A Scenic Connection (BoyxBoy)

CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR

I sputtered and choked from all the pressure in my throat. I could feel something coming up and before I knew what was happening I was throwing up. I squinted and opened my eyes, seeing nothing but bright light at first. Panting heavily, a voice came into focus and I felt hands on me, helping me turn back over. My back was against the ground, the hard rocks and dirt pressing against my skin.

"Griffin?! Griffin!? Can you hear me?" A deep male voice said. It was Tyce.

"Griffin! Oh my god! Griffin!" came Hadley's voice. There was muffled words I couldn't make out.

"-they coming?" Hadley was saying. At least I think it was Hadley.

"They're on-" another guy answered. It sounded like Zaiden. Their voices swam in and out of focus, and I kept my eyes closed because it was so bright. I was able to make out Tyce saying my name again, but whatever else he said was muffled and distant. I felt myself being lifted off of the ground. Someone was carrying me somewhere. I tried as hard as I could to open my heavy eyelids. I squinted again in the light but was able to open them enough to see.

"You're gonna be okay," Tyce said as I looked up at him. I grimaced, shifting in his arms. "We're getting you to the hospital okay?" He said. I tried to reply but my voice strained and my throat hurt.

"Ohhhk," I tried. Tyce shushed me.

"Take it easy," he told me. "I want you to stay with me though, okay?" He asked, his eyes staring down at me intensely as he kept a fairly fast pace, careful not to trip. His jaw was set in a hard line, the expression serious.

My eyelids still felt so heavy and I closed them again, feeling relief. Tyce shifted me in his arms.

"You gotta stay awake Grif," he told me in a serious tone. I realized for the first time how cold I was, even though I thought it was warm out. Tyce's touch was warm though, his one arm on my back and the other underneath my legs, carrying me as gently as he could. If I could melt into him right then I would, his touch was so soft and comforting.

"Oww," I mumbled, slowly lifting a couple fingers towards my head, which was throbbing. My face contorted in pain. Tyce looked down at me with concern.

"We're almost there," he told me. I heard Tyce's feet shuffling quicker and I tried to turn my head just enough to see where we were.

"Here let me help you," said someone I didn't recognize, his voice deep and gruff sounding. Tyce shifted me and I felt another pair of hands grabbing me under my arms.

"Ty-" I groaned, reaching out for him.

"Hey you're okay. You're in an ambulance. We're taking you to the hospital," said a guy to me. He was dressed in a dark uniform and his dark hair was neatly cut short. He had dark facial hair and dark eyes that looked at me with reassurance. I guessed he was in his 30s.

He laid me down on a somewhat soft surface. I looked slowly around at the inside of the ambulance. I had never been in one before. He slipped a oxygen mask over my mouth and nose, while I laid there silently watching. I moved my head slowly over to my right, just as I felt a pinch in my left arm from a needle. It was an IV tube.

Tyce was sitting next to me on the right, opposite of the other guy, watching him intensely before he returned his gaze to me. I could tell from his face he was trying to be calm, but his eyes looked full of concern. I held my hand out, palm up, towards him. He looked from my face, to my hand, and back to my face before firmly grasping it with his, intertwining our fingers.

"Is he going to be okay?" Tyce said to the E.M.T. The guy nodded.

"He should be fine. We're gonna have to get him to the doctor to know for sure, but he's awake, which is a good sign," he replied, looking down at me momentarily before writing something down. "How much longer?" He said to the driver.

"About 10 minutes," came another male's voice from farther away. I relaxed a little and tried to swallow. My throat still hurt from coughing and throwing up what I assumed was water?

Tyce kept my hand in a tight squeeze as I rode silently the rest of the way. He answered more of the E.M.T.s questions about what happened, or at least what Tyce knew about what happened.

We suddenly came to a stop and the doors in the back opened.

"What have we got?" A woman's voice asked loudly as the E.M.T. and Tyce climbed out, letting go of my hand.

"22 year old male, near drowning. In the water for at least 5 minutes maybe more. He's awake and alert, but hit his head in the fall," the E.M.T. told her as they wheeled my stretcher through some doors and inside. Two other doctors dressed in blue scrubs and white jackets, a shorter, black lady and a slim blonde haired guy walked along as I was wheeled around. They were saying things to each other I didn't understand.

"Tyce," I said as loud as I could, wondering where he was.

"I'm right here Griffin," he replied, his head coming into view as I looked up. He had been walking behind the doctors by my head. I didn't know where Hadley and the others were.

"Where's everyone else?" I asked as evenly as I could.

"They're on their way," he told me, his hand squeezing mine tighter.

"Sir you're going to have to wait here," the tall blonde guy said to Tyce as we turned a corner. "We're gonna take him in for a scan and we'll let you know when he's out," he was saying.

"I'll be right out here," Tyce told me, his eyes shining down at me. I nodded and he released my hand. I watched as they wheeled me away and Tyce was no longer in sight.

"I'm Dr. Wilson. You're gonna be just fine Griffin okay?" The black woman said, smiling down at me. I nodded my response. "We're gonna get you in for a brain scan just to make sure everything's okay up here," she said, pointing to my head, "then we're gonna give you some more fluids and plenty of rest."

She pushed me along with the other doctor into a room, they both were speaking to each other but I tuned them out unless they addressed me directly. There was a machine taking up most of the room, which I assumed would look at my brain to make sure it was alright.

"Okay, just relax," the tall guy said. I did as he said and waited patiently as they got me situated.

After the scan was done they wheeled me out of that room and into a different one. This one had a window and seemed to be more of the types of rooms you recognize in hospitals.

"Everything looks good, so we're just gonna get you a lot of rest and fluids and we want to make sure you're oxygen is back up where it needs to be alright?" Dr. Wilson said kindly.

"Okay," I said quietly and she smiled. I raised a hand up to my head and felt around, there was a bandage on the back of my head, my head still aching from where it must've hit the rock. I had a mini panic attack thinking about brain surgery. Thank god my injury wasn't too bad and I didn't have to have that.

"Good thing that fall of yours wasn't worse. You're lucky that you're friend found you fairly quickly," she was saying, looking at me briefly before returning her eyes to the paper she was scribbling something on. She raised her eyes at me expectantly.

"It was stupid, I shouldn't have been out there alone," I conceded. She nodded in agreement.

"Mhmm, you sir are right about that. No more swimming in the lake alone," she said, teasing me a little. "I'll go let your friends know where you are." With that she walked out of the room, closing the door behind her. I let out a breath I didn't know I had been holding.