"Come on Rachel, wake up! Your okay, it's going to be okay." Joe whisper/yelled to me. Slowly regaining consciousness, I realized that I was lying in a rather large pile of snow with three very familiar boys kneeling around me. Three very familiar boys who each wore worried expressions. "What hap-" was all I could manage before the it started. Slowly but surely, the sharp, throbbing pain in my leg increased until I could barely breathe without wincing.
"Oh God Rachel, are you okay?" Joe asked, a look of panic crossing his handsome features before he was able to control his facial expression again. Clearly he knew something that I didn't want to, and he wasn't going to let on and get me panicked also. "No!" I nearly cried. "What happened to my leg?" Kevin glanced at Nick who in turn glanced at Joe. "Nothing serious," Joe said without looking me in the eye. Oh no, this was bad. "It hurts" I complained. "We can get to the church it's only a few houses down" Kevin said looking at Joe. "Yeah, go and tell Dad what happened we'll be there in a minute" Joe said. Kevin took off towards the church to get Paul. The pain was getting worse now and it felt like my right leg was turned at an odd angle. I tried to move it just a little to test it but when I did I cried out in pain, scaring Joe to death and causing Nick to fall back onto his butt in the snow.
"Okay," Joe said "Nick, hold her leg still while I lift her." Nick tentatively wrapped his hands around my leg and I cringed at the pain in caused. This didn't go unseen by Joe who shot a death glare at Nick. "God Rachel, I'm so sorry," Nick said looking pleadingly at me "this is all my fault, I should have been on that sled with you, I could have saved you!" "It's alright Nick," I answered through my teeth, any movement caused me pain now, "it wasn't your fault, it was mine." "No it-," Nick started but Joe cut him off. "We need to get her to the church NOW."
"I thought you said it was nothing serious?" I said, agitated. "This is going to hurt, are you ready?" Joe asked me ignoring my previous question. "Yes." I answered tentatively. "Okay." He said picking me up gently while Nick held my leg steady. He was right, I did hurt, and I made that known by starting to cry. "No! Don't cry Rachel!" Joe nearly shouted at me "Shhhh, it's going to be okay! I'm here; you're going to be okay."
He repeated this little mantra all the way to the church while I buried my face into his chest and cried. When we got to the church Paul was waiting for us with blankets and an EMS. Joe carefully loaded me into the back of the waiting ambulance the climbed in next to me, never letting go of my hand. "It's all going to be okay Rachel," Joe said, and somehow, I knew it would.