Ty refused to let go of Amy's hand. When the paramedics finally arrived in the parking garage, he'd moved back as he was forced to give them room to take care of his wife, watching helpless and afraid that he was going to lose not only her, but their child as well. While they did a general assessment of Amy's condition before pulling out the stretcher to carefully move her onto it, Ty answered the questions being asked as accurately as he could in his dazed and panicked state. He watched as they fastened a breathing tube over her mouth and strapped her down, lifting her into the ambulance. Ty dived in after them and sat where he was instructed, reaching for Amy's limp hand that he hadn't released since.
The EMTs were forced to work around him, doing a more thorough assessment of Amy's injuries, focusing mostly on the gash to her head. Ty kept his mouth shut even though there were a million and one questions wanting to pour from his lips, but he couldn't even bring himself to speak or get his vocal cords to work. He just stared unblinking at Amy, willing her to open her eyes or squeeze his hand to let him know that she was still with him. She was alive at least, but the blow to her head knocked her out cold and there was no telling what else was going on in there yet. Ty knew how tricky head injuries were, having suffered a few himself over the years, but it was the fact that Amy had yet to come to that scared him.
The trip to the hospital was only a few minutes since it was only a few blocks away from the medical center, but with the traffic taking its good old time to make room for the bus, they were set back.
The ambulance came to a halt and almost immediately the rear doors were ripped open as doctors and nurses poured out of the emergency entrance to transfer Amy to the gurney. Ty climbed out with her, only letting go of her hand for those couple seconds before he was reaching for her again and rushing along with the medical staff through the sliding doors.
Everything was happening so fast Ty had no clue what was even really going on around him. There was so much medical lingo being tossed back and forth at such an alarming rate that he couldn't follow any of it and only caught an occasional familiar word. Ty just stared down at Amy's face, squeezing her hand until he was pulled away by a nurse who couldn't grant him access beyond that point.
"Someone will find you as soon as she's stabilized," the nurse assured him before leaving Ty to stare wide-eyed at the swinging double doors that Amy had disappeared behind.
Ty remained standing there looking through the tiny glass window and having no clue what to do. He needed to be back there with her in case she woke up. He couldn't stomach the thought of her waking to those medical personnel surrounding her, terrified and not understanding what was going on or where she was and why he wasn't with her.
Ty started to shake, his hands balling into fists at his sides in an attempt to maintain some bit of control as he looked away from those doors at his surroundings to get his bearings. He didn't know where he was supposed to go or how a doctor would find him, so he didn't move. Instead, Ty backed up to the nearest wall outside those forbidden doors and slid down to the floor, resting his forearms on his bent knees. Ty stared at his hands, watching them tremble uncontrollably and clasped them tightly together, bringing them up to rest against his forehead.
His body shook with silent dry sobs as he was once again left to face the possibility of a world without Amy in it. Before it hadn't been from such a devastating trauma, but rather stupid relationship drama that seemed so ridiculous and insignificant now when they looked back on it. All he could think about was how much time they'd wasted dancing around their feelings for one another - how much time he'd wasted waiting for the perfect opportunity to propose. He couldn't help but think if he'd have asked sooner, they'd have gotten married sooner, gotten pregnant sooner, and this would have been avoided because Amy wouldn't have been in that garage today, but somewhere else. He couldn't stand to think that this was his fault in so many ways and didn't know how he would ever be able to live with himself if anything happened to her, or the baby she carried.
Ty spent what felt like hours there on the floor, his head resting against his hands as he stared at the linoleum, unmoving. His body went numb and his mind soon to match when he'd exhausted his guilt for the time being. For a brief moment he thought about calling Jack to let him know what happened, but without knowing Amy's condition wouldn't have much else to give him. Either way it was going to be a very long drive from Heartland, but Ty still couldn't bring himself to move, let alone get up and search for his cell phone. Come to think of it, he wasn't entirely sure where it had gotten to, having lost pretty much all track of everything the moment he heard those screeching tires.
Footsteps on the floor had him lifting his head that felt like it was filled with lead, but the didn't come through the doors. For someone who seemed to wait an awful lot, he couldn't stand it. If Tim were here he'd be at the front desk demanding answers and for once Ty kind of wished he was here since it appeared all he was capable of doing was sitting there on the floor and waiting. Tim would probably call him useless if he were here, but at the moment that was exactly how Ty felt. He wanted answers but was in no position to demand them and would be wasting his breath if they couldn't be given.
Eventually, Ty stopped shaking and lifted his head. He became aware that he was sitting on a lump in his back pocket and slowly forced himself to move so he could pull his wallet out of his pocket. The floor wasn't comfortable to begin with, but the bulge there was making it worse. Leaning forward, Ty dropped the wallet onto the floor between his legs, staring down at the corner of the picture that slipped out on impact. A lump wedged itself in his throat as he looked at the grainy black and white corner, slowly reaching down to pull it out. He unfolded the sonogram picture of their baby from just a couple hours ago, staring down at the disfigured gray blob and felt the tears he previously managed to keep at bay start to burn his eyes and blur his vision. His heart was aching at the thought of them possibly losing that little blob just when they finally started settling in on the idea of being parents.
"Mr. Borden?" Ty jerked his head up at the doctor's voice, sniffing away his tears as he struggled to his feet to face the doctor.
"Is she alright?" Ty asked, his voice sounding shaky and foreign to him, but his stomach was twisting in knots waiting for the doctor to answer.
"She's stable and became alert for a few moments before we had to put her under anesthetic to tend to her injuries." He removed the clipboard from under his arm then to inform Ty of what those injuries were. "We were most worried about her head trauma but there was no swelling or bleeding to her brain, just a concussion and some stitches. She's going to have a pretty severe headache for a few days though. The car struck her right side which is where the most damage occurred. She has a couple broken ribs and a collapsed lung but no other vital organs were damaged."
Ty listened carefully to the doctor's report trying to get his mind to focus and make sense of all that he was telling him. "So, she'll be okay?" he asked, unable to definitively draw that conclusion himself.
"As with all things, time will heal. She's going to have to remain here for a couple days though just to make sure no other problems arise and until she's strong enough to make the journey home."
Ty was nodding, feeling the relief start to seep through until he realized then that the doctor said nothing about the baby. "What about the baby?" Ty asked quickly, looking at the doctor anxiously.
There was an unsettling pause as he studied Ty. "We couldn't save it. I'm sorry. Your wife was always our primary concern, without her the fetus had no chance at all, but the trauma to her abdominal area was too severe for it to have survived the collision. There was too much internal bleeding."
Ty felt his heart sink so deep into the pit of his stomach he felt as if he was going to pass out, feeling the blood drain from his face as he paled. "C-can I see her?" He needed to see her. To be with her. She was probably so scared and broken.
"She won't be conscious for a few hours, but you can see her." He than gave Ty directions to Amy's room, Ty bending down to swipe his wallet off of the floor before rushing to Amy's bedside.
There was a nurse in the room when he arrived, checking Amy's IV then looking up at Ty with a small sympathetic smile. "She's a fighter," she said quietly to Ty, reaching up to place her hand gently on his shoulder.
"I know," Ty replied, nodding to the nurse as she left him alone with his wife and the steady beeping of the heart monitor in the corner.
Ty crossed the room to the chair in the other corner, dragging it across the floor to sit next to Amy's bed. He immediately reached out to slide his hand into hers, turning it over so he could rub his thumb over the back as he assessed every inch of his wife. He could see the scratches and scrapes on her arms and face. There was a bandage around her head, a small stain of blood seeping through from her stitched up wound. A nasal cannula was attached to her face to help feed oxygen into her body, Ty following the thin tube down her chest until it disappeared and he was left to let his eyes trail down her fragile body, landing on her abdomen.
The air seized up in his lungs as pain surged through him looking at her belly that he'd just rested his head on this morning and know there was no longer a baby inside of it. His hand tightened in hers as he reached out with the other to place against her stomach, but quickly removing it when he remembered her broken ribs, not wanting to cause her any pain even if she couldn't feel it right now from being under anesthetic and pain killers. He took his hand back, instead folding it around Amy's with his other and smoothing his palm delicately along her forearm as he swallowed back the threat of tears that strained against his throat and stung his eyes.
"I'm so sorry, Amy," he whispered quietly, bringing her hand up gently to press his lips to her fingers, his shoulders beginning to shake with those agonizing sobs once more at the feel of her skin against his face. This time they didn't remain dry, tears starting to slide their way down his face.