Leave The City (Book 8 of Adopted by the Josephs)

40. Brendon

Sam's been in an accident. She was alive, but from the sounds of it, just barely. I'd been so angry with her, thinking she'd blown off curfew again and the whole time I'd been getting furious, she was trapped in a car, essentially dying. If the fire department had been just a few more minutes later, Sam wouldn't have made it. And I'd been sitting there assuming she was just late.

Her injuries were so extensive, they still didn't know if she'd survive. She was already in surgery when we got to the hospital. We didn't hear anything until eight in the morning when they were able to bring her up to a room in the ICU.

It was two am when the police came to tell us that Sam had been in an accident. And that it was bad. By then I'd moved to worry. I'd been frantic. Samantha wasn't answering her phone and wasn't home. And I'd been mad and didn't know she was trapped in a crushed car, waiting for the jaws of life to cut through Brandi's car to cut her out.

When we saw her in the ICU, she only had a small butterfly bandage on her forehead. Under the blankets, apparently, was another story. Tubes and wires snaked out from under her blankets. Blood was being replaced as it was being drained from her broken body. The internal bleeding had been so extensive and they'd had to take her spleen during surgery. And they still weren't sure she'd survive. We obviously had to call Tyler and Jenna. They had to come to California. They might need to say goodbye to their daughter.

Tyler and Jenna came immediately after we called. As "immediate" as flying across the country with two little kids can be. They arrived Saturday evening and I'd gone to bring them into the ICU where Sam was laying, broken, bruised, on life support and holding on tenuously to life.

Tyler and Jenna insisted we go home and get some sleep. Zack and Kala said they'd come, too and we'd take Rosie and Junie so they could sleep comfortably. I didn't want to leave the hospital. Sam wasn't expected to make it. I didn't want to leave her side, but her parents were here. And the staff, even knowing the prognosis, didn't want eight people in a room where they needed easy and immediate access to Sam if things went south.

"You look like hell, Bren," Zack said when I came downstairs the next morning. "Did you sleep at all?"

I saw he and Kala were feeding Junie and Rosie breakfast.

"No," I said, making a cup of coffee. "I'm heading to the hospital."

"Bren, wait.  We'll all go, but you can't go for another couple of hours, anyway," Zack said.

"Why not? If Sam's... if we, if she... I have to be there."

"Fine. But Tyler just called ten minutes ago and said they're taking Sam into surgery. One of the vessels they repaired, um, tore? She's bleeding internally again, and they need to go in and fix it."

"Then we need to be there now!" I said. "What if..?"

"She stayed stable all night until about five this morning. The doctors aren't expecting her to have any problem tolerating the surgery. They won't let us in while she's in surgery anyway."

I fixed my coffee and, looking at Zack, went out to my studio. I closed the door, put my coffee down and screamed.

"Why?!  Why is this happening?!  Why Sam?! Why us? Wasn't Jess enough?!"

"Bren?" I heard Sarah knocking on the studio door. I went and opened the door to see her standing out there with her arms around herself. I was afraid she'd come out here with bad news.

"What?" I asked, being careful not to seem angry or too nervous.

"Are you okay? Zack said you came out here after he told you about Sam's surgery."