BIG thanks to Mark for helpin' me out with some of the more...medical aspects of this. I truly am inferior! It probably helps that he's been an EMT for how long, though, right? Anyhoo, this isn't as exciting as the last, and some of you will probably hate me, but hey, that's the way the cookie crumbles! :) Things are gonna be reveiled in the upcoming chapters, so it should be getting more fun...enjoy...leave me lotsa reviews like last time and I'll make it worth your while!!
***
"Seventeen year old male suffering from head trauma, possible chest injuries," a voice shouted from the darkness, methodic and strong amidst the fog. "We're gonna need a C-spine and some O2 here."
The voice sounded close, but far away at the same time.
"Seventeen year old female, light head trauma, regaining consciousness," another voice called, closer than the last. "Honey, can you hear me?"
Lily fought to open her eyes, grateful that they seemed to be ready to stop resisting.
"She's awake!" the voice called as a light shone in her eyes. "Pupils are equal and responsive. Possible fracture to the left radius."
Lily squinted away from the penlight the unfamiliar man was shining at her face. Her head was killing her, and she just wanted to close her eyes and regain her composure.
"My name's Murphy," the man before her said, his breath fogging in the chilly air. "Can you tell me your name?"
"Lily Randall ," she croaked, trying to figure out why this strange man was standing over her.
Last she remembered she and Travis were driving, and...
"Travis!" she cried out, bolting upright and wincing.
"Whoa, now, lay back," Murphy said, lacing gentle hands on her shoulders. "We gotta get a collar on you, se how bad you're hurt."
"Hurt?" she mumbled, looking up with scared eyes. "But, Travis -"
"That your friend's name?" Murphy asked casually, strapping a C collar securely around her neck, focusing on his work.
Lily tried to nod, but the collar held her neck perfectly still. "Is he okay?"
"Let's focus on you right now, kiddo," Murphy said kindly, bending over to work below her line of sight.
"No!" she cried. "Travis!"
"Don't get excited," he said. "Your pal's doing okay."
Lily, disbelieving, rolled her eyes to her right, straining to see.
Travis wasn't in the seat, and for a moment her heart leapt into her throat. But upon further inspection, she could see why he was missing.
The paramedics had removed him from the seat and strapped him onto a backboard, his head secured in blocks, to make sure that if he was injured he could do no movement that would aggravate them, and worsen his state. There was an oxygen mask covering his mouth and nose, a heavy trail of blood leading from the side of his head down the side of his neck.
"Travis?" she said quietly.
"Don't let the blood scare you," Murphy said softly as he and another paramedic maneuvered her out of the car and lay her gently on a stretcher. "Head wounds might bleed a lot, but they're often not as serious as they look."
Lily shut her eyes tightly as the men strapped her in and felt the gentle motion as they wheeled it over to the ambulance. As they prepared to lift the stretcher into the vehicle, Lily allowed herself a look at the SUV they had been riding in.
The front end was wrapped around a wide tree, one headlight broken, and harmless pieces of safety glass from the broken windshield littered the pavement. The rest of the vehicle appeared untouched, aside from the doors hanging open, and it contrasted dramatically with the crushed front.
Lily whimpered, not out of pain, but out of the reality of the situation. They should have been killed... Travis was hurt, she hurt all over.
"Next time," Murphy said conversationally, climbing in next to her as his partner slammed the doors shut, "tell him to hit the deer."
"I don't know if he could," she smiled weakly. "He's a Buddhist."
Murphy smiled back, glad to see that the girl felt good enough to be joking with him.
"Where is Travis?" she asked, her eyes roaming around the interior.
"Headed the same place we are," he said briskly. "How does your arm feel?"
"My arm?" she asked, and as she did, she grew aware of a dull throbbing in her left arm. "It hurts a little."
"Well, it might be broken," he said, rustling through a medical bag. "You're going to have to get some X-Rays at the hospital, nothing major."
As he spoke, Murphy was applying a splint to the arm, which made the pain grow worse, and made Lily more aware of that pain.
"What about Travis?" she wanted to know, though.
"I don't know," the paramedic finally sighed.
Lily felt tears spring to her eyes. Whether it was the ever growing pain in her arm, or the uncertain fate of her friend, she couldn't decide.
***
Lily was tired, and mad, and worried all at once.
Tired because she had spent the last hour being shifted from a hallway to a rook, where her mom met her, tearful and anxious having heard the news in the middle of her shift, to the X-ray table, back to another room.
Mad because they kept poking her injured arm, kept telling her to hold still, keep it in a painful position so they could get the right angle on an X-ray.
Worried because no matter how many times she asked, no one would tell her about Travis.
She wanted to go home.
"Mom," she pleaded as her mother paced around the room in her scrubs. "You work here. Can't you make them tell you something?"
"Lily, honey, I'm sorry. I'll ask again once we get your results, but right now I'm more worried about my own child," her mother said, stopping at the foot of her bed.
"Miss Randall?" the doctor asked, appearing at the door with a knock on the frame. "I'm Dr. Gary."
"Hi," Lily said sullenly, glaring.
"Well," he said, placing her X-rays on the light on the wall. "It looks like you've got very minor stress fracture here. This is only a wet reading, so we'll have to sent the X-rays off to your doctor, have him look over it, make sure nothing more shows up. For now, we'll get you in a cast and you should be fine in a month or so."
Lily glared down at the splint on her arm.
"As for that head," the doctor said, "It's nothing to be worried about, but we would like to keep you overnight. Just as a safety measure."
This caught Lily's attention. "What? No!"
Her mother caught her frightened look. "It's okay, Lil...she's scared of hospitals."
"Am not!" Lily protested. "They're just...creepy."
Dr. Gary chuckled. "Well, don't you worry, we haven't lost a patient yet. We'll get someone in here right away to get that cast on."
"Wait!" Lily called as he started to leave. "My friend! Travis Strong, is he okay?"
Mrs Randall sighed. "I'll go get Marcy to get the supplies."
"Okay," Dr Gary said, watching her go.
"Well?" Lily demanded.
"I'm not at liberty to discuss his condition with anyone other than his parents or guardians," Dr. Gary said. "You should know that."
"I don't want you to discuss him with me," Lily cried. "Just tell me if he's okay!"
The doctor sighed. "He's alive. He's in good condition."
Lily let out a sigh of relief.
Dr. Gary turned to leave, then seemed to rethink it, turning around to face her. "You might want to talk to him when you get a chance."
Lily's face screwed up. "I always talk to him..."
"Talk to him," the doctor asked. "Ask him about - "
Before he could finish, Lily's mother and another woman walked in, carrying equipment, which they set on the edge of Lily's bed.
"I'll be back to check on you," Dr. Gary said, leaving Lily open-mouthed and a bit angry.
"Okay, let's see that arm," the woman, Marcy said cheerfully.
She gently removed the velcro straps of the splint and checked her arm.
"I think the swelling's gone down as much as it's going to," she said. "Try to hold your arm still, even if it hurts."
Lily complied, holding her arm out, gritting her teeth as the pain increased.
"Your mom told me you liked purple," Marcy said, turning around with cotton and rolls of purple material in her hands.
Her mother grabbed her arm at the elbow, helping her to keep it up while decreasing the pain only slightly. Marcy applied a layer of cotton to her arm and quickly went to work dipping the rolls of fiberglass in water and wrapping them around the cotton.
"'Kay," Marcy said, finishing the roll of purple fiberglass. "Now, you're going to feel it get warm, and then it's going to get really hard."
Lily nodded, still clenching her jaw.
Marcy brought over two pillows and her mother gently let Lily's arm rest on them.
"Now, you're going to need to keep it elevated for at least 24 hours," Marcy said, producing a sling. "Keep it on the pillows tonight, and wear this sling for a while."
Lily nodded, and kept nodding as Marcy went through the do's and don't's of wearing a cast. Do tell if your fingers turn blue or get numb, don't get it wet or rest it on a sharp surface, blah, blah, blah.
Lily thought she might scream in joy when they finally left her alone, even if it did mean that her long night in the hospital was about to begin. Her mother promised to stop in whenever she could as she finished her shift, and Lily was grateful.
***
The ibuprofen they had given her before did only so much to take away the pain, and it was keeping Lily awake. She wanted to sleep through the night, lessen the time she was actually aware of being stuck there, but so far, it wasn't happening.
Her face set in grim determination, Lily threw back the blankets and sat on the side of the bed, letting her head clear for a moment. She grabbed the sling and maneuvered it over her head with one arm, letting is come to rest across her chest and gently easing her arm inside.
She stood up, sucking in a breath as her bare feet hit the chilly linoleum. Cool air hit her back, bringing goose bumps to the area above the thin cotton pants and below where the gown was tied off. She shivered, and moved on.
Her plan made sense in her mind. Find Travis.
That was it.
In reality, it proved more difficult. She couldn't very well go and ask where Travis was. They would only make her go back to bed.
Lily sighed, peering around the door, checking that no pesky people were hanging in the hallway, ready to catch her in the act.
She crept out into the hall, her arm throbbing with renewed pain.
So Lily started the long, arduous, and probably illegal task of walking down the hallway, peering into room after room, looking for her friend. It was only after two old men, one woman with both legs in traction, a man coughing up something unpleasant that she found the right room.
She could make out Travis's form beneath the thin blankets, could see his face in the dim light spilling out of the open bathroom.
"Travis," she whispered, entering the room.
The cut that had bled so profusely before was neatly stitched and covered in gauze, surrounded by a light bruise. His left arm was secured in a splint much like the one she had recently had removed, and was tucked against his chest in a protective manner. His eyes were closed.
"Travis?" she tried again, taking another step closer.
That was when she saw...
She heard the doctor in her memory, telling her to ask him about something he didn't get the chance to explain.
She knew what he meant when she saw Travis's arm.
His right arm, the uninjured one, was covered in cuts. Some were healing, some fading into old scars, but the combination was shocking. These were not accidental. They were neat and precise, lined up and executed with intent.
He hadn't told her everything.
***
"Seventeen year old male suffering from head trauma, possible chest injuries," a voice shouted from the darkness, methodic and strong amidst the fog. "We're gonna need a C-spine and some O2 here."
The voice sounded close, but far away at the same time.
"Seventeen year old female, light head trauma, regaining consciousness," another voice called, closer than the last. "Honey, can you hear me?"
Lily fought to open her eyes, grateful that they seemed to be ready to stop resisting.
"She's awake!" the voice called as a light shone in her eyes. "Pupils are equal and responsive. Possible fracture to the left radius."
Lily squinted away from the penlight the unfamiliar man was shining at her face. Her head was killing her, and she just wanted to close her eyes and regain her composure.
"My name's Murphy," the man before her said, his breath fogging in the chilly air. "Can you tell me your name?"
"Lily Randall ," she croaked, trying to figure out why this strange man was standing over her.
Last she remembered she and Travis were driving, and...
"Travis!" she cried out, bolting upright and wincing.
"Whoa, now, lay back," Murphy said, lacing gentle hands on her shoulders. "We gotta get a collar on you, se how bad you're hurt."
"Hurt?" she mumbled, looking up with scared eyes. "But, Travis -"
"That your friend's name?" Murphy asked casually, strapping a C collar securely around her neck, focusing on his work.
Lily tried to nod, but the collar held her neck perfectly still. "Is he okay?"
"Let's focus on you right now, kiddo," Murphy said kindly, bending over to work below her line of sight.
"No!" she cried. "Travis!"
"Don't get excited," he said. "Your pal's doing okay."
Lily, disbelieving, rolled her eyes to her right, straining to see.
Travis wasn't in the seat, and for a moment her heart leapt into her throat. But upon further inspection, she could see why he was missing.
The paramedics had removed him from the seat and strapped him onto a backboard, his head secured in blocks, to make sure that if he was injured he could do no movement that would aggravate them, and worsen his state. There was an oxygen mask covering his mouth and nose, a heavy trail of blood leading from the side of his head down the side of his neck.
"Travis?" she said quietly.
"Don't let the blood scare you," Murphy said softly as he and another paramedic maneuvered her out of the car and lay her gently on a stretcher. "Head wounds might bleed a lot, but they're often not as serious as they look."
Lily shut her eyes tightly as the men strapped her in and felt the gentle motion as they wheeled it over to the ambulance. As they prepared to lift the stretcher into the vehicle, Lily allowed herself a look at the SUV they had been riding in.
The front end was wrapped around a wide tree, one headlight broken, and harmless pieces of safety glass from the broken windshield littered the pavement. The rest of the vehicle appeared untouched, aside from the doors hanging open, and it contrasted dramatically with the crushed front.
Lily whimpered, not out of pain, but out of the reality of the situation. They should have been killed... Travis was hurt, she hurt all over.
"Next time," Murphy said conversationally, climbing in next to her as his partner slammed the doors shut, "tell him to hit the deer."
"I don't know if he could," she smiled weakly. "He's a Buddhist."
Murphy smiled back, glad to see that the girl felt good enough to be joking with him.
"Where is Travis?" she asked, her eyes roaming around the interior.
"Headed the same place we are," he said briskly. "How does your arm feel?"
"My arm?" she asked, and as she did, she grew aware of a dull throbbing in her left arm. "It hurts a little."
"Well, it might be broken," he said, rustling through a medical bag. "You're going to have to get some X-Rays at the hospital, nothing major."
As he spoke, Murphy was applying a splint to the arm, which made the pain grow worse, and made Lily more aware of that pain.
"What about Travis?" she wanted to know, though.
"I don't know," the paramedic finally sighed.
Lily felt tears spring to her eyes. Whether it was the ever growing pain in her arm, or the uncertain fate of her friend, she couldn't decide.
***
Lily was tired, and mad, and worried all at once.
Tired because she had spent the last hour being shifted from a hallway to a rook, where her mom met her, tearful and anxious having heard the news in the middle of her shift, to the X-ray table, back to another room.
Mad because they kept poking her injured arm, kept telling her to hold still, keep it in a painful position so they could get the right angle on an X-ray.
Worried because no matter how many times she asked, no one would tell her about Travis.
She wanted to go home.
"Mom," she pleaded as her mother paced around the room in her scrubs. "You work here. Can't you make them tell you something?"
"Lily, honey, I'm sorry. I'll ask again once we get your results, but right now I'm more worried about my own child," her mother said, stopping at the foot of her bed.
"Miss Randall?" the doctor asked, appearing at the door with a knock on the frame. "I'm Dr. Gary."
"Hi," Lily said sullenly, glaring.
"Well," he said, placing her X-rays on the light on the wall. "It looks like you've got very minor stress fracture here. This is only a wet reading, so we'll have to sent the X-rays off to your doctor, have him look over it, make sure nothing more shows up. For now, we'll get you in a cast and you should be fine in a month or so."
Lily glared down at the splint on her arm.
"As for that head," the doctor said, "It's nothing to be worried about, but we would like to keep you overnight. Just as a safety measure."
This caught Lily's attention. "What? No!"
Her mother caught her frightened look. "It's okay, Lil...she's scared of hospitals."
"Am not!" Lily protested. "They're just...creepy."
Dr. Gary chuckled. "Well, don't you worry, we haven't lost a patient yet. We'll get someone in here right away to get that cast on."
"Wait!" Lily called as he started to leave. "My friend! Travis Strong, is he okay?"
Mrs Randall sighed. "I'll go get Marcy to get the supplies."
"Okay," Dr Gary said, watching her go.
"Well?" Lily demanded.
"I'm not at liberty to discuss his condition with anyone other than his parents or guardians," Dr. Gary said. "You should know that."
"I don't want you to discuss him with me," Lily cried. "Just tell me if he's okay!"
The doctor sighed. "He's alive. He's in good condition."
Lily let out a sigh of relief.
Dr. Gary turned to leave, then seemed to rethink it, turning around to face her. "You might want to talk to him when you get a chance."
Lily's face screwed up. "I always talk to him..."
"Talk to him," the doctor asked. "Ask him about - "
Before he could finish, Lily's mother and another woman walked in, carrying equipment, which they set on the edge of Lily's bed.
"I'll be back to check on you," Dr. Gary said, leaving Lily open-mouthed and a bit angry.
"Okay, let's see that arm," the woman, Marcy said cheerfully.
She gently removed the velcro straps of the splint and checked her arm.
"I think the swelling's gone down as much as it's going to," she said. "Try to hold your arm still, even if it hurts."
Lily complied, holding her arm out, gritting her teeth as the pain increased.
"Your mom told me you liked purple," Marcy said, turning around with cotton and rolls of purple material in her hands.
Her mother grabbed her arm at the elbow, helping her to keep it up while decreasing the pain only slightly. Marcy applied a layer of cotton to her arm and quickly went to work dipping the rolls of fiberglass in water and wrapping them around the cotton.
"'Kay," Marcy said, finishing the roll of purple fiberglass. "Now, you're going to feel it get warm, and then it's going to get really hard."
Lily nodded, still clenching her jaw.
Marcy brought over two pillows and her mother gently let Lily's arm rest on them.
"Now, you're going to need to keep it elevated for at least 24 hours," Marcy said, producing a sling. "Keep it on the pillows tonight, and wear this sling for a while."
Lily nodded, and kept nodding as Marcy went through the do's and don't's of wearing a cast. Do tell if your fingers turn blue or get numb, don't get it wet or rest it on a sharp surface, blah, blah, blah.
Lily thought she might scream in joy when they finally left her alone, even if it did mean that her long night in the hospital was about to begin. Her mother promised to stop in whenever she could as she finished her shift, and Lily was grateful.
***
The ibuprofen they had given her before did only so much to take away the pain, and it was keeping Lily awake. She wanted to sleep through the night, lessen the time she was actually aware of being stuck there, but so far, it wasn't happening.
Her face set in grim determination, Lily threw back the blankets and sat on the side of the bed, letting her head clear for a moment. She grabbed the sling and maneuvered it over her head with one arm, letting is come to rest across her chest and gently easing her arm inside.
She stood up, sucking in a breath as her bare feet hit the chilly linoleum. Cool air hit her back, bringing goose bumps to the area above the thin cotton pants and below where the gown was tied off. She shivered, and moved on.
Her plan made sense in her mind. Find Travis.
That was it.
In reality, it proved more difficult. She couldn't very well go and ask where Travis was. They would only make her go back to bed.
Lily sighed, peering around the door, checking that no pesky people were hanging in the hallway, ready to catch her in the act.
She crept out into the hall, her arm throbbing with renewed pain.
So Lily started the long, arduous, and probably illegal task of walking down the hallway, peering into room after room, looking for her friend. It was only after two old men, one woman with both legs in traction, a man coughing up something unpleasant that she found the right room.
She could make out Travis's form beneath the thin blankets, could see his face in the dim light spilling out of the open bathroom.
"Travis," she whispered, entering the room.
The cut that had bled so profusely before was neatly stitched and covered in gauze, surrounded by a light bruise. His left arm was secured in a splint much like the one she had recently had removed, and was tucked against his chest in a protective manner. His eyes were closed.
"Travis?" she tried again, taking another step closer.
That was when she saw...
She heard the doctor in her memory, telling her to ask him about something he didn't get the chance to explain.
She knew what he meant when she saw Travis's arm.
His right arm, the uninjured one, was covered in cuts. Some were healing, some fading into old scars, but the combination was shocking. These were not accidental. They were neat and precise, lined up and executed with intent.
He hadn't told her everything.