Be Strong for Me

“Hey, call me when you get home, okay?” Mike said and hugged Vic. “Yeah, of course,” he said and smiled. “We’ll be fine, Mike,”
His brother nodded and then kissed my hair. “Don’t forget to call me,” Vic sighed and nodded before taking my hand and leading me towards the door.
I smiled at Mike and then followed Vic out to the elevator. “He worries too much,” Vic said and pulled me against him. “He does love you,”
Vic nodded and kissed the top of my head. “I know, I love him too. But I have been driving for how long, now?” I shrugged and shook my head.
The elevator opened to the lobby, and Vic pulled me out to the car. We both got in and buckled our seatbelts, Vic starting the engine and driving off.
We lived about twenty minutes from Mike’s apartment, our house really not that far for him to worry so much. Vic was a safe driver too; especially if I was with him.
He turned onto one of the main roads towards our house and then again towards our neighborhood.
I didn’t see it coming.
The car swerved suddenly, veering right with a horrible screeching sound, and then hit another car. I gasped as the seatbelts locked, my head hitting the window and then everything went black.

My head ached and there were extremely bright lights in my eyes. I groaned, the obnoxiously loud sirens hurting my ears. Someone blocked the lights slightly, their washed-out voice sounding far away.
My vision went fuzzy, going black before returning to the man above me.
“Can you tell me your name?” he asked, his voice louder than before.
It hurt to breathe, in fact everything hurt, and I didn’t want to think. But there was something anyways.
“Vic,” I croaked before losing consciousness again. ~

“Kellin?” someone asked, their voice hollow and sounding like they were in a tunnel. “Kellin, can you hear me?”
I groaned and slowly opened my eyes to whoever was talking. “Kellin?” they asked again. I frowned at the doctor, my eyes still adjusting to the light.
“What—where am I?” I asked, horribly confused. “At the hospital. Do you remember what happened?” I shook my head, wincing in pain.
“You were in a car accident. The EMT said you woke up and spoke to him. Do you remember that?” he asked.
“No…Vic. Where’s Vic?” I asked, my heart racing. “He’s here too. Don’t worry right now. How do you feel?” I frowned, not caring how I felt. I wanted to know if Vic was okay.
“My head hurts,” I said and tried to sit up. “Ow, ow, ow,” I moaned, flinching in pain.
“I see. Well you have a concussion, along with two broken ribs and a fractured collar bone. Could you rate your pain from one to ten for me?”
I leant back against the pillows and thought about that. My head hurt, but nearly as bad as it hurt to breathe. My chest ached every time I inhaled, and it was excruciating trying to sit up. “Um…eight?” He nodded a little and wrote that down.
“What about Vic?” he sighed and came closer to me. “I need to explain what happened to you first,” he said.
He pointed to the center of my chest, and then about an inch over to the right side of my ribcage.
“When the car was hit, the seatbelt went taught with the brakes. With the severity, the belt snapped these two ribs,” he explained and pointed to which ones. “Along with the right side of your collar here,”
I frowned and looked up at him. “You also hit the right side of your head on the window, although not hard enough to do any real damage. You don’t appear to have any memory loss, and after a few tests, we’ll be sure. So, can you tell me your date of birth, full name, and age?” he asked.
“Kellin Quinn Fuentes, I’m 23, and my birthday is April 24th, 1991,” I said.
“Very good. Could you tell me your husband’s name and birthday?” his voice irritated me, all fake encouraging. “Victor Vincent Fuentes, February 10th, 1989,” He nodded at me.
“And your wedding date?”
I frowned again, but told him anyways. “August 20th, 2012,” I said. “Can you tell me where you’re from?” I sighed irritably. “Medford Oregon. Can you tell me about Vic now?”
The doctor frowned now. “Almost. Follow the movement of my finger,”
I did as he asked, my eyes following it for the most part. “Alright. You’re husband is in the intensive care unit. The car hit his side, and caused quite a bit of damage,” he said, almost making my heart stop.
“He has four broken ribs, a dislocated shoulder, some internal bleeding, a broken bone in his forearm, and a massive concussion,”
I felt my lip quiver, my eyes watering up. “Will he be okay?” I asked, worry lacing my voice.
“We aren’t sure. He went into cardiac arrest once last night, but is currently stable, and doing fine. You can remain hopeful, Kellin, no one expected him to last the night,”
I glared at him, tears dripping down my cheeks. My whole chest ached as I cried, praying that Vic would be okay. “How the hell do you have the nerve to say that to me?” I shouted, my lungs protesting.
“I’m very sorry Kel—“Fuentes,” I said, cutting him off. “You don’t know me, but you could have at east had the decency not to tell me that no one expects the man I love to live,”
The doctor flinched, his face turning apologetic. “I’m very sorry Mr. Fuentes,” he said curtly and left the room.
I hunched over and sobbed into my knees, my body screaming in pain with every choking breath.
He had to be okay.
My heart-broken sobs were interrupted by a nurse, who was actually there to sedate me before I made anything worse.
At least I couldn’t sob with crippling worry if I was unconscious. ~