Fireproof

I don’t know how long I was out before I came back to reality again. I slowly started to come to and surveyed my surroundings as the events of the day returned to my memory. The pain quickly returned too, reminding me that it hadn’t been an easy day at the office today. It was dark outside now judging by the flashes of lightning coming from the window. I was of course in a hospital room which I halfway expected. The television was playing softly but I couldn’t tell what was being said from all of the commotion coming from outside the sliding glass door of my room. I was about to reach for the call button on my bed to try and find out what kind of damage I had managed, but I saw Criss’ head peak around the corner of the door before he let himself in. He was still on duty, dressed in his fire department t-shirt and uniform pants. Even though he was my best friend and I would never look at him in any other way besides that, I had to admit that he definitely looked good in uniform.

“Hey sexy.” I said, smiling a little.

He returned the smile, his more energetic and bright. “Hey beautiful. You sure do know how to scare the hell out of somebody don’t you?”

“What did I do? Plunging off the side of a bridge in a huge bus has always been a dream of mine. I just didn’t expect it to be so painful.”

He chuckled as he sat down beside my bed. “You’re crazy, Parker. You almost died today. What were you thinking?”

“Save the lectures, Criss. We almost made it back. He told me to leave him but I couldn’t. I already had him on my shoulders and was coming out. What kind of a firefighter would I have been to drop him just so I could save myself? I don’t think I would have made it back without him anyway. My dad was a huge fan of Motley Crue and he wouldn’t have done anything differently than what I did. If I would have died in that bus today, then I would have died doing what made me happy.”

“That’s why you’re the best, Parker. You’re fearless and bigger than any of us would probably ever be.”

“You would do the same if you were ever put in that situation. You’ve pulled many kids from burning buildings. It’s the same concept. But anyway, I’m here and I didn’t die and hopefully no one else did either besides the one guy.”

“Just one. That was it. Oh, one of the guys wanted to visit with you before visiting hours are over.”

“Visiting hours? Since when are there visiting hours in the hospital?” I asked.

“Since you broke a rib that punctured your lung and landed you in the intensive care unit.”

He nodded down to my side and I followed his gaze seeing the chest tube sticking out of my chest for the first time. It was then that I finally took a second to fully survey the damage I had done to myself. My shoulder was wrapped with my arm in a cast and sling, my chest was wrapped, and I had a nice stitched up gash extending from above my right eye down to the upper part of my cheek. I had done a pretty good job on myself.

“Shit..” I mumbled.

“Yeah. You’re out for a while chick. Get some rest. I’ve got to finish my shift and then I’m going to go claim my room at your place.”

“Okay. Let everyone know I’m okay and I’ll be back next week.”

“You’re funny.”

A few minutes after Criss left, a much cleaner, but still banged up Tommy Lee appeared in the doorway, his arm resting in a sling as well.

“Hey. You’re looking a little better.” I smiled at him.

“I wish I could say the same for you.”

“Well that’s not nice.”

“No, it wasn’t, was it? Look, I want to bother you, but I just wanted to say thank you. I don’t even know where to begin.” He said, tears rimming his tired eyes.

“Well, you can begin by having a seat because you’re not bothering me. How are you and the others doing?”

“I’m okay. I got off easy with some stitches and a broken arm. Vince had a small skull fracture and is being monitored tonight. Mick had a broken leg and dislocated hip and will be having surgery in the morning. Nikki is in the room right next to you. He had some internal bleeding that they’ve already repaired. He had a broken hip, torn ligaments in his knee, some broken ribs, and some fractured vertebrae in his back.”

“Fuck. And I was throwing him around like a rag doll. Please tell me he’s not paralyzed.”

“Hey, don’t get all worked up. You’re hurt too. Believe it or not, he’s fine. He’s been in and out of it but he can move his toes and do anything you ask him to do. He will be okay. In fact, every time he comes to he asks for ‘the girl’.”

“Thank gosh. That’s awesome. Man, I’m glad to hear that.”

“We were lucky on so many levels. I still can’t wrap my head around it all.” He said, shaking his head in disbelief still.

“Well, I’m sure it will be a bad memory for the rest of your lives but now you just need to concentrate on getting better and getting back to your fans.”

“It’s going to be a long road back.”

“You will get there.”

“We will for sure. Well, I will let you get some rest and I’m going to go crash the waiting room tonight. Can I get you anything before I go?”

“Can you inflate my lung again so I can get this tube out of my side?” I smiled.

“I’ll get right on that.”

“So you’re the world famous Tommy Lee and you’re going to crash in the open public waiting room of a huge ICU? Are there no hotel rooms available?”

“I didn’t check. I didn’t really want to be by myself or leave the guys. Plus I don’t have any of my stuff from the bus. It’s just too much hassle. I’ll be okay.”

My heart broke for him. I could almost imagine how he felt after the day he had had and in my opinion the last thing he needed was to be in the open where people could bother him. The news had probably spread around to all the local and national news stations and I wouldn’t be surprised if there were members of the press camped outside of the hospital right now.

“You can crash the chair right there if you want. I don’t blame you for not being alone but you probably shouldn’t be out in the open either. But it’s wherever you feel comfortable.” I offered.

“They won’t let me.”

“Yeah they will. Because for one, I’m fixing to make them close the door and blinds so that I can rest and for two, its perks of being a part of the medical family. Just don’t go wondering out of here unless it’s visiting hours.”

“If you say so and don’t mind.”

After having a little chat with the charge nurse for the night shift, who happened to recognize Tommy as well, it was okayed for him to hide out in my room. Neither of us got any sleep after we got caught up talking and telling stories of each our pasts just like we were old friends. I couldn’t help but wish that my Dad had been around for this, but I was sure he was somewhere up there looking down on us and listening in to what we were talking about. Besides being in a little bit of pain and being exhausted from the events of the day, the night actually turned out to be good and fun.