Haunted by the past

Chapter Fifteen

A/N Seeing as how you are all SO keen today, I've brought forward the next chapter. Hope you all enjoy and thank you all SO, SO much for all the comments, votes and messages. I appreciate every one, but I'm having so many every day that I can't physically respond to them all and get htis book out, I only hope you all approve of me prioritising the writing!

It almost happened in a weird slow motion; Evan stood just a few feet from Maddie, and could only watch helplessly as the black car hit her legs, and saw her fly over the bonnet. She hit the floor with an almighty thud, landing in the most impossible position. There was a second where he froze, completely paralysed, but it was only a moment. Glancing at the man he held in the greatest contempt, he spat out the words, “call an ambulance!” Then he ran across to Maddie’s crumpled body.

Evan could never recall crying as freely as he knelt beside her in the road. The driver appeared from the car, a middle aged woman pale and shaking. "It wasn’t your fault!" he shouted across to her as he reached for Maddie’s neck, she was so pale he feared that she was dead. "I’ll tell the police that!" He offered over his shoulder.

She was breathing, barely but enough to give him a sliver of hope. He knew better than to touch her, who knows what injuries she had. Stooping as low as he could, he whispered his love for her into her ears, begging her to hold on. Telling her he couldn’t live without her. Within moments he could hear sirens, and he only hoped they’d come quick enough.

The paramedics, when they burst out of the cars that zoomed to the scene, and he told them her name, what had happened, then a policeman touched his shoulder, wanting to know what had happened. He could see the medics constantly worked on her out of the corner of his eye, stemming blood flow, immobilising limbs and pumping her full of pain killers.

He wasn’t a relative, so once he had filled in the police officer of what happened, everyone became silent, no one was keen to tell him very much. An air ambulance landed in the road, by now there were crowds ten deep all trying to see what was happening, and it was then that Gina rushed over.

                “Evan! What happened?”

He shrugged mutely. Touching his arm she could barely control her tears, “let me take your bags, the police man will take you to the hospital. Do you need me to phone anyone?”

He shook his head, handing her the bag that he’d brought back from Italy, “thanks Gina. I’ll call you.”

She nodded as he followed the uniformed man to his car.

The trip to the hospital was interminable, and when he arrived he was shown to a sparse waiting room, a chipped Formica table and half a dozen plastic chairs. He’d been there what may have been half an hour, but felt more like three hours when Cindy and Steve arrived. Cindy rushed up to him and threw her arms around him, burying her tear streaked face into his neck. Holding her, he met Steve’s eyes and forced a grim expression, there was no point building things up here. This wasn’t an easy “she’ll be ok” situation. He couldn’t offer any reassurances.

                “What happened?” Cindy asked, wiping the tears from her eyes.
Evan found a hankie in his pocket and handed it to her, then in as much detail as he could he explained all that had happened.

Then came the liaison with the doctors. She was emancipated from her parents, but there was no evidence of that. It took a while, but between them they convinced the doctors that they were her next of kin, and finally they agreed to accept the three of them,  the consultant, a man in his fifties explained the extent of Maddie’s injuries - a broken femur, broken tibia and fibula on the right, a dislocated left shoulder, fractured skull, and a tear to the spleen which was bleeding uncontrollably, and would require urgent surgery, they had no one but the three of them present to act as next of kin and consent for the surgery. Evan signed the forms, then slumped into the chair. As Cindy and Steve headed off for a coffee, the doctor came back and called Evan to one side.