Chapter 3: The Arrival
"What happened?" Alex inquired upon seeing Davis kneeling by a small boy, with Sully standing over them.
"Humpty-Dumpty had a great fall," Sully remarked off hand, before thinking about it.
"What?" Bobby asked, pulling on the gloves and kneeling down to start working with the kid.
"He fell. The kid tried to jump the fence and got caught, and before I could get to him to help him down he flipped over the top and fell... here." Davis explained as he moved to the other side of the kid, so that Bobby could get a look at him. "That barbed wire cut into his thigh pretty good, on his left leg. And I think he might've broken his right arm. At least that's what he landed on when he fell."
"Right. Well..." Bobby moved to check the kid out. "Hey kiddo. I'm Bobby. And this is Alex. And the guy that's with you is Davis and that's Officer Sullivan, over there."
"Hey," Alex said flashing a smile towards the kid hoping to make him feel more at easy, though she found that it didn't matter because the kid still had his eye squeezed shut.
"Can you tell us your name?" Bobby continued to talk to the kid as he checked him over. The kid remained silent and Ty shrugged, shaking his head a little when Bobby looked up at him. "Or not. That's ok too. If you don't mind that we call you kid?"
There was a slight pause before the kid said Jaxon through clenched teeth.
"Jackson, huh? That's a cool name," Bobby continued.
"It's spelled with an X," the kid hissed, peeping at what Bobby was doing. Right then, Bobby tried to move the surrounding material of the kid's pants from around his cut. Jaxon gasped shortly in pain before he slapped his teeth shut again and flinched away from Bobby.
"Oh. Oh. I'm sorry! I'm sorry Jaxon. I didn't mean to hurt you," Bobby reacted, as he tried to figure out how he was going to be able to get to that cut. He exchanged glances with Alex before continuing. "Ok. Now Jaxon, I need you to listen to me, I can't get to the cut on your leg because of your pants, and because of how high the cut goes, we're going to see if we can't just get to it by lowering your pants a little. Ok buddy?"
"Wha - No!" Jaxon jerked away, as best he could on the ground. His eyes flew open as a flash of terror overcame the look of concentration he had earlier, but the terror was quickly replaced with a forced look of toughness. "I'm fine. You don't need to do that."
"Hey, ok. Ok Jaxon we won't do that. Bad idea. So this is what we'll do instead, I'm just going to cut your jeans open a little more, just enough so that we can at least put a bandage on your cut ok. And as I do that, Alex is going to set a splint for your arm ok. I promise we'll have you looking as good as new soon! But first we're going to lift you up onto this gurney ok." Bobby promised as he got the necessary supplies out of his bag to work on Jaxon's leg.
Jaxon, looked back at Davis, almost as though he was asking permission with his eyes, but for only a moment, as he just as quickly turned away and looked at the ground. A moment later he ever so slightly nodded an ok, and Davis helped Bobby lift Jaxon onto the gurney while Alex kept his arm and head steady. They began strapping him down to the bed which made Jaxon nervous. Ty, catching a hint of nervousness in Jaxon's eyes, took the boy's small hand in his own and gave it a squeeze. Jaxon's eye flashed towards Davis, and the nervousness that had been threatening to show on his face was quickly replaced by the same forced toughness from earlier, although his eyes still told Davis that he was glad the officer had taken his hand.
They rolled the gurney back to the bus, loaded the equipment, and were about to load Jaxon in, when Davis felt Jaxon's tiny fingers tighten around his huge hand. Davis looked down at Jaxon and was instantly told by the look in his eyes that he didn't want to be left.
"Hey, Sully, I think I'm going to ride with them. If that's ok with you guys," Davis called over his shoulder. With a nod from Bobby he helped lift the gurney as he climbed in the ambulance.
Shutting the doors with a bang, Alex climbed into the driver's seat.
"You think you can handle this big ol' rig?" Bobby teased from the back, as he hooked Jaxon up to an IV.
"Shut up and pay attention to what you're doing," Alex replied, starting the rig and putting it into drive.
Bobby took out the scissors and began cutting away the fabric from around Jaxon's cut, trying his best not to damage the already ripped jeans. But in the end, wound up having to cut the entire pant leg open from the waste to the knee in order to really get to the cut well enough to clean it.
Davis was watching Bobby work as they rode along until he noticed that Jaxon's grip was becoming lighter. He looked up at Jaxon to see the boy trying to fight of the heaviness of his eyelids, but soon lost the battle and fell into a surprisingly quick, deep sleep. Tough kid Davis thought as the ambulance continued on its way to Mercy Hospital.
