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She grabbed my leg with her left hand again and begged, “Don’t leave me, please. Just carry me in there.”
God, her faith and trust in me overwhelmed me.
I opened the door, put my hand under her head, and slid my leg out from under her as I stepped out of the truck. I looked down at her and said, “Okay, I’ll try not to jostle you too much.”
Even saying it, I knew there was no way to get her out without causing her more pain. As I pulled her into my arms, she cried out, and fresh tears ran down her cheeks.
I looked down at her cradled against my chest. The rough sheet rubbed against the wounds there, reopening a few, causing them to bleed more. I wasn’t sure I could carry her or if she even wanted me to.
“Katie, are you sure you want me to carry you?”
She looked at me and said, “Jackson, honey, sit me down and go get someone. You’re injured, too. You shouldn’t be carrying me.”
Fuck that damn self-sacrificing shit. They fucking raped her. I’m not fucking leaving her.
I started walking because she was sacrificing what she needed for me. “Katie, I don’t care if they’d cut both my arms off. I’d find a way to carry you if you needed or wanted to be carried.”
Her chin was trembling when she whispered, “Thank you.”
She curled her arm around my neck, nestling her head under my chin. She clung to me as we entered the hospital. Not two feet in the doors, I heard someone cry out.
“Oh, my God! Margaret, we need a gurney and a chair. STAT!”
I turned toward the person who cried out to see them rushing towards us with several people running behind them with a gurney and a wheelchair. As the nurse in front stopped before us, she reached out to Katie.
Katie whimpered, “No,” and tightened her hold on my neck.
The bullet wound in my leg started burning again as her sudden movement forced me to put more pressure on it to keep from falling over.
The nurse attempted again, so I stepped back and said, “Don’t.”
“Sir, you need to let me help her. You need help, too, by the looks of things.” The nurse tried reasoning with me.
My whole body was on fire, burning from the strain of holding her and keeping myself upright. Seeing the gurney waiting there, I looked down at Katie and asked, “Katie, baby, can I put on the gurney?”
She nodded. So I stepped up to the side of the gurney and lowered her onto it. She whimpered in pain as her hip and shoulder made contact with the hard mattress. I tried to pull away only to have her clutch onto my shoulder, biting into some of the cuts, causing me to groan. She started crying again.
I brushed her hair back from her face to calm her. “Baby, it’s OK. I’m not going anywhere. I promise. I’m just going to sit in the wheelchair next to you, and these people will help us both, okay?”
I pulled the hand clutching my shoulder away and kissed it. I sat down in the wheelchair someone pushed up behind me.
As they pushed us back into the Emergency Department, the original nurse said, “Sir, we will need you to let go of her hand so we can examine you both.”
“I don’t fucking think so. She’s not leaving my sight. Understood?”
“Sir, please don’t make me call security.”
“You can call whomever you fucking want, lady, but she is not leaving my sight.”
The nurse waved at someone behind me, and the guy pushing my wheelchair started pushing me away from the gurney, and I snapped when Katie screamed. The sound chilled my soul.
I jumped up from the chair, toppling it over. Just as I grabbed at the gurney, someone grabbed me, and I started swinging until they all backed away. I looked at the nurse and growled, “Get your Medical Director in here now and point me to a room big enough for the both of us.”
“Everyone back off, now!”
Everyone just stood and stared at us until a doctor walked up in front of me, hands held out in front of him, and said, “Sir, I’m Dr. Mason Cole. I’m the ED Chief. You and I are going to push her gurney into the trauma bay, and then I am going to help you both, but you have to stay calm. You cannot go off like that again. Agreed?”
I took a deep breath. “Agreed.” I looked at him for a minute and then at the people helping a doctor and a security guard up off the floor. “I’m sorry, but I’m not leaving her. I promised.”
