Genetics
16-year-old Annie Casey looked out of the back-seat car window at the storm that was brewing around them. The rain was pouring from the sky and the wind was beginning to pick up too.
"How much longer?" Annie asked her parents in the front seat of the car.
"About an hour" Matt told her as he continued to focus on the road ahead. His view was slowly reducing in these conditions and he had been debating for a while whether it would be best to pull over and let it pass.
"What's the weather like in Fowlerton, ma?" Elliot asked from the back seat.
"I don't think it's as bad as this…" Sylvie said with a grimace. After a little bit of persuasion, she and Matt had managed to convince their kids to take a trip to Fowlerton this weekend. They hadn't been in a while and they loved taking occasional trips there, but this weather was seriously putting them off.
"Maybe it wouldn't be so bad if the weather was like this" Jack commented with a shrug as his siblings looked at him to elaborate. "Then we'd have to stay in the house all weekend and mom wouldn't have to worry about running in to anybody in grocery stores" he teased, knowing all about his mother's unfortunate run ins over the years.
"Oh very funny Jack…" Sylvie said sarcastically as Matt smirked. "Honey it's getting really bad out, maybe we should pull over –"
"Dad, look out!" Elliot suddenly said as Matt slammed on the breaks and the car came to a halt. All 5 Caseys leaned forward to look at the scene in front of them – three cars had slammed into each other in the middle of the storm.
"Oh my god…" Matt grumbled as he and Sylvie undid their belts. "Elliot, call 9-1-1"
"I don't have any signal" Elliot told him as they all desperately looked at their phones – but got nothing.
"Ok, stay here, we'll deal with this" Sylvie said as she and Matt jumped out of the car and ran to the scene.
Jack, Elliot and Annie all looked at each other for a brief moment before they too undid their belts and jumped out of the car. There was no way their parents could deal with this on their own – no matter how good first responders they were – they needed help in whatever way that might look like.
When they jumped out of the car, they surveyed the scene in front of them in shock. Where did they even begin?
"OK, we need a plan" Sylvie said as she rallied her family around. "We need to make sure we get to every car and account for every victim."
"It's not going to be much good if we can't get them to hospitals, where's the nearest one?" Elliot asked.
"Probably Reynolds Memorial, about 5 miles out from here" Sylvie told him. "We can't get our car past this scene."
"Let me help!" someone shouted from behind as they saw a victim stagger from one of the cars. "I'm ok, I just think I broke my nose from the airbag but I'm fine – let me go get help."
Sylvie quickly examined him and saw he seemed with it, so they nodded and let the guy go get help – what else could they do in this situation?
"Ok, we check every car, we assess their injuries, we report back to me or mom, got it?" Matt ordered his kids as they nodded their heads and ran towards the scene.
Annie made her way towards and tipped over car. She climbed up the side of it and looked through the window to find a little boy and his mother.
"Noah! Noah!" his mother was calling. She appeared to have a pretty bad head laceration and her leg was trapped under the steering column. Miraculously, the little boy seemed to be in ok shape. A few cuts and bruises her and there but he seemed ok.
"Mom!"
"Hi, hi, my name's Annie, help is on it's way." She assured them.
"Is my son ok?"
"What's your name ma'am?"
"Elise, my son is Noah!"
"Ok Elise, Noah looks ok, just a few cuts and bruises. You have a head lack that's going to need patched up a little, I will be right back" Annie told her as she hopped off the car and ran over to Sylvie who was dealing with a victim of her own from the first aid kit she liked to keep in the back of the car.
"Mom, I have a woman with a head lac, do you have any gauze and tape?"
"Yeah sweetie, here, be careful." She warned. She'd trained her kids in first aid from when they were little, so she knew they would be fine on that front, but in these conditions anything went.
"I will!" Annie assured her as she moved her now soaking wet blonde hair out of her face and ran back to the car.
She quickly closed over the wound for the time being, trying to make sure the gauze stuck despite the rain that was lashing through the windows. When she was done, Elise grabbed her arm.
"Stay with my son. Please. Talk to him, keep him calm." She begged as Annie nodded her head. She manoeuvred herself across the car she had climbed and towards Noah.
"Hey Noah, how you doing?"
"I'm scared!" he admitted.
"I know you are buddy but everything is going to be ok, help is coming!" she shouted over the storm. "How old are you Noah?"
"6"
"Wow, you are so brave, I'm not sure I would have been so brave when I was 6!" Annie told him with a smile, trying to be as encouraging as she can and to shift the conversation beyond his fear. "What do you like to do in school?"
"I like science"
"Really? I like science too. I want to be a doctor one day" Annie told him.
"Me too!" he said proudly. "What kind of doctor?"
"I think one that works in the emergency room. What about you?"
"A heart doctor!" he said as Annie smiled. "I think you'd make a really good doctor." He complimented.
"Thank you Noah, I think you'd make a pretty awesome doctor too." She said with a wink.
Meanwhile, Elliot approached a car and rapped on the window at a middle-aged woman in the driver's seat, she looked a little out of it, but appeared to be conscious.
"Hey! Hey, are you ok?" he asked as she nodded her head and gripped the steering wheel tighter.
"Some asshole was speeding along here I mean – who does that in such terrible conditions?! Then again, what sort of person am I to be out here at all?" she asked as she started to get emotional.
"What's your name?" he asked as he tried to pull on the door handle but with little luck.
"Maggie"
"Ok Maggie—" Elliot began, but froze. He spotted that she was holding something to her neck. "Do you have a cut on your neck?" he asked calmly. Maggie nodded her head and removed the cloth to reveal a slice across it and a lot of blood.
"I don't know how much longer I can hold this here." She told him as she began to become weaker and weaker.
"Ok the blood isn't pumping out of it, so that's a good sign." Elliot assured. It meant she hadn't clipped anything vital. "But you need to keep pressure on it."
Elliot looked around the crash sight for Matt; "Dad! What tools do we have?"
"I don't know, check the boot!" he called back from the victim he was dealing with. Elliot ran to the car and opened the boot and rummaged around through Matt's construction equipment. He managed to find a pipe that could potentially act as a makeshift crowbar to get the door open. He rushed back and wedged it in the car door and pushing with all of his strength. After a few attempts, he managed to get it open, just as Elise was getting weaker and weaker.
"Ok, let me" he said as he took the cloth from her and began applying pressure to the wound.
"I'm really sorry about this…" Elise apologised.
"You're going to be fine Elise. Just fine."
While Elliot tried to ensure the bleeding didn't get too much, Jack rushed over to a car with a young girl at the wheel.
"Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god!" she panicked as she burst into tears. Jack looked her over and there didn't appear to be any obvious injuries.
"Hey, I'm Jack. What's your name?"
"Emerson."
"Ok Emerson, are you in pain anywhere?"
"Just my heart! My stupid ass boyfriend dumped me tonight forcing me to drive in this storm!" she exclaimed as Jack grimaced and jumped back slightly at her outburst.
"Ok, you're fine…"
Emerson's head shot round and she looked at Jack; "Hey… you're kinda cute."
Jack gave her a lopsided smirk, "Kinda?"
"Let's not get too big for our boots Captain America." She said with an eye roll.
"Well when you call me Captain America—"
Suddenly, there was a huge crash around them as sparks flew from the telephone pole and it began to topple over. Jack looked down at his feet and realised he was standing in a significant amount of water. If the electricity travelled, he would be done for.
"Oh man uh—" he looked around him before making a snap decision to jump up onto the top of the car.
He looked around him and saw that the rest of his family had done the same thing. Even Elliot was on top of Elise's car, while leaning through the open door to continue applying pressure on her wound.
"Are you all ok?!" Matt shouted over the storm.
They all nodded.
"What are we going to do?!" Elliot shouted back.
"We hope to God that this guy comes back with some help." Sylvie replied, a little downhearted. It seemed like an impossible situation – but they had to do what they could.
"Elliot…" Elise mumbled from the car as he focused his attention back on her. "It's ok…"
Elliot shook his head, "No, no you need to stay awake Elise, stay away. I'm sure you have people out there who love you and I'm not going to look them in the eye and tell them that you died in my arms. You're going to look them in the eye and tell them that you survived this."
"You're a tough cookie…"
Elliot scoffed, "It's genetic." He certainly wasn't about to claim credit for his sense of bravery and toughness – that was all his parents. He made a mental note to thank them for instilling such strength in him since he was little.
After waiting for what felt like a lifetime, they could hearing sirens blaring in the distance and lights flashing.
Annie let out a breath she didn't even realise she was holding in, "Thank god…"
The electric was turned off from the fallen pole and the Caseys all jumped off their cars, took a step back and watched the responders take care of everything. They just stood in a stunned silence as the rain poured down them, not having the energy to move. Eventually they all looked at one another before Annie sighed and pulled them all into the biggest hug.
"We are so stupidly proud of you three." Sylvie told them in the hug. She always knew her kids were incredibly bold and brave - but tonight proved it.
"Definitely genetic" Annie said with a little laugh.
"I'm proud of you all too…" Jack said as he pulled back from them all slightly. "But just that little bit more proud of me – I got the number of the girl I was helping" he said as he held up a slightly mushy piece of card with one of his infamous Jack Casey smirks.
"Jack!"
