A Cry in the Park - A Bob's Burgers fanfic - by BobsBurgersStories1

A Cry in the Park - Part 13

Patrick couldn't help but smile a bit when he freed Louise's arms; she stared up at him with exhausted, pleading eyes, silently begging him to help her. He leaned forward to move some more brick, and then he gently hooked one arm under her legs, and carefully brought her out of the well. She was free.

Patrick held the little girl, hurriedly assessing her condition in the dim light. Louise's grey face was caked in dust, dirt, and bruises, and was tear-streaked. Her bare arms were swollen and almost completely black, decorated with scrapes, and with only a little bit of their usual colour remaining on her upper arms. Her elbows were scraped raw, her pigtails were on end, and her precious bunny ears were dirty, as well. Her dress was damp and filthy. Her swollen legs were completely black also, and her left foot hung oddly.

Louise let out a deep breath, and her cold body suddenly went limp, her head flopping back over Patrick's arm, and her eyes closing. 

   "Louise? Louise?!"

The girl did not answer, or even move, causing Patrick's heartbeat to quicken with fear. The paramedic tried to remain calm as he struggled to raise his arm and pressed his fingers against Louise's neck, urgently feeling about, as she laid in his arm, silent, cold and unmoving. A few agonisingly slow seconds passed before he could feel a pulse and he sighed in relief.

   "What? What is it?!" came Simon's worried voice at the foot of the tunnel.

   "Nothing!" he called as Louise's eyes opened again. "She just flopped down on me; she's okay. Send in the backboard," and the board was inserted into the tunnel.

For a split second, Patrick had thought Louise had died and it was quite possibly the worst he had ever felt in his life; he would have spent the rest of his life feeling so guilty that he wasn't able to save the girl. He'd managed to relax slightly when Louise opened her eyes again; it was all probably too much for her to handle, Patrick thought, but his heart was still racing; he had been terrified thinking that Louise had died. He had been a paramedic for 8 years, and he had never lost a patient before, and he wanted to keep it that way.

Patrick carefully placed her onto the board; he knew immediately from the way her left foot dangled that it was broken, so he took great care in pushing her out into the shaft. "Watch that left foot; it's broken," he warned Simon, as the medic pulled Louise out. Simon was able to hold Louise, keeping her in a more or less horizontal position until Patrick was able to squirm back out of the tunnel.

Together, the two paramedics began to strap the child to the spinal board, a tricky feat in the cramped space. Patrick placed a plastic neck brace with a foam lining around the girl's neck, as a precaution, and Louise stared blankly ahead, looking barely conscious, as Patrick strapped her forehead to the board As they were working in such cramped conditions, they found it extremely difficult to use a full body board. Louise's arms were placed by her side and tied down above her elbows, rendering her immobile, and she remained silent as the two men continued to work. They had nothing to splint her leg with, but they didn't want to waste any time with that; they just needed to get her in the ambulance. "Louise, I'm going to strap your legs to the board, okay? It will hurt a little bit," Patrick told her before carefully grabbing the girl's left leg. Louise, clearly exhausted, only blinked tiredly as Patrick strapped her ankles down.

Simon unhooked another cable attached to his belt and connected it to the top of the spinal board, as an extra safety precaution, and tugged on the cable that would take them above ground, to freedom, after muttering, "sir, we got her," into his radio.

During the ascent, Louise still remained silent, and looked blankly ahead as they rose toward the bright sky which was gradually growing larger. If she had looked up, she would have seen faces peering over the edge. Weak though she was, she was very vaguely aware of what was happening; she knew that she had been freed from her prison and she remembered her family, along with some other voices she didn't recognise, calling down to her, comforting her, telling her that they were going to get her out of the well. But that was all she knew. Louise was finding it difficult to concentrate; in addition to feeling weak, she also felt rather dizzy, lethargic and extremely tired. There was nothing that sounded more appealing to her at that moment than sleep, apart from eating or drinking something.