The Crash: (Heroes of Olympus)

Chapter 3

Paul Blofis

I had left the house for about ten minutes to get a couple groceries from store down the street, since Percy and his friends had eaten all of our food. When I got back, I saw Sally sitting on floor, sobbing. I dropped the food and rushed over to her, placing my hand on her shoulder.
"Sally, honey, what's wrong?" I asked.
"Percy and Annabeth, there was a crash, they're in the hospital. I just got a call," she told me between sobs. I helped her to her feet and led her out of the apartment. Once we got outside, I helped her into the passenger seat, climbed into the driver's seat, and drove out. It took us over an hour to reach the hospital. I dropped Sally off at the doors and went to go park the car. When I got inside, I saw my wife yelling at the desk lady.
"Why won't you let me see my son?" she yelled. The woman sighed.
"Ma'am, I told you, he's in surgery, and so is the girl. And you can't see the other victims because it's one in the morning and the patients need to sleep. Visiting hours start at seven tomorrow morning. If you want to stay here, I can ask the doctors to give you updates if there's any news."
Sally seemed to sink into me.
"Thank you," she said through gritted teeth. I led her to a chair and sat down next to her.
"Sally, it'll be ok. Please, just sleep. I'll wake you if anything happens," I said.
"No," she argued, "I won't sleep until I've seen my son."
"Sally, you're pregnant. Please sleep. For the baby," I pleaded, but she still refused. So I held her hand while she cried, and cried, and cried. I sighed softly, and brushed her hair with my fingers. I wanted to cry too, the thought of losing Percy threatened to tear my heart in two, but I kept a straight face for Sally's sake. She needed me to be strong, to support her.

No one came until the morning. At one point, Sally and I had Iris Messaged Chiron and asked him to tell Thalia what had happened, so she could be here for her best friend and her brother. Thalia had Iris Messaged us a couple hours later saying she's was flying into JFK and asking for information about the hospital. Finally, a doctor came over to us.
"Mr. and Mrs. Jackson?" he asked. We didn't correct him.
"Yes? Is my son alright?" Sally asked, clearly terrified.
"He's out of surgery. He and his girlfriend are in the recovery room now. Does his girlfriend have any family? I've got something I need to tell them," the doctor told us.
"It's just us, sir. It's highly unlikely her family is coming. You can tell us," Sally said. The doctor nodded.
"She received a serious spinal cord injury. It's highly likely she will be paralysed." he told us.
"Paralysed?" Sally asked, her voice choked. The doctor nodded.
"From what we can tell, it's just her legs, but she'll be in a wheelchair. It really doesn't seem like there is anything we can do. We tried our best , but there was nothing we could do," the doctor said sadly.
"Can we see them?" I asked. The doctor shook his head.
"Not just yet. As soon as they've left the surgery recovery rooms, a nurse will bring you to them. We'll put them in a double room in the ICU." he told us.