It was close to midnight and the group still had not heard anything from Emma. No one could sleep so they just sat in Nick’s living room, quiet and scared; there was nothing to say that could make anyone feel better about the situation.
As it got closer to one, Addie’s cell phone started to buzz and she answered it immediately. The person on the other line must have started talking as Addie started crying with a smile on her face. The others knew that it must have been good news and they listened to the part of the conversation they could hear.
“Where is she?” Nick asked as Addie continued to talk. “Where’s Emma?”
Addie ignored him as he asked several more times and he finally lost it.
“Goddamit Addie, where the hell is she?” he roared.
Addie was taken aback and immediately gave Nick the name of a local hospital; he grabbed his keys and was out the door before anyone could stop him. He was not interested in anyone’s pleas to slow down or to stay until later in the morning; he had to see Emma and make sure that she was truly okay.
He drove as slowly as he could stand and all the emotions that had built up felt like a dam just on the verge of breaking. The thoughts that he may never see her again, or apologize for their argument, drove him crazy. He needed to see her and apologize for what he said and how he acted; he didn’t even care if she forgave him or if she never wanted to see him, he just needed her to know how sorry he was.
It felt like forever before he reached the hospital; whipping into a space and jerking his keys out of the ignition, he charged into the emergency room. The attendant stopped him to see who he was looking for and, when he gave them Emma’s name, he was directed to a room towards the back; he reached it quickly and was brought to tears by what he saw.
Emma was pale, unmoving and was covered with compresses; there was an IV in one of her hands and a bandage over part of her forehead. When Nick reached out for one of her hands, he almost recoiled from how cold it seemed. He was struggling with holding back his tears and he didn’t hear the nurse when she first called out to him.
“Hello?” the nurse called again. “Hello?”
Nick turned around and saw the woman standing there by her bed.
“I’m sorry,” he replied with wet eyes, “I didn’t hear anyone come in.”
“It’s okay, I know seeing your girlfriend like this must be hard.”
Nick didn’t bother correcting her and asked her immediately if she was going to be okay.
“There are no medical guarantees I can give you, but your girlfriend is one tough cookie.”
“Feisty.”
Nick whispered under his breath and when the nurse asked what he said, he explained that his brother had given her that nickname when they first met and it had stuck.
“She sure lived up to that today. From what the police and plow driver said, she pried open the jeep door, she climbed up an embankment, walked for a half mile, slipped down an embankment, climbed up again and made it up to the road before she passed out.”
Nick paled as he listened to the nurse explain what Emma had had to go through and the realization hit him hard that she could really have died out there.
“Who found her?” he asked when he was able to speak again. “How did they find her?”
“She got a lucky break; she couldn’t have seen it from her view because of the storm, but she collapsed right in front of the dirt driveway of one of our local plow drivers. The woman pulled her out of the snow and drove her straight here because she knew the ambulance would be no match for the snow but her truck would make it.” the nurse explained. “She’s a real nice lady and her name is Della.”
Nick choked back his tears and knew that someone had been looking down on her today and it would be no surprise that she was rescued from someone with the same name as the one she rescued.
“Is there anything I can get you?”
Nick shook his head and watched as the nurse checked Emma’s vitals. He asked about the compresses and the IV and the nurse explained that they were giving her warming injections and trying to raise her body temperature slowly so that she wouldn’t be traumatized any further. She told Nick that he could stay with her and let him know that if he needed anything, to just come find her.
He thanked her and pulled out his phone after she left; he quickly relayed everything to AJ and then hung up so he could focus all his attention on Emma. Pulling a chair up to her bedside, he sat down and started praying to whoever could hear him that she would be okay.
Last Chance by Kyrie
