Then it was too late; Walker’s foot caught on Thomas’s ankle, and he went flying through the air, landing with a huge crunch, his leg bent at a funny angle. She caught the pleased smile on Thomas’s face before he replaced it with one of worry and rushed out onto the court with the rest of the players and the coach. Too shocked to move at first, it took Carol giving her a shove to get her moving, then all she could think about was getting to Walker.
By the time she got to him, he’d rolled onto his back and was clutching his knee, face white with pain, and it took everything in her not to run to him and put her arms around him. Instead, she stood behind the doctor following his orders until they put Walker onto a stretcher and moved him to the locker room, leaving her behind.
CHAPTER 7
***WALKER***
Walker was sure that he’d never felt anything like the pain that was currently radiating from his knee. It was nearly impossible to breathe, and he was sure that he was going to puke any second. For the rest of his life, he would remember the moment when his knee connected with the hard wooden floor of the basketball court. He would never forget the gross feeling with his knee cap shattered and the ligaments holding everything together stretched to the breaking point. Not even time would erase the memory of the pain he was in right then or the pain he knew would come when his body started healing the damage on its own in just a few minutes.
He was vaguely aware of being lifted onto the stretcher, his only focus the pain and trying not to spill his lunch all over the court, but as they left the gym he surfaced just long enough to see Maddie standing alone on the court. Taking several deep breaths to push back the nausea, he grabbed onto the first arm he could find, turned to the man it belonged to, and fought to get out just a couple of words.
“I want Maddie here with me,” he ground out between clenched teeth. “Send someone to get Maddie.”
The pain became too much then and the world went dark, giving him the break that he needed. When he opened his eyes, Maddie was standing next to him, his hand in hers, a worried look on her face. He could hear the murmur of voices above his head and knew that someone was talking, but all he cared about was the feeling of Maddie touching him for the first time in years. Closing his eyes, he let himself drift off again, filled with the warmth that only she could bring.
When he opened his eyes a little while later, Jackson was staring down at him. “Hey there, I got here as soon as I could,” he said. “How are you feeling?”
“Like I got run over by a truck,” he said, trying to sit up. “What happened?”
“Don’t you remember?” Jackson asked. “You took a pretty bad fall. We’re just waiting for Dr. Abbot, then we’re going to move you to the hospital.”
It all came rushing back and he quickly looked around the room. “Where’s Maddie?” he asked. “She was right here.”
“She just stepped out for a second,” Jackson said, leaning in a little closer. “Walker, we’ve got to be a bit careful here, we can’t let them run any tests. You’re probably already healing, and that’s going to look strange on an MRI or an x-ray.”
He flexed his knee, wincing when the pain came back, but not as bad. “It’s already better,” he said, his head beginning to clear. “Did they give me something?”
Jackson nodded. “Some morphine, but it should be starting to wear off,” he said. “If you can just hang on until Dr. Abbot gets here, he’ll handle everything; he knows what to do when things like this happen.”
A few minutes later, an older man came bursting into the locker room. “Where is my patient?” he asked, then saw Walker. “Ah, yes, this must be the young man. I’ve got an ambulance waiting outside; we need to get you to the hospital right away.”
Before he could even protest, he was loaded into the back of the ambulance, strapped down, and they were zooming away from the campus, lights flashing, sirens blaring. “Is all this really necessary?” he asked, holding onto the side of the gurney. “I’m not dying, I just hurt my knee and it already feels better.”
“It makes a good show,” the doctor said happily. “I can have the driver turn them off if you want.”
“Yes, please,” he said, sighing when it fell silent. “Thank you.”
He lay his head back and closed his eyes. Maddie’s worried face popped into his mind, and he opened them again. “Did you see a young woman hanging around when we left?” he asked. “She’s tall with long black hair and these incredible green eyes.”
“No, I’m sorry, I didn’t see anyone like that,” Dr. Abott said, shaking his head. “Would you like me to have someone call her?”
There was nothing he wanted more, but he realized that he had no idea how to get a hold of Maddie, and even if he did, he wasn’t sure that she would come. “No, that’s okay,” he said, pushing down the feeling of disappointment. “She probably wouldn’t come anyway.”
They rode the rest of the way to the hospital in silence. He was whisked away for testing as soon as they arrived, and it was almost an hour later before he was finally wheeled into a room. Jackson and Abby were waiting for him, books open in their laps, but they both put them away when they saw him, then jumped to their feet and rushed over to him.
“How do you feel?” Abby asked. “Does it still hurt?”
“Not really,” he said, shrugging his shoulders. “This all seems like a lot for nothing.”
“We have to pretend it’s not nothing,” Jackson reminded him. “Regular people would still be writhing around in pain, so try to ham it up a little.”
“I was hoping that Maddie might have come to the hospital,” he said. “Has anyone seen her?”
Jackson shook his head. “Sorry, we’ve been in here the whole time,” he said. “Do you want me to go look for her?”
Before he could answer, the doctor came through the door, a big smile on his face. “Well, the good news is you’re going to recover,” he said. “The bad news is it’s going to take three weeks.”
“Three weeks?” he demanded, looking down at his knee, then back up at the doctor. “But it feels just fine.”
