Page 98 of Fighting For Light
“What happened! Why did you do that other jump?” Reece asks.
I grimace, holding my side, and the paramedics seem to take that as their cue to start poking me. “The brake disk just…I don’t know.” I glance at my bike on its side, ten feet away from me. A tingle of fear runs down my spine and grows spears into my stomach. I don’t know how it’s possible, but anything is these days.
I checked my bike. I always do because mechanical things fail. That’s why you check before you go because if something goes wrong with that bike, your chances of dying skyrocket. He looks at me seriously, then glances at Cordelia. “Let’s get you off the dirt and to the hospital. If you broke a rib, it could puncture an organ.”
Cordi grips on to me as we slowly walk off the dirt, and then she stops. Her skin has gone ghostly white. “Cordi? Baby? What’s wrong?” She looks up at me, and I didn’t think it was possible to be more terrified, but right now, I am.
“Something is wrong,” she says, holding her stomach. Her jeans have a wet spot, but I don’t think she peed herself.
“Reece!” I yell. He spins around and runs to Cordi, jumping into action. He scoops up my wife, and I ignore every bite of pain in my body as I run after him to the ambulance. They already had it ready because of me, but Reece gets her in, and I hop in after him.
“Take us to the hospital, now!” I yell at the paramedics. They don’t argue and load up behind us. Cordelia sits on the stretcher, taking deep breaths with her eyes closed as she rubs her stomach. I keep her other hand in mine while her lips move, but I can barely hear her speak. She’s praying.
The ambulance rolls to a stop, and the paramedics jump into action, helping her out and into a wheelchair. They roll her away before I can get out. “Sir, we need to get you checked out!” the paramedic says. I ignore him and plow through, limping through the doors. A nurse comes up to me, trying to stop me.
“Where is my wife?” I ask her, gritting my teeth. She makes a face, and then a doctor comes in.
“Sir, we were told you had a—“
“Where is my wife!” I yell, limping past the swinging doors.
The doctor comes up to my side, and he says, “Sir, please. We will take you to her, but you could—“
I grab his neck and push him up against the wall, feeling his rapid pulse beneath my fingers. Adrenaline is sizzling through my veins, and the pain is nonexistent. “If I wanted you to examine me, I would have asked. This is the last time I will ask you or anyone else. Where. Is. My. Wife?” He gasps for air with wide eyes and points down the hall. I limp as quickly as I can to her. She’s sitting in a hospital bed with large, fearful eyes while other doctors poke and prod at her.
“Kai,” she cries. I hobble into the room and grab her hand.
“I’m here, baby, I’m here.”
Tears stream down her face as they ask her all kinds of questions, and at some point, an older nurse who mademenervous forced me into a wheelchair at Cordelia’s bedside. They took a blood sample from her and placed electrodes all over her body. Machines beep from all of them, and I’m trying to take deep breaths to keep her calm, but even that’s hard to do.
He’s okay, there is no other option, he has to be. The moment they tell me he is, I’m calling the personal family doctor to come to us. I don’t care if I have to buy him a trailer so he’s with us twenty four-seven. I will make it happen.
The nurses and doctor finally leave her room. She takes a deep breath and looks at me. I don’t know what to say, so I look atthe ring on her nervously ringing hands. There’s nothing to say that will encompass the way I’m feeling right now, and I’m sure it doesn’t even touch how she’s feeling.
“Are you okay?” she asks.
I blink a few times, taken aback. “AmIokay? Areyouokay?”
She shrugs. “Kai, you need to go get checked out. I’d go with you if I could.”
“I’m not going anywhere,” I snap. Her eyes soften, looking like the ocean when the sun rises.
“I’m not either,” she says quietly. Those four words hold so much weight I can’t keep looking at her. I don’t feel like I’m strong enough to hold them.
“I don’t want to leave you,” I mutter.
She rubs her stomach. “Look at me,” she commands. I lift my eyes from her stomach to her face. “I need you, Kai, so that means you have to be okay. In order for you to do that, you need to go see the doctor. I don’t…I don’t know what’s going to happen, and I need my best friend, my husband, with me. I’m okay right now, so please…” she says, trailing off and waving her hand towards the door.
“Fine,” I grumble and force myself to stand. The adrenaline has stopped pumping through my body like a can of NOS to an engine, and I’m really starting to feel it. I limp out of the room for the doctor whose neck I was about to snap.
***
I broke a rib again and bruised my hip to match the small hairline fracture on it. I’m lucky that was our last ride for a few months because the doctor told me not to do any riding under any circumstances, or it could be career-ending. In between X-rays and MRIs, Reece said we ended up placing first as a team. Everyone else rode clean and executed well, with high scores.Before the accident, I completed my ride, and they judged only that. The aftermath wasn’t included in our score. There is a bright side to all of this chaos, but most of all, I’m grateful that I will live to see this baby born and ride another day. I just have to heal.
Once I get to Cordi’s room, I find Reece sitting on the couch. He stands as I sit in the chair at her side.
“What did they say?” he asks.
