Page 77 of Grumpy

Maddie made to look, but Kelly quickly blocked her view. She did not need to see her father like that. “What is it?” Maddie demanded. “What’s wrong with him?”

“I… I…” The blonde was in a complete stupor, like he’d discovered an injured alien and had no idea how to operate on its seven hearts.

“Um, pressure, right?” the other asked, looking just as unsure.

“What about cleaning it?” the blonde retorted.

“With what?” his friend inquired, gesturing around them.

“Oh, for heaven’s sake!” Kelly shouted. “Maddie, keep your back turned.” She shoved the blonde out of the way, removed her shirt, and pressed it down into the worst of Grumpy’s wounds. She had no idea what this was doing to his grafts, but at this point, she’d rather him be scarred and disfigured than dead from blood loss. “I swear to God, Jesse Bell, if you die on me, I will send your ashes to your mother so you can haunt her for eternity instead of me. Don’t think I won’t!”

Sirens came closer, but not close enough. There were so many wounded, and debris blocked a lot of the road.

“Maddie,” Kelly called up. “How’re you doing, honey?”

“Cold,” was the unsurprising answer. “But I’m okay. The babies are kicking. How’s Dad?”

“Well, I just threatened him with haunting his mother for the rest of eternity if he dies, so I think he’ll be fine.”

Maddie made a choking noise over a snort. “Not funny,” she scolded, even though her voice sounded lighter. Then her chin started to violently shake as fresh tears poured from her eyes. “I can’t believe this is happening! And Jackson? What happened to him? Where is he?”

“I don’t know,” Kelly replied mournfully. “I saw him come in with you. After that…” Her voice trailed off, though the truth was right in front of her. The tornado had taken Jackson, and the likelihood of his survival was little to none.

* * *

By the time paramedics made it to them, the sun was already set. What remaining light posts turned on were nowhere near them, casting them into further darkness. Kelly’s shirt was soaked through with Grumpy’s blood, and she was shivering to the point of numbness in just her bra when headlights finally landed on them. They heard several helicopters as well, but none came close enough with their spotlights.

What happened to the medical students, Kelly didn’t see. They ran off, hopefully to be more helpful elsewhere. Maddie still had the one’s coat. She kept offering it to Kelly, but Kelly refused.

They got Maddie onto a stretcher as two others worked on Grumpy. Kelly feared losing track of Maddie, and was torn between going with her or staying with Grumpy. The paramedics informed Kelly that they were taking both to the larger of the two hospitals in the area. Grumpy would need the trauma ward and Maddie would be going to maternity. Given the physical trauma of what she went through as well as the extreme stress and hypothermia, the paramedics feared her going into preterm labor.

As worried as she was for Maddie and the babies, knowing they were both headed to the same hospital took a lot of worry off Kelly’s mind. She kissed Maddie’s cheek and promised she’d be with her as soon as she could before stepping back to watch Maddie get loaded into the back of the ambulance.

When a firefighter came over to assist with Grumpy’s care, Kelly informed him of Jackson’s disappearance. She gave his description and what she could remember him wearing, and then felt like a total imbecile when she realized that she didn’t even know Jackson’s last name. Maybe Jackson was his last name, in which case she didn’t know his first. And she had no way of contacting the club to ask them.

It seemed so trivial in comparison, but she really wished she had her phone right now. Likely it was destroyed wherever the SUV was. She didn’t even see that around. How far could a tornado carry a car anyway? Or a person?

Kelly had been given a blanket to cover herself with, but refused to leave until Grumpy was ready to, even though she was at risk for hypothermia.

Grumpy woke briefly in the ambulance, which the paramedic said was a good thing. They didn’t ask her relationship to Grumpy or Maddie, though one referred to Maddie as her daughter. Kelly didn’t correct them, not wanting to be denied access to Maddie at the hospital.

Kelly was instructed to sit up front with the driver. She didn’t like it, but she understood they needed space to work. Over the blare of the sirens, the driver filled in Kelly on what he knew about the tornado.

“There was barely any warning, eight minutes or so. Conditions can change that fast around here, but even so this took everyone by surprise. It was an EF3. The location station clocked its top wind speed at a hundred and fifty-two miles per hour. I heard that its width was a half mile, too, though I’m not sure if that’s accurate. Cleared a ten mile path before it started to turn. They do that, you know. Just turn on a dime for no apparent reason. You’re already our third run. This one’s going to be a messy one, I can tell you.”

He didn’t have to tell her—she’d lived it. But Kelly kept her mouth shut, enjoying the feel of the heater. The driver wouldn’t let her blast it as she’d wanted, something about blood flow and shock. Even so, it felt amazing once she got past the pins and needles stage.

The rest of the ride to the hospital was Kelly explaining over a radio to a doctor the extent of Grumpy’s injuries before he’d used his body as a physical shield to block a tornado. She’d been so distracted by his current injuries that she’d failed to mention the ones from the explosion until prompted by one of the paramedics in the back. They wanted to save time by alerting the trauma team prior to their arrival.

Unfortunately, the doctor she spoke with had no news about Maddie.

The hospital was chaos. Nurses and doctors running everywhere, blood streaked across one wall, and people crying at every turn. Grumpy was rushed away from Kelly before she got the chance to say goodbye to him or remind him how much she loved him. She heard them talking about significant blood loss, infection risk, and surgical debridement as they carried him away from her.

Kelly wanted to collapse to her knees. Her head started to swim. The paramedic driver guided her over to an empty bed against the wall. Kelly had never seen a hospital with beds lining the walls before, but she’d also never been in a tornado either. A tag was hung around her head with black, red, yellow, and green tags at the bottom. It listed her name, where she’d been discovered, and her known injuries.

A stern looking doctor barely five feet tall with eagle eyes came over to assess her shortly after.

“Mild hypothermia,” the doctor told the nurse who accompanied her. “She needs out of these wet clothes. Let’s get her on the schedule for x-ray, too. I want a better look at that left shoulder. Get a resident over here to take care of her hand lacerations. She’ll need a tetanus shot. All in all,” she said to Kelly, speaking to her for the first time. “You’re very lucky.”