The Loner's Journey

Chapter 31

Grayson's POV
I stop humming a little while later and realize that archer fell back into an uneasy sleep. "How is he?" I hear Danny ask. "He fell back to sleep, thankfully. I don't know how long he'll stay asleep though." I said. I look up to see Danny was already looking at me. He nodded when he saw that I was looking. "We're almost there. Just a couple more stop lights and we should be there." Danny's dad says. I sigh and look back down at archer. He seems a little uncomfortable. I try to shift him a little but he tenses and groans, so I stop before I wake him. "I wonder what's wrong with him?" I say suddenly to no one particular. "It's his ribs. I think one or more were more damaged than we thought. If we're not careful one of them could puncture a lung and then it would be an even more dangerous situation." Danny's dad says. I gasp. I didn't realize there were such drastic dangers to archer's situation. I here archer groan and feel him move slightly. I put my hand on his chest to keep him still. "Don't move, archer. You could make things worse." I say gently. I see his eyes slit open, and his lips move. I lean closer to hear what he's saying. "My back and head hurt." He says. "I know, I'm sorry. You have to stay like this for a little bit longer. Ok? If you move around too much you could put yourself in an even worse situation." I say. He closes his eyes and nods ever so slightly before relaxing again. I sigh in relief. I look up and notice that we're finally pulling into the emergency entrance to the hospital. I stay where I am and let Danny and his dad handle this since I've never been through this before. Danny hops out of the passenger seat and comes around to my door. His dad gets out and runs inside to get help. Once we see his dad coming back with a couple nurses and a stretcher, Danny opens my door and carefully lifts archer onto the stretcher with his dads help. When I know archer is settled I get out of the car, close my door, and hurry in with everyone else. We get to the front desk and both Danny and his dad stop, so I stop with them and just watch as archer gets further away. I look back to Danny and notice that he's kinda spaced out. I tap his shoulder. He jolts back to reality and looks at me. "You were kinda spaced out." I explain. He nods and we walk over to sit in the waiting area while Danny's dad takes care of whatever paperwork and payment that's needed. When he's done he comes to join us. "He'll be alright now." He tells us. I nod and put my head in my hands as we wait. After what feels like hours, we see a nurse coming to the waiting room. "Anyone here for a Mr. Blackwell?" She asks. All three of us shoot from our seats and rush over. "How is he?" Danny's dad asks. "He's stable. But he's lucky you got him here when you did. If you had waited any longer he could have had permanent damage to his organs." She says. We all sigh in slight relief. "What we're his total injuries?" Danny's dad asks. "He had two broken ribs, a cracked rib, a bunch of internal bruising, a fractured collar bone, a few small cuts and scrapes along his arms, legs, and face, as well as signs of previous injuries that had already healed." She listed. I felt my knees going weak and barely caught myself before I fell to the ground. How was he still alive with all those injuries?! "Can we see him?" Danny asked softly with a far away look. "He's resting now, so you'll have to be quiet but I don't see why you can't stay in his room until visiting hours are over." She replies kindly. "Will you show us the way to his room?" I ask,finally getting my voice to work. She nods and motions us to follow her before moving down the hall to a room labeled '146'. She opens the door and motions us to be quiet before walking away. All of us walk in and I close the door behind us as quietly as possible. We all move to stand beside archers bed on either side of him. 'He looks so peaceful'. I think to myself. I lift my hand to brush some of his hair away from his face. "He looks like he's just sleeping." Danny says quietly. We chuckle. "He seems more relaxed then I've ever seen him, Even though he's known me for many years now." Danny's dad remarks sadly. I nod my agreement and we become silent again.