“Rick… Oh my God. Rick, she’s awake. Go get the doctor!”
Awake?
I’d been asleep.
I knew that now, my mom’s voice as she materialized in front of me. My mouth felt like someone had shoved about thirty cotton balls up in it.
“Baby. Oh my God.” Mom touched my face, tears in her eyes, and I didn’t understand. Soft fingers ghosted the tender flesh of my cheek. Everything throbbed. Everything hurt, and my head felt like someone had bashed me over my noggin, then swung back and gone for a second round.
“Mom…” My voice strained and cracked, and the mere sound caused my mom’s tears to fall. The word “miracle” fell from her lips, my arm pinned to the side. I couldn’t move it. I couldn’t move anything. My whole body felt like a reinforced, steel weight, and a slight shift had my whole body radiating in awareness, pain. Especially my side.
I felt like someone had cut me from the inside out, and when I attempted to move again, Mom placed a hand on my shoulder.
“Don’t move, baby,” Mom said, but her smile was so wide one would have thought I brought her the stars. It appeared I had, her eyes glistening in those tears. “You’ve been in an accident.”
An… accident?
I remembered it well, crashing and colliding. I even remembered when the rolling had finally stopped, and things had suddenly gone dark.
I hadn’t been here, though, clearly a hospital room around me. They had me in a bed, hooked up and IV’ed to all kinds of stuff. My left arm was also secured to my side, fastened down, and I couldn’t move it. My fingers and toes curling, those appeared to work, though.
“Cleo.” My adoptive father appeared, so much joy on his face. He had a fist pressed to his mouth as he came over to me. “Hey, sweetheart.”
“Hey, Dad.” Soft words, but they proved enough to bring tears to his eyes as well. He touched my hair and I realized someone had cut it. It currently sat in a slight curl at my shoulders.
“Welcome back, Cleo.”
In the door frame stood a petite woman, dark eyes, kind smile. She had a white jacket on and a stethoscope around her neck, so I assumed she was the doctor my mom had spoken about.
She smiled. “My name is Dr. Fieldhouse. How are you doing this morning?”
This morning. It’d been morning when things went dark. Was it the same day?
I forced my mouth to make words, and when they strained at my vocal chords, the doctor sent for water. Mom helped me sip through a straw, and after, I nodded my thanks. I relaxed with a sigh into the bed. “I feel like I was hit with a cement truck, but other than that? Right as rain.”
The laugh was a mistake on my part as it completely radiated my insides in even more pain, but its presence brought a smile to more than one person in the room. My parents, for starters, looked like they’d melt into a literal puddle of joy. How long had I been out? Were my injuries bad?
They sure felt like it. Like everything hurt. Even my toes. Though that could have been in my head. Honestly, how was I even alive right now? I hadn’t been in a head-on collision, but close enough. I’d been hit at all sides on the highway.
“Well, I’m happy to see, despite your current state, you’re still in good spirits.” Another warm smile on me before the woman checked me out, touching, feeling, then listening with her stethoscope. “Breathe for me.”
I did and after that check, she returned the device to her neck. “Well, I’ll say you really have beat some odds here. That accident you were in was quite bad. Required a few surgeries, and you’ve been off your feet for almost two days.”
Wow.
“Do you remember what happened? Your accident, I mean.”
Since I did, I nodded. I’d been stupid, trying to send a text.
Jaxen.
Immediately, my thoughts traveled to him, to his own texts that fluttered in. I hadn’t gotten to answer them. He told me how he felt, and now, it looked like I had ignored him. Did he know about my accident? He wasn’t here.
“Well, besides a head injury, a few broken ribs, a dislocated shoulder, and some internal damage, you are right as rain.” The doctor winked, but did smile. “We’ve fixed all that, though. You should be just fine after you’ve healed up and, of course, rested.”
Jesus, all that had happened to me?
I really must have had someone looking down on me. All of this was wild.