Finally Breathing

~ Chapter 16 ~

Tobin's POV

Skys monitor flashed, a beeping sound beginning as her heart rate skyrocketed. What was going on?

"Tobin.." I looked over to her. " Toby I can't feel my face." Sky cried, panicking.
"Shhh sh you'll be okay." I reassured her as nurses and doctors rushed in flurries into the room. Sky was obscured from my view, leaving me panicking on my chair next to her bed. I couldn't take this.

I pulled one doctor aside, demanding to know what was going on with her.
"We're not sure." He admitted, looking over in worry. "I know that she almost died, we had to resuscitate her on arrival. It appears that the grip on her neck snapped a little piece of the the bone at the top of her vertebral column, and it has lodged itself into the gap between the column and her spinal cord. Apart from this she seems okay, but the fact she can still feel her neck and back is what concerns us. It means that either the bone is rattling around within the vertebral column, or that it is outside the spinal cord, which is good because she is unable to get paralysed, but it may travel down and puncture a lung."
I nodded, taking the news in. They were prepping Sky for surgery, to remove the piece of bone. She was lying on her bed, in visible pain as they upped her dosage on this and reduced it on that to make her go to sleep. They wheeled her of the room into surgery. I tried to follow, to catch a glimpse of her, saying that I had to be with her, that she was my child. Was she? They pushed me back and out of the room, towards Alex and Jill. Fuck. Please be okay. 

Sky's POV

I put my hand to my face, to try and wipe a stray tear away. It was numb. The whole damn thing was numb. I panicked, a red flush forming beneath the useless piece of skin covering my face. My heart rate monitor went crazy, beeping, with the Spirograph spiking across the room.

"Tobin. Toby I can't feel my face." I said, starting to cry. What was going on with me? I just got called up for the national camp, I can't be injured now. That would fuck me up for eternity. Doctors and nurses came flooding into the room, tearing Tobin from my view.
"Increase her morphine dosage by 2 mils." A doctor ordered as he placed a gas mask over my face.
"We're taking you into surgery, this will help you to go to sleep. Don't worry, you won't feel a thing." He said, trying to reassure me even though it didn't really work. Without being able to see Tobin, nothing would be okay.

These thoughts disappeared as I sank into a deep sleep.

~~

"It's out. She may have a little bruising and we would still prefer it if she did about a week of physical therapy, but she should be fine now. As far as we are aware, it didn't manage to reach the spinal cord, so she should be able to go back to normal life in no time." A voice floated in and out, my consciousness returning to me. My eyes fluttered open, a hazy picture coming into view. I was back in my hospital room, three girls and a guy just outside the door. Alex, Jill and Tobin. Toby. My family.

They must have noticed that I was awake as Tobin burst into the room.
"Thank God, Sky your okay!!" She cried, holding me as I winced.
"Careful!" I warned, a pit of pain flashing through my back. "What happened?"
Tobin explained what the doctor told her. Apparently, they removed the piece of bone in a three hour long surgery, the longest they'd had since 2017. Crazy. But I could move, which meant that I was okay. I could go back to soccer in three weeks, just before the camp. I don't know what was going to happen after all this, but I did know that I was okay, Tobin was okay, and that was enough for me.

Jill's POV

It had been a few days since Sky and Tobin had been rushed to hospital. Sky had finally been discharged, and in the meantime I had been working on the case for her trial. As far as I knew, the authorities were okay with placing Sky in a group home close to East Shore until she was adopted, or, as the case would most likely be, until she turned 18. I had called Sky over to talk about possibilities with me.

I heard a knock on my office door. It was Sky. She was walking gingerly, but overall looked okay physically. Mentally I wasn't too sure.

"Hi coach." She smiled as I waved her in.
"Sky, it's nice to see you on your feet again."
"It's nice to be back on my feet," sky laughed, "although I doubt you called me here to talk about life."
"No. I'm here to talk about your possible future environment. As you know, we would like you to join the national team for the December camp. While that may be so, you no longer have a home. With your parents in prison the authorities have agreed to the terms that I set out: you would go to a group home, but it would be here,close to East Shore and so your friends."
Sky nodded. I knew how tough this would be on her, Tobin came to me with a similar problem quite a few years back. but if it was close to East Shore, it was close to home, and that was the best I could do. After a while she spoke.
"Thank you Jill. For all of this. It's more than I could ever ask for." She looked at me with sincerity, eyes glistening.
"Of course Sky. Your a part of our team now, we're family. What we do is for each other, and if that means rallying around you then so be it."
I explained the trivialities of her parents trial, when she would meet her lawyer, what she would have to say. She was ghost faced, but it was understandable. After all she'd been through, I was surprised she even got this far. Pleasantly surprised. Then only one issue remained.
"Sky, what would you like to tell the team about your parents and what has been happening the last few weeks with your injuries?" I asked her. I knew it was a rough topic, but I thought that the team deserved to know. It would be better for everyone.
"I know I should tell them," Sky began, "but I think I want some time for myself. To process it all. I promise I will tell them at camp, but I don't really know if now is the right time."
"Okay. I will respect your decision." I replied as Sky got up to leave. She gave me a smile, and walked back to Tobin's car.