Chapter
40
Nick choked back a sob as he watched the paramedics wheel
Sammy out of the house on a stretcher.
She had lost consciousness before they had arrived, and the flow of
blood that had poured out of the gaping bullet hole in her chest had increased
as the minutes passed. There was no
stopping it.
“Come on, Nick, let’s go to the hospital.” Nick felt a hand on his shoulder and looked
up to see his father, Bob, standing there.
Nick nodded numbly.
“Bob, I’m riding with Aaron in the other ambulance,” Nick
heard his mother, Jane, call to her husband.
Nick vaguely recalled that his little brother and Kevin had been injured
by Justin and would need to go to the hospital as well. But he figured they would be okay. It was only Sammy he was extremely concerned
about then. She meant the world to him;
he had realized that with his last brush with death. He had thought things would be okay, but now
he realized how wrong he was. The last
time something bad had happened, it had been he who was in her situation. It gave him hope to know that he had come out
of it so well. He could only pray that Sammy
would do the same.
As Bob guided Nick out of the house and to their car, Nick
caught a glance at the carpet where Sammy had been lying. It had once been a light shade of beige, but
now it was dark burgundy, stained with the crimson of Sammy’s blood. So much blood. The sight of that bloody carpet would
forever be imprinted onto Nick’s brain, there to remind him of that terrible
night for the rest of his life.
***
The ride to the hospital was a horrible one. Not everyone was going. Some of the guests at the party, mainly
family members, stayed behind.
Nick sat in the passenger side of his family’s van, gazing
absently out the window as his father drove.
BJ, Leslie, and Angel were sitting in the back. All of them were completely silent, worried
about their little brother, of course, but also about their older one and his
fiancée. It was horrible enough for
them to have witnessed what they did, and now, seeing poor Nick through all his
grief made it even harder. They all
liked Sammy a lot, and they knew how Nick loved her. Why, it would probably kill him if she didn’t
make it. They all wanted to be
optimistic about the situation, but they also had to be realistic and face the
hard truth: Sammy was in a critical
condition and very well could die. She
was now in the hands of a group of doctors… and most importantly, God.
***
I sat alone in the waiting room of the ER, just
waiting. Waiting to be called back to
an examining room myself so I could be checked over. Waiting for some word on how Brian was
doing. Waiting for Reynolds or any
other police officer to come, like Reynolds had promised. Waiting to see which one of my friends had
been hurt this time. In the past seven
years since the first incident, I had concluded one thing: waiting sucked.
Finally, part of my wait was over, as I spotted BJ Carter
enter the room. A mix of relief and
terror washed over me. I knew now was
the time when I would find out what had happened. As much as I wanted to know the truth, I was
terrified of hearing it. What if it was
worse than I had expected? What if
someone had died? Who was
it? What if it was Josh?
I said nothing to BJ, just looked up at her
expectantly. She didn’t even ask why I
was there, how I had found out about this.
I don’t even think it occurred to her.
Followed by BJ, Leslie and Angel came into the room. And then, Bob and Nick. My breath caught in my throat when I saw
Nick. I knew immediately that whoever
was hurt badly was someone close to him.
I quickly surveyed those of us in the room and realized three people
important to him were missing: Jane, Aaron, and Sammy. I knew that at least one of those three was
hurt… badly.
“Julie, he came,” BJ said softly, finally speaking.
“Who came?” I asked, but I already knew the answer.
“Justin,” she replied.
“He… he shot Sammy.”
I gasped, and I saw Nick wince at his sister’s words. He had sat down in a chair in the corner of
the room, near his father. He was
slouched down low in the chair, and his head was buried in his hands. He didn’t even look up.
“How bad?” I whispered.
Her blue eyes were wide.
“Bad,” she answered simply.
“She’s still alive, but it was bad.”
I didn’t ask for more details. Somehow, I knew I wouldn’t want to hear
them.
***
A few minutes later, a nurse came into the room. She was young, and I figured she was new,
since I had never seen her before.
Working in this hospital myself, I knew most of the staff, and she was a
new face.
“Julie Benton?” she called.
“That’s me,” I said, standing up.
“I’ll take you back to one of the exam rooms now, and a
doctor will be in to see you soon,” the nurse said, smiling kindly at me.
The Carter clan, and everyone else that had arrived, looked
at me strangely. I quickly explained
what had happened to Brian and I, which unfortunately just made them more
uneasy, knowing that Brian had been hurt too.
As the nurse led me to one of the exam rooms, I suddenly
realized Josh hadn’t come yet. Was he
all right? Sammy was the only one that
had been mentioned to me. I knew there
had been more injuries though, hopefully just not as serious as Sammy’s. Had he been one of them? Fear rushed through me. Surely someone would have told me if my own
husband had been hurt. I prayed that he
would show up soon, safe and sound.
I wanted him there
with me. Actually, I needed him
there. All this stress and worry was
taking its toll on me. I felt horrible,
emotionally and physically. My stomach
hurt something awful.
As I hoisted myself onto the exam table, a sudden,
unexpected pain shot through my stomach, and I let out a small cry of pain.
“Are you okay?” the nurse asked in alarm.
“Yeah, I think so,” I said slowly, as the pain faded
away. I wasn’t so sure anymore
though. Something was wrong.
“I’ll go get a doctor to come check you out right away,”
the nurse said and hurried off.
A few minutes, Dr. Hall, one of the resident doctors in the
ER, came into the room. “Hello, Julie,”
he said, offering me a concerned smile.
“Hi there,” I said, smiling back grimly.
“Can you tell me where you’ve been having pain?” he asked,
sitting down on a stool.
“Just in my stomach,” I said. “I thought maybe it was just all the stress
and worry before, but I’m not sure anymore.
I mean, it feels like contractions or something.” I gave a short little laugh, hoping he would
tell me that that was ridiculous, that there was no way I could be having
contractions already. But he didn’t
laugh, or even smile.
“I want a sonogram run right away,” he said.
I gasped softly.
“You don’t really think I could be going into labor, do you?” I asked.
“It could be,” he said.
“How many months along are you?”
“Only six,” I said.
“It could happen,” he said.
“It’s rare, but it could happen.”
“Oh, God,” I moaned.
“Do you think the accident could have triggered it?”
“It’s possible,” he said.
“All the physical and emotional stress of it. Or it could be natural. I can’t determine that. And I’m not even sure you’re actually having
contractions. It could be a false
alarm. I just need to run some tests to
find out, okay?”
I nodded.
“I’ll be right back,” Dr. Hall said, and exited the room,
leaving me lying there alone, an icy block of fear lodged in my stomach.
***
