Soccer is aggressive. Dawn knew this. She just hadn't expected it to land her in the hospital.
The game was neck in neck, five minutes left with the Buffalos having a one point advantage over their opponents. All Dawn had to do was make sure that the ball didn't pass through the net and they would win.
It was easier said than done. One of the opponents fired a ball at the net, Dawn reached out to catch it but another player ran into her at full speed and knocked her down. She fell back and a sharp pain exploded from the back of her head as her head hit the side of the goal post.
The whistle sounded as the ref called foul.
"Hey Dawn, are you ok?" someone asked, she couldn't tell who though, her mind felt fuzzy.
"Ye'h," she slurred, slowly getting to feet and trying not to feel nauseous.
Another whistle sounded and the game resumed.
"Honey, do you think Dawn is ok?" Anne asked once the game started up again, "That seemed like a hard hit."
"Yeah she's fine," Tom said, looking at his daughter, "Took that hit like a champ." A proud look dawned his face. Anne sighed but didn't say anything more.
The game ended with the Buffalos winning 4-3. The Harpers came up to congratulate the team and Dawn. "Good game sweetie," Anne said, giving her daughter a hug, "Especially after that tackle."
"What tackle?" Dicky asked.
"Yeah when did you get tackled?" Nicky asked.
"Did you guys even watch the game?" Tom asked, gesturing to the boys' phones, which had various TV shows and movies paused on them.
"You said that we had to come, you didn't say that we had to watch it," Ricky pointed out. Tom realized the loophole and mentally kicked himself, deciding not to say anymore.
"Well it doesn't matter anymore because your sister is fine," Anne said, "Right Dawn?" She didn't get a response and she turned toward her daughter, who was spaced out "Dawn?" she tapped the girl's shoulder.
"Huh?" Dawn said.
"Are you ok?" Anne immediately went into mom mode and placed the back of her head on Dawn's forehead, feeling for her temperature, it was normal.
"Yeah I'm fine," Dawn said, in actuality she wasn't. Her head still hurt and she felt nauseous, but she didn't want anyone to worry so she didn't say anything, "Let's just go home."
"Are you sure you don't want to go out to eat to celebrate?" Anne asked. Dawn simply shook her head.
The Harpers made their way home, though they did pick up some fast food for lunch. As soon as they got home all of them went their separate ways, Tom heading to the garage, Anne to her room, Ricky to his, Nicky and Dicky sat in the living room and Dawn immediately went to her room and laid down on her bed.
She turned off the light as it only made her headache worsen and tried to fall asleep. Key word: tried. No matter how hard she tried, sleep wouldn't come to her, leaving Dawn tossing and turning in pain and annoyance.
Living in a house with five other people didn't help. Her brothers' yelling, her dad doing something in the yard and her mom watching the TV very loudly in her room.
Dawn thought about telling someone about her headache but knew they'd probably just tell her to take some ibuprofen and lay down, even though she'd already done that.
Hours passed as Dawn laid in her bed. The sun had started to set and the house was still a cacophony of sounds and noise. "Dawn! Movie!" Her dad called at about 8:30. The girl groaned in response, knowing that it was going to be so loud and annoying.
But she got out of bed anyway and made her way downstairs to the living room, where the rest of her family was already waiting.
"Did you have a good nap Hun?" Anne asked. Dawn hummed in response, even though she hadn't slept a wink.
"That game must've worn you out," Tom said, "You're still in your uniform." Dawn looked down and suddenly noticed that she was still wearing the yellow long sleeve and back shorts she had worn during the game. Usually she would've taken a shower and changed but she was in too much pain to do anything besides let her hair down.
"Yeah I guess," Dawn mumbled, taking a seat on the furthest edge of the couch.
Dicky suddenly came bursting from the kitchen, "I've got snacks," he announced loudly, causing his sister to wince, but he didn't notice. He plopped down right night to Dawn with a giant bowl of popcorn and a big cup of soda.
"Dicky can you move?" Dawn asked.
"Oh yeah sure," he said, scooting an inch away. But Nicky and Ricky suddenly took the other spots on the couch, causing Dicky to move 2 more inches closer. Dawn rolled her eyes, realizing her pleas would be ignored.
Dicky had decided on the movie, which was an action movie, which meant it was loud and absolute torture for Dawn's headache, the constant whooping and cheers for her family also wasn't helping either.
During one big explosion, Ricky jumped and accidentally kicked over the big cup of soda. The contents spilled all over the floor but no one noticed, too interested by the movie. "Hey guys," Dawn said, trying to draw her family's attention to the spill, "Guys!" she tried a bit louder but still to no avail. With a sigh she rolled her eyes and decided to clean it up herself.
She went to the kitchen and grabbed the paper towels, she went to go back to the living room but her mind suddenly went fuzzy. What was she about to do? Why did she have paper towels in her hands? Why was there so much noise?
Dawn made her way back to the living room, feeling like she was on a ship, vision swimming and nausea hitting her in waves. Black spots danced in her vision as she steadied herself on the back of the couch.
"D..n. D..wn?" Was someone saying her name? She blinked slowly and tried to focus her vision, "Dawn?" Dawn looked up to see Nicky gazing at her concerned, "Are you ok?"
"No." is all she could say. She suddenly felt weak and collapsed to the ground, unconsciousness taking over her easily.
"Dawn!" Nicky exclaimed. The rest of the Harpers' attention snapped away from the movie and to their unconscious family member, laying on the floor.
Anne and Tom rushed to their daughter. "Dawn, baby, please wake up." Anne said, gently shaking her, but it didn't work, Tom tried a couple of times but again to no avail. "Tom, what do we do?' Anne asked, tears building up in her eyes.
"Hospital," is all the man said, rushing to grab his keys, "Boys get in the car." Nicky, Ricky, and Dicky did as they were told, fear gripping them tightly. Anne scooped up Dawn's limp body in her arms and carried her to the car, getting in the back and allowing Dawn to lay across the seats.
Ricky and Nicky sat in the middle, while Dicky sat upfront with his Dad, usually the boys would argue who would ride shotgun but the severity of the situation caused everyone to quickly settle in their spots. Tom quickly got in the car and headed to the hospital.
Anne laid her daughter's head in her lap, still trying to wake her up, longing to see her baby's eyes open again. Thank her lucky stars that Dawn's eyes slowly opened after a couple minutes of coaxing.
"Mom?" her speech came out slow and slurred. She tried to sit up but Anne wasn't having it and gently settled her back down, "What's going on?"
"It'll be ok baby," Anne brushed a stray hair out of Dawn's face. The girl nodded as her eyes slowly started to close again. "No, no, Dawn, sweetie, can you stay awake for me please?"
Dawn hummed in response but she did try to stay awake for a couple minutes as Anne, Ricky and Nicky tried to start some conversations, most died out as Dawn kept finding it harder and harder to form words.
"What's that smell," Dawn mumbled after a minute.
"What smell?" Anne asked, confused.
"Burning," Dawn said.
Anne's confusion only grew and a sinking feeling settled in her stomach as Dawn suddenly went unresponsive, eyes glassy. Suddenly her muscles seized up and eyes rolled back. "Dawn?" Anne said, concern and fear gripping her tightly.
A few seconds later is when things went to shit. The girl started to shake, violently, her muscles spasming uncontrollably. Anne placed her hands on her daughter's shoulder to stabilize her but it didn't work.
"What's happening?" Anne cried.
"A seizure," Ricky said, "We need to act fast." Anne nodded trying to not throw up. "Ok, so you need to turn her on her side."
Anne knew that she needed to move fast but seeing her little girl having a seizure in front of her, made her freeze. Dawn started making small choking sounds, as saliva started to clog up her throat, that kicked Anne into gear and she turned the girl on her side. The spit having an escape way.
Within a minute the spasm stopped, but there was something very wrong. "She's not breathing." Anne said in barely a whisper. The rhythmic rise and fall of the chest that Anne was used to seeing, no longer was functioning. It was still.
"Mom, you have to do CPR quickly," Ricky said, tears in his eyes. But Anne froze again, because Dawn wasn't breathing. Not breathing. "Mom! Please!" Ricky cried, "you have to move!" If she didn't his sister would…he didn't want to think about it. But with his mom not making a move, he took matters into his own hands.
The blonde boy unbuckled his seatbelt and climbed to the back seats. The sight of his mom frozen with fear and his sister unconscious and not breathing, would haunt him for a long time. But he quickly went into autopilot and began doing CPR, using all of his strength to do chest compressions.
He repeated it, for seconds, minutes, hours? He didn't know how long he tried to get his sister to breathe again, and luckily after a minute she did, while she did remain passed out, all he cared about was the fact that Dawn was breathing.
"Mom," he put a reassuring hand on her shoulder, "She is going to be ok." Though 'going to be ok' was an optimistic statement. But his mom didn't respond, still in shock that Dawn had stopped breathing.
Luckily Tom pulled into the parking lot of the Hospital a minute later. He haphazardly parked the car and all of the Harpers filed out, he carried his daughter into the hospital as Anne was still shaken up from the car ride
"Help! Please, My daughter needs help!" Tom called. A nurse quickly met up with the family and Dawn was carried away to a room as the family sat in the lobby.
The Harpers hated hospitals, this experience was going to make them hate them even more. "Is Dawn going to be ok?" Nicky asked.
Ricky looked at his brother, who was slightly shaking. The youngest quad had seen it all happen. Saw Dawn collapse at the house, saw her have a seizure, saw his mom freeze up, saw Ricky save the girl's life.
"I don't know," Ricky answered, looking down at the white linoleum floor. He felt bad that he wasn't able to confront his brother but he himself was scared. Scared that Dawn wouldn't be ok, that he would never again yell at her for hogging the remote, or being bossy. He just wanted to see her healthy again.
"I should've seen that something was wrong after the game," Tom said, "I was so stupid."
"It wasn't all your fault," Anne assured, "We all should have paid more attention."
"I shouldn't have picked such a loud movie," Dicky said, earning a comforting hug from his mom, again saying it wasn't his fault.
An hour later one of the nurses came out, "Harpers." The family was immediately alert and came rushing over, "Good news is that your daughter is stable," all of them breathed a sigh of relief, "It's a miracle you arrived when you did, an hour or two later…it could've been bad." That was a haunting thought.
"What happened?" Tom asked.
"A severe concussion and slight skull fracture," the nurse said. "But the doctors fixed it and she should be fine now."
"Can we see her?" Dicky asked.
The nurse gave the worried family a gentle smile," Of course." She led the Harpers to the room, where Dawn was lying in the hospital bed, hooked up to many machines and an IV in her arm. Good thing she was already passed out, or she would've fought tooth and nail at the sight of a needle.
The boys sat in the chairs next to their sister, they were quads after all and the thought of losing one of them crushed their hearts. Their parents encouraged them to get some sleep, which they reluctantly did.
At about 3 am, Dawn started to stir, Tom and Anne, the only ones awake, were there for her. The girl blearily looked around the room confused before her gaze settled on her parents. "Mom? Dad?" her voice was still slurring but it was probably due to the meds being pumped through her. Tom and Anne couldn't stop the tears from falling. Dawn's face scrunched up in confusion, the same face she would make when she was young, "Why are you crying? Don't cry."
It only made the parents cry harder. Anne placed her hand underneath her daughter's chin, gently caressing her cheek with the pad of her thumb, which Dawn leaned into.
"We love you Dawn," Tom said.
"Love you too," the girl responded, as the gentle caresses lulled her back to sleep. And with the knowledge that their daughter was going to be ok, Tom and Anne were able to relax and fall asleep.