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Susan was there too, and she did her best to help.
Then I heard his voice, Pearce’s voice in my mind, and I remembered how calm he was as he instructed me on how to do everything. I started taking deep calming breaths, and in a little while, my wits slowly returned to me. It took a few more minutes, but I finally got over the hump.
“God, I’m sorry. I don’t know why I got all crazy on you.” I rubbed my hands together, trying to bring some warmth into them.
“Your adrenaline surge had you going, and when it stopped, you experienced the back side of it. I think you’re in shock over all of this. Let’s head to the trauma center now.”
“Pearce’s car?”
“I’ll drive it and you ride with Susan and Ava.”
I nodded numbly and followed them. I rode in the back of their Mercedes sedan and pieced together what had happened. I could hear Ava’s cries from the front of the car.
Susan said in a firm voice, “Ava! Stop it now. Justin is with Pearce. He’s with the most capable trauma surgeon anywhere on the East Coast of the United States. If anyone can save him, Pearce can. Now you need to be strong.”
“Yes, ma’am,” Ava cried. “I’m just worried.”
“I know, but Alexia said he got the bleeding stopped and everything else will be fine.”
“What if he has a head injury?” Ava asked.
Susan didn’t say anything for a minute, but I jumped in and said, “Pearce shined the light on their pupils, and he said they were normal. Does that mean anything?”
“Yes, it does,” Susan replied. “That’s a very positive sign.”
We talked like that the whole way to the trauma center and finally found ourselves pacing in the trauma surgery waiting room. I’d called Terri’s parents to tell them what happened, and they were waiting right along with us.
About three hours later, when our nerves were all but shattered, those automatic doors swung open, and Pearce walked through. He didn’t say a word, but his eyes darted around the room like pinballs until they landed on me. Four long strides later he stood in front of me.
His voice was husky as he wrapped his arms around me and said, “Alexia.”
My heart stopped because I knew with a certainty that it was bad. I tightened my arms around him and asked, “Oh God no. Justin?”
“No, you saved him, sweetheart.” Then he did the craziest thing ever. He swung me around and shouted to everyone in the room, “This woman saved my brother’s life!” Next came the kiss. I wanted to kiss him but needed to hear about Terri first.
I pulled away from him and asked, “Terri?”
“Good too.”
Then he tried for another kiss but I stopped him and leaned my head over to the side to yell at Terri’s parents, “Mr. and Mrs. Mitchell, Terri is good.” Then I let him kiss me.
When we finally broke apart, I whispered to Pearce, “You know, you’re the one who saved Justin.”
In a very loud voice, so everyone could hear, Pearce disagreed. “Alexia, if you hadn’t held that light for me to see in there, I could never have found that bleeder. It was dark and I couldn’t see what the fuck I was doing. You’re the one who really saved him when it all came down to it. I know how hard it was for you to stand there with blood everywhere, but you did it without having the ground come up and slam you in the face. I’m so proud of you.” By this time, I was laughing and crying and running my hands though his hair. Then he shouted out, “This woman saved my brother’s life!”
Okay, now I was embarrassed. I laughed it off though because the hippo sitting on my chest was gone.
His expression turned dark when he glanced down and noticed I still wore the same clothes and was covered with dried blood.
“For Christ’s sake, why didn’t anyone get you something else to put on? Look at you!” He looked at his parents pointedly and shook his head. Then he grabbed my hand and said, “Come with me.”
He towed me behind him into the surgeons’ lounge and found some scrubs for me to wear. Then we went into another room and a nurse entered and began giving him a hard time about me being in there. He lit into her and raked her over the coals. I’d never heard him speak to anyone like that and it totally shocked me.
He looked at me sheepishly and said, “Sorry about that. I don’t always act the asshat in here, but she pissed me off. Been a little stressed. Come on, babe, I want you to get out of those messy clothes. You look like you’ve been in a scene in a horror movie.”
“I feel like I have.” Even though things were better, my insides still felt like someone was playing ride the roller coaster.
I changed and we joined the others in the waiting room.
