Saving a life

Trip to the ER

It was a normal morning... well, as normal as we could have in this house. Sollux crawled out of bed later than usual (I had convinced Nep to let him sleep) he looked like he had been hit by a truck, but that's what he gets for drinking so much. I looked at his slumped over form and smirked, "Look who's finally joined the world of the living." He just glared at me and whispered "I thwear to God KK I don't want to deal with your thit right now." He places a hand on his head and massaged his temples, I thought about just leaving him alone... but what's the fun in that? "So fuckass you don't want to hear about how you cried like a baby when I tried to put you to bed last night?" I began to laugh, his glare gets more intense. A small voice interrupts my teasing "HI BEE!" Neppy tells excitedly, I see Sollux visibly wince from the outburst, I try to hold back my laughter. "Morning honey bee," he says tiredly. I take pity on my dumbass best friend and hand him a glass of water and 2 Advil's, taking care of people kind of became second nature to me once becoming a dad, he smiled gratefully as he took the water and swallowed the pills. I spent the rest of the morning recounting the events from last night to dear Sollux, I laughed as he scowled in embarrassment and Neppy happily ate her waffles.
After breakfast it was time to get her ready to go to the park, I put on her in brown shorts with a plain white t shirt and a dark green jacket with her Velcro sneakers, it was almost April and was starting to warm up a lot, because of the warm weather we decided to take her to the park. After I got her dressed, the three of us piled into my car. "Wow thith really ith a pieth of thit KK," I scowled "Fuck you dickwad! It's not like your bright yellow Jetta is any better!" He shrugged, which only annoyed me more. The rest of the ride was full of Nepeta's babbling about pictures she drew and her favorite topic of the moment, what she wanted for her birthday, it was 3 months away on July 24th, and she was so excited to be 3. "When I'm a big guwl I'm gonna weach up high and wead big books and juwmp weally weally high!" She babbled on excitedly, me and Sollux shared a smile, that was our girl, always excited about something.
I pulled into the parking lot of our local playground, Sollux got Neppy out of the car and we made our way to the playground. For the next couple hours we chased her around the grass, had slide races, built castles (more like piles) in the sandbox, and when we got tired we sat down and had a picnic. I passed out the peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for me and Nep, and one peanut butter and honey for Sollux, God He was such a fucking weirdo. We ate while Nepeta pointed out shapes in the clouds. I smiled to myself, I'll never know how so much happiness could've been brought to my life by one person, it's hard to believe that only 5 months ago I was probably sitting on my couch wallowing in self pity about some dumb shit that doesn't matter anymore.
After lunch Nepeta ran around to play more while Sollux and I watched carefully, at one point she walked up to us and begged for me to push her on the swings, and of course I couldn't say no to her, so before I knew it I was lifting her onto the swing and pushing her. She squealed in delight and kept yelling "Higher Kat higher!" Even though she had asked me to be her dad, she still called me Kat, it was like a special nickname just for me, as I was lost in thought, a loud THUD! Followed by a high pitched cry brought me back into reality. I looked and I saw Nepeta on the ground screaming with tears rolling down her face clutching her arm to her small body, I darted toward her yelling for Sollux, when he saw he started running towards us. I picked her up and cradled her, she couldn't speak through all the tears, it broke my heart. "It's gonna be okay sweetheart I promise," Oh my God I fucked up so bad, this is all my fault, I should've been paying attention, I shouldn't be a dad, oh my god, look what I've done! "KARKAT!" Sollux yelled, bringing me back to reality once again, "I called FF, we need to bring NP to the ER." I only nodded as we ran to the car, Sollux got in the drivers seat as I slid in the back still cradling Nep in my arms while she cried. "I'm so sorry sweetheart, I'm so so sorry," I said as a stray tear rolled down my face, she couldn't hear me because she was still screaming in pain, after a few minutes her screaming stopped and I saw her eyes roll into the back of her head as she fell into a state of unconsciousness, I began screaming at her to wake up, tears rolled down my cheeks as I spiraled into panic.
The drive was only 10 minutes, but it was way too fucking long for my liking, I spent the majority of it yelling at Sollux for not going fast enough. We ran inside, I yelled for anyone to help me. A couple of nurses in blue scrubs took her from my arms while another asked me what happened, I explained that she fell off the swing at the park, and they took her, leaving me and Sollux alone in the waiting room.
I began to cry my fucking eyes out, I was screaming at Sollux for taking too long and yelling at the doctors for not telling us anything, but I was really just angry at myself. Sollux looked me in the eyes, his Bowie eyes holding a hint of sadness, said "KK it'th not your fault, it'th happened to a lot of people." I looked at him and said, "I'm supposed to be better, I was supposed to be her second chance, and I zoned out when I should've been fucking watching her... I'm not fit to be a dad, I can't keep her safe from me. I don't want to punish her for my failure, she deserves better. I don't deserve her..." my voice trailed off, Sollux wrapped his dumb skinny arms around me and whispered, "Things like this happen, it doesn't mean it's your fault or that you aren't fit to take care of her, and my mom once told me that sense of fear, is what being a parent is." I wiped my eyes with my sleeve, "When did you get smart Captor?" He smirked, "I've alwayth been KK, you're jutht too fucking stupid to notice." I hit him upside the head and he put his arm around me. We sat for almost 43 minutes (not like I was counting or anything) before a doctor came out, "Well Mr. Vantas, Once she woke up we did some X-rays, she has a hairline fracture in her left wrist, so we'll have to put it in a cast for 8 weeks. She lost consciousness due to dehydration which was escalated by the crying, losing more water than she had, so we hooked her up to an IV line to give her some fluids and gave her a small dose of pain medication, we want to keep her overnight just to get her hydrated. Tomorrow morning she'll be able to go home." I sighed in relief, "Can I go see her now?" I asked eagerly, the doctor nodded and led us down the hall to where Neppy was.