The Wonder of You

The gym floor ran red with Scorpion and T-Bird blood. Tony surveyed the damage that had been done, fourteen scorpions and three T-Birds lay dead.

The fighting had stopped; the Scorpions that were still conscious surrendered. T-Birds not wanting to take any more lives, allowed them to surrender.

Frankie and Mickey searched the gym for Paula, but were told that she had ran outside after Johnny two face when he had killed James. They didn’t know that others had gone outside; they figured that if it was one on one then Johnny was most likely dead in a puddle of his own blood.

The pair shook this thought from their mind when they heard Paula scream out in pain. They grabbed bats that were nearby and ran over to where they heard her scream come from.

Their eyes widened when they saw four of Johnny’s cousins, they were holding her down and one of them was kneeling next to Paula, whispering into her ear.

They saw the man stand up and crack his neck, readying himself to swing his bat again. He had his bat in mid air when Mickey and Frank took him out.

The T-Birds heard the commotion coming from outside and ran out the door. They saw Tony and Mickey wrestling a guy down and three other men wailing on Paula.

They jumped on the three men like animals and took them down; they didn’t settle for just beating the three young men, they ended up killing them.

Tony ran over to Paula, she was out cold and everyone around him was screaming, she’s dead ain’t she! Tony was always the most levelheaded guy, so he quickly checked for a pulse, it wasn’t as strong as it would normally be but it was still there.

“Frankie go get the car! Come on!”

Frank ran off and jumped into his Cadillac, Mickey and Billy followed him and each one got into their own pick up truck, they knew that all the Greasers were going to want to come wherever they were off to.

Tony scooped up Paula in his arms and carried her over to Frank’s car. He put her in the backseat and rested her head on his lap. Worriedly he stroked her bloodied hair, her heart beat was growing fainter, she couldn’t die on them; she couldn’t.

The hospital was having a slow night; the only patient in the entire building was a ten year old that had jumped off his roof because he thought he could fly if he flapped paper plates very quickly. That was a big no, but luckily he only broke a leg and would be fine.

Dr. Cullen sat with the other doctors that were on duty in the hospital rest room, they were currently watching an episode of House and discussing how awesome it would be if a doctor could really throw caution to the wind and always save his patients. Carlisle tensed when he heard cars screeching into the parking lot, the smell of blood was thick.

Almost immediately a nurse barged into the room saying, “We have an emergency!”

The Doctors and Surgeons exited the room, into the emergency area. They all gasped when they saw Tony walking in with a badly beaten Paula. Immediately a gurney appeared and he placed Paula on it.

Carlisle was about to touch Paula when Tony snapped and said, “YOU ain’t gonna treat her you son of a bitch! She said she’d rather die than have you be her doctor!”

Carlisle was hurt by Tony’s words; he searched for a hint of a lie but saw that he was being completely honest. If Carlisle could cry he would’ve been in tears at this point.

Here almost dead, lay a child whom he thought of as a most beloved daughter and through his actions and the actions of his family he had pushed her away to the point that dying was a better choice than getting help from him.

Carlisle looked at Tony and said, “I’m not a surgeon, so don’t worry I won’t be tending to her, but I will be tending to you lot.”

Paula was pushed down into the operating room. The surgeons and doctors examined her closely. Both her legs were broken; she had four broken ribs, several shank wounds and deep cuts.

The doctors put her under, and began working on putting her leg bones back into place and putting into a cast as others started cleaning the wounds and stitching her back up.

“Alice what did you see!”

“She’s in the hospital. They’re doing surgery on her right now.”

“I have to get over there right now! I have to be there for her.”

“Emmett NO!”

“Why not!?”

“Her families there and so are all the greasers. They don’t want you there; don’t go causing them more grief than what they’re already going through.”

“But I need to see her; I need to take care of her.”

Paula’s family sped to the hospital when Tony called them telling them what had gone down. The entire family was in a state of shock, they couldn’t lose her. Children are supposed to bury their parents, not the other way around.

They entered the emergency room in frenzy, and saw all of their friends tending to their children who were bloodied and bandaged up. Mr. Lombardi scanned the room to see if Paula was somehow out there, but she wasn’t. Mr. Lombardi went to the nurse and asked, “Where is my daughter? Is she alright?”

“Mr. Lombardi, Paula’s in the operating room right now.”

“They’re operating on her?”

“Yes.”

“What are they doing to her?”

“I don’t know sir, they haven’t told us what happened. I’ll inform the surgeon and when it’s done he’ll come out and talk to you.”

Mr. Lombardi paced back and forth throughout the lobby, trying to calm his nerves. Mrs. Lombardi was sitting on one of the couches crying into one of her son’s chest.

The surgeon took off his mask and his gloves. He looked at the nurse and said, “Put her in the recovery room.”

The nurse nodded and wheeled the gurney to an awaiting hospital room where Paula was placed on carefully. The Surgeon was a good friend of the Lombardi’s, he had come straight out of medical school back in the 80’s and fallen in love with Cherryville, he had even married Mrs. Lombardi’s sister.

“Mr. Lombardi?”

“Tel me, Jack is my baby alright?”

“She’s ok.”

“What happened to her?”

“The boys told me that today was the final battle, and that they won. But Paula sustained some serious injuries. Her legs have been broken, she’ll be on bed rest for six weeks and then we’ll start physical therapy to help her out. She has four broken rips; those will heal completely in five weeks. There are a lot of shank wounds, we were lucky and cleaned them all up before they got infected. Right now she’s asleep; we pumped her full of morphine to make sleeping pleasant and not painful.”

“Can we see her?”

“Yes, follow me.”

The Lombardi’s walked down a long white corridor until they reached the room. Jack turned to them and said, “Please, try not to be too loud. She needs to get her rest.”

They nodded and followed closely behind Jack as he walked into the room. They gasped when they saw Paula. Both her legs were in cast and her hands were bandaged up along with her chest. Her face was black and blue, her lips swollen.

But only one thing mattered to her parents, and that was that she is alive.