"Is Jackie okay?!" Catherine repeated as she raised her voice and was unable to move.
"I don't- I don't know. I just got to the hospital but they had to cut her out of the car."
"What hospital, Rachel?"
Catherine was now pacing the floor while running her fingers through her hair.
All she heard was her muffled crying.
"Rachel! What hospital?!" She shouted.
"Cedar Sinai Hospital," Rachel replied as she continued to sob.
****
Catherine quickly contemplated what to do. Her head was spinning. It was a gut wrenching five and a half hour drive to see Jackie, but she wasn't sure how long it would take to fly there. She dialled the airlines as she quickly threw all of her belongings into her bag.
"I'm sorry Ma'am. The next flight doesn't leave until morning."
"Of course," Catherine whispered to herself once she hung up the phone.
Catherine grabbed her keys and headed straight to the car, with the longest drive ahead of her that she would ever have to make.
****
For the entire drive, she kept playing their fight over and over in her head. After hanging up with Rachel, she saw all of the the text messages Jackie had sent her. In which it made everything that much worse.
The guilt was tearing her up inside, knowing that Jackie was trying to get a hold of her all night and was upset. She should have been there at the party with her. If she had, Jackie would have never been in that car. Now she was unconscious in a hospital bed thinking that Catherine didn't love her anymore and was ignoring her, which was the furthest thing from the truth.
****
Catherine finally reached the hospital in a record breaking of 5 hours, in which it was still too long. She had Rachel to call her whenever she had an update. All she knew was that Jackie was in surgery and was in a car accident with Tommy.
Catherine ran into the emergency room and heard someone calling out her name. Rachel appeared behind her and hugged her.
"Is she okay? Is she awake?" Catherine asked.
"She's still in surgery but the doctors didn't seem concerned," Rachel replied, as she held her tightly.
"I went and checked on Tommy. His car hit a telephone pole on her side. She fractured her leg and dislocated her shoulder, so that's what she needed surgery on. She also has some stitches on her head from the windshield shattering and a couple of bruised ribs. Tommy got the least of it. Just a sprained wrist and some stitches."
Catherine placed her hands up to her mouth in shock.
"How did this happen?"
Rachel looked around before pulling her aside.
"Tommy was drunk. He's being arrested for a D.U.I once he's released and who knows what else. Considering how badly Jackie was injured," she whispered.
Catherine's entire body filled with rage and her fists clenched.
"Where is he?"
"Don't," Rachel said while placing her hand on her shoulder. "Trust me, he feels terrible enough."
Catherine tried breathing in deeply to put her anger aside. She needed to focus all of her energy on Jackie.
"Come on, let's go and sit in the OR's waiting room. Do you want some coffee or anything? I know you've been driving for a while."
"You don't need to play assistant right now," Catherine smiled compassionately.
"I'm not," Rachel responded. "You're the closest person to Jackie. I'm a mess so I can't even begin to imagine how you're feeling."
"We had just gotten in a big fight," Catherine said shamefully, as her eyes began to well up.
"I know, she told me. That's not important right now though. She knows you love her and you know she loves you more than anything else in this world. If anyone feels guilty right now, it's me. I left her alone at that party. If I would've stayed, she never would have gotten in the car with him. They were both so drunk. I didn't think either one of them would drive."
Rachel started to cry and Catherine placed her arm around her.
"No. I should've been there. I'm never going to stop regretting that. You didn't know."
The doors opened and a doctor came walking out.
"That's him!" Rachel said, touching Catherine's arm as she stood.
"Are you two Jacqueline Kirk's family?"
"No, but we're all she has," Rachel responded.
"Okay. Well, the surgery was successful. It went really well. She would need some physical therapy eventually to help loosen it up a bit. However, everything looks good."
"Is she awake? Can we see her?" Catherine asked eagerly.
"She is still unconscious but should be awake soon. I'm sorry but we can only allow two people at a time in the ICU, and one needs to be family."
"She's estranged from her family. I'm her significant other. Can I please see her?" Catherine asked.
Catherine knew what she said out loud and it didn't even phase her. None of that matter to her right now.
All that mattered was seeing Jackie.
The doctor looked at her reluctantly and finally nodded his head. Thank god they were in California.
"You go. I'll give you some privacy," Rachel said, placing her arm on Catherine's shoulder.
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah. I'm going home and I really need to change. It's been a long night. Can you let me know when she's awake?"
"Of course," Catherine replied and hugged her. "Thanks for everything."
As Catherine and the doctor made their way down the hall. He paused before entering Jackie's room.
"I just want to warn you that it looks a lot worse than it is. Victim's loved ones usually have a difficult time first seeing them, but I assure you that all of the swelling and bruising went down."
Catherine's heart sunk and she became light headed.
How bad was Jackie going to look?
A/n Thanks for reading my story. Please vote and drop a comment. Comments will help me a lot more than you might think. â¤ï¸