Twilight and Shadow
by
Numb3rsfan
Chapter Four: Arrival at the Hospital
"CHRIS!"
That was the last thing young Chris remembered before everything went blank. He remembered seeing the look on his mom's face seconds before it became too dark to see anything. Chris also remembered Laurie being there...good old Laurie.
With a small groan Chris managed to open his eyes. He found himself lying on his side. His entire right side behind submerged in a cold, dark liquid. At least it was dark to his eyes because there was absolutely no sun light...or any light down there. From the smell of it the liquid wasn't water...or oil...it was something that was old, that was for sure but Chris couldn't place just what it was and he wasn't just about to taste test it either!
As his body began to wake up, so did the pain. His entire body was wracked with it. Even though he couldn't see his right leg, he could feel that it was bent at an angle that wasn't good. His right arm was badly bruised and hard to move but Chris didn't think that anything was actually broken.
When he tried to put weight on his left arm, so he could at least sit up he yelped and hissed with pain. Using his right hand he felt along his left arm until he found something bulging that was literally sticking out of his skin. Something was actually embedded in his arm! Okay that was so not good!
Looking up, he took a deep breath and yelled "MOM!" at the top of his voice. He paused, waited and listened for several seconds but didn't hear any reply, so he yelled again and kept yelling for what seemed like hours, but there was never any reply. It was then that he began to get worried. Images of his mother and siblings actually leaving him behind flooded his young mind. What was to stop them from leaving him? If they all thought he was dead or something then...
they were gone...they had to be. Chris was alone.
That feeling of loneliness crept over him then. More than anything Chris wished he was at home right then. Sitting on the edge of the couch, watching a movie with his sister Tracy; really the only member of the family that was actually close to his age. While he loved Danny, Laurie and Keith well...they were older and couldn't really relate to him and his likes and dislikes.
Slowly Chris felt his lip begin to quiver. Not in pain but in sadness. He was sad and lonely, not a good combination at all. He felt hot tears trickle down his cheeks; tears that he wished his mother would wipe away, but Shirley wasn't there; he was on his own.
Suddenly something slightly warm yet wet hit his arm where it almost immediately cooled. Looking up in to the darkness, Chris felt something similar hit his face not once but twice...three times...no four times. What was it? He felt the droplets hit his head, arms and shoulders but without a light he couldn't tell what they were. Then he remembered...the storm. His mother had mentioned a storm and now it was just beginning...oh great. If there rainfall was going to be real bad then it was possible that the well he had fallen in to would fill up and he would drown, and with his leg broken and his arm mostly out of commission...they was no way he could swim let alone tread water for very long.
Biting his lip, he took another deep breath and yelled at the top of his voice "MOM!"
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Young Tracy clung to Laurie who had her own arms wrapped around her younger sister. They had been riding in the back of the pickup truck for a good twenty minutes now and now they had just entered in to the city of San Pueblo; their home town. While the actual city outskirts weren't that familiar to the kids, once they hit Taft street then they would know where they were, but wherever the hell Taft street was from their location none of them had a clue.
Danny sat near the window that let him get a view in to the cab. He saw that Keith was still out and he was still sweating like bullets. He watched the paramedic check Keith's pulse every five minutes...almost on the dot! It was obvious that the paramedic was well trained because to Danny it certainly looked like the man knew what he was doing.
Once they hit the city limits however they picked up a police tail; the familiar sirens and bubble lights flashing red were seen as the police car pulled up behind the truck. At first Laurie thought the man was going to pull over but after a quick glance in she saw that the man had a CB radio and was using that to talk to the police officers. At first glance Laurie thought the officers weren't going to believe it, but when the police car pulled up along side the driver's side door they must have recognized the paramedic because they then pulled in front of the truck and effectively provided a police escort all the way to the San Peublo Memorial Hospital.
Upon arrival to the hospital, the paramedic pulled his truck in to the Emergency entrance which was normally for ambulances only, but Keith's situation was dire. The police officers who had more or less beaten him there had already contacted the hospital so two doctors, two nurses and a gurney were all set up and waiting when the truck came to a stop.
Danny, Laurie and Tracy hopped down out of the truck and watched as the doctors and nurses swarmed the passenger side of the truck. The two doctors immediately getting a set of vitals on Keith as well as issuing orders for scans, drawing blood and tests. Then they stepped back allowing two orderlies to actually get Keith out of the truck and on to the gurney before the small parade of men and woman in white rushed in to the hospital, pushing the gurney in front of them.
Danny, Laurie and Tracy followed along as did the paramedic who was explaining what he had done for his patient. When the doctors pushed Keith's gurney in to a treatment room, Danny, Laurie and Tracy tried to follow but the head nurse who was at the nurses station at the time, stopped them and as gently as she could, stated that they would have to wait outside of the treatment room.
At first the head nurse was just going to have them wait in the waiting room but something caused her to feel a little sorry for the children so she led each of them to the nurses lounge which was normally reserved for nurses, doctors and the paramedic units that operated out of the hospital. When the head nurse entered in to the lounge, she was grateful to find it empty; devoid of doctors and nurses.
"Take a seat." She said to the kids. Slowly and wordlessly the three children took seats around a circular chair.
Being mindful of their age, the head nurse went to the fridge and pulled out three soda's and handed them to the children before she fixed herself a cup of coffee and took it to the table as well; pulling up a chair and sitting down on Laurie's other side.
"Now..." the head nurse began with a sigh, but before she could even begin any sort of conversation, Laurie spoke up.
"Is my brother going to be alright?"
The head nurse looked up at her. It was a question she had heard since day one of working at that hospital and it was a question she knew that she was going to hear many, many more times in her career.
"Well, he's in the best possible hands right now. I can tell you that we will do everything we can for him. Now...how about a little introduction hmm? I'm Nurse Shannon and you are...?" Head Nurse Shannon Rainer prompted.
"Laurie...this is my younger sister Tracy and that's my brother Danny." Laurie said. She knew that Shannon was right; introductions were probably necessary in this case. Eying the nurse it was clear from the look on her face that she had heard of them before; honestly though, who in San Pueblo hadn't heard of them?
"Laurie...Tracy and Danny...so your older brother must be Keith right? You all must be the Partridge Family then. Where's your mother?" Nurse Shannon asked.
Ahh...where was their mother...yes that was the million dollar question wasn't it? Danny, Laurie and Tracy looked at each other, neither of them wanting to tell Shannon what had happened.
After a moment though, it was Tracy who told Shannon a little bit of what happened. She told her about Keith's injury, Laurie crashing the bus and then their subsequent decision to leave their mother on the bus because she had been in shock...and then after all of that did Tracy drop the biggest bomb shell...the news about Chris.
Upon learning of what happened to the youngest male sibling of the Partridge Family, Nurse Shannon understood why their mother had shut down the way she did. Guilt, sorrow and anguish would do that to anybody.
Smiling to try and keep the children calm, Nurse Shannon rose from her seat and went to the red phone that was attached to the wall.
"About where would you say the accident happened?" Nurse Shannon asked Laurie.
"Keith got bitten by that little river about 40...50 minutes outside of town. The bus crashed ten miles down the road from there." Laurie said. She then watched Shannon pick up the red phone and place it to her ear.
The conversation was short and sweet and while Laurie couldn't understand the medical gibberish she understood enough to know that the nurse had spoken with the doctor who was to get in touch with the fire and police departments.
When the nurse hung up the phone, she returned to the table and told them that the police and fire departments would go out to check on Shirley as well as try to find Chris because if there was any chance that he survived the fall then they had to take it.
Laurie, Tracy and Danny were grateful for everything the nurse had done; each of them thanking her with a smile and a nod of their heads. They were all glad that their mother was soon to be picked up, they just each hoped that she was or would snap out of it when the police and fire departments reached her.