Page 3 of Lost and Found

This time of year is when the weather around here could get unpredictable. It would be a beautiful day with not a cloud in the sky, and the next thing you know, it’s as if the sky opened up and released all the water it could possibly hold. Then you could blink and it’d be sunny again.

As we start to make our way down the highway, the storm unleashes upon us. Luckily, Corey is a pretty hard sleeper and he continues snoringfrom his car seat. Codi slows down in order to be safe, due to the lack of visibility the heavy rainfall is causing. Our drive is going to be a long one at this rate.

Everything from today has my eyelids feeling like sandbags. I want to fall asleep, but I’m fighting it so that Codi won’t be left alone this whole ride. He must read my mind. “You can sleep, Paige, I’ll be fine.”

I shake my head. “No, I’ll stay awake.”

“I would feel better and worry less if you would just rest your eyes for a bit. We’re only like twenty minutes away from home,” he tells me.

I sigh. “Fine, but if you get sleepy wake me up.” He nods his head and I close my eyes. Sleep finds me quickly, but I’m pulled from my sleep by a blinding light, almost as if we are driving toward the sun. When I open my eyes, I’m blinded by something. When I glance over, I notice Codi is asleep and we are heading straight into another vehicle. The sounds of the song playing on the radio, and the blaring honk of the horn is all that’s heard. “Codi!” I grab the wheel and yank it back to our side of the road as Codi wakes up, but with the wet pavement, the car begins to slide. Codi curses and Corey screams, my heart is in my throat and before anyone can really even breathe, we are going over the edge and into the ravine that runs along the side of the road.

As we roll, the glass of the windshield is shattered and the car begins to cave in on itself. Corey stops crying. I scream for him, but I’m met with silence. I watch in horror as Codi’s head hits the steering wheel and his eyes fall shut. As we come to a stop, my head slams against the window and door frame of the door. My face instantly has warm, sticky liquid cascading down it. My head pounds with sharp pains and my vision goes blurry-- then to black.

Chapter Four

Reid

That annoying, urgent alarm ringer fills my room and my sleep. I groan, refusing to open my eyes. There’s no way I’ve been asleep for very long, but I know the ringer. It’s the ringer I have set for the hospital, which means one thing…I have to get up. Blindly, I feel around until my hand lands on the phone. When I answer it, I’m surprised by the voice on the other end. “Your very high maintenance, difficult, sort of crazy girlfriend is in the emergency room, just so you know,” Elena says, before I can even give her a proper greeting.

Elena Stalinski is a nurse at the hospital and probably one of the few people I can actually call my friend. She’s sarcastic and feisty, and can dish it out as well as she can take it.

“Elena, what?” I ask, as I try to process what she just threw at me, but I was still mostly asleep and not expecting her.

She sighs into the phone. “Try to keep up, Reid. Ella is here in the emergency room. Apparently, she fell and it looks like she broke her ankle, but you know how I get every crazy patient to walk through the door, so of course, she’s mine. You might not have a girlfriend before this is done.”

I snicker into the phone.

“This is not funny. Seriously, how and why do you put it with her?”

I scrub my hand over my face. “I don’t know, but I’ll be there in a few. Try to play nice for now.”

“I will if she will,” Elena throws back at me, as I disconnect the phone.

Tossing it back on the nightstand, I get up from the bed and make my way to my closet where I slip on a pair of jeans and a t-shirt, before braving the storm and heading outside. The storm is really hitting Sunnyvale hard. It takes me twice as long to get to the hospital. When I pull into the parkinglotand get out of the car, I run for the entrance. As I enter, the smell of antiseptic hits my nose. It’s strange, but it’s a comforting smell to me. The registering clerk sitting at the front buzzes me through the door. I quickly spot Elena and she immediately rolls her eyes and heads my way. “She’s in room three and good luck with that one.” Elena disappears and I can’t help but laugh.

I make my way over and knock on the wall where Ella’s curtain is pulled. I peek my head around the curtain and Ella’s head pops up. She snarls. “Oh, it’s you.”

I step inside and pull the curtain closed again. I take a moment to study her. Ella’s red hair that is normally fixed to perfection, is a matted mess. Her brown eyes are rimmed with black smudges and mascara runs. The white dress she is wearing is dirty, and I notice the neon blue stilettos she must have been wearing thrown in the corner, with her overly priced purse. “How are you feeling?”

Ella rolls her eyes. “Well, how do you think I feel? My boyfriend would rather be at work than spend time with me. I don’t feel very loved, so I went out to make you jealous and then I end up falling and breaking my damn ankle!”

Loved? What the hell? We’ve been seeing each other for about a month and a half. I’m not in love. I wasn’t even thinking along those terms. Love takes time and we haven’t had that much time yet. I’m not even sure how to proceed with her. I look at Ella. Most of the time, I’m not even sure I like her. She’s difficult, to say the least. Elena wasn’t wrong when she said high maintenance. “Ella…” I’m still uncertain what to say, so I make an excuse. “I’ll go check and see how much longer until you’re discharged.” I disappear out of the room.

I don’t return to the room until Elena goes in to discharge her, but by that time, Ella has already called her friend Vicki who is giving me an evil eye along with Ella. Once they are gone, I check the time and see that I’m due back to work in about an hour.At this point, I just head over to the desk and have a seat next to Elena.

My pager goes off and I head down the hallway, and head up to the main hospital. My patient that I did surgery on this morning, is complaining about an abnormal amount of pain even with the painkillers being pumped into his body. I need to make sure that he hasn’t inquired any complications.

I’m in the room examining my patient, when a breathless Elena comes running inside. Crap! My pager went off and I was so wrapped up, I didn’t answer it. “What is it?”

“Two trauma victims, both with head injuries and unconscious are coming in via ambulance. They were involved in a rollover wreck on the highway,” she explains.

I nod my head. “I don’t see any complications occurring. I’m going to up the pain medicine dosage just a tad, that will hopefully help with the pain you’re experiencing.”

“Thank you, Dr. Reid.”

I give him a smile and attempt to make him feel like I’m not rushing away. “It’s my job, no need for thanks. You try to get some rest.”

I turn to his nurse and give her the new dosage for his meds, before rushing out of his room and jogging back to the emergency room with Elena. As we enter the quiet, desolate place I left before, it is now in a frenzy. “Dr. Rettigner,” I call out, to the emergency room floor doctor.

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