Page 8 of Sparking Sara

“I’ll show you up to the ICU where Sara is now,” he says as we wait for the elevator. “But I’m afraid I don’t have much information. Obviously, she has a head injury. She never regained consciousness and I’m sure she’s heavily sedated now, so she won’t wake up until she’s weaned off the meds. With an injury like hers, it’s a wait-and-see game. And things will get worse before they get better.”

“I figured. Her head injury looked pretty bad from what I could tell at the scene. What about her other injuries?”

“She didn’t appear to have any,” he says.

I stare at him. “What? That’s not possible. She was sardined in the passenger seat. The car buckled in around her.”

He shrugs. “Well, I guess that’s the silver lining then.”

I shake my head in amazement, thinking back to the way she was trapped between the door and the console. “That’s unbelievable.”

“Here we are,” he says, motioning to a room encased with glass so she’s visible from the nurses’ station.

I look into the room and my heart sinks into my stomach. There are a half-dozen machines around the head of the bed. There are tubes coming out of her mouth, wires attached to her chest, and an IV in her arm. She appears to be naked with only a sheet covering her from her pelvic area to her collarbones, and the side of her head and face are still stained with blood. But what gets me the most is that there is nobody else in the room with her. No doctors. No nurses. No family.

It guts me to see her like this. It would gut me to seeanyonelike this. Alone and possibly dying.

“Where is everyone? Why hasn’t she been cleaned up yet?”

“Well, there isn’t much we can do until the swelling in her brain goes down,” Dr. Stone says. “And cleaning her up has the potential to cause further trauma, so it will be done carefully and meticulously by a neurosurgeon who just hasn’t been able to do it yet. He may be able to give you more information when the family gets here.”

I step back in surprise. “They’re not here yet? It’s been hours.”

“Maybe they have to come in from out of town,” he says.

“Nobody’s been here to see her?” I ask.

“No. I’ve been down in the ER all night. You’re the first person to ask about her.”

“So she’s all alone,” I say in irritation. “Without even a nurse in there.”

“We have lots of patients to attend to, Mr. Andrews. I assure you she’s getting the best care possible.”

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean anything. I just keep thinking about …”my parents, I almost say. I haven’t stopped thinking about them since I was at the scene of Sara’s accident. But I bite my tongue. “I keep thinking that Sara is someone’s daughter. Someone’s sister. I can’t imagine my sister lying in a hospital. Alone. If anything like this ever happened to Aspen …”

Dr. Stone nods in realization. “That’show I know you. You’re Aspen’s brother. I was at her wedding. My wife is Caden Kessler’s sister. From the Nighthawks?”

“Oh, of course,” I say, vaguely remembering him from the reception. “Your daughters were the flower girls, right?”

“One of them tried to steal the show,” he says, laughing.

“I remember.”

“How are Aspen and Sawyer liking Kansas City?”

“A little too much,” I say. “I was hoping they’d end up back here, but I doubt that will happen.” I look back into Sara’s room. “So, do you think it would be okay if I sit with her? You know, just until her family arrives.”

“I think that would be fine. Don’t be afraid to talk to her. Just because she’s under sedation doesn’t mean she can’t hear you. There is no guarantee she can, but it’s possible.”

“What do I say?”

“Just tell her everything will be okay.”

“Even though it might not be?”

He nods. “Yeah, even though it might not be.”

His pager goes off. “I’ve got to get back downstairs. It’s nice to see you again. If I get a minute, I’ll check back on her later.”

---