Chapter
12
The
three guys hurried out of the room and headed down the hall to see their friend. The four girls lagged behind. They weren’t sure if it would be acceptable
for them to visit Brian, considering they had only known him for a few months. Ashalyn knew how hard it was going to be once
he found out that Leighanne was dead.
But somehow, she felt she should be there when he got the news. After all, she had been through the same
thing, only Mike had died right there in her arms. Leighanne had died instantly in the
crash. Still, Ashalyn felt that maybe
she and Brian could offer comfort to each other, knowing that they were feeling
the same kind of pain.
As
they walked down the hall, a few feet behind the guys, Ashalyn ran ahead of the
girls to catch up with AJ, Howie, and Nick.
“Guys,
um… if Brian’s awake, do you think I could go in with you guys first?” she
asked timidly. “I mean, he probably
doesn’t know yet about… about Leigh… and I just thought since I’ve been through
kind of the… same thing… I thought maybe I could help comfort him a little,”
she stammered.
Howie
smiled sympathetically. “Sure you can,
Ash,” he said softly. “In fact, maybe
you should go in by yourself and break the news to him. I’m not sure he would want us all there.”
“Really?”
Ashalyn asked.
“Like
you said yourself, you understand what he’s going through the best,” Howie
reasoned. “Go on in and explain to him
what happened and let him let out some of his emotions. I know how upset he’ll be, and I’m not sure
he would want us all to see him like that.”
Ashalyn
nodded. “Ok, if you’re sure,” she said
uncertainly.
Howie
nodded. “Go on in, right guys?” AJ and Nick nodded.
“Ok,”
Ashalyn said. She took a shaky breath
and pushed the door slowly open. Then
she hesitantly entered the room, gently shutting the door behind her.
Brian
lay on the hospital bed in the middle of the private room, the head of the bed
slightly elevated, propping him up a bit.
His head was bandaged, and he had an IV threaded into the inside of his
right elbow, but other than that, he didn’t look bad, compared to all the
horrible things Ashalyn had seen earlier that night.
At
first glance, Ashalyn thought he was asleep, for his eyes were closed, and she
quickly started to back towards the door, uncomfortable being alone in that
room. But then, his eyes fluttered open,
and he looked up at her.
“Ash?”
he whispered, focusing on her and raising his head up.
Ashalyn
forced a smile and stepped back over to his bed. “Hey, Brian,” she said softly, pulling a
chair up to his bed.
“What
happened?” Brian asked.
“We
were in a car accident,” Ashalyn told him grimly.
“The
truck,” Brian murmured. “It was in the
wrong lane.”
“Yeah,”
Ashalyn replied. “It hit your car.”
“Is
everyone else okay?” Brian asked. It
occurred to Ashalyn then by the way he asked the question that he had no idea
how bad the crash had been.
She
took a deep breath, not wanting to say the words that would just crush him, yet
knowing she couldn’t stall. “No,” she
whispered and saw the look of panic that flashed across his face. “Mike and Leighanne are dead.”
His
face paled several shades, and his eyes shut.
For a moment, Ashalyn feared he had passed out from the shock of
it. But then, he slowly opened his eyes
again, and Ashalyn saw tears glistening in their blue depths. His hand went to his face, covering his eyes,
and she saw his shoulders begin to shake as he silently cried.
Without
words, Ashalyn got up from her chair and perched next to him on the bed. She gently lay her hand on his shoulder and
lightly squeezed it. “Brian, you may not
want to hear this now, but I do know what you’re going through. Mike died in my arms, right in the backseat,”
she whispered.
He
looked up at her, his eyes filled with pain.
“I’m sorry,” he whispered. “Was
he in a lot of pain?”
Tears
filled Ashalyn’s eyes. “He said he
wasn’t, but I could tell he was,” she replied, her voice shaking as she
recalled their final conversation, only about an hour before. It was hard to believe that only hours ago,
their lives had been perfectly normal and happy, and in only seconds, this
tragedy had occurred, changing their lives forever and robbing them of their
loved ones.
“How
about Leigh?” Brian asked. “Was she in
pain?”
Even
if Leighanne had been alive longer and had suffered, Ashalyn couldn’t have
bared to tell him that she had been in pain.
But luckily, that was not the case.
“She was killed instantly in the crash.
No suffering,” Ashalyn said truthfully.
Brian
nodded, and Ashalyn could sense that this brought him some comfort, knowing
that at least his beloved wife had died a quick and painless death. Ashalyn almost wished the same could have
happened to Mike, but at least with the way it had happened, she had gotten to
say goodbye and tell him she loved him one last time. She had gotten to hold him one last
time. Brian would never get to do so for
Leighanne.
***
