Mileven One-Shots

Car Accident

(Age: 19)

Mike was super excited to see El for the first time in months. Since she'd moved away, seeing each other was rare and they cherished every second. It was Christmas break, and Mike took advantage of the opportunity immediately to go see El.

He was driving down the road and pulled up to a stop light. There was no cross traffic, but of course, he had to stop anyway. He glanced in his rear view mirror and saw a car coming up behind him. No big deal. But the car didn't slow down. In fact, it was going way over the speed limit. The driver was drunk, and too busy jamming to music and he didn't notice Mike's car. He rear ended Mike at 70mph, sending his car into the intersection. Of course, a semi was coming and hit the passenger side of his car at 60mph, sending his car flipping repeatedly and flattening the driver's side. His car landed upside down in the ditch on the side of the road.

•••••

El was sitting outside on the porch next to Joyce, tapping her leg anxiously. Mike was supposed to be there already.

"Honey it isn't anything to worry about. Maybe he just got caught in traffic," Joyce said.

"Something is wrong...I can feel it...I'm going to check on him. Come with me," she said. She pulled Will and Jonathan into the living room with Joyce and made them all sit with her and she sat on the floor. She turned the TV static on and sat on the floor and tied a blindfold around her eyes, holding onto one of Mike's shirts.

There were paramedics, police, and firemen everywhere. One car was smashed in the front. There was a semi that was smashed in the front too. Then she walked towards the third car. It was smashed in the back and on both sides and was upside down in the ditch. Paramedics were cutting the seatbelt of the passenger. They pulled a body from the car and laid it on the ground. Mike.

She ran closer so she could see what was happening. A medic held his eyes open and shone a light in them and checked his pulse.

"He's alive! Get a gurney over here!" The medic shouted. He saw some medics rushing over from an ambulance with a gurney and when they put him on it she got a good look at him. He had a large wound on the side of his head that was bleeding, as well as several smaller cuts and a clearly broken arm. She could see the blood seeping through his shirt on his abdomen.

"We've got some severe head trauma, a broken arm, and some internal bleeding! We need to get him to the hospital ASAP!" The medic shouted as they put him in the ambulance.

"Mike? MIKE!" El cried.

"MIKE!" El cried, ripping her blindfold off. She jumped to her feet, wiping her nose and her eyes.

"El? El what's going on?" Joyce asked.

"They...oh my god they were pulling him from his car...it was upside down in a ditch...I h-heard them say something about head trauma and internal bleeding!" She cried, putting her shoes on quickly.

"What?! Oh god okay...let's get our stuff on and go guys!" Joyce said. They all quickly got their shoes on and ran out the door and El sat up front with Joyce. She held Joyce's hand, shaking and crying with fear of what she'd see when they got to the hospital. Joyce was speeding as fast as she could without getting pulled over. Before she even parked the car at the hospital, El jumped out and was running inside.

"I'm here to see Mike Wheeler!" She said, crashing into the counter to stop herself.

"Only family are allowed to see him right now. He isn't awake," the woman at the desk said. El discreetly moved the promise ring he got her from her middle finger on her right hand to her ring finger on her left hand.

"I'm his uh...wife. El...Wheeler," she said, showing the ring. The desk woman glared at El. Obviously she looked too young to be married. But the ring was obviously "evidence" because she gave El a visitor sticker. She walked quickly back to his room and she saw Karen, Nancy, Ted, and Holly outside the room in the chairs.

"Karen..." she said and started to cry.

"Hi honey..." she said and stood up, pulling El into a hug. El hugged Nancy too.

"How'd you get back here? They said family could only come back here," Nancy said, hugging her tight.

"That promise ring he got me..." El said and held up her left hand. "I pretended to be his wife."

They all forced a small laugh and she went to go into his room.

"It's rough, El...he's in critical condition..." Nancy said, grabbing her arm.

"I have to see him..." El choked. Nancy and Karen went in with her and El gasped and covered her mouth with her hand. He had tubes in his nose and throat, his head wrapped in a bandage with stitches and staples, stitches all over his face and arms and collarbone, his abdomen with stitches...he was broken.

"Mike..." El cried and stumbled over to his bed. She fell on her knees on the edge of his bed.

"Oh my god..." El sobbed, caressing his cheek that didn't have stitches on it.

"He's in bad shape. He's got serious brain trauma, a cracked skull, he had internal bleeding and broken ribs. His arm is broken..." Karen said.

"I know. I...I looked for him in the void and saw them taking him out of his car. I heard the medics as they loaded him into the ambulance..." El cried.

"He's comatose right now, sweetheart," Karen said. El's head shot up and she jumped off the bed.

"He's in a coma?" She cried.

"They don't know if he'll wake up or not right now..." Nancy said as tears fell down her face. El started to have a panic attack and fell on her knees and screamed.

"El..." Nancy cried and sank to the floor in front of her. Had she been there, she easily could've prevented this.

"El, hey just breathe with me okay?" Nancy said. Nancy forced El to look at her.

"Just breathe. In through your nose, out through your mouth. Deep breaths," Nancy said. El held her hands tight, making her fingers turn white, and followed Nancy's motions, calming down a bit.

"Better?" Nancy asked. El nodded and Nancy helped her to her feet.

"Excuse me, we're uh...going to run some tests," a doctor said. They made them leave the room and El kissed his forehead quickly.

"Come back to me..." she whispered in tears. They went back out to the main lobby where Joyce, Will, and Jonathan were. They all stood up at the sight of the family and El ran to Will's arms and sobbed into his chest. They'd gotten a lot closer since they'd lived together and had a lot more time to bond.

"Mike?" Joyce asked, hugging Karen. Nancy was crying in Jonathan's arms.

"He's in a um...he's in a coma..." Karen said and looked down, wiping tears from her eyes.

"A coma?!" Will and Jonathan said at the same time.

"Yes the um...the accident fractures his skull and caused damage to his brain...he had really bad internal bleeding and he can't breathe on his own..." Karen said, which only made El cry harder. They ended up having to leave because the visiting hours ended. So El went home and sat in her bed, waiting for the next day when she could go back to see him again.