Remember

Chapter 27

A machine beeping wakes me up. I'm laying in a hospital bed. The only reason I know it's not serious is that I'm still in my clothes, and there are no wires attached to me. I slowly sit up, and a nurse walks in.

"Gerry?" I ask immediately

"Later" she replies. She examines something on my head, applies a bandage, and let's me get up.

"You have a minor concussion, and several broken ribs." She tells me. "You're on some serious pain killers, so don't go driving or anything."

I nod, and she opens the door for me to leave. She follows behind and helps me get to the waiting room, where half the team is waiting for me.

Alan jumps up and wraps his arms around me.

"Ow" I comment, feeling the pain in my broken ribs. He loosens his grip, and rests his forehead on mine.

"How bad is it?" He asks.

"Minor concussion. Broken ribs." I shrug it off. "Where's Gerry?"

He looks confused and takes a step back. "You mean, you didn't see him back there?"

My mom bursts in and pushes past Alan. "Carrie? Baby? Are you okay?" She asks, a shrill tone in her voice.

"I'm fine mom" I assure her. I walk over to coach Yoast, who is sitting in a chair. "Coach where's Gerry?"

He points back to where I came from. The hospital rooms. I burst back into there, despite several complaints from the nurses. I reach the room he's in, a nurse just leaving. "Let me in" I beg her.

"He's not seeing anybody right now" she tells me.

"He'll see me, he's my sister." I say desperately

"No, I mean he's still unconscious." She says

"Well, how bad is it?" I ask her, my voice trembling."I mean, the truck hit us on his side, and I have broken ribs and a concussion. Maybe he was lucky and/"

"He's paralyzed from the waist down." The nurse interrupts me.

I gasp and cover my mouth. I take a few steps back and shake my head in disbelief. The nurse puts her arm around me and leads me back to the waiting room.

All the seats are taken, so Alan scoots over and I squeeze in next to him. He wraps his arm around me and I lean my head on his shoulder. I'm still in shock about the whole situation. I could barely process the fact that Gerry and I had been hit by a car. It felt like a bad dream.
My mom notices Alan and I, but she doesn't have the will to say anything right now. She just sits with Yoast, waiting for more news from the nurse.

Julius bursts in, and sees me crying.

"Are you okay?" He asks me, crouching down to talk to me.

"Minor concussion, broken ribs. Its nothing , really." I assure him. It really is nothing, compared to Gerry's paralyzation. I'm wracked with more sobs.

Boone walks over and talks quietly with Julius. He must tell him the news, because Julius breaks down in tears.

"Sorry Mrs. Bertier." He cries. "Sorry Caroline."

"Julius Campbell?" The nurse asks, walking in.

Julius walks over, and she leads him into the patient rooms.

A minute later, she comes back and calls me.

I walk into the room, and see Gerry, all bruised up, with s bandage across his head.

"Oh thank god you're okay." He says in relief.

"Gerry" I say in disbelief

"Hey, I don't want no pity, you hear?" He says pointedly

"It should've been me." I shake my head. "6you use your legs more then I do."

"Hey don't worry about it." Gerry says assuringly. "If it were you, I wouldn't be able to forgive myself."

I laugh a little. "That's true."

I hand him a small pamphlet I found in the waiting area.

"What is this?l" he asks

"It's information, about things you can do in wheelchairs." I tell him. "There are olympics."

He looks up at me with a large smile in his face.
"Caroline, you're a genius."