I try to move my arm. I can't. At least not as much as I should be able to. Not without searing pain ripping through my body. I move my legs and to my surprise my prosthetic leg is still on nice and strong. I move my other arm and sigh when I discover that it too is working properly. My vision is swimming which is extremely inconvenient and the pounding rain is only making my migraine worse. I'm laying on my side and I can tell there is glass all around me. Drew. I stop trying to move my limbs.
"Drew? Drew?" I ask frantically, I wasn't sure I could move my head but I tried. My head moved to the side more and I could see Drew. His face was covered in blood, his arm bent oddly, his chest heaving, his eyes screwed shut, his breathing labored, his hip smashed.
"Oh God, Drew! Talk to me! Are you ok?" I asked as I try to scoot closer to him. I can hear sirens but they're not nearly close enough. I feel like I'm back oversees and we've just been bombed. Only this is so much worse because instead of my brothers bleeding besides me it's the love of my life. My mind flashes with memories and I clamp my eyes shut for a moment to rid my mind of the assault.
"I- I don't kn,know. My, my ribs aren't good. Drew, g,get my b,b,belt off, I can,can't breath." Drew speaks sporadically with short breaths. I don't move for a second. Then my training kicks in and reach shakily into the glove box where I know there is a pocket knife. There is blood on my hand that I didn't notice before. I saw the belt as quickly as I can. When it comes off though Drew gasps suddenly and his light blue shirt suddenly gets even more blood on it.
"Shit, shit, you have a laceration I think it's deep. I, I gotta put pressure on it." I tell him before going against the pain in my arm and applying pressure. Drew gasps again and tries to squirm away but I only follow his body with my arms. The sirens are here I can tell and I try to not let the tears roll down my face.
"Drew, Drew, Oh God!" I hear a voice. Gwen. I know that voice. Her head appears down in the broken window of the truck, she's on her stomach, we must have rolled.
"Help, help Gwen. He's got a serious laceration, his hip has b,been crushed, he had a hard t,time breathin." I explain as I pant to catch my breath.
"Rick? Oh God, ok we're gonna get you both out ok? Stay where you are the firefighters are here to get you and we'll get ya fixed up." Gwen speaks frantically but then her voice of reason, her professional voice takes over and it's comforting as I sit in the sideways car with the rain pounding down and my hands getting soaked with Drew's blood. I hear Gwen talking to someone outside the car and after a few minutes she lays back down outside the broken window of the car and makes eye contact with me. Drew moves his head slightly and Gwen reaches in to halt his movements.
"No Drew keep yourself still. We're gonna get you out first bc that cut looks pretty deep, we don't need ya losing any more blood. Rick, you keep that pressure, I'll be right back with the firemen. They're gonna take over ok? They'll get Drew out and we'll get ya both to the hospital." Gwen explains.
"I'm fine. I'm o,ok." I try to tell her as I keep my hands on Drew's stomach. He gasps as I apply more pressure. I hear a lot of movement outside the car and the sirens are reflecting off the puddles and making my vision swim.
"I, l,love you, R,Rick." Drew speaks suddenly.
"I love y,you too Drew." I say and realize I'm shivering. I hadn't noticed that before. I realize that there is water on the floor of the car from the rain and that my clothes are soaked through. Drew is shivering too and I lean down slightly to see through the windshield. Just as I'm about to call out for help a man's face appears in the hole where the window used to be before it shattered mercilessly.
"I'm Lieutenant Tener. My men and myself are gonna get you both out real soon, give us two more minutes." He says before reaching and placing his hand on Drew's chest.
"You're gonna be fine Captain. You both are." He promises before hopping back up and ordering his men to grab tools. I think to myself how he knew that we were Captains, or members of the military at all and conclude that Drew must have worked with him before.
"Drew do you know him?" I ask wondering whether or not keeping him talking is good.
"Yeah, he's p,pulled vic,victims that we, we've t,treated before. He's, r,real good." Drew explains before gasping again. I nod.
"Good, that's good." I say before getting lost in my head again. We had been driving home from a nice dinner after our weekend get away. We'd been flirting, we'd been happy. The road turned too sharp, the person in the lane next to us swerved and before we knew it the car was on it's side rolling and the chaos began. Lieutenant Tener appears in the window again and he tells me that they're gonna pull the door off and get Drew on a backboard and in a collar and pull him out. I can only nod before he signals to pull the door with the jaws. He says where he is, right on the ground, despite the fact that he's getting covered in shards of metal and rain water. He keeps his eyes locked on mine. At first the noise of the machine doesn't bother me but those damn flashbacks keep popping in my head.
"Stop." I mutter softly, "Stop! STOP! We can't make that much noise!" I scream. My mind is else where. The noise cuts off.
"The damn insurgents will hear us, they'll come back for another a,attack. They'll, they'll come." I try to explain.
"R,rick." I hear Drew sputter out my name and for a second I'm back in the present and realize that I'm putting too much pressure on his stomach but I hear a siren and I'm right back across the sea. Lieutenant Tener reaches in the car and lifts my hands off Drew's chest. In fact he crawls inside slightly in what looks to be an incredibly uncomfortable position and applies pressure.
"Captain Allister look at me, this is lieutenant Tener, you were in a car crash. Do you understand. You're home. You're safe we're gonna get you out." Something in my head connects and I nodded furiously.
"Y,yeah, I'm, I'm here." I tell him. He nods but doesn't move his hands off Drew.
"I gotta go back out, I'm in the way of the jaws right now, you gotta keep this pressure, you can't push too hard though." His voice is calm as I put my hands back on Drew's stomach. Drew has closed his eyes now and I keep an eye on his face as the door comes off. Gwen takes over and puts the backboard on him and the collar with the help of the fire fighters. They pull Drew out and Gwen begins to give orders to her partner. LIeutenant Tener comes and gives me his hand as I stumble out of the car. My prosthetic leg is digging into my skin and incredibly uncomfortable as I try to walk normally. Lieutenant puts and arm around me and helps lead me to the ambulance. Gwen pulls me inside and I nod to Tener as he walks away. The sirens blare and Gwen orders me to sit down and stop touching Drew. He still is unconscious which worries the crap out of me. Gwen is working on him every second of the ride and I keep muttering for him to open his eyes. His breathing is shallow and the blood on his face only looks worse under the lights. The extremely painful light I may add. TC and Kenny are waiting at the hospital and when they see Drew they both take deep breaths before grabbing the gurney and getting to work.
"I'm, f,f,fine." Drew mutters to TC.
"Alright man we got ya." TC tell him. Drew grabs his hand though and pulls him close with the little strength he has.
"L,l,look at Rick's leg, it, it swells. He c,could ha-have a c,c,concu-sion." Drew's voice was cracking and strained.
"Alright man, I'll take good care of him. Ok? You gotta worry about yourself now. We got Rick and we got you." Kenny spoke up.
"Alright let's get them inside, call Scott, we'll probably need to operate." TC says as he takes charge of the situation and begins pushing the gurney inside again.
