This chapter seemed to take forever, so I'm sorry that it's not my best. But anyway, here's an update and it's not as far in between as they have been, so be happy about that!
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Julius came to the hospital as soon as he found out; he burst through the door to see the whole team in the waiting room. Everyone had on somber faces Sunshine had his head in his hands and Coach Yoast and Gerry's mother were crying.
Coach Boone walked up to him.
"He ain't alright? He alright?" Julius asked in a voice that was a higher pitch than that of his normal voice.
"He's umm," started Coach Boone.
"How's he doing?" Julius asked. He still didn't know that Madison had been in the car.
"Not too good, not too good," said Coach Boone.
"No, how's he doing? How bad is it?" whispered Julius.
"He's paralyzed from the waist down," said Coach Boone, "And Madison was in the car with him."
"How's she doing?" he asked.
"She's still unconscious, but the doctors think she'll be fine, she'll just have a severe concussion" said the older man.
"Don't say that to me," said Julius, it was all too much for him.
"I'm sorry, Mrs. Bertier, I'm sorry, I'm sorry," he said, looking from her to Coach Yoast.
"He doesn't want to see anyone but you, Julius," she said.
"Yes, ma'am," Julius replied, crying.
"You're strong," whispered Mrs. Bertier, "Those tears aren't going to make my boy walk again."
Julius walked to Gerry's room and noticed that there was a curtain dividing the room in half and it was slightly pushed back. He saw the nurse in there, standing over Gerry.
"Only kin is allowed in here," she said.
"Alice," said Gerry, "You blind? Don't you see the family resemblance? That's my brother."
"Alright," said Alice softly before pushing back the curtain some more to tend to the other patient.
As he walked closer inside Julius saw that the other patient was a brunette girl, he realized that it was Maddie.
Gerry lifted his fist.
"Oh man," muttered Julius.
"If you think I look banged up you should se my car," he joked. Then he turned serious, "I just hope Maddie is going to be ok, she hasn't woken up yet," he said motioning to the curtain.
"I sure am sorry man, I should have been there with you," Julius said. "I'm stronger than Maddie, I wouldn't be lying there in that bed, it is my fault she's hurt."
"What are you talking about, it's not your fault," Gerry said.
"And you. You can't be hurt like this," said Julius, "You…you're Superman."
Gerry started to cry, "I was afraid of you Julius, I only saw what I was afraid of. And now I know I was only hating my brother."
Madison started to open her eyes a little, but they didn't notice.
"I'll tell you what though, when all this is over, me and you are going to move out to the same neighborhood together. Ok and um, we're going to get old, and fat. It ain't always going to be all this black and white between us," Julius said, fighting back some tears.
"Left side," Gerry whispered.
"Strong side," said Julius.
When Madison opened her eyes fully and didn't recognize where she was, she freaked out a little bit, thrashing against the bed. "What happened, where am I?" she said crying.
"Maddie," said Gerry, "I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. You're in the hospital, we…we got in a car accident."
She was crying harder, "My head hurts, I want my Daddy. Where's Sunshine? I promised I would go over to his house tonight."
Julius walked over to her, squeezing her hand, "They're all outside waiting on you to wake up, and you need to calm down. I'll go get the nurse and your Dad."
When the nurse came, she was moved into a separate room.
Then her father came into the new room.
"Daddy," moaned Madison, "When can I go home?"
"The doctor said he wants to keep you here over night to make sure everything is ok. You hit your head pretty hard," he said.
"I'm not staying here tonight, I promised Sunshine I would go over to his house and listen to some music and maybe watch a movie. I never break a promise," she said.
"Baby, Sunshine is outside, he'll understand. The most important thing for you to do is get some sleep," he said. "Do you want me to stay here the night? I need to find a sitter for Cheryl."
"No, you stay with her. I'll be fine," she said.
"Ok sweetie," he said, planting a kiss on her forehead, "I'll go outside so they can send Sunshine in."
When Sunshine walked in, he was holding a stuffed teddy bear. "I brought this for you," he said, handing it to her.
"Thank you," she said and patted the side of her bed for him to sit down.
"I was really worried about you, you know. You were out for at least twenty minutes," he said, taking her hand into his and stroking the top of it with his thumb.
"I'm sorry that I had to break our date," she said.
"It's alright," he said, "I'm just glad you're ok. Is Coach staying here tonight with you?" he asked.
"No. I told him to go home to Cheryl, she's probably fit to be tied," Maddie said looking up at him.
"Do you want me to stay?" he asked, barely above a whisper.
"I can't ask you to do that Ronnie, you just played a hard game, you need to go get some sleep in a comfortable bed," she said, bringing up her hand to cup his cheek.
"Maddie… I want to stay; I want to make sure that everything is going to be all right. You scared me tonight, like I've never been scared before," he said.
"You can stay if you want to, but don't feel like you have to, I mean I won't be alone, Gerry is here," she said, motioning to the other occupant of the room.
"I'm staying, I'm sure your father will feel better to know that someone is staying too," he said, "Do you need anything? Are you hungry?" he asked.
"I'm always hungry," she joked, "But they're not supposed to let you bring in any outside food to us."
Sunshine smiled, "But you've forgotten one thing."
"Oh yeah, what is that?" she asked.
"I can charm the pants off of anyone," he grinned. "So what do you want? The usual? Double cheeseburger, fries, and a Coke?"
"Yeah, that'd be great. Will you bring in the same for Gerry? I mean, if you can manage it," she said.
"Not a problem," he said, "Is there anyone you'd like me to send in?"
She looked at him, "Alan."
Alan walked in, "I thought we were the Three Musketeers," he joked. "And now you go and do this without me, now I see where I stand in this relationship."
"Oh Alan," Maddie laughed, "Thank you for making me laugh. I needed it."
Alan took a seat on Madison's bed, "So String Bean, how are you feeling?"
"I'm ok; my head hurts really bad though. It probably looks worse than it actually is," she said.
"Yeah," he said. "I think you should make up a better story to tell people though, like you nearly got trampled by an elephant or stopped a robbery or something," he joked.
"What about Gerry, how's Gerry? I asked the nurse but she wouldn't tell me," she said seriously.
"Maddie, he…it's bad Maddie, really bad," he said.
He watched as her eyes welled up with tears, "What's wrong, tell me! He's awake, he's fine," she said.
"Maddie, he's paralyzed from the waist down, he can't use his legs anymore," he said.
The tears in her eyes finally started to fall, "No, the doctor is wrong. This is Gerry we're talking about, he never gets hurt."
Alan just wrapped her in a hug, rubbing her back, "But he's alive, that's all that matters. He's alive and you're alive."
"It should have been me," she cried, "Football is Gerry's life… what is he going to do now?"
"Don't say that, Maddie. Besides, if you had been driving you would have been killed, you're not as strong as he is. They have Olympics for people in wheelchairs. Gerry can be an Olympic Athlete," Alan said.
Then Sunshine walked back through the door, food in hand.
"What's wrong?" he asked.
Maddie looked up at him, tears in her eyes, "It's Gerry, he's… he's paralyzed."
Sunshine ran his hand through his hair, "But he was moving when I went in there."
"It's only from the waist down," said Alan.
"He can't walk," Maddie sniffled.
"Well I think we should go see him," said Sunshine.
"But they told me not to leave this room," said Maddie.
"I'll distract the younger nurse, you get her in there," said Alan.
Once the plan was in place Alan went up to the nurse's station and started flirting heavily with the new nurse. Then Sunshine eased Maddie into a wheelchair (under her strong protests that she could walk) and wheeled her into Gerry's room. Then Sunshine came back out and made some excuse to the young nurse to get Alan back to Gerry's room.
"Hey Gerry," said Maddie softly, putting her hand on top of his.
"Hey Maddie, I'm really sorry about all this," he said.
"Oh Gerry, it's not your fault, sometimes these things just happen," she forced a smile. "I had Sunshine bring you the Maddie special."
Gerry offered a sad smile, "Thanks, I hate hospital food."
It was awkward in the room, to say the least.
But leave it to Alan to lighten the mood. He looked at Sunshine, "So when are you going to ask permission so that you can propose? Because you know, not only do you have to ask Coach, but you have to ask us too."
Maddie felt her eyes bug out of her head and her face turn about a billion different shades of red.
Sunshine tried to play it cool, but his breath caught in his throat and he nearly choked.
Gerry laughed at their stunned faces.
Once everyone heard his laugh, they knew everything was going to be okay. Gerry had one of those infectious laughs, soon they were all laughing. Then that pesky older nurse came down the hall and saw all of them.
She eyed Maddie, "Young lady, you need to get back to your room. And young men, if you're not staying then you need to leave, and if you are staying you need to quiet down."
Maddie kissed Gerry on the cheek, "I'll see you later, okay?" Then she gave Alan a hug.
"What, no kiss for me? There you go again, leaving me out," he joked.
She giggled and kissed him on the cheek before moving over to Sunshine and waving a final goodbye. She held Sunshine's hand as they walked back across the hall to her room.
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