That Last Little Spark

Bam pulled the car into the parking garage and yanked his bag out of the backseat, whistling to himself. He was excited to spend the next few days with Jess. The last time he was in the city was for the Jackassworld takeover, and that really didn't give him any time to see the city.

Suddenly he was blinded by red and blue lights flashing on top of the police cars in front of the building, and lights flashing on an ambulance behind the police cars.

His stomach twisted into knots and he felt cold. He had reached the door when two police officers pushed through...escorting Chase in handcuffs. Chase's eyes suddenly locked onto Bam's and he sneered, like there was some big party inside that he had missed out on.

Bam flung the front door open and looked around the lobby, but he didn't see anything except for a bloody footprint on the floor, which was being photographed. He ran to the elevators, furiously pushing the button for the seventh floor.

The doors couldn't open fast enough when he was on the right floor. His heart and stomach dropped when he saw that Jess' apartment door was open and police officers and paramedics were walking in and out.

"Where is she?!" he exclaimed when he was stopped in the doorway. Broken glass was everywhere and pools and smears of blood dotted the floor. A gun was lying on the counter.

"Relax." someone said.

"No! Tell me where she is!" he yelled.

"She's being taken to Bellvue. She's not seriously hurt, but she's shaken. We couldn't get any information out of her about what happened. Are you related to her?" an officer asked as Bam ran back to the elevators.

"She's my girlfriend." Bam whispered. They spent the rest of their time in silence as the officer drove him to the hospital. The car hadn't even stopped before Bam was running through the front doors.

"Jessica Walker?" he panted. The officer ran through the doors after him.

"Geez, boy. Where'd you learn to run so fast?" the officer asked.

"She's back in emergency." the nurse at the station pointed down the hall. Bam took off in the direction she was pointing and ran right back to the emergency wing.

"Jessica Walker?" he asked again to a nurse sitting at her station, organizing files or something. She calmly reached for a clipboard and shuffled through some papers.

"Black hair, brown eyes? About 5'7?" she asked.

"Did something happen to her?" his heart dropped even further.

"We couldn't get a last name out of her." the nurse looked over at a curtain drawn across a room. "Wait here, please." she stood up and crossed the hall, sticking her head inside the room. She walked back over, nodding her head.

"You can see her in a few moments. Dr. Parker's almost done." she sat back down. As if on cue, a female doctor pushed the curtain aside and squeezed Jess' shoulder kindly as she left the room, nodding at the nurse who stayed behind.

Bam stared numbly at Jess as she sat on the table. White gauze was wrapped around the bottoms of both of her feet and cuts crisscrossed her shins and knees. He could sort of see more gauze on the palms of her hands, too. Her hair hung down in front of her face as if to form a curtain. Then he noticed the nurse was picking through the material on her dress and dropping things into a small plastic container.

"You can go see her now, you know." the nurse looked up at him. He slowly walked across the hallway and into the room.

"Just be careful how you move. There's still pieces of glass in there. I think we got all of the big pieces out but it's the really tiny pieces that are the worst. Just shake it out when you get home and wash it a few times." The nurse instructed, squeezing her shoulder just like the doctor had done.

Jess finally looked up when Bam cleared his throat. She looked like she had been a riot victim. Her face and eyes appeared to lack emotion but she looked terrified and relieved at the same time

Then she weakly reached out her arms and he came back to life. He sat on the table with her and wrapped his arms around her. She shuddered and tightened her grip on his jacket as she buried her face in his shoulder.

“Ms. Walker?” the female doctor Bam had seen earlier walked back into the room with her clipboard of papers. Jess looked up.

“The results came back clean.” the woman smiled.

“I know...I told you nothing happened.” Jess answered, her voice rough and scratchy.

“I know, but we wanted to double check. The cuts on your legs should fade within a week, and you should be able to take the gauze off of your hands by tomorrow night. If I were you, I would leave it on your feet until the wedding.” she advised. Jess looked down at the cuts on her legs in disgust.

“If you want, I can give you this medicated gel that will prevent scarring. Use it once to twice a day and they should heal up nicely. You can use it on your hands and feet as well.” she gave a small plastic bottle to Jess. She simply nodded and turned the bottle over in her hands.

“And I’ve just gotten word that your apartment is all cleaned up for you to return. But I do suggest going down to file a police report tomorrow.” the doctor continued. Jess nodded once and looked down at the floor again.

“You wanna go?” Bam whispered into her hair. She nodded again and slid off the table. Then Bam heard what could only be described as a tiny tinkling bell sound.

“Oh! Hold on, Ms. Walker!” the doctor suddenly set down her clipboard and knelt down behind Jess with a pair of gloves on. Bam watched again as she started pulling things out of it. Then he saw the doctor drop tiny pieces of glass into a container on a table.

“What...what happened?” he asked. Suddenly he remembered: the glass coffee table. His blood boiled through his veins.

“He...he...” he trailed off, his hands shaking. Jess weakly shook her head.

“No,” she said. “I put him through the table.” she gave a bitter laugh. “$300 for that something I never wanted anyway.”

“I’d rather it be the table than you.” Bam thought to himself. But he never said it, he only wrapped his arm around her shoulders. After a few more minutes, the doctor stood once more.

“That should be it. You can sign yourself out whenever you want.” she smiled gently and then left the room, vanishing into the rush of the rest of the emergency wing.

“We should go. Someone might need this room.” Jess looked up at Bam with tired eyes. He stared back at her for a second in shock. After everything she had been through, she was still putting others before herself. He nodded and together they walked up to the front entrance.

“Excuse me! Excuse me, please! Everyone out of the way!” a nurse came flying down the hallway in front of a stretcher. A girl was lying on it, her head shaking back and forth and groaning in pain through an oxygen mask. Blood stained the front of her shirt and trickled from cuts on the side of her head.

“Andrea Anne Rose, age 19. Shot in the stomach and beaten by her ex-boyfriend. We need X-rays and an IV, stat!” the doctor who had just treated Jess was running with the stretcher, checking the girl’s vitals.

“What about the baby?” a nurse asked.

“She’s pregnant?” the doctor’s mouth dropped.

“Her boyfriend says she’s 4 months pregnant. He’s with his mother down in Florida, though. The police are guessing the ex-boyfriend was waiting in her apartment for her to return home and he attacked her.” another nurse filled in, just as breathless as everyone else.

And as they passed Bam and Jess, who had flattened themselves against the wall, the girl looked over and her eyes locked on to Jess’. She looked scared and alone, and her hands kept fluttering to her stomach.

“Come on.” Bam gently grabbed her elbow when the girl, the doctors, the nurses, and paramedics had gone by. She numbly followed him, but kept looking back even as she signed herself out.