Disclaimer: Don't own epitome, Degrassi or anything of that sort.
A/N: Another multi-chaptered story that will be picked up once I've at least made a dent in Fallen from Graceand Lost. Though this chapter is rather short, hopefullyit will intrigue you... If it does, feel free to review.
It was a frigid winter day, dry and bitter. Paige Michalchuk sat examining her nails, doing her best to hide the worried expression set on her face or continue crying, as she had been for the past few hours. Across from her, Jimmy Brookes was seated in his wheelchair, flipping furiously through an issue of Sports Illustrated, trying to focus on something as Craig Manning sat in a waiting room chair, staring stone faced at the floor, his arm around a familiar redhead.
Paige looked up from her nails to Ellie, who was currently lightly dozing on Craig's shoulder, dark circles around her eyes from a mixture of eyeliner and lack of sleep. This was probably the first time Ellie had slept since the accident, nearly thirteen hours ago. Paige had been alerted six hours ago, by a frantic-sounding Craig. She'd arrived twenty minutes later to find the same three people already seated in the waiting room.
They'd remained that way ever since.
Paige sighed; she'd been in this situation before, when Jimmy had been shot. It wasn't pleasant returning to it. There were only two things a person could do in this situation, wait, and keep checking on the condition of the patient. Paige decided to pursue the second option again, so she got up and dragged herself over to the counter.
"Any change, at all?… Or any news on h-him?" She questioned, having to sputter out the remainder of the sentence.
The nurse shook her head, glancing up at Paige for a split second before continuing to fill out the paper work. As Paige turned around to head back to her seat, the nurse called out to her.
"We need to notify his parents, if you'll tell me his home phone number, I'd appreciate it."
Paige paused, mid-step and turned around.
"T-they're out of town for the weekend… I don't know exactly where they went, he said they went to visit some pregnant distant cousin." Paige managed to blurt out in response.
The nurse let out a disappointed sigh and returned to the form she was working on. Paige rolled her eyes and would have laughed at the nurse's pathetic attempt to be important, had the circumstances not been so serious. So she sat back down in the cheap wooden chair and stared at the scuffed and worn floor below.
"No change, I take it."
Paige looked up from the floor to find Craig staring back at her.
"None."She muttered, her eyes darting to the napping redhead leaning on Craig's shoulder. "Maybe when she wakes up, we'll find out exactly what happened."
Craig glanced over at Ellie and nodded.
"Hopefully. She hasn't spoken a word since he was brought here…" His voice trailed off, so that the only sound in the waiting room was the soft sound of Jimmy flipping the magazine pages, desperate for a distraction. And the sound of Ellie breathing softly, the memory of the incident replaying in her head as she dozed.
Lights flashed. Lots of people hurried around in bright uniforms. Ellie sat on the curb of the street, blanket wrapped around her shoulders and a blank look in her eyes. Tears rolled down her cheeks as her eyes remained fixated on the scene being portrayed a few yards away.
A team of men huddled around something in the grass, murmuring hurriedly under their breaths. After several moments, the sounds of squeaking wheels filled the air and the men stood up, pushing a trolley towards an ambulance parked in the middle of the numbers of police cars. As the men loaded the cloth-covered figure, Ellie caught a glance of the figure. Though the blood, hair and breathing mask, she saw what she was dreading.
Marco.