A/N: When it rains, it pours? Angst. Followed by more angst. Sorry not sorry.
Thank you for all the wonderful reviews! I wish I could reward you with more fluff...but this came out instead. (Blame my beta? She gave me the idea…)
Disclaimer: I own nothing, merely sharing my love of this family with all of you.
It was an accident. A later investigation, begun by Barnum, found the chalk the Wheeler siblings used changed suppliers and it wasn't as tactile as it should have been. No matter the cause, when Anne and W.D. performed their final trick of switching aerial hoops in mid-air their grip failed and both siblings fell to the ground-W.D. on his side, but Anne on her back.
Phillip watched in slow motion with confusion, then horror, as both missed their cues, grasping at anchors falling away from them, and then contorting into safety positions to cushion the fall. Except there was no cushion, only the blacktop of the docks covered in hay and sawdust for effect. W.D. contorted himself and his shoulder took the brunt of his fall, but Anne attempted to roll out of the fall to no avail: she landed on her back. The crowd was silent-the Wheelers were the highlight of the show and this was a show-stopping act, but when neither sibling moved and Phillip ran to Anne's side.
"Someone call an ambulance!" Barnum yelled as he ran to W.D.'s side, sliding slightly at his speed and the sawdust beneath his feet. The crowd became restless and vocal murmuring rippled through the stands; Charity, O'Malley, and Lettie began crowd control and ushered them out back and side doors with promises of refunds or tickets to other shows.
"Bellevue is sending two ambulances," Timothy said, coming into the ring. He glanced at Phillip hovering over Anne, and went over to Barnum. "Is there anything I can do to help?"
"I think I can stand," W.D. grunted, but with minimal support he was already sitting up. He held his arm close and he paled with pain, but he was up and Barnum was sure he wasn't about to collapse. "How's Anne?" he asked and Barnum glanced over his shoulder to see Phillip still hovering over Anne.
"The kid is with her," Barnum comforted, leaning the man against his side as W.D. caught his breath, "you just take care of yourself."
^v^v^
"I-I can't move," Anne sputtered from the ground, her eyes searching Phillip's, "I feel cold. Why do I feel cold?"
"Hey, hey, hey," Phillip shushed, one hand brushing the hair from her forehead while the other grasped her non-responsive quivering hand, "you're okay, baby."
"Why can't I get up?" Anne choked, her voice raising.
"You...you fell," Phillip answered hesitantly, pressing a kiss to her forehead and the skin beneath his lips was colder than normal.
"I've fallen before," she demanded, "and nothing happened. Why this time?"
"I don't know," Phillip answered the rhetorical question.
"I saw the ring," she continued as though he hadn't spoken, he eyes searching and finding the rings dangling above her, "it was right in front of me, but the release was wrong. My hands slipped."
"Where's the damn ambulance?" Phillip yelled over his shoulder, cracks in his emotional wall chipping away. As if on cue, the clopping of horse hooves and shouts of hospital paramedics and the circus workers directing them into the Big Top appeared.
"We're here from Bellevue," the lead paramedic said, "what happened?"
"They were performing an aerial trick," Charity answered, the tent finally empty of patrons. "They fell: W.D. landed on his shoulder and Anne landed on her back." The paramedic nodded and turned to his men and issued directions; two went over to W.D., already on his feet and wincing heavily, two went back to the ambulances outside, and two joined Phillip next to Anne.
"We can take it from here, sir," one of the paramedics interrupted, but Phillip didn't budge.
"I'm not leaving her," he warned, moving aside so they could do their job but not leaving her side. The paramedics only nodded and bent to begin care. Phillip watched as they began doing tests on her, talking in low voices back and forth and their worried tones made his heart sink. Before he could ask, their fellow paramedics arrived with a stretcher and loaded her onto it before walking her out to the waiting ambulance.
After confirming with the paramedics about where they were taking her, Phillip watched as the carriage rolled down the docks before heading back to the tent with one goal: changing to make it to the hospital. Nothing else mattered-he didn't let anything else matter.
^v^v^v^v^v^v^v^
Phillip, P.T., and Charity rushed into the hospital and towards the receptionist. The hospital wasn't busy for a Saturday afternoon but the line of three people they waited behind before speaking with the receptionist was painfully slow. Phillip bounced on the balls of his feet while P.T. crushed his hat in his hands and Charity white-knuckled her husband's arm.
"How may I help you?" the receptionist finally greeted with a smile.
"We're here for the ambulance brought in from the circus," Barnum explained and the receptionist nodded, flipping papers of the organized chaos on her desk.
"The ambulance arrived 20 minutes ago," she read from a sheet of paper extracted from a stack of files. "They are still in triage. If you will take a seat in the waiting room, I will inform a doctor you wish to speak with him."
It wasn't the worst news-he barely remembered being in triage, poked and prodded before unconsciousness took him, and it meant neither sibling were gravely injured. He mechanically followed Charity and P.T. to the waiting area, taking a seat in a corner and placing his coat over one knee, his hat on the other, and stoically not thinking about the reason he waited for a doctor to speak with them.
He replayed the event over and over again-Anne falling through the air, the ring swaying uselessly above her, the ground approaching dangerously fast, her initial contortion of impacting her side, then a last second change of an attempt to roll out of it, ending with her flat on her back and a cloud of sawdust and hay exploding around her. He could only watch in horror, finally moving after the fall and gasp from the audience.
He sat in the rehearsal dozens of times, his heart leaping every time they switched places, but out of the thousand times they practiced; it was perfect. Anne always laughed at his clenched fists when she stepped out of the ring; confident their new closer would thrill audiences for months to come if he was still affected after seeing it so many times. He would pull her close, turning the laugh into a smile with a kiss.
"Are you here for the Wheelers?" a nurse interrupted his thoughts and he looked up to see P.T. and Charity following the nurse, so he picked up his hat and coat and followed along. The nurse led to a staging area with several beds, two of which held the Wheeler siblings.
"Hello," a doctor met them before they could see Anne and W.D., "I'm Dr. Avery. You're here with Mr. and Ms. Wheeler?"
"Yes," Barnum answered, "they work for me."
"She's my fiancee," Phillip choked, trying his best not to break down in front of the doctor. The doctor put his hand on Phillip's arm and motioned to the hallway where they backtracked for privacy.
"As I'm sure you're aware, Mr. Wheeler is doing much better," Avery said, flipping the chart in his hand. "We sent for x-rays but we're fairly confident he has several broken ribs, a dislocated shoulder, and broken collarbone. The bones will take a while to set but he will heal and should have minimal adverse effects of the fall. Right now he is resting comfortably and you can see him in a moment."
"And Anne?" Charity asked, her hand settling comfortingly on his shoulder. The doctor sighed and Phillip's heart sank.
"Ms. Wheeler landed on her back. As advanced as our medicine is, there is still much we don't know about the spine. X-rays show swelling around the lower thoracic and lumbar. Initial tests show full range of motion in the cervical area but there's nothing we can do until the swelling reduces and we can see the full extent of her injuries. We've given her a relaxant to keep her from moving and she's resting comfortably but...I can't say for sure until the swelling goes down."
"Can I see her?" Phillip heard himself ask and the doctor nodded. Charity rested her hand on his shoulder and P.T. patted his back before the doctor led him to a bed near the back of the room. He saw Anne laying there, asleep but not asleep, and for the first time since the accident he broke down. Phillip dropped to his knees, his hat and coat abandoned on the bed and tumbling to the floor without care. He took her non-responsive hand in his and sobbed.
A/N 2: I have this covering 3 chapters, so there will be two more chapters covering this story line, and other 5 or 6 planned out. Some are angsty, I don't think nearly as angsty as this, but most are fun.
If there is an idea you guys want to see, let me know!
As always, if you feel the need to flame, please flame responsibly :)