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Maneuvering around the team checking Easton over, I find my way to the gurney side. The sight of him covered in blood has bile rising in my throat.
I’ve never seen so much of it in my life.
Wide, frightened eyes search the room until they find me, and then his chin trembles, a sure sign that he’s about to bawl before a long, hoarse cry bursts from him. Everything darkens as my world drops from its axis and fissures.
“Sir, you need to wait outside” the nurse I bypassed snaps at me.
“He’s the father,” the familiar voice of one of the other nurses calls over the order of the security for me to get out.
With a terse smile, Summer’s friend nods at me as she continues taking Easton’s vitals.
“Everything reads good on my end,” she tells the doctor still checking him over. “Oxygen sat is at ninety-six, heart rate is one thirty-one.”
“Great,” he tells her as he starts palpating around Easton’s abdomen. “Becca, we’re going to need an abdominal ultrasound, and I want you to have a CT on standby in case there are any head injuries.”
It’s not until he gets to his chest that East complains with a loud shriek. Swiftly, they cut his top off to show the bruising in the center of his ribs. The imprint of the car seat straps mar his upper body all the way to his shoulders.
At my gasp, Becca informs me, “The bruising is pretty normal for high-impact collisions. Means the car seat did its job.”
Slowly, the doctor loosens the neck brace, using one hand to stop Easton from turning his face toward me as he continues crying.
“Can we get an X-ray, please?” He points toward a machine hanging from the ceiling above us before taking the vest Becca hands him.
Easton screams as she ushers me out of the room. “It’ll only take a couple seconds. By Easton’s movements, I’d be surprised if there was any serious damage, but we want to be sure.”
“And Summer? Is she going to be okay? They won’t tell me anything…”
Concern tightens her normally easy features. She knows something.
“Please, I need to know that—”
“The bullet perforated a kidney, and she’s lost a lot of blood.”
Ice chills me from the inside out. “Is she going to be okay?” Oh God.
“I don’t know any more,” she tells me without a single whisper of a smile.
We’re about to head back to Easton when Miranda comes out of Summer’s room in inconsolable tears.
Fuck. Fuck…fuck…
Stopping in front of me, she drags in a deep breath before she whispers, “My girl.”
All the air whooshes from my lungs as she collapses into me, and a stampede of doctors and nurses burst from Summer’s room. The chaos of voices and noises is deafening. Orders are being thrown left, right, and center as I watch them wheel Summer toward the emergency elevator, leaving nothing but a trail of bloodied footprints and echoing silence in their wake.
“What’s happening?” I look down at Miranda, hoping that she can give me more answers.
“Her kidney ruptured,” she sobs. “They can’t stop the bleeding and…and…”
“What does that mean?” Finding Becca, I focus on her as she replies, “They’ll either try to repair the damage, or they’ll remove the kidney. Depends on the extent of the injuries.”
Before I can ask any more questions, she heads back inside Easton’s room, leaving me with Miranda weeping in my arms. All I can do is apologize. Over and over.
“I’m so sorry. I-I…”
“What do you have to be sorry for? You didn’t hurt her.” She cracks a faint smile with a body-wrenching hiccup. “How can I even begin to be mad when I know that she would do it all again to protect your little boy?”
“I should’ve done more to protect Summer… I should’ve done more to make sure that your baby was safe.”
