Beside You

If you really want to cry, listen to "In the arms of an angel" - Sarah McLachlan or something equally sad... "Untitled (How could this happen to me?)" by Simple Plan works, too ;)

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"Maddie! MADDIE! Oh my God! Madison!"

Abby and Matt were the first ones that reached the lifeless body on the ground. Abby jumped out of the saddle, her heart frozen with fear. Tears already cascaded down her cheeks like waterfalls as her heart instinctively knew that just everything was wrong.

"Maddie? Mad! Can you hear me? Madison! Hey!" Matt dropped to her knees on the cold ground and carefully shook his girlfriend by her shoulders. "Maddie!"

"Don't move her," Abby managed to choke out. Her whole body was trembling and her eyes as wide as they could be.

"Maddie? Baby, can you hear me?" He ran his shaking hand down her arm gently and took her cold hand in his. "Mads?"

"Matt, go take care of Lady, I got this," Mrs Jason instructed, kneeling down next to her son's girlfriend.

"Did somebody call 911?" Abby's contorted in pain and fear and her eyes filled to the brim with tears.

"Kyle did, they're on their way," Mrs Jason nodded, trying to keep a clear head. "Can you see blood anywhere?"

Abby's eyes raked over her friend's body, but she quickly shook her head. "I can't see any. Shouldn't we take off her helmet?"

"No, she might've hurt her neck or head," Mrs Jason shook her head. "Here, hold her hand."

"Maddie, please. You gotta wake up," Abby whispered as she knelt on the floor, holding Madison's hands in hers tightly kissing her glove covered fingers.

"Did you see with what she came down first?" Mrs Jason asked, expertly checking Madison's unconscious body for any visible injuries.

"Her head," Abby choked out in a sob. "She hit her head, then the rest."

Mrs Jason nodded somberly and prayed that the paramedics would get here quick. "Keep trying to talk to her," she told Abby.

"Madison, wake up, please. You gotta wake up," Abby cried, caressing Maddie's pale cheek with a shaky hand. "Joke's over, Madd, it's not April's fools yet."

All of a sudden Madison's eyelid started fluttering and her breathing pattern became different, short and shallow, a fast staccato. Mrs Jason's and Abby's attention immediately jumped to the young girl's face, just in time to see her eyes open just barely.

"Maddie? Can you hear me? Madd?" Abby squeezed her best friend's hand, weight lifting off her chest.

"Abby?" Madison breathed out and her face contorted in pain. "What.... happened?" Her voice was weak and quiet, one word per breath the most Madison could manage.

"You fell, but don't worry, the paramedics are coming and you'll be just fine," Abby assured her quickly and tried to give an encouraging smile. Madison seemed to take several painful breaths and Abby couldn't stand to see her friend in so much obvious pain.

"Maddie, can you tell me where it hurts?" Mrs Jason asked carefully, leaning over Madison's body so Maddie could see her.

It didn't look good for the youngest Staal and Mrs Jason knew it. Madison's eyes were very unfocused and her pupils different sizes, a common sign for a bleeding or some damage to the brain. From her short and shallow breathing Mrs Jason guessed one or several broken ribs and there were many internal injuries only the doctors in the hospital would be able to make out. A fall like this could end deadly and it was a miracle already Maddie had regained consciousness again.

"I... can't... breathe..." Maddie answered slowly. Speaking seemed to strain her too much, so Mrs Jason told her to just focus on breathing and staying awake.

So far Mrs Jason, Abby and Madison had tuned out what was going on around them, but there was a lot happening.

After his mother sent him away from Maddie, Matt had turned to take care of his girlfriend's mare and right from the first look, he knew that this was the end for the beautiful dapple gray. Just like the fall had severely harmed Madison, it had also left Lady with injury. She had collapsed to her side as her forelegs would not carry her anymore and her neighing was painfully pitiful. He knew that Lady's legs were probably broken and from her own weight falling she also had possible internal injuries. Even if it were only her legs, or only one of them, she would never be the same. Putting her down as soon as possible would be an act of mercy, to make her pain short and not torture her any longer. It was pure luck that the mare hadn’t fallen on top of Maddie’s body and crushed her.

Matt felt somebody's hand on his shoulder, but he shook his head and turned his gaze to his girlfriend that was still on the floor, surrounded now by not only his mother and Abby, but also several others, including the owner of the facility. His body was frozen in fear and the tears trickled down his usually so tan, but now deathly pale cheeks as he stood and watched.

Why her? Why did it have to be her? Why didn't he take this jump first? Why her?

Back where Madison was still lying almost motionlessly on the floor, save for her erratic breathing and squeezing Abby's hand still, she was quickly losing consciousness again.

"Abb?" she breathed, voice so much quieter than before. Abby leaned down close to Maddie's mouth, so she could hear her. "Tell... Mom... to call... Eric..."

"What? No! Maddie!" Abby's eyes widened with realization and she snapped her head to look at Maddie, but she had already slipped back into unconsciousness. "NO! MADDIE! Wake up! You can't go back! You gotta stay awake! Maddie!"

It seemed like hours until the paramedics finally reached the scene and made quick work of stabilizing the young woman's unconscious body. Mrs Jason answered any of the questions they shot off and in a matter of minutes, Madison was on her way to the Thunder Bay Regional Health Sciences Centre, Mrs Jason by her side.

At Madison's home the phone rang and the moment Linda Staal lifted the receiver, her mother heart knew something was wrong. It was Mr Jason on the other end, who, without telling her exactly what happened, told her to get to the hospital as quickly as she could.

"HENRY!" Linda called through the house and something in her tone made Henry perk up from where he'd been working on the computer in his office. A moment later his hysterical wife stumbled into the room and he knew the moment he'd always dreaded most, it was now.

The moment when one of his children was injured bad enough that they needed to come immediately. He stood up, left his computer in the state it was and embraced his sobbing wife tightly.

"It's Madison," she whispered into his shoulder and all he could think was No, not my little girl.

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Two short hours later that seemed like a part of a never ending nightmare, it was Henry, who made the call that Madison had requested. He had no idea what his young daughter was thinking, but if she had told Abigail to tell her mother to call Eric, she must've known it was bad.

Two hours after he and his wife got to the hospital they didn't know very much more about Madison's condition, except that she was in critical condition, when she got to the emergency room and immediately was sent off into surgery. Mrs Jason had filled them in on the accident and one of the paramedics had told them what they knew so far, but it wasn't much. Maddie probably had some sort of head injury, possibly several broken ribs and a twisted leg. Internal injuries were on the list of possibilities, too, but they wouldn't know more, until one of the doctors or nurses came out of the surgery.

Henry had left his wife in Abby and her parents' care with a promise to get him immediately, if and when something came up. Now seeking a quiet corner to make the calls he had prayed he never had to make, he sat down in one of the visitor's corners on a chair and in- and exhaled a deep breath.
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Marc Staal was in the middle of a random afternoon nap, relaxing before the All Star Game weekend, when his father reached him and he immediately was wide awake. While he was still speaking to his father, he was already yanking any pair of pants and a hoodie on. How Henry remembered to ask Marc to see if he could reach Eric, who was probably getting ready for the game against the Islanders, was beyond Marc, because from the moment he got the news his head was all over the place and his heart squeezed in an iron fist.

Before flying out to Raleigh for the All Star Game weekend Jordan had a day off, there was no game for the Penguins on Wednesday and so he was hanging out at Max’ place, playing video games with a few of the guys.

“Aw man,” Jordan groaned when his car crashed into the wall because he was distracted by his phone ringing in his pants’ pocket. “I was first place!” he insisted, fishing the device from his pocket, and answered. “Hello?”

Around Jordan the guys were having a good laugh at how Mark Letestu was now winning the game in Jordan’s absence, but the laughter quickly subsided when the controller slid out of Jordan’s hand and his face became expressionless, his eyes empty, his shoulders drooping. Jordan facepalmed and everyone in the room could see how upset he suddenly was, he was swallowing harshly. The only thing he said was “I’ll be there as soon as possible” before he hung up and let his phone drop next to the controller.

The room was frozen, no one wanted to ask. Someone hissed at someone else to shut off the happy music from the video game, which promptly happened.

“What happened, Jord?” Max asked bravely, finally. Jordan’s blue eyes turned to his teammate and an amount of pain showed in them, that Max immediately feared the worst of the worst.

“Maddie had a riding accident,” Jordan said in toneless whisper and then it wasn’t only his heart that had dropped into his stomach, then it wasn’t only him that felt like someone had punched him with an iron fist. “...it’s bad,” he added and swallowed again.

“Load up the computer, you need a flight,” Eric Godard was the first one to come out of his trance and took it upon himself to give a few guys orders on what to do, taking charge.

Not ten minutes later it was clear that flying to Thunder Bay via Toronto would cost Jordan too much time, he would have to wait until the next morning to fly out and arrive in the Bay in the afternoon at the earliest. None of the Pens had ever seen such determination and persistence in their teammate when it came to his little sister, when Jordan insisted on finding a quicker way. Finally it was decided that he would fly to Duluth via Minneapolis and drive the four hours home from there.

Approximate time of arrival: 3 am.

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Jared Staal got the message the latest, because of something that had happened to him many times before: he’d forgotten his phone at home. After being sent down to the Hurricanes’ ECHL affiliate in Florida he’d struggled adjusting quite a bit, he was a little scatterbrained. He was doing some teambuilding, going out for dinner and some drinks with a few teammates, where he didn’t really need his phone, so he only noticed when he got home late. There were multiple missed calls and messages on his phone and he was this close to throwing up when he finally got to hear them.

Like Jordan he looked for the next flight home immediately, but he was out of luck, the last flight to Toronto had left around 6 pm, about an hour after the first call, and the next one left early in the morning. There was nothing he could do about that, but he hated it. He didn’t catch a single wink of sleep, packing, then pacing his small apartment, cursing at himself for forgetting his phone again.

Approximate time of arrival: 12pm.

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It was highly uncommon, in fact it had never happened before, that a player that was on neither playing teams came down to the locker rooms, but Marc didn’t give a damn. He was glad that security let him through easily, recognizing him and the look on his face that whoever stood in his way would get to feel what it meant to cross paths with a 6’4’’ defenseman.

The Hurricanes’ staff of course recognized him as well and after a short explanation to their coach and trainers, they let him through.

“Eric.”

The team’s captain looked up surprised, never would he have expected to see Marc here and especially not at a time like this. The look on Marc’s face meant business though, Eric read that immediately. Almost everyone in the room paused in what they were doing, watching the brothers’ silent communication.

It took Marc a few moments until he could say the unspeakable. “...Maddie had an accident, it’s bad. We need to go home immediately.” He didn’t need to say anymore, Eric was out of his gear in a second flat, well wishes from his teammates and the staff, whilst he was too busy worrying to listen to anyone or anything.

As soon as Eric was ready to go, Marc played some Grand Theft Auto and brought them to the airport in half the time it would or should have taken.

Approximate time of arrival: 12.15am.

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As each Staal brother was making his way to Thunder Bay or preparing for a later departure, Eric and Marc from New York, Jordan from Pittsburgh and Jared from Estero, their minds were focused on their baby sister, praying and hoping that maybe the situation wasn't as grave and horrible as it seemed to be. Their big brother guts though, they told them otherwise.

This was it, the moment all big brothers dreaded. When their baby sisters got hurt, in what way ever, and there was nothing they could do about it.

Their thoughts reached back into their memories, Marc thinking back to the weekend after his birthday. The game, the phone call from Jordan...

Eric thought back to Christmas, the look on his little sister's face, when she unpacked that antique snow globe. She'd told him she put it on her nightstand and he'd felt so proud his gift was such a success.

Jared was thinking about the phone call from the day before, when Maddie had still been up and joking around, giving him grief about being a ginger and complaining about the exams and taking none of his shit about Matt.

And Jordan... well, Jordan sat on his plane, sunken together in a picture of misery, and he was wondering if this was the cruel wakeup call for how he'd been treating his sister not only just recently, but pretty much since the day she was born. Staring outside the window, but not seeing anything, his heart was frozen in his chest with regret, guilt and fear. Fear that he'd never get to apologize and tell her he loved her again. He couldn't even remember the last time he'd said it to her and sitting there he'd have given everything, everything, to tell her, even if it was just one more time. The last thing he’d said to her was that he wished he didn’t have a sister and he couldn’t bear the thought that maybe that was the last thing he had ever said to her...