A Little Push | Bridge to Terabithia

2 - Hospital, Part 1

The ride to hospital wasn't too long, but it felt like it was to Jess as Leslie was still unconscious and holding onto his hand.
He had just realised the irony of his statement earlier about the push being for good luck and smiled for the first time since just before Leslie fell into the creek.

"You alright Jess?" Leslie's parents asked him.
"Mostly. Just thinking about how lucky me and Leslie are."
"Lucky?" If you had asked the 2 parents of their views about the incident, the last thing they would've thought was that it was 'lucky'.
"Yeah, lucky. I was actually meant to be going to a museum with Ms Edmunds today but she didn't feel too well and called off the trip. And then, I saw that Leslie was going to swing across before I got to her so told her to wait until I got over to her."

Everyone was silent for a while.

"That is lucky, huh." Bill Burke said.
"And I also gave her a push as she swung out on the rope, for good luck. If I hadn't then..." Jess burst into tears again at this point, burying his head into Leslie's lap. Judy walked over to the boy and wrapped an arm around his shoulders.
"It isn't your fault Jess. As you've just pointed out, Leslie probably wouldn't even have made it this far if you weren't here. As her parents, we probably should have done a better job of checking that where you were going was safe."

The rest of the ride in the ambulance was silent with Jess finding himself oddly thankful that Ms Edmunds was sick, not that he would ever tell anyone that. As they pulled into the car park, a doctor climbed into the back of the ambulance.

"Hello there, my name is Dr O'Hara. What's the situation with our patient?"
"Fell off a rope into her local creek whilst swinging across it. Inhaled quite a bit of water as well as some nasty cuts all over her body. She's stable, but we don't know how long for." The ambulance person replied.
"OK. Kid, I'm afraid you're going to have to let go of her hand for now as we take her into A&E, though as soon as the required procedures have been carried out then you can all enter the room." The doctor said as Leslie was wheeled out of the ambulance and into the hospital. Jess & Leslie's parents followed her as far as they could, after which it was they just had to wait until they were given the all clear to go into Leslie's room.

"Is being in a hospital usually this boring?" asked Jess as his right hand lost another game of rock paper scissors to his left hand.
"Generally, yes. I'm sure you'll understand that a hospital's main priority is ensuring people don't die instead of keeping people entertained whilst waiting though." Mr Burke replied.
"Yeah"

By the time the doctor came to call them into Leslie's room, Jess had lost to Leslie's parents at rock paper scissors about 20 times.
"You can enter Leslie's room now, though she has been put on some anaesthetic which has made her slightly 'out of it'" The doctor said.
"Probably won't be much different from usual then" Jess said sarcastically.

AN: Contrary to popular belief, I am in fact not dead. College has certainly made me feel like I am though.
Word count: 556