Chapter sixteen: Results
"Is she okay?" Annie asked she looked at the doctor impatiently.
"We don't know yet, we're trying to stabilize her," he said glancing up at her before looking down at his charts again. "Her blood tests show a high alcohol level, and she lost a lot of blood, being in the passenger seat when they swerved her side was hit by the oncoming car"
"What does that mean?" Eric asked squeezing Annie's hand.
"It means that she was hit from the side causing the door crush into her right side. She has a lot of broken bones and cuts from when the glass shattered." He paused. "There's a good chance she'll be okay" Annie sighed leaning her head against Eric's shoulder.
"Thank you," Eric said.
"But, she's not out of the woods once we've stabilized her we still have to see if she wakes up." He said. Eric nodded before shaking his hand and thanking him again.
"Why don't you sit down," Eric said ushering Annie over to a seat. She sat down next to Lucy. "I'm going to call the rest of the kids about Ruthie" Annie nodded. Lucy looked at the clock it was nearly midnight, knew this was going to be the longest night of her life. She glanced down at the twins and saw that they were fast asleep on the floor. Sprawled out the white linoleum tiles. Normally she would move them, saying that the floor was dirty but it was a hospital, you can't get much cleaner then a hospital floor. Lucy glanced up at Kevin who was pacing back and forth nervously, playing with his collar every time he turned.
"Kevin?" Lucy said finally. "Please sit down" Kevin nodded before taking a seat next to Lucy.
"I should have been on duty, maybe I would have seen her and stopped her, or maybe I could have—"
"Kevin, no one could have prevented this but Ruthie herself," Lucy sighed. Lucy looked at the floor and started rubbing at her eyes.
"You okay? Why don't you rest, were not going anyway," Kevin said.
"Thanks," Lucy said leaning against Kevin. He put his arm around her shoulder, and kissed her gently on her forehead.
Time went by slowly, and as Kevin watched the clock in the waiting room it felt like it said midnight for hours. Kevin sat there watching the hands move around the clock, listening to telecom paging doctors and wheels rolling down the hall. He was shaken by the sound of people talking and that's when he realized he'd drifted off. He got up carefully as to not wake Lucy who was sleeping in his lap. He saw Eric talking to the doctor.
"How is she?" Kevin asked. Eric looked at him with this look of heartache.
"They've stabilized her," Eric said softly. "Now we have to wait for her to wake up." Kevin gave Eric a hug.
"She'll be okay," Kevin said.
"I have to Annie the news, I hate to wake her though," Eric said. He walked over and gently shook his wife, who awakened quickly. Kevin watched silently as Eric told her the news. Kevin walked over and sat down next to Lucy again stroking her hair softly. Kevin turned on the television in the waiting room; he flipped to the local news channel and waited for them to show the story.
"Earlier this evening, there was a car crash on Willow drive. Two teenagers were speeding down the road, Michael Walberg reports from the scene at the time of the accident," A reporter says. A clip from the report earlier began to roll Kevin could see red lights flashing and a mangled black convertible in the background. For a few seconds Kevin could see Ruthie being wheeled into an ambulance behind the reporter.
"I'm here at Willow drive where a night of fun has turned fatal, the two teenagers were speeding down the road when they turned onto willow drive they collide with an oncoming car sending them into a tree. As you can see they have just gotten the passenger out and are taking her the hospital now, the driver wasn't as lucky. A 16-year-old boy, whose name has not been released yet, was killed, when he was sent through the windshield upon impact. The passenger was wearing her seatbelt, which may have saved her life, rumor's are circulating the two teenagers were on their way back from a party a few blocks down, and were driving intoxicated." Kevin looked at Eric and Annie who were watching with him. He stopped listening to the report and just sat there stunned. When the report was finished Kevin turned it off.
"Leave it on, in case they learn anything," Eric said. So Kevin turned it back o before getting up and taking a walk. Leaving Eric and Annie alone, since everyone else was sleeping.