The Color of a Memory (The Color of Heaven Series) by Julianne MacLean Page A

sure they’ll be needing help at the hospital, so I might not be back for a while. I’ll call as soon as I know something.”
    With that I kissed Wendy on the forehead and hurried out the door.

 
    Chapter Twenty-five
     
    I arrived in the ER and I found Alex in the trauma room. He was lying on a backboard with a neck brace and had just been intubated.
    “What’s happening?” I asked. “What can I do?”
    Dr. O’Brien shot me a look. “You should wait outside, Audrey.”
    I stared at him with stricken eyes. “No. I need to be here. Let me help.”
    “No way,” he firmly said, then he paused, and his voice softened. “You can stay, but only if you stand back.”
    I quickly nodded and backed up against the door.
    My heart had been pounding with absolute terror since I left Cathy’s house. Now that I was here, I understood why Dr. O’Brien didn’t want my help. As I watched him work quickly and skillfully on my husband, my stomach burned and I feared I might be sick.
    “There’s a large contusion at the left temple,” Dr. O’Brien said, “and an open wound in the occipital area. There’s some movement with the bone so it looks like an open skull fracture.”
    I covered my mouth with a hand to keep from crying out because I knew how serious that was, and I was afraid they’d force me to leave if I became hysterical.
    I had thought, coming in here, that I could maintain my composure—I was well accustomed to urgent trauma cases—but this was very different. It was my husband on the table. My husband .
    “Mr. Fitzgerald,” Dr. O’Brien said, leaning over him. “Can you hear me? Can you open your eyes?”
    Alex offered no response.
    The doctor pressed on Alex’s nail beds and used his knuckles to bear down on his sternum. Again there was no motor response, not even any show of posturing.
    I watched as the team set up the portable X-ray machine and took pictures of Alex’s chest, pelvis, legs and C-spine. Both his legs had been shattered, but thankfully there was no internal bleeding, nor any damage to his spine.
    Dr. O’Brien addressed a nurse, Maureen, one of my closest friends in the ER. “We need to prep him for a CAT scan.”
    Just then, the clerk, Jeremy, pushed through the door. “We have three more traumas coming in, and we’re going to need all the help we can get.”
    Dr. O’Brien turned to me. “Can you keep it together, Audrey? Can you go with Jeremy?”
    “Yes, I’m fine, but why don’t I take Alex to the CAT scan?”
    “No,” he replied. “Maureen will do that, but you can help with the other traumas if you’re sure you’re up for it.”
    I heard sirens wailing outside the ER and watched the team rush out of the room. “I’m sure, but I’ll need to know what’s going on with Alex. Will you promise to keep me informed?”
    “I will.”
    I accepted his reply and forced myself to focus on the urgent cases that were about to land in the ER. Quickly I ran to change into a pair of scrubs.
    * * *
    One of the trauma cases turned out to be a coworker of Alex’s named Jim who had been a guest at our wedding. He was the least serious case—brought in for smoke inhalation and a broken collarbone—and he was able to relay some details about what happened to Alex.
    Jim said there were no flames in the area where Alex had been injured. He’d gone in looking for one of the other firefighters they’d lost contact with. Alex had found him in a restroom with a woman who was locked in a stall, petrified and refusing to come out.
    That’s when the ceiling collapsed on top of them. Alex had pushed the other firefighter out of the way when a steel girder came down. The woman was rescued, but they had to bring in the Jaws of Life to rescue Alex.
    As far as Jim knew, Alex had been knocked unconscious and hadn’t woken up, not even when they were pulling him out of the wreckage.
    * * *
    Though I maintained a professional focus for the next hour, in my mind I was screaming.
    “Any news?”