Montana Sky

Chapter 2: Darkest Before The Dawn

And every demon wants his pound of flesh
But I like to keep some things to myself
I like to keep my issues strong
It's always darkest before the dawn
– Florence + the Machine: Shake It Out –

****

"Hey, hey, calm down." Kate laid a hand on Stefani's uninjured shoulder, pressed her gently back down onto the stretcher. "I'm Kate, I'm a paramedic; how are you feeling?"

The blonde ignored the question, still obviously clutched in the grips of acute panic and fear; Bradley carefully shook the sleeping Natali's arm to wake her, feeling the terrified green eyes burning a hole into him. The younger woman startled, lifted her head from his shoulder and Stefani's gaze shifted from him to her sister.

"Nat?"

"Stefi?" Natali whimpered in relief and Bradley had no doubt she had probably entertained all sorts of horror scenarios in her mind ever since the accident, of everything that could have happened; brain damage, memory loss and God knew what else. The beautiful abbreviation of the singer's name made him smile and Natali reached to grasp a firm hold of the blonde's hand. "Stefi, are you okay?"

Tears gathered into Stefani's huge eyes, her heart rate still fast, her breathing shallow and rapid. "Nat, what happened? Where are we? Who's that?"

"I'm Bradley," he responded before Natali had the chance to. "Bradley Cooper. You were in a car accident near my ranch, but you're going to be just fine; we're on the way to the hospital so you can be checked out properly."

She swallowed, her gaze tightly on him again and he couldn't help thinking she had probably the most gorgeous eyes he had ever seen. They reminded him of springtime in Montana, the nature coming to life and seeming to explode overnight in a stunning palette of green shades; the colour was now brought out even more by her tears and the faint traces of smudged makeup.

She took a deep breath, moaned in panic. "Oh God. Bobby? Bo? Are they...?"

"They're okay too; they'll be brought to the hospital in another ambulance," he said, assuming Bo was the other woman that had been involved in the accident; he hadn't caught her name at the site. Biting his lip, he leaned forward to touch the blonde's arm in a gesture he hoped would calm her, reassure her about both her own condition and that of her friends'. It clearly did the opposite, however; he had barely touched her when she yanked her arm further, eyes wide, cried out in pain, tears starting to flow down her face.

"I'm so sorry." Bradley retreated quickly, thinking he must really have managed to somehow hurt her; Kate frowned, observing the high numbers on the monitor with a slightly worried expression.

"You have to calm down, sweetheart, okay? Take a few deep breaths for me; do you have pain in your shoulder? You've broken your collarbone and there's some muscle damage as well."

Stefani's face constricted in what looked like terrible pain, sweat mixing with tears as they stained her cheeks, the monitor beeping even faster; Bradley was totally and utterly horrified by now as there was no way the shoulder alone could cause her this much agony. He felt completely helpless watching the woman in front of him suffering so badly, not knowing what the hell to do to even begin to help her.

"She's having a flareup; she has fibromyalgia and sometimes the pain is bad enough to make her pass out." Natali clutched her sister's hand tightly, gently pushed back damp blonde hair, shaking her head as Kate made a move to administer some pain relief. "No opioids; she doesn't want to take anything that could cause addiction. Stefi, I'm here; just focus on me, sissy, all right? Try to breathe through it, slow and steady."

Little by little the rapid beats on the monitor settled, replaced by a normal rhythm; Stefani closed her eyes, tried to regulate her breathing that was still quite panicked and fitful, eventually calming, her death grip of Natali's hand seeming to loosen. The city lights were finally coming into view and Bradley didn't think he had ever been this relieved to see them before; he didn't have a clue of what fibromyalgia was, but it sounded terrible and looked even more awful.