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STONE
“Dr. O’Leary, there’s been an accident in the parking lot.” The emergency that had taken us away from Meadow and Gibson wasn’t an emergency, but it was Mr. Bell again. This time, his appendix burst, and it was turned over to a surgeon on duty.
“Bridget Hogue is with them now. She witnessed it.”
She says Bridget and my mind races, and I’m out of the ER before the charge nurse tells me more, with one command.
“Don’t tell Charis.” She’s doing discharge papers for Mr. Bell, releasing him to the OR on my orders. My mind doesn’t get any farther, when the three minutes it takes me to get to the scene, Bridget is on the ground giving CPR to a small body, wearing a bright pink coat. My entire world stops, staring at Bridget, her twins screaming from the car, three more nurses behind.
“Move Bridget’s car and call Dr. Hogue. Stay with her kids,” I command of the one nurse.
“Stone, she’s not breathing!” Bridget is screaming.
My attention is on the other body on the road, not moving. “Stone, I’ve not gotten to Gibson yet. I haven’t checked!” She’s still screaming as the other nurse takes over for Bridget.
“Teach.” I feel for a pulse. It’s faint, so very faint, but I can’t start compressions on him, not when he still has a pulse. “Where are the fucking gurneys?” I scream, my eyes averted to the other nurse working on Meadow.
“I got her back. I got a pulse.” Oh, thank fuck, and I can barely move. I’ve been trained for every scenario, but this, reviving my girlfriend’s daughter and watching my boyfriend barely breathe, there’s nothing that could have prepared me for this.
“Meadow, Meadow.” The cries of Charis are heard as soon as she spies the familiar bright pink coat still on her little girl.
I want to ask what’s happened, because Teach is around children all day, he’d not be so negligent.
“Stone, it was Jimmy. It was his car, and he sped up as he hit them both.” Bridget’s words are still frantic.
I thought nothing could prepare me for what’s happening in front of me, as Charis throws herself on the cement next to her daughter.
“We have a faint pulse, honey,” the nurse who’d revived her explains.
More of our staff run out with gurneys and backboards. We roll Meadow first and transfer her to a gurney, doing the same with Gibson.
“Hold on there, Teach.”
“Meadow?” he asks faintly.
“She has a pulse.” It’s like he stays awake enough to know Meadow is safe for now. Then he loses all consciousness.
* * *
Simon isin the ER before we wheel Meadow and Gibson in. He’s cool, collected. Everything I’m not in the moment. He shares a quick stare with his wife and takes over for me with Meadow.
“Dr. Lee is a minute away,” the charge nurse calls out. This must have been Simon’s call when he’d been contacted about the emergency. He understood I’d not be able to take care of Gibson or Meadow, not with Charis in the state she’s in.
Bridget barely has Charis contained in the nurses’ lounge. The minute I open the door, she runs into my arms. “Why aren’t you with her, or Gibson?”
“Simon thought I was too close to all of this.” He’s not wrong, but it’s not my child fighting for his life in the other room. I don’t know if I could be rational. Who the hell am I kidding? I can’t be rational now.
“You’re the best, Stone.”
“Charis, honey, he’s not wrong.” This is Bridget.
Charis clutches for me tight and long. Her tears and cries not stopping. “She stopped breathing; she didn’t have a pulse. She was dead…”
“Charis, love, we got her back. Don’t concentrate on the worst. Concentrate on the fact that she’s breathing.”
Her body pulls away from me, just enough to stare at Bridget. “Bridge, what happened?”
Bridget and I exchange looks, and I shake my head. Charis can’t take this now.
