They'd been out of the house in a matter of moments and speeding towards Cedars-Sinai Hospital while Andy had called into the traffic division to find out what had happened in the accident. Sharon breezes into the bustling ER with Andy at her back, still barking into his cell phone at the traffic division.
"Mom!" Rusty jumps up out of a chair in the waiting area and rushes over. Sharon immediately wraps her arms around him and squeezes him close, pressing a kiss to his head before pulling back.
"Are you okay? What's going on?" Sharon asks as she takes in the cut on his forehead that had been cleaned up and stitched among the other small cuts on his face.
"I'm fine," Rusty shakes his head, waving towards Gus who was talking to Andy, "We're fine…they're almost done with Charlie."
"What about Emily and Ricky?"
"Ah, I don't know they were taken into another area when we got here," Rusty says, "No one will tell me what's going on. I've been asking."
"Okay, sit back down and I'm going to see if I can find out what's going on," Sharon says. She reaches out and squeezes Andy's arm before heading over to the check in desk, "I need to know what's going on with Emily and Richard Raydor, they were brought in with three other people from a car accident…about an hour ago? My son said he hasn't gotten any information since they were brought in."
"You are?" The nurse asks as she looks up from her computer.
"Their mother, Captain Sharon Raydor, LAPD," Sharon says, her tone deepening towards Darth territory.
"One moment," The nurse says as she types out a few things, "Let me page the on call physician. He'll be able to get you guys filled in."
"Thank you," Sharon says. She walks back over to the boys, noticing that Charlie had joined them with his arm in a sling and a few cuts on his face and arms, "Charlie, are you okay?"
"Yeah, a small concussion, my shoulder's a little messed up, but otherwise fine," Charlie says, "How are Emily and Ricky?"
"The on call is supposed to come out and bring us up to speed," Sharon says before looking over at Andy, "Anything from traffic?"
"Halsey is supposed to call me back soon with some details. Little I could glean from the rook I was talking to was a drunk driver, blew through a red. They nailed the front passenger side of the car, car's probably totaled."
"God," Sharon says, starting to pace as they wait. After a few minutes a doctor comes out and calls out for Sharon.
"Mrs. Raydor?" Sharon pauses in her pacing and makes her way over to the doctor with all of the boys at her back.
"I'm Sharon Raydor," Sharon tells him. The doctor takes a look at the crowd and offers them a small smile, holding his hand out to lead them through the doors and back into the ER, "How are they doing?"
"Not awful, but not great," The doctor answers as he brings them to a quieter waiting area. Charlie, Gus, and Rusty take seats close to where Sharon and Andy remained standing, listening in as the doctor talks, "Both of them were brought in unconscious and are in surgery right now. Your son took the brunt of the impact in the accident, his shin suffered a compound fracture and he has a host of injuries to his rib cage. Primarily what we're fixing in the operating room at the moment is his leg, but we're keeping an eye out for anything else that may need attention."
"What about Emily?" Sharon asks with a shaky voice, swallowing the lump in her throat.
"There was significant damage to the knee area on her right leg and that's what we're working on repairing right now. Her wrist has a mild sprain…some bruising throughout her ribcage…nothing else too serious," The doctor continues to explain, occasionally referencing the chart in his hands, "As far as we can tell the fetus is doing fine. We have your daughter hooked up to a fetal heart rate monitor while she's in surgery and the obstetrician will come down to take a more thorough exam once she's out."
"How long are they going to be in surgery?" Andy asks as he wraps his arm around Sharon. She drops her head into his shoulder and closes her eyes against the tears.
"It's going to be another hour at least. A nurse will come and get you once they're finishing up and can take you to their rooms," The doctor comments, "They're going to be okay. Once we're out of surgery we can assess where they're at completely and start making recovery plans, but they're going to be okay."
"Thanks doctor," Andy nods, shaking the doctor's hand before he leaves the waiting room. Andy guides Sharon into a seat across from the boys, sitting down next to her. He looks at Charlie as he rubs his hand along her back, "Did anyone call your sister?"
"I haven't," Charlie shakes his head, looking over at Rusty. Rusty shakes his head as well as he looks back at Andy.
"I didn't. I just called Mom," Rusty offers. Andy nods and looks over at Sharon.
"I'm gonna call her and see if she can come pick them up, let her know what's going on," He tells her. Sharon nods and sighs as she leans back in her chair, rubbing her hand over her face. Andy calls Nicole and tells her what was going on, asking if she could come pick Charlie, Rusty, and Gus up and take them to the house. Nicole arrives half an hour later and breezes into the waiting room in sweats with her hair bundled in a messy bun on top of her head.
"How are they doing?" Nicole asks Sharon and Andy as she hugs her brother.
"No changes, which is good. They're supposed to be out of surgery soon," Andy recounts, "Do you mind just taking them back to the house?"
"Not at all," Nicole says. The three boys get up out of their seats with groans, the stiffness from the accident starting to settle in. Sharon gets up and hugs each of them before kissing Rusty's cheek.
"I'll text you once their out of surgery and we know more. Get some sleep okay?"
"You sure you don't want us to stay?" Rusty asks.
"We'll be fine," Sharon assures him before thanking Nicole for giving them all a ride home. Once they're alone Sharon leans into Andy's side and lets out a pitiful whimper. Andy presses a kiss to her forehead and squeezes her close.
"They're gonna be okay," He murmurs, running his fingers through her hair.
"Someone hurt my babies, I want to kill them," Sharon whispers.
"I know, me too," Andy replies, continuing to run his fingers through her hair, occasionally pausing to massage her scalp. They sit in silence for a while longer before a nurse comes in, knocking gently on the doorway. Sharon pushes herself up from her chair quickly, looking at the nurse in anticipation.
"They're bringing them out of surgery right now. Doctor Barton made sure they'll be placed in recovery together," The nurse tells them, "They're doing well."
"Thank god," Sharon breathes, swallowing back another round of tears.
"I can take you to their room now," The nurse says with a warm smile. Andy gets up from his seat and puts his hand on Sharon's back, both of them following the nurse up a few floors to the recovery area. She leads them into a small private room and pulls back the curtain. Ricky was in the far bed, his leg propped up on a stack of pillows with support rods sticking out of it at various angles. His forearm on the same side was wrapped in layers of gauze and his face was cut up in a couple places with a few bruises already blooming.
Emily was in the bed closer to the door with her knee wrapped and in a stabilizer, propped up on a set of pillows as well. Her wrist was wrapped in a soft cast and Sharon could make out the lump of the fetal monitor underneath her gown. Sharon lets out a soft gasp as she walks into the room. She makes her way over to Ricky's bed, her hand reaching out and brushing his hair back from his face. She strokes her fingers down the side of his face and rests her hand on his chest, feeling his heart beat underneath her palm. She leans down and presses her lips to his forehead, closing her eyes.
"Oh, my darling boy…" Sharon whispers. She spends a few moments at Ricky's bedside before moving over to Emily's. She runs her fingers through the messy brown locks splayed over the pillow, trying to straighten them. Her nose wrinkles as her fingers skim over dried blood, looking around the room for a moment. She sees a pitcher of water and grabs a paper towel, dunking it into the pitcher to wet it.
Pulling up a chair close to Emily's bed, she reaches out and runs the towel over the spot, slowly washing away the flecks left on Emily's skin and hair. Andy talks to the nurse for a few minutes before thanking her and walking over to Sharon, pulling the other chair up next to her.
"The doctor is going to be by here in a few minutes, but the nurse said they're doing good."
"Did you ever hear back from traffic?" Sharon asks as she tosses the paper towel in the trash before looking at Andy as she takes Emily's hand in hers. Her thumb begins to stroke back and forth across the girl's knuckles.
"Not yet," Andy says just as his phone starts to ring. He looks at the display and over at Sharon, "Speak of the devil. I'm going to take this okay?"
"Yeah," Sharon nods, the corners of her mouth lifting briefly. Andy gets up and steps out into the hall, answering his phone. He waves at the doctor as he comes by a moment later, focusing on the details about the accident that were being relayed to him.
Sharon moves to stand as the doctor comes in and he waves her off, pulling Andy's chair back a little bit before taking a seat across from her. She settles back in her seat, continuing her hold on Emily's hand as he relays both of their statuses in more detail than the doctor from the ER had earlier. Part of the way through both of them jump as they hear a loud thunk out in the hallway and Andy curse.
"Excuse me," Sharon says as she gets up from her seat to go check on her fiancé.
"Son of a bitch!" Andy yells. His fist connects with the stairwell door he was standing in front of again before he drops his head against the metal, his fingers still clenched together at his side as he growls into his phone, "He doesn't go in front of a judge tomorrow. I don't care what you have to do he doesn't go in front of a judge until I talk to the DA's office, got it?…Thanks for the information Hals."
"What is going on?" Sharon asks as she steps out into the hall, crossing her arms as she watches Andy fume, "What did Halsey say?"
"There's almost four million people in this city, four million people…and he's the one that hits them," Andy says, the fight starting to leave him. Sharon steps closer and puts her hand on his arm, pushing him back from the door and looking up into his eyes.
"Who?" Sharon asks. Andy sighs and looks away from Sharon, down at his feet as he stuffs his hands in his pocket.
"Jack. Jack was driving the other car," Andy replies, "He got picked up for a wet reckless in San Diego last month…a slap on the wrist…"
"What?" Sharon says as shock settles on her face.
"He charmed them out of a ticket in San Diego so he didn't get in trouble and he put five of our kids in the hospital!" Andy rages, his anger rearing it's head again, "He could have…Halsey sent me a picture from the scene…they are so lucky that a few broken bones is all they have."
[TBC]