Ashalyn
didn’t know how long she sat there, cradling Mike’s limp body in her arms and
sobbing, but she did just that until she heard sirens approaching. She looked up from her tears to see two
ambulances and a police car pulling up.
She gently lay Mike down on the seat and scrambled towards her door to
get out of the car. The door was stuck
at first. She pushed against it as hard
as she could, and it suddenly flew open, causing her to stumble out of it,
nearly falling on her face. She quickly
regained her balance and hurried over to the policemen that were getting out of
the squad car.
“Miss,
are you okay?” one of them asked when she came running up to them, her face
streaked with tears.
She
nodded. “I am, but there are two people
in the car that are dead, and one’s unconscious,” she choked out, tears rising
again in her eyes.
One
police officer headed over to talk to the paramedics that were climbing out of
the ambulances, while the other officer gently put his arm on Ashalyn’s
shoulder and led her over to his car. He
let her sit on the trunk of it and then he asked her what had happened. She tearfully explained as best she
could.
A
few minutes later, she looked up to see the paramedics wheeling two stretchers
by. Ashalyn stifled a sob as she saw the
body bags on the stretchers. It was
Leighanne and Mike. The officer saw her
watching them and quickly tried to distract her from watching them by asking
her some more questions. Ashalyn tried
her best to pay attention to him and answer the questions, but seeing her
boyfriend in one of those horrible black body bags would haunt her for the rest
of her life.
Then,
two more paramedics wheeled another stretcher by. Brian was lying on this one. Ashalyn watched them load him into ambulance,
praying that at least he would survive.
***
Half
an hour later, Ashalyn sat in a waiting room at the local hospital, aimlessly
gazing into space. She felt completely
numb. The police officer had asked her
if she wanted him to call anyone to come be with her, and immediately, she had
given him Serena’s number.
A
few minutes later, the door flew open, and Serena burst in. “Ash!” she cried, running to her best friend
and pulling her into a hug. Ashalyn saw
that Serena had tears in her eyes. Her
hug felt good, and some of Ashalyn’s numbness wore off.
“Ash,
how is everyone?” Serena asked. “The
police called me, and they wouldn’t tell me anything, just that you can gotten
into a car accident and that you were fine, but that you wanted me to meet you
here.”
“M…
Mike’s dead,” Ashalyn said, beginning to sob.
Serena gasped and pulled Ashalyn close to her. Ashalyn lay her head on Serena’s shoulder and
wept, as Serena gently rubbed her back, trying to soothe her. “And Leigh’s dead too,” Ashalyn added a few
minutes later.
“Oh,
my God,” Serena whispered. “What about
Brian?” She was almost afraid to hear the answer.
“I
don’t know,” Ashalyn said softly. “As
far as I know, he’s alive, but no one’s telling me anything.”
“Oh,
Ash,” Serena said, hugging her tighter.
Ashalyn hugged Serena back, feeling comfort in her friend’s arms.
***
A
few minutes later, Serena called Jenna and Elyssa, who in turn promised to call
AJ, Nick, and Howie.
The
five of them arrived together less than ten minutes after that. Serena and Ashalyn still had not heard
anything on Brian and were getting more and more worried as the time passed by.
The
seven of them sat together, gripping each other’s hands, but not speaking, for
the situation they were in was too horrible for words. Two people were already dead, and they just
kept praying that there would not be a third.
***
Finally,
after close to forty-five minutes of waiting, a young male doctor entered the
waiting room and approached their group.
“Hi
there, I’m Dr. Stamper. Are you all with
Brian Littrell?” he asked. They all
nodded, anxiously awaiting what he had to tell them. “Ok then.
I’ve got some good news for you.
Brian is doing just fine.” The
seven of them sighed with relief. “He
must have hit his head on the steering wheel during the crash, and that’s what
knocked him unconscious. He has a minor
concussion from this. Also, he has a few
bruised ribs from the impact of the steering wheel and his shoulder belt, but
those will heal shortly. Other than
that, he just has some bruising and cuts, but nothing serious. He came out of this very well,” Dr. Stamper
explained.
“Thank
God someone else did,” Ashalyn whispered.
She looked up at the doctor. “Do
you know where the other two were taken?” she asked softly.
“The
other two?” Dr. Stamper asked.
“Brian’s
wife and my boyfriend were killed in the crash. They died on the scene,” she
replied, struggling to hold back her tears as she said those horrible words.
“Oh. I’m sorry,” Dr. Stamper said
sympathetically. “They wouldn’t be here
though. I’m sure they’ve been taken to
the morgue.”
Ashalyn
nodded sadly. “Thanks,” she
whispered. Serena, who was sitting next
to her, gently wrapped an arm around Ashalyn’s shoulders.
“Well,
if there are no questions, I need to get back to work,” Dr. Stamper said. “If you’d like to see Mr. Littrell, he is in
room number 117. We’ll keep him here overnight,
but he should be released by tomorrow night, if everything goes well.”
“Thank
you,” said Howie, shaking the doctor’s hand.
They watched Dr. Stamper leave the room and then stood.
“Well,
guys, should we go see him?” AJ asked.
“Yeah,
let’s go,” Nick said quickly. They could
tell Nick was anxious to see Brian, whom he’d been very worried about.
***