~~~Ch. 6~~~

For a moment, neither of them moved, nothing seemed to move…  Suddenly Liz came out of her daze and bolted from the car.  Trevor quickly used his cell phone to call the paramedics and police as he quickly exited the car, chasing after Liz to make sure she didn't get injured in the process of trying to help.

 By the time Liz reached the Jeep, Ryan had begun screaming hysterically, too frightened to try and free himself from the vehicle.  She gasped when she saw Max's condition.  He was unconscious and bleeding severely…from where she couldn't exactly tell.  "Trevor!" she screamed.

"I'm right here…now quick…get the little boy and I will try to free the young man," he said much more calmly than he felt.

Liz nodded mutely and hurried around to the passenger side, climbing into the backseat.  "Ryan?  Ryan, do you remember me?"

The little boy momentarily stopped crying and nodded an affirmation.  Liz quickly unbuckled his seat belt and encouraged him to crawl into her arms.  Carefully she climbed back out of the Jeep still holding Ryan, who was now sobbing into her shirt, his arms wound tightly around her neck, desperate for someone to hold onto.

The police arrived followed closely by an ambulance.  Liz still felt as if she were in a daze.  The blaring sirens and flashing lights failed to faze her, as she slowly turned around, unsure what to do besides pulling Ryan just a little closer, trying to comfort herself as well as the little boy in her arms.

Two paramedics rushed over to Max's Jeep and two more to the van of the other driver, who apparently was also unconscious.  Trevor had almost succeeded in pulling Max from the mangled Jeep at this point, but upon seeing the paramedics, stepped back to let them lift him from the vehicle and onto a stretcher. 

Liz just stared as the carried him past her to the ambulance.  He looked so pale and lifeless…a drastic difference from the last time she had seen him.  "Daddy?" Ryan asked, finally noticing that his father was not moving and being taken away by strangers.

"Shhhh, it's okay.  Daddy's hurt and those men are going to take him in the ambulance to the hospital so they can fix him all up…understand?" Liz asked.

Another medic, spotting Liz standing there with Ryan, jogged over to the pair.  "Were you two in the Jeep too?" he asked, visibly looking them over for any obvious injuries.

"He was," she said, nodding her head at the little boy in her arms.

"Can I check him out…make sure there aren't any serious injuries?"

"Oh yeah…definitely," Liz said, moving to place Ryan back on the ground.

"NO!" he yelled, holding tighter to Liz, preventing her from putting him down.

"Ryan sweetie, Mr. ….?"

"Dave, just call me Dave…" the medic replied.

"Dave just needs to make sure you aren't hurt too.  Can you just let him look really quick?" Liz pleaded.

"Just one second though…" he said seriously.

"Okay…just one second," she replied as she again tried to put him down. 

This time he let her, though he immediately reached for her hand for reassurance.  The medic quickly checked him over, not finding anything other than a few cuts and bruises.  "Looks like you got lucky son…" the medic said to Ryan before standing up and addressing Liz.  "They're going to be taking the driver to the hospital any moment now; they say he's in stable enough condition to travel now.  Are you any relation?  What I mean is...I'd rather not send the boy with the police if he can stay with you."

"Uh…yeah…I'm Max's fiancée.  Can we ride in the ambulance with him?  I think it would help Ryan if he could stay with his dad."

"I guess so.  We better hurry though.  They're about ready to go."

"Okay," Liz said, reaching down to pick up Ryan again.  "Trevor!" she yelled in his direction as she took off running towards the ambulance, following behind the medic.  "I'm going to ride in the ambulance with them.  Meet me at the hospital!"

Trevor nodded and went back to answering questions for the police, as he and Liz had pretty much been the only witnesses to the accident.

Arriving at the ambulance Liz was helped up into the vehicle by the medic who had checked out Ryan, before he quickly closed the doors behind them and the ambulance sped off towards the hospital.

One of the other medics was going through Max's pockets looking for identification.  He pulled out his wallet and cell phone and began to look through them.  "That's his fiancée," Dave said, pointing to Liz.

"Great," the other medic replied, "Do you know if he has any past medical conditions, allergies, is he on any medications?"

"Ummm…not that I'm aware of…" Liz answered vaguely.

"Okay good.  Here, why don't you hold onto these so they don't get lost," he said, handing her the wallet and cell phone.

Liz took the items from the medic and not having her purse as she had left it in the car, she just held them in front of her.  "Is he…is he going to be alright?" she asked quietly.

"It's too early to tell…but between you and me…it looks like he's got a lot to live for."

Suddenly the ambulance came a jolting stop as the finally reached the hospital.  The medics quickly wheeled Max into the emergency room with Liz and Ryan following close behind.  As they pushed him into a room, a nurse blocked Liz's entry.

"You'll have to wait out here Miss."

"But…"

"Just take a seat.  The doctors will do everything they can but they don't need you distracting them.  Someone will keep you updated on his condition, I promise," the nurse said, leading Liz towards the small dingy looking waiting room and directing her into a seat.

Liz nodded mutely, repositioning Ryan in her arms as she sat down and resting her chin on the top of his head.

"Liz?" Ryan asked softly.

"Yeah Ryan?"

"Is my daddy gonna be okay?"

"I sure hope so hun…I sure hope so…"

TBC…