Page 86 of Hypothetical Heart
She smiles. “Did they call my dad?”
“Dr. Carter is waiting at the hospital,” Madame Bacri tells her. “He’s in surgery right now, but it sounds like he’ll be done soon enough.”
“Paramedics are on their way.” I rub Winnie’s arm, trying to distract her from the pain she’s feeling.
I have to admit, my girl’s got one hell of a pain tolerance.
“Are they close?” She looks up at me like she’s trying not to wince.
“Yeah, I’m sure they are,” I reply. “Just relax, sweetheart.”
The pained look on her face is bothering me because I know there’s nothing I can do about it.
“It’s bad, Logan,” she tells me, squeezing her eyes shut as tears fall. “I knew before I even hit the ground when I heard that pop sound. I’m done for the year, if not longer.”
“It’s okay,” I tell her as she grabs my hand, and I kiss her knuckles.
We both go silent for the next few minutes and Winnie flinches when the paramedics finally arrive, pushing a stretcher.
“You’re going to be fine. They’re going to do their best not to move you,” I say, pressing my lips to her hand.
Hearing her cry out as they pick her up and place heronto the stretcher has to be one of the more heartbreaking sounds I’ve heard in a while.
Her grip hardens as she holds my bicep like she’s making sure that I’m staying with her as she gets pushed down the hallway.
“Do you have to go?” she asks, and I hear her unspoken question:Do you need to be somewhere else?
“I’m staying right here with you,” I tell her.
“This is bad,” she says for maybe the hundredth time. “I can feel it in my gut. This is bad.”
I kiss her forehead. “Shh.” I obviously don’t want to tell her that her gut is wrong, but I also am not going to agree that her injury is as severe as she thinks it is. “You’re going to be with doctors soon enough.”
I ride in the ambulance alongside her, and every time one of the paramedics touches her, she squeezes my hand so hard that I think they’re scared of me because of how hard I’m glaring at them.
If she’s in pain, then just stop fucking touching her,is what I want to say.
She winces again, dragging the breath between her teeth.
“Can’t you guys give her something for the pain?”
“We’re still trying to find a good vein,” one of the paramedics says, searching Winnie’s arm.
I look down at her other arm, the one whose hand is squeezing mine. “Right there.” I point a vein out to him. It’s practically bursting from her skin.
They finally get an IV started, and by the time they administer morphine, we’re pulling into the hospital.
The first person I see is Winnie’s dad, waiting outside the bay’s entrance, and as soon as the doors of the ambulance open, he’s already there.
“What’s the provisional diagnosis?” he asks the paramedics.
“Likely a stress fracture, possibly tendonitis,” one replies.
“Honey, you’re going to be just fine,” he tells her before looking toward me. “How did I know you’d be here?” At first, I can’t tell if he’s happy about the fact, but then he smiles like it means something to him for me to have stayed with her.
“I’ll follow her wherever she goes, sir.”
“I appreciate the sentiment, Logan, but for right now, you’re going to have to stay in the waiting room.” He points me toward one of the family areas while Winnie is wheeled into a patient room.
