I cup her head in my hands, they moisten as the tears fall down her cheeks. How can I change this? How can this become better? Her hands hold mine in place, and indication she's coming to her natural senses, that in the end everything will be okay. Her cheeks turn from pale to red in moments, and sobs gently role out of her slender figure. I pull her closer to me, and smell her perfume radiating off of her skin. I hold her tighter, but its as if I'm squeezing out more tears. She sniffles lightly and pulls away from my grasp. "Bridget?" I ask quietly. Trying not to break her even more. "Just don't okay?" She says shaking me away. She walks to the other side of the hospital room, and sits in an ugly green chair by the window. She picks at the shades and lets beams of light shine through. Gabe climbs onto her knee and starts to bounce up and down.
"Spencer..." She sobs. I don't know what to say, or what to do. I gently step around the hospital bed and kneel down in front of her. "Say it." I say simply putting my hand on her leg. "Say what?" She sniffles. "Say its going to be okay." she stays silent after this. Only hums from machines fill the vacant air. "But its not." She whisperes into the dead silence, and I'm almost positive, she's right.
~Earlier that week...~
After six rounds of wheels on the bus and two rounds of 99 bottles, the boys were all sleeping in the back. Caitlin had smoothly gotten closer to me in the van and had her head on my shoulder. I didn't mind. We stared at the blank open road, with miles to go it was already dark and we had been debating all day on whether or not we should make a B-line to the nearest hotel or make it home late. I had been leaning towards the go home side, so I could spend some more family time with them before I started my new job. Caitlin told me she needed to go home too, for Henry's sake. The boys all wanted to vacate further, at a hotel, but they were outnumbered by age.
So here we are, at midnight driving on a barren road which seems like in the middle of nowhere. I'm starting to feel we should've went to a hotel. "This is really boring." Caitlin whispered looking back at the boys. "Yeah, it is." I said quietly back. She scooched back over to her seat and threw a blanket on top of herself. I let out a yawn. "Think we should stop in the next area?" I asked as she let out a yawn. "Sure." She whispered, she blinked violently then threw the blanket off of herself. "What is it?" I asked startled. "I can't leave you up all alone. We won't hit another town for another hour or so." She said quietly.
I stared at her for a few moments. "Ya know. That's why I love you." I whispered. She put her hand on my leg and we continued to drive. We hit a town exactly an hour later, low and behold there was no hotel. "Should we just pull over and camp out in the car?" I asked. She looked at me. "I'd rather get home, or stay in a hotel, I don't want to sleep in the car. Please?" Caitlin responded. "Alrighty then." We pushed on through the town, it seemed dead, a ghostland.
Two hours later, we're not any closer to Sunset Valley, I took a wrong turn somewhere and had been going in the wrong direction the whole entire time. "Dammit." I mutter looking over the map, Caitlin looked over at me disaprovingly. This woman and cuss words, but instead of telling me not to do it again, or saying something about the kids she simply says "Pull over, let's camp out in the car. I don't want to drive and you can't drive much longer. It's okay. We'll start again in the morning." I look over at her and smile. "Alright." I whisper. I drive down a long stretch of hill, when the worst of all things happen.
A car quickly passes, sending the van in a shiver. Caitlin clutches her handle. "Crazy driver." She mutters under her breath. I recover from my miniature heart attack. "We are definitely pulling over with our next chance." I say breathing a bit deeper. "Deal." She says leaning back into her chair. We make it to to the top of the hill, time for the long winding stretch down. From atop you can see the whole town below, I believe its Twinbrook but I could be mistaken, I have no idea where we are.
Going down the hill was a hard task. It was a winding path, and the hill wasn't all merry and grass, it had jagged rocks pointing into the road. Near the shoulder there was a small patch of land, then it plumeted down about twenty feet into thick foliage. There isn't many people driving at this time of night, but slowly a few cars creep past.
At exactly 3:27 am I can faintly make out two headlights. They're coming at an incredible speed. I try to swerve into the other lane, but a car quickly honks as I tighten my grip on the steering wheel. I pull back into our lane. "What the hell?" Caitlin gasps. I let out a small laugh, theres a first for everything. My laugh quickly fades, as the headlights approach faster. "Matthew?" Caitlin asks straightening her back. Again I try to swerve into the other lane, but the headlights beat me to it. I swerve back into the other lane. The headlights blur into a semi.
"Matthew answer me!" Caitlin almost yells. I tighten my grip on the steering wheel. "Kermit, make sure your buckled and hold on tight, if anything happens I'm sorry." I whisper. She looks at me bewildered then her eyes flitter to the road. I see the connection she makes as she grips her seat. The last thing I know is her screaming, and the semi hitting us, head on.
~4:05 am. Site of accident~
Being called in the middle of the night to an accident is never a good thing. Neither is finding out there might not be any survivors. Sometimes being a cop is a fun exciting experience, other times, its just a load of shit. I step out of my cruiser to broken glass, and the smell of burnt tire. I quickly make out a six-teen wheeler tipped on its side and hanging off the edge dangerously. I see the EMT's wheel the man out of the smashed truck and into an ambulance. I jog towards them. The man seems aware and awake, a little damaged, but he'll make a full recovery.
I make it to them, one of the EMT's is my good friend. "Gary, fancy seeing you in the morning." He says nonchalantly, even though there has been an accident. "Hi, and uh-huh you know me in the morning." I say quietly. I stare down at the man, already I can smell the brandy and vodka on his breath. "Sir, are you up to answering some questions?" I ask stepping back from his stench. "Uhh, sure, I mean. Yeah." he answers stuttering and fumbling. "Sir have you been drinking tonight?" I ask trying to sound as masculine as possible, but honestly I'm sick of this.
Before he responds he knocks himself out by banging his head on the stretcher. "Gary, I think that's a yes." Frank says pointing. They shove that piece of shit into the back of the ambulance. "No kidding. He better hope nobody got hurt in this." I mutter under my breath. I wave goodbye to Frank and walk back to the broken glass with my flashlight.
The light beams off the glass shining it in my eyes, I have to blink twice to fully grasp it but its there. There's blood on the asphalt, that drunken man was not bleeding enough to produce this, another car was involved in this, not a deer. I make my way to the other cops. "There has to be another car." I say quickly. Two of the other cops roll their eyes and sip their coffee. I try my hardest not to smack them and make them look, but I'm not the captain, so I could never tell them what to do. I'm just the young cop, following everybody elses lead, but this time, this time is different.
I go over to the side of the road where the tipped semi lays and inspect the front. I can't make much of it in the morning light from the sun, but I can see the paint of another tan vehicle. I look around frantically, but there's no other car. Another cop walks over and pats my back "Man, there's no other people involved in this accident. Just an animal and a drunk man." He says quietly. I ignore him. "Someone else was involved in this, I swear I saw-" I started. "Listen to that!" I yelled.
The cop held his hand up to object but his jaw fell. In the faint distance, I heard screaming? "Matilda!" He shouted at the other cops, a woman appeared. "Listen." He barely whispered. Matilda sticks her hand behind her ear and listens. Her eyes widen as she hears the apparent screams. She leans into her walkie-talkie and mumbles something. She pats my back as she turns away. "Nice job Gary, you've just saved someones life." She says simply.
~5:00 am. Still at site of accident~
The group of us search members slowly scale down the hill. The screams become louder and more distressed. I bless my heart that its not a child in that car. "Mary?" A voice asks from behind me. I whip around almost beaming him with my flashlight. "My goodness! You scared me half to death Martin!" I tell him holding my hand to my heart. He gives me a small laugh. "My bad." He simply says. He passes by me and runs down the hill. I keep my pace and pray, I pray we find this other car.
A half an hour later, we come up with nothing. The screams are there, indefinitely, but a lot of searchers have given up hope and are starting to believe there all in their heads. I haven't given up. I know theres a child in there from those screams. "Martin?" I ask giggling as I come down to find Martin panting with his hands on his legs. "Running. Not. Good. Idea." He pants. I keep from laughing harder.
My vision goes away from him and to the muddy tire tracks. "Martin!" I scream with almost delight. "What?" He pants. I run following the tracks, and make it to a demolished, tipped, tan van or blazer. "We've found it!" I scream. I scale the car. I hold back my scream as I come across the side window spider webbed and stained with blood. "Martin?" I gasp. He comes from behind me. "Oh my god." He whispers. He holds onto the walkie-talkie in his hand. "We've got it. We've got the car. There's people inside, people, who might not be alive." He says it slowly and quietly, which makes silence pierce the air. I walk to the front of the car and peer at it.
The front is smashed all the way to the backseat. I can't make out anyone, when suddenly a little boys face from the back pops up. He's got tears in his eyes and is struggling to get out. "Hold on little guy!" I yell. Tears escape his eyes and stream down his face. He's stuck in his seatbelt. I run to the back of the car. Then I do, what the officers told us not to do one thousand times. I try opening the hatch. To my amazement it opens right up. I climb in over camping equipment and coolers and clutch the backseat.
Blood stains the seats, I can make out five boys, two teenagers, two children, and.. and a baby. Tears escape my eyes as I unstrap the boy from the seatbelt. The other's are all knocked out. "Come here honey." I say stretching my hands out. The boy comes to me willingly. "What happened?" He asks chokingly. "I don't know sweety." I say hugging him tightly. "Martin. Come here, take the kid." I say loudly. He walks over and I hand him the boy.
"What's your name?" He asks walking away from the car with the little one. "Brian." He says quietly. I quietly unstrap the other three older boys. When finally another group of rescuers and police men come up. "What are you doing?" The captain asks befuddled. "They couldn't just stay in there!" I scream at him. He calls into his walkie talkie as he sees the blood on my hands. "We're going to need EMT's a lot of them, bring stretchers.
~5:45 getting inside the car~
I stand behind them as they use the jaws of life on the mangled car. Five little one's have been taken out already, including an unresponsent baby. The EMT's have already rushed them up the hill. "Gary." The captain says planting a hand on my shoulder. "These people would've died if you weren't here." He says quietly. I try to fight back tears. "If it's no too late." I whisper.
Here's the thing. I'm a big baby when it comes to death, especially car accident related deaths, more specifically drunk driving accidents, such as this. It fills me with rage, and makes me answer the difficult question of why? My wife and first daughter were lost in an accident. That explains my hatred for accidents but the thing is, I hated them before.
The firefighters peel back the metal exterior of the car slowly, it reveals two people. A young man, and a young woman. They have to be at least five years younger than me even. The male is coated in blood, but from what I've researched it's not his, its the females. Their holding hands, and from what I can see, she's got an engagement ring. I swear if that drunken bastard killed them leaving their kids without a father or mother he's going to die a horrible death in prison.
They carefully take the woman out. Her hair is matted with blood, and she has a large gaping wound on her head. They stick her on a stretcher, her body points in all different directions because of her broken bones. I remember her from somewhere, but I can't put my finger on it. One of the EMT's check for a pulse, they angrily shake their head and begin to push their hands on her chest. They rip open her shirt and begin pressing down hard. Again they shake their heads, and start rushing up the hill. Two possibly down.
They strip back more metal and peel the man out gently. They lower him to the stretcher, his breathing is slowed as he cringes in pain. "He's alive." I smile a little smile. At least the kids will have a father. I really remember this fellow though. My brain quickly makes the connection. "That's Matthew Humphrey of Sunset Valley!" I yell running towards the captain. "Who?" He asks taking out a notepad and pen. Matilda joins his side. "Its Matthew Humphrey of Sunset Valley, he was recently discharged from the military due to a bomb injury, that must be Caitlin Murray, his fiance, she's doing that one challenge." I say quickly running out of breath.
The captain looks dumbfounded and unsure. He pulls out a phone and calls the station. After hanging up he looks me square in the face. "Gary my boy, I believe its about time someone gets promoted." He says quickly. I can't smile right now. I nod my head approvingly and press up the hill with the others. Matilda puts her hand on my back. "You've saved lives." She says politely then she backs away.
I don't follow the others to the station, I don't follow the firemen either, but I do follow the ambulance. I'm going to make sure these people all live through this.
~7:09 am. The hospital~
Once I made it to the hospital behind the ambulances they took the children out. They rushed the baby to the ICU, something told me that he was going to fight. The other four children stepped out of their ambulances, a few cuts and bruises but virtually unharmed. I went over to the two eldest ones. "Hello, my name is Gary Donovan, I'm with the police department. I just wanted to see if you were okay. And if you could call any close family members, or friends to pick you up to take care of you. Your mother is going to take a while to, uh, heal." I said trying to cram one thousand words into a single comprehensive sentence.
One of the boys looked at m. "We're part of a challenge. My brother and I will age up and take car of these two, our mother will be okay, I know Matt will make sure of it. As for Henry, I'm not sure." He looked at the others. "Just," He started, then he reached into his pocket and took out a piece of paper and a sharpie. "Can I have your number? To, uh, check o my mom?" He asked with tears burning his eyes. I quickly gave him my number. He almost fell apart and came into my arms hugging me. "My name's Dylan." He cried. I hugged him tightly. "Thank you for everything you've done." He said quietly. Then with a brothers intuition he turned around and put his hand on his brothers shoulder, and they all walked away.
A few minutes later I got a text message, call list it said. Bridget Jones-343-555-9820 and Cecilia Murray-343-555-1209 she might not answer but thats okay she doesn't really like my mom anyway. Thanks a bunch-the murray boys.. I smiled and quickly gave these people a call. After I got through one call to Bridget, and a vacant call to Cecilia I went home. Tonight I would have to come back to work, to another case, and I needed to rid my head of this nightmare.
~Current time~
I wheeled myself over to the side of her hospital bed. Her beautiful face had nasty bruises covering it, her lips were cracked and bloody. I choked out holding in my tears. "Caitlin." I whispered. I took her hand and held it in mine. "I'm so sorry." I whispered.
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