shrugged.
"Well you look better already, nothing serious injured, that's good."
He noticed she wasn't in a cast.
"I was very lucky, aside from a knock on the head and a lot or bruising."
Claire felt silly, talking to him about her health.
"Okay, well I'm glad you're doing good." Rick said as he prepared to leave.
"It was nice of you to stop by to see me. Thank you again for your help."
Claire told him.
"You're welcome." He smiled and kind of waved as he left.
Man you are such a knucklehead. Rick told himself out in the hallway.
She's probably thinks you're some dumb guy that wanted something from
her. He berated himself as he walked towards the elevators.
It was just that ever since he'd helped her the night before he kept thinking
about her. It was really weird he'd never had a reaction to a lady he'd met
for only what amounted to a few minutes. But she was a lady in distress,
or she had been, and she did have that very cute accent.
Rick drove back to his place and sat down at his computer. He had work to
do and he'd already used up valuable time with his trip to the hospital.
But at least he'd be able to do some work now that he'd assured himself
that she was fine. Or at least going to be fine soon.