Fighting the Stars - A Jack Harries Fanficton

Chapter 22

Jack’s POV

The last time I sat in a waiting room was four years ago. Finn and I were messing around with a few friends, daring each other to do stupid tricks on our bikes. I’d already managed to hurdle two rubbish bins without so much as a scrape. This gave Finn the confidence to try and ride his bike off the roof of our garage.

Our friends, Kent and Damian, had set up a ramp and everything for him. “You sure you want to do this?” I’d said. “Yeah, I’ll be fine.” He replied. He climbed onto the roof with swagger, gleaming down at the small plywood ramp below that would be his only refuge of safety. He took a deep breath and tightened his grip around the handles. 

And although he’d made his landing on the intended ramp, it wasn’t as smooth as we’d expected. The wheels came out from under him, sending him crashing into the ground. The three of us had rushed over to him as he clutched his elbow. When I got closer I could see that it was sticking out an awkward angle.

And that’s how we ended up in the waiting area of the Emergency Room. My parents were furious with us for being so reckless, but thankful that Finn hadn’t been injured any worse. “He could have very well broken his neck!” My mother said to us with a pointed finger and pursed lips. “Maybe even given himself a concussion!”

I only wished that I was here under similar circumstances, but I’m not. My Mum isn’t here to ground me for being an idiotic teenager. The doctors aren’t simply putting a cast around a broken bone and telling us to “be more careful next time”. No, this time is far more difficult to process.

I’d been here for the past hour and a half, thinking that within the next second that passes a nurse or a doctor or someone will come out and tell me that Sophie will be fine. She has to be fine. But as the clock on the wall across from me ticks on, the room stays still. People sit, just like I am, and wait for news. The receptionists answer phone calls, nurses pass through, but nothing happens.

As much as I tried to push the idea out of my mind, my thoughts couldn’t help but wander to the fact that Sophie could very well…die. 

A couple of cops stayed when we first arrived to ask me questions, including the one that escorted me here. I told them all about James and Sophie’s abusive relationship, even about her father. I mentioned how James had the money to get out of this, but they said that with appropriate evidence there wouldn’t be any way out for him. Now they just need the evidence. 

It was taking all I had in me not to track James down myself and beat the shit out of him just as he had to Sophie. I figured it would only be fair. But then, it would also be illegal. 

“Jack Harries?” called a dark-skinned nurse next to the reception desk. She had thin-rimmed glasses and a clipboard in her hand. I immediately rose from my seat. She spotted me and came in my direction. 

“Well?” I asked. “How is she?” Half of me wanted her to just say it, tell me whether she was dead or alive. Then the other half wanted her to just walk away, for it to be a secret. Because deep down I really didn’t want for her to say something I didn’t want to hear.

“She has a bruised kidney, three broken ribs, a fractured jaw, a punctured lung, and a few stitches in her skull. But, other than that, she’ll be okay.”

I wiped my hand over my mouth and bit the inside of my lip. She’d be okay. Sophie would be okay.

“We will need to keep her over night to make sure nothing else goes wrong.”

“Of course,” I said. The nurse gave me a curt nod. Just as she was about to turn and walk away I said, “May I see her?”

She smiled at me. “Sure,”