Page 88 of Reluctantly His

How dare God let this happen to Charlotte.

Of all the women in the world, why did he have to let this happen to mine?

I went from pleading for her life to threatening God himself in my head, promising to find a way to make him pay if she didn’t live.

It must have been less than five minutes before we were landing, and I carried Charlotte out of the helicopter and through the first hallway. The doctors met us in the middle of the second hallway, bursting through a set of double doors with a stretcher.

Immediately, I laid her down and let them examine her while they started to run toward an operating room.

I ran with them as I gave the details I had.

Everything: her heart rate, where the wounds were, how long they’d been like that, and approximately how much blood she lost. I even had her blood type and list of allergies memorized. She was allergic to a few medicines, nothing that seemed pertinent to what they would have to do, but I didn’t want to run any risks. I held her hand as we ran, not wanting to let go while she still had the strength to reach for me.

Outside the operating room, one of the doctors looked up at me with kind eyes and said, “Honey, we’ve got it from here. I need you to stay back here and let us do our job. Someone will come get you as soon as there is news about your wife.”

My wife.

Not yet, but soon.

“Don’t make me leave her.”

“You aren’t leaving her. You are letting the professionals do their job. You slowed her bleeding and got her to us fast enough that I am sure you saved her life. We will do everything we can to bring her back to you.”

The doctor spoke with such authority, I had to believe she would save Charlotte.

“Thank you,” I said and dropped to my knees. I felt exhausted as the adrenaline suddenly left my body.

The kind of exhaustion you only feel after a long, stressful mission.

I found an empty chair and stayed where I was in that hall, covered in Charlotte’s blood as I watched her disappear behind the next set of double doors.

There was nowhere to go, nothing I could do until I knew she would live.

This was the worst part: not knowing and not being able to control what happened.

It felt like if I was in that room, if I was in control, I could make sure she lived.

The hard truth was she needed someone who wasn’t me. Someone else had to save her. Her life was in someone else’s hands, and I didn’t have the skills to be the one to save her.

I wasn’t there to protect her.

After a moment, a nurse came by to make sure none of the blood on me was mine and tried to point me to a waiting room when I heard my name.

“Reid, where is she?” Hunter’s voice came echoing down the hall. He was on a stretcher but trying to get off while two large male nurses tried to restrain him.

“Lie down and let the medics take care of you,” I ordered.

“No, I failed you. Where is she?” His eyes trailed over my body, and I knew he saw how bad she was by how much of her blood I was wearing.

“She is being taken care of. Let them take care of you.” I tried to get Hunter to lie back.

“No, she has to be okay first. I was supposed to keep her safe. I failed.” Hunter was damn near delirious as the nurses tried to force him to stay in the bed.

“Sir, please calm down.”

“Hunter,” I yelled, making him stop and look at me. “She will be fine. Charlotte may look like a tiny little thing, but she is strong. You did right by her. You called me and I got back up there in time to save her life.”

“But I should have…”

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