Chapter 5

"We came to watch you play. We watched you play. Now we're leaving."

Cameron, Jenn, and I sat there playing with our forks and pretending not to be paying any attention as Dennis, Sam, and Beth argued in hushed tones a few feet away. They'd been subtly doing this ever since we'd entered the restaurant, but as soon as Sam had started in earnest, Dennis had pulled him away from the table.

I wasn't one hundred percent sure what was going on, but it seemed that Sam wanted to leave, and Dennis didn't want him to. I wondered if it had anything to do with Dennis not wanting me to be the only guest left in his house for their last night. He probably wanted the others to distract me while he and Cameron had their own little party.

After a minute or two of whispered insults, Sam finally got his way. "Come on, Jenn, we'll take you back to your place on our way home," he said when he came back to the table to collect his things. Then he slapped some money down on the table. "Wouldn't want to owe you anything," he said in a rather nasty tone to his brother.

Jenn seemed uncomfortable with all of the tension around her, so she quietly rose to her feet and went over to Cameron to give her a quick hug. "It was great seeing you again, Allison," she said. "Call me sometime, okay?"

Cameron smiled and nodded. "Yeah, I will. It was great seeing you, too."

Then Jenn turned to me. "Nice meeting you, Greg," she said politely.

"You, too," I said. I think I actually meant it.

A minute later, our little group had been cut in half. I tried to catch Cameron's eye to gauge how she was feeling about it all, but she kept her face turned away from me.

Away from me, but towards Dennis. This was really starting to get on my last nerve.

"Well, it seems to have stopped raining," Dennis said as he glanced out the window. "I guess we can have that walk along Cape Island Creek after all."

Oh, goodie.

I, unlike Sam, had no problem with Dennis footing the bill, so once he'd paid for the meal, the three of us left the restaurant and returned to the limo. Sam must have taken a cab back to the house. Part of me wished I'd gone with him.

"If you want, Greg, we can drop you off at the house first," Dennis offered oh so nicely.

Suddenly, I no longer wished I'd gone back with Sam. "No, that's fine," I said, forcing a small smile. "I love walking." Which was true, even though it wasn't exactly the reason I wanted to go along.

Still, I knew not to push my limits. Once the limo had pulled up beside the creek, I allowed Cameron and Dennis to get out first and lingered behind as we started out. Just as long as I could keep an eye on the two of them, I was a-ok.

Despite the rain showers of the morning and early afternoon, it had turned into a beautiful day - not too hot, not too cold, not to sunny, not too cloudy. I allowed myself to look around and enjoy the landscape as I walked along, even though my mind was going a million miles an hour as I pondered just about every subject under the sun.

I wasn't too immersed in my own thoughts to keep tabs on Cameron and Dennis, though. They were walking far enough ahead that I couldn't quite make out what they were saying, but close enough that I could still hear their voices. They seemed to be having quite a serious discussion. I was itching with curiosity to know what they were talking about, but I held myself back. No sense in pissing Cameron off even more than she already was. I knew I'd have to work with her afterwards, and that just wouldn't be pretty.

I'd never seen Cape Island Creek before, and while in some ways it was just another mini river, we were walking along quite a lovely stretch of it. For this reason, after a while I found myself watching the flowing water pass me by. And for that reason, I missed the start of what happened next.

My attention was drawn back to Cameron and Dennis at what sounded like a cry of distress. There didn't seem to be anything wrong at first - Dennis had a piece of paper in one hand and a pen in the other, and seemed to be doodling something as he walked. I just rolled my eyes and looked back at the water below. No doubt he was showing off again.

When I looked back at them a moment later, Dennis was holding the paper high above his head, and Cameron was trying to grab it away from him. At first I thought they were just playing around, but as I drew closer I could see that Cameron was serious. Whatever was going on, she looked mad.

Dennis dodged away from her as she lunged for him, but he wasn't fast enough. She ripped the paper out of his fist and crumpled it up.

"Stop it!" I heard her snap at him.

Dennis just laughed and shook his head. He tried to grab the paper back, but Cameron backed away from him.

I didn't see in time what was happening. I saw her backing away, but I thought she knew how close she was to the edge of the bank. Now that I look back on it, I probably had enough time to warn her, but I just froze. Everything started to happen in slow motion, and I couldn't do a damn thing to stop it.

Dennis lunged for her one more time, and Cameron lost her footing. She disappeared over the edge.

"No!" I cried as she screamed. I moved as fast as I could to get over there, which really wasn't very fast at all. Still, a lot could have been done in those few seconds. Dennis, however, never moved a muscle.

"She... she..." he stammered as I came up beside him. "Allie?"

One glance over the edge of the bank and I could tell we were in trouble. It was at least twelve feet down to the water. We didn't have a moment to lose.

I slapped Dennis on the shoulder, probably a little harder than I needed to. "Go for help," I said, scanning the length of the bank to see if there was an easier spot to go down.

He seemed to snap out of his stupor then and grabbed me by the arm. "Wait... shouldn't I go down there? You won't be able to..."

"I'm the doctor, you're the one who can run," I said. "Do the math. Go!" I didn't wait for a response from him. I turned my back on him and hurried over to the spot with the gentlest slope.

"Oh God," I whispered as I saw what I was going to have to do. I could see Cameron now, half of her body submerged in the water and the other half lying limp against the rocks. I could see red all around her, but I couldn't tell where the blood was coming from. She looked dead. God, she looked dead.

The sound of Dennis running back the way we'd come shook some sense back into me. She wasn't dead. Of course she wasn't dead. From the looks of things, though, the tide was coming in and the water level was rising. If I didn't get her out of there, no matter what her other injuries were, she would drown. So, I scrounged up as much courage as I could find, dropped my cane, and started down the hill.

It wasn't easy. I'm sure I don't need to tell you that running down a steep hill with only one good leg is hard as hell, but if I'm being completely honest, I didn't even notice the pain in my thigh. All I could think about was that Cameron was dying down there, and if I didn't get to her within the next thirty seconds, I would lose the most important person in my life. I wasn't about to let that happen.

"Cameron?" I called out as I reached the bottom and started wading through the water towards her. I could see her face, as she was lying on her stomach with it turned in my direction, but her eyes were closed. "Dammit!" I cursed as I stumbled on a small rock and felt a shooting pain through my right leg. I didn't have time for this now. Cameron needed me.

Ignoring the pain, I kept on going until I was right beside her. The water was already lapping around her face, but I was afraid to move her just yet in case of a spinal injury. I knelt down beside her as best I could and pressed my fingers to her neck.

Thank God, she had a pulse. I finally felt as though I could breathe again.

I gave her a quick once-over to make sure she was okay to be moved. Not that I could tell for sure in a situation like this, but I really couldn't afford to play it safe this time. I stood up with one leg on either side of her, carefully scooped her up with one hand under each of her arms, and dragged her forward until she was out of the water.

Once I felt she was out of harm's way as far as the rising tide was concerned, I eased her back down to the ground and collapsed beside her. I hadn't felt as much pain in my leg since detoxing from the Vicodin, but I still didn't have time to think about that. Cameron was bleeding, and I had to figure out where.

I gently rolled her over onto her back, and that's when I saw the ugly gash in her forehead. As my eyes scanned the rest of her body, I saw that her shoulder was bleeding, too, and her leg looked like it was broken and was bleeding from a deep gash in her thigh. I didn't hesitate a second in ripping strips off my shirt to temporarily dress the wounds. I had plenty of shirts - Cameron only had so much blood.

As I was seeing to her leg, however, Cameron suddenly jerked and cried out in pain. I was hovering over her in an instant. "Cameron?"

She cracked her eyes open, but she couldn't seem to focus on anything. She obviously had a concussion, but that was no surprise. After a second or so, she moaned and closed her eyes again.

"Oh no," I said, taking her face in my hand. "No, you don't. Stay with me, Cameron. Come on."

"Ca... move," she slurred.

"You're hurt. Help is on the way, so just hang in there, okay?"

Her eyes started to flutter closed again, and for a second I thought she'd stopped breathing. It scared the crap out of me.

"No, Allison," I said, patting her face to wake her up again. "You stay with me, do you understand?" When she didn't respond, I just about panicked. I grabbed her face with both hands, not even feeling the pain anymore as I knelt there beside her. "Dammit, Allison, wake up!" I ordered. I could hear the fear in my voice, and that only scared me even more.

When her eyelids flickered again, I felt like dancing a jig. I settled for smiling. "Hey," I said as she squinted up at me.

She blinked, and then her eyes started to roll back into her head again.

"No, Allison, stay with me now," I said, more gently this time. "Help will be here any second, okay? I need you to focus on me. Can you do that?"

She seemed to be trying, but she was losing the battle. I could see that the makeshift bandages I'd applied were becoming soaked with blood, and her colour was getting worse by the second. If help didn't arrive soon...

Suddenly, all I could think about was that this might be the last time I'd get to talk to her. I'm a doctor - I knew that she shouldn't have survived that fall onto all these rocks in the first place, let alone be conscious and looking up at me now. The conversation we'd had in the hallway days before came back to haunt me as I watched her slipping away, and all I could think about was what I hadn't said. What I should have said. What I would have said had it not been for my stubbornness and pride, and the way I always lock my emotions away like they're something to be ashamed of.

So, I said it.

"I love you."

Once the words were out of my mouth, I wondered why they'd ever been hard for me to say in the first place. A second later, though, I realized that she was looking up at me with those big, sad blue eyes, like she was expecting me to say something more.

"Don't die on me, okay?" I said, feeling more self-conscious than I'd felt in years. "Just hold on until help arrives."

Her eyes remained fixed on me, but she seemed totally out of it. I strained my ears to hear whether or not someone was coming, but didn't hear anything but the rushing of the water behind me.

I just about jumped out of my skin when I felt something move against my side. I looked down to see that Cameron was trying to lift her hand, and I quickly shifted position a little so I could take it in my own. I gave her an encouraging smile and squeezed her hand gently. "It's gonna be okay," I said, more to console myself than her.

If only I could make myself believe it.

To be continued...