Finding Her

Chapter 1: The Fall

Chapter 1: The Fall

"Help! Someone help me!" I screamed in pain.

"I'm stuck, please help." my sobs grew quieter and quieter as the darkness enclosed me in their deathly grip.

JAMES

"Is anyone out there?" I called out. I saw a bike with no rider and I immediately became concerned.

I heard a groan. Turning my head I tried to source the sound, eventually, I found it. 

"Do you need any help? Are you hurt?" my eyes darted around frantically to find the person who was making the sound. In the grey of dawn, I saw a pale hand at the bottom of the ditch. 

Cautiously, I climbed down and came to a halt when I saw not only her hand but the pool of blood surrounding her head. Besides the gash on her head, she also had a rock that pinned down her leg, although the wound wasn't bleeding I did not try to remove the rock for fear that the rock may be blocking a severed a vein and that it would start bleeding profusely if I removed it.

"Oh shit," I swore silently. I reached down and checked for a pulse. Her pulse was steady but faint.

"Thank God" I let out a breath I hadn't even known I was holding. Immediately, I pulled out my phone and dialled 9-1-1.

"C'mon pick up, pick up," I said to myself

"9-1-1, what's your emergency?" the operator's voice finally came on the other line.

"Uh yes, I found this woman passed out in the hiking/biking range of Sterling Park she's in her late twenties by my guess" I rushed out the words into the phone

"What are her injuries sir?" the lady asked

"She has a gash on her head and her leg is pinned down by rock" I tried to stay calm as I talked to the operator. It's no use to spew gibberish into the phone

"Sir I don't want you to touch her okay?"

"Okay," I answered. 

"The ambulance will be right there with you." She paused "I' m gonna stay on the phone with you until they come alright"

"Alright," I replied. At this point in my life, I had never had to dial 9-1-1. 

Her eyes fluttered open briefly as the sirens drew near. Five minutes later the ambulance arrived and the EMTs got to work. They stabilized her neck and began to remove the rock that pinned her leg. My suspicions were right; as soon as they got the rock off of her leg blood started gushing out and spewing everywhere. The EMTs worked swiftly to control the bleeding and ten minutes later she was loaded on to the ambulance and I followed.

"Is she gonna be okay?" I asked one of the medics.

"We're going to take good care of your girlfriend sir" the medic replied, "she's gonna be just fine".

"She's not my girlfriend, I just found her while I was hiking" I answered. 

We got into the ambulance and I got a chance to truly study her. She was really pretty, she had caramel skin and almond-shaped eyes, I wonder what colour they were, probably rich dark chocolate or hazel. Long eyelashes graced her high cheekbones, she was a little pale but that was most likely because of the blood loss. 

My eyes scanned the rest of her and landed on her ring finger. 

"Hmm not married or engaged, but there was discolouration where a ring would've been. Divorced maybe?" He thought

We arrived at the hospital in record time. The trauma team were expecting us so they were all prepared. I sat out in the waiting room, it was now 6:45 a.m. I had to be getting to work soon I called my receptionist Kathleen and asked her to hold my calls for the morning and most of the afternoon.

TRAUMA DOCTOR

"Miss, can you follow the light with your eyes?" Slowly I passed the light in front of her eyes and nothing she didn't even blink.

"Ma'am can you understand me?" I held her hand and continued "If you can understand me, squeeze my hand." 

I repeated my previous question and she squeezed my hand. For a second time I flashed the light in her eyes and still no movement.

"We need to get her a CT scan to rule out haemorrhaging and brain damage," I called out to one of my nurses. It could just be a delayed response from the cut on her forehead.

"Alert the operating room, tell them be prepared with two pints of AB- stat." I kept on dictating instructions.

"Yes doctor." Another nurse answered

"Anyone locate her family?" I asked.

"She was adopted and both parents died in a fire last year and an ex-husband who's in jail at the moment," a young intern replied.

"So all she has is the guy who found her." Poor girl I thought alone in the world with no one to support her during her recovery.

JAMES

I didn't know what to do with myself, I wondered if she was okay. I mean if she wasn't someone would've been out here to tell me so, wouldn't they? As that thought passed through my mind a man in scrubs approached me.

"Nice going James, you jinxed it." I chided myself quietly

"Mr.....?" the doctor began clearly unaware of who I was

"Sullivan, James Sullivan" I filled in and stretched out my hand.

He took my hand and began speaking "Ah Mr. Sullivan well Shay's going to go in for a CT scan right now and she's going to need surgery on her leg to repair damaged nerves and tissue," the good doctor got right to the point.

So that's her name Shay. It's kind of nice, it rolls off the tongue. Then it hit me he mentioned a CT scan and surgery, I hope she's going to be okay.

"Why does she need the CT scan?" I asked. I wasn't knowledgable in medical procedures, but a CT scan did not sound like a good thing. 

"We just need to make sure everything is okay and that there's no swelling or bleeding on her brain." The doctor responded.

"Will she be okay?" Suddenly worried that she may not make it out of here alive. "How long will the surgery take?"

"I can't make any promises of that but we'll do our best." He looked sympathetically at me. "About 3 hours, a little more depending on the extent of the damage."

"Okay, thanks" I ran my hand through my hair

As the doctor turned and walked away I saw orderlies wheeling someone on white bloodstained sheets. That had to be Shay I thought to myself as I followed them. I walked with her as far as the doctors would let me, I sat in the waiting room and picked up a magazine. I got bored and decided to conduct some business to keep my mind off things and to stop worrying.

"Hi Kathleen" I said to my assistant

"Good morning sir." I could hear the smile in her voice "may I ask why you're not in the office today?"

"Oh yeah about that." I completely forgot to tell her the reason "I found this lady in a ditch on my usual hiking trail and I'm at the hospital right now she has to get a CT scan and have surgery on her leg, so I'm gonna be here for a while."

"Dear Lord" she gasped "I hope she's okay, you stay as long as you need to sir I'll hold down the fort."

"Me too Kathleen, me too" I hung up the phone

"I'm going to be here for a while," I said to myself "might as well get comfy." I sat on the most comfortable looking chair and sighed

I had been sitting there for about an hour and a half when I drifted off into a deep sleep.

Thanks for reading chapter 1 of Finding Her. 

Feel free to add a comment to let me know what you think. 

xoxo Ali