Heartbeats Away From Disaster

"Damn it," I growled, "I said I'm fine." I insisted as I tried to sit up, but the nurse placed a firm hand on my shoulder, pushing me back down to the bed.

"Sir, you need to have an MRI," she said, "you were found unconscious at the scene of the accident, it's quite possible that you have a concussion, and we want to make sure that there are no other serious internal injuries."

"My name's Craig," I mumbled, "not 'sir'. And I don't have time for this; I need to go and make sure my girlfriend is okay."

"Was your girlfriend in the car with you?" The nurse questioned as she scribbled some notes down in what I assumed was my chart.

"No," I sighed, "she was at the bank. She's the girl who," I paused momentarily, swallowing down the lump in my throat as the fear washed across me once again, "the girl who was being held at gunpoint." I whispered.

"Oh," The nurse said in an offhanded tone.

"Have you heard anything about her?" I asked hurriedly. "Do you know what's going on?"

"I'm sorry sir," she replied, giving me a sorry look, "I haven't heard anything."

At that moment, another nurse came into the room pushing a wheelchair. "Alright Mr. Owens, lets take you to get your MRI taken care of."

"But - "

"No protests, Mr. Owens," she interrupted me, "the sooner you cooperate with us, the sooner you can leave."

Though I frowned to myself, I chose not to say anything else but rather got up and made sure that my hospital gown was covering me completely before I sat down in the wheelchair. The nurses exchanged a few more words between themselves before the second nurse wheeled me down the hallway and to the elevator. While we waited for the elevator, I couldn't help but sigh impatiently.

"Am I right to say that you were the young man whose girlfriend was the young lady involved in the hostage situation at the bank?" The nurse asked quietly.

"Yes." I muttered. "Last I heard, she was being held at gunpoint. I was on my way to the bank when the person in the other vehicle ran a red light and hit me."

"I'm sorry, Mr. Owens," she said softly, "I can't possibly imagine how bad you want to get out of here, but I'm afraid that it's against the law to discharge you without the doctors consent."

"I just wish that I knew what was going on." I replied quietly. "No one seems to know what the hell happened at the bank, no one's heard anything." I paused momentarily before I asked, "have you heard anything?"

"I'm sorry, Mr. Owens," she repeated, "I haven't heard anything."

With that, the elevator doors opened and before long I found myself inside of the MRI, listening while it took high tech pictures of my insides. Time passed by sluggishly slow, and by the time I was back in my room I felt as if I were going to have a panic attack if I didn't hear anything about Mitzi. I didn't have my cell phone on me so I couldn't call one of the guys, and since I hadn't been admitted into the hospital, the room I was in didn't have a regular phone.

Eventually, the doctor came into my room, packing my chart with him, only to tell me that I was perfectly fine and that I was free to go as soon as the nurse brought my belongings in to me. After that he excused himself, and about a minute or two later, the nurse who had taken me to get my MRI came back into the room, packing a bag that contained my belongings.

"Here you are, Mr. Owens," she said, "I do hope that your girlfriend is alright."

I replied with a faint 'thank you' and then took my things from her. When she left, I quickly changed my clothes and grabbed my phone, checking to see if I had any missed calls. I frowned and muttered a few choice words when I saw that my phone had been turned off, so I wasn't able to tell if anyone had called me.

Exiting the room, I shoved my phone into my pocket and made my way toward the exit. Turning from the hallway and into the waiting room, I stopped myself short when I saw Matt pacing the room, looking as if he were too preoccupied to even notice me.

At that moment, I wasn't sure if Matt was actually here because he knew I was in an accident. I don't know if the hospital would have notified him if I had gotten into an accident; if they had called anybody, it would have been Mitzi, seeing as how she was my 'person', the one who I asked them to notify if anything happened to me. Throughout the years I've made a lot of trips to the hospital for the various idiotic things I've done, and each and every single time it was Mitzi who they had called. Not my mom. Not my grandparents. Not Matt. Just Mitzi.

Trying my hardest to swallow down the lump that had suddenly appeared in my throat, I slowly made my way toward him, and then cleared my throat to get his attention.

He stopped in his tracks, and then looked up at me. "Craig." He said shakily, "have you heard if ... " he trailed off, unable to continue.

"Have I heard if ... what?" I asked slowly.

Matt tilted his head to the side slightly, giving me a confused look. "You haven't heard?" He asked. "But ... what are you doing here then? Where did you go after I called you?"

"I got t-boned on the way to the bank." I explained, "They brought me here, what happened to Mitzi?" I demanded.

"Craig," Matt said quietly, "they brought Mitzi here too; she was shot in the chest. The only thing that the nurses would tell me was that she was still in surgery. They said that they couldn't tell me anymore unless you were here."

"But ... " I trailed off, shaking my head frantically as if I were waking myself from a bad dream. My pulse raced as I thought about the girl who held my heart in the palm of her hand lying on an operating table, struggling to hold on while the doctors raced to save her life. I legs felt weak as the room started to spin, and I collapsed onto a nearby chair. Burying my face in my hands, I felt the tears start to fall down either side of my face. "Oh my God, I can't lose her Matt." I cried softly. "I can't live in a world where she doesn't exist, I wouldn't know how to."

"Craig." Matt's voice seemed distant, like he was calling to me from across the room even though he was just right next to me. "Craig, I'm going to go tell one of the nurses that you're here; they'll probably come out and give you an update on how Mitzi is."

I heard his footsteps fade away, leaving me to my own horrific thoughts. Silently, I cried to myself, unable to control my emotions.

I jumped slightly when I heard Matt's voice once again and I wiped my eyes before I looked up and found a lady who looked to me a scrub nurse standing just in front of me.

"Mr. Owens," she said, nodding her head in greeting, "I understand that you are Ms. Carter's next of kin?"

"I'm her boyfriend," I said quietly, "her parents are dead, so yes, I am." I hesitated slightly before I asked, "how is she?"

"The bullet punctured her left lung and caused a lot of damage," the nurse explained, "we were able to remove the bullet and stop the bleeding. Right now we're working to repair the tissue damage. She lost a lot of blood but we were able to get her back on track with a blood transfusion."

"Is she going to be alright?" I asked slowly. "Will there be any long term damage?"

The nurse shifted slightly before she replied, "at this point in time, she seems as if she will be perfectly fine, Mr. Owens. She's been responding very well to everything, and once we had gotten a blood transfusion started on her, her vitals have been looking great. With plenty of rest, she should be able to make a full recovery."

I nodded my head, and took a deep breath as most of the weight fell off of my shoulders. "Thank you." I whispered.

"Well, don't thank me just yet, Mr. Owens," the nurse said, "we're not quite done yet. You can thank me as soon as we get her sewn up and into her recovery room."

"Take care of her." I demanded. "I'm gonna marry that girl someday, take care of her."

The nurse nodded her head and gave me a soft smile. "I'll watch out for her, Mr. Owens."

With that, the nurse turned around and disappeared back into the hallway, presumably headed back into the OR, leaving the waiting room empty except for myself and Matt. Before long, the rest of the guys came in, as well as Dee, and they took seats around us. Matt explained to them what was going on, while I continued to sit there, tears falling randomly down my face.

I scarcely heard what anybody was saying to me; I was off in my own little world, praying to whoever wanted to listen that Mitzi would be alright. True, the nurse said that she looked good, given the situation, but there were still so many things that could go wrong. I tried to stay positive, but it seemed to take so much energy to accomplish that.

It seemed like an entire day had passed before a surgeon came into the room. Seeing the scrub nurse who had talked to me earlier walking behind him, I quickly stood to my feet as they approached.

"How is she?" I asked. "Is she alright?"

Both the surgeon and nurse smiled in response. "You'll be happy to hear that Ms. Carter has made is safely through surgery and is now in the recovering room. The surgery went smoothly and I expect her to make a fully recovery. She has a breathing tube for right now because of the fact that her left lung had just gone through extensive surgery. Not to worry, she won't have it for too long."

"Can I go and see her?" I asked hurriedly.

"She's asleep right now," he replied, "but you can go ahead and wait in there for her to wake up."

"Can we come too?" Jason asked quietly.

"I'm afraid that they only allow two visitors at a time." The nurse said.

"Well, we can take turns just peaking in there or something," Derrick said quietly, "and then Craig and Matt can stay here with her."

Silently, our group followed the nurse as she led the way to Mitzi's room. About fifteen minutes later, after everyone had came in to see Mitzi, it was just Matt and I sitting in her room, waiting restlessly for her to wake up. Like a majority of the day had been, the time ticked slowly away. Not really knowing what to do, I sat by Mitzi's bed holding tightly to her hand while I watched the sun set through the window.

I felt my eyelids trying to close, and I tried my hardest to keep them open. I wanted to be awake when Mitzi woke up. I wanted to be the first person she saw when she opened her eyes. I wanted her to know that I was here the entire time. Yawning to myself, I tightened my hand around Mitzi's and then looked back to her.

It was hard seeing her hooked up to so many machines, especially the breathing tube. I wasn't use to seeing her so helpless like this. It reminded me of how she was when Lyle had flipped out on her, the memory of which still killed me.

I reached up and ran my fingertips gently down the side of her face. When she didn't respond in any way, I sighed quietly to myself and then glanced across the room to where Matt was curled up in his chair, already fast asleep.

Looking back to Mitzi, I studied her sleeping face for a while, urging her mentally to open her eyes, even just a flutter. I took a deep breath and let it out slowly before I leaned over and pressed my lips to forehead gently.

"I love you, Mitzi." I whispered. "I'm right here; I'm not going anywhere sweetheart."

As I made a move to pull away from her, I jumped slightly when I felt her hand tighten ever so slightly around mine.

"Mitzi?" I asked softly, "baby, can you hear me? Can you open your eyes?"

Slowly, her eyelids opened just enough to focus on me before they closed once again. Once more she squeezed my hand, tighter this time.

I raised her hand to my cheek and held it there as my emotions once again got the best of me. "Oh God, Mitzi, I was so scared." I whispered. "I thought I was going to lose you. I love you, sweetheart."

Mitzi's eyelids fluttered slightly before she opened them once again. This time they remained open and focused on me.

"I'm not going anywhere," I promised her, "I'm right here sweetheart."

With that Mitzi squeezed my hand, her hazel eyes shining bright despite the fact that she had just woken up from a major surgery. From that point on, I knew that everything was going to be alright. Mitzi was a fighter, and she was stubborn; she wasn't going anywhere any time soon.