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Once he’d prayed for the Lord to take him so he could be with his wife and daughter again. But it hadn’t been his time. Was God going to take him now? Just when he’d found Rachel? He didn’t want to leave Rachel and Joey, but he didn’t have the strength to fight anymore.
“Take me home, Lord,” he whispered. “I’m ready to come home.”
* * *
“Nick!” Rachel tried not to panic as she stripped away his coat so she could look at his arm. Not that she would be able to see much in the darkness.
“Is Nick going to die?” Joey asked, his voice trembling with fear.
“Not if I can help it,” she muttered. Nick’s jacket wouldn’t come off and she soon realized he’d tied a string around the upper part of his left arm in an attempt to stop the bleeding.
“No, God wants me home....” he muttered, weakly pushing her hands away.
Rachel couldn’t believe Nick was just going to give up. She remembered him mentioning his wife and daughter were up in heaven. Was he willing to give up his life in order to be with them again? Didn’t she and Joey mean anything to him?
Maybe not, but that was too bad. She wasn’t ready to let him go. She untied the string and yanked the jacket sleeve off. His blood-soaked sweatshirt confirmed her worst fears.
He was hit badly, far worse than he’d let on.
Working quickly, she felt for the worst part of the injury, trying not to wince when her fingers sank into the open wound. Once she’d found it, she retied the string around his arm above the injured area. What else could she use to stop the bleeding? She shrugged out of her coat, took off her sweatshirt and then put her coat back on. Using the sleeve of her sweatshirt, figuring it was cleaner than the hood, she balled it up and pressed it against the gouged area across Nick’s biceps.
“Come on, Nick. Help me out here,” she urged as she leaned all her weight against him, hoping to slow the blood loss. But Nick didn’t move, didn’t so much as flutter an eyelash.
“Wake up, Nick,” Joey said, shaking Nick’s other arm. “You have to wake up!”
The sounds of sirens grew louder. “Hang in there, Nick. The ambulance is almost here!”
Still, Nick didn’t respond, not even when the ambulance and the firefighters arrived. Two paramedics came over to help Nick while the rest of the firefighters headed in with a huge water truck to the wooded area to douse the fire.
“He’s lost a lot of blood,” Rachel cautioned, when the two paramedics nudged her aside.
“Let’s get an IV in, stat!” the female paramedic said curtly.
“I’ve got it,” the younger man replied. “Fluids wide open until we can get the O neg blood flowing.”
“His blood pressure is low—I’ll get the packed red blood cells out of the ambulance,” the woman continued. She darted away and returned with a small cooler less than two minutes later. She quickly opened the cooler and took out what looked like packages of blood.
Rachel kept Joey close to her side as they watched the two paramedics work on Nick. Once they had the blood infusing into his veins, they brought over a gurney and began to strap him securely onto it.
“Could we go with you? Please?” Rachel asked, stepping forward. “Our car has been tampered with and we don’t have a ride out of here. There’s also a man who tried to kill us still back in the woods.”
The two paramedics grimaced. “I’m sorry, but that’s against the rules,” the younger man said.
“Besides, the police will want to talk to you, especially if there’s still a threat here in the area,” the female paramedic added kindly. “We’re taking him to Madison General Hospital and I’m sure one of the officers will give you a ride.”
Her heart sank, but she also knew they were right. She had little choice but to stand there with her arm around Joey and watch as they bundled Nick into the ambulance.
“Do you think God will listen if we pray for Nick?” Joey asked, after the paramedic jumped into the driver’s seat, started the engine and pulled out onto the highway.
She gathered him close and nodded. “Absolutely, Joey,” she responded. “Dear Lord, we ask You to please keep Nick safe in Your care. Amen.”
“Amen,” Joey echoed.
Tears burned her eyes as she realized that no matter what happened moving forward, her son was going to be hurt by Nick’s leaving. Because he already cared about Nick, already saw him as some sort of surrogate father.
