Chapter Sixteen

It was almost midnight before the second movie wrapped up, and Sarah and Karli were both yawning as the credits began to roll.

“Okay, I’m headed to bed. Long day tomorrow,” Sarah told her.

“See you in the morning,” Karli said cheerfully, and waddled down the hall to her room.

Sarah turned off the TV, placed the DVDs back in their appropriate slots in her alphabetized collection, carried the empty popcorn bowl and candy wrappers to the kitchen, then headed for bed.

As she brushed her hair and then her teeth, she reflected on the fact that within the next twenty-four hours she’d be alone again in her apartment. The thought did not appeal.

I am so happy for Karli, I truly am, she told her reflection. I just wish I could find that, too.

Sighing, she changed into her pajamas, then turned off the light and climbed into bed. She snuggled down underneath her blanket and willed her mind to think of anything but Tim. But it wouldn’t cooperate at first.

She finally was able to drift off around one a.m.

***

Meanwhile, Tim and Jordan had their hands full. They were one of three units called out to a scene of utter chaos. Two very drunk individuals had gotten crosswise at a popular watering hole and succeeded in getting themselves thrown out, but not before causing quite a bit of damage.

The fight had moved to the parking lot, with friends of each man deciding to wade into the melee, resulting in twelve people with injuries before the cops arrived to break it up.

Tim applied a butterfly bandage to the patient he was triaging, while to his right Jordan was attempting to take vital signs of one of the men that had caused the whole mess in the first place.

“Sir, I need you to hold still,” Tim heard Jordan say for the second time, with steel in his voice. “I’m going to have to restrain you if you don’t hold still so I can work on you.”

“Like hell you will!” the drunk man bellowed, and for Tim time seemed to stop as he glanced over and watched Jordan’s patient pull a knife out of hiding and ram it into Jordan’s upper abdomen.

“Jordan!” Tim cried out, then, “Need some help over here!” to the policemen standing a few feet away interviewing witnesses.

Tim bolted over to where Jordan now lay on the ground, the hilt of the knife protruding from his midsection.

“Easy, buddy, easy,” Tim soothed, as he tried to approximate the length of the blade.

“Pull it out,” Jordan gasped.

“Not yet. Right now, leaving it in is keeping you from bleeding out,” Tim told him. “I have to get you to the ER.”

He lifted his head and barked, “Somebody get me a gurney over here. Now.”

Within minutes Jordan was loaded. Dan, one of their co-workers, got behind the wheel while Tim rode with Jordan.

He’s going into shock, gotta keep him talking.

“Hey buddy,” Tim growled, lightly patting Jordan’s cheek. “No sleeping. Stay awake. Talk to me.”

Jordan moaned, and Tim noticed that in addition to an erratic pulse, he was turning more and more pale.

“Step on it, Dan!” Tim yelled.

They arrived at Medical City in short order, and Jordan whispered, “Call Karli,” as they wheeled him into the emergency room triage unit.

“You got it,” Tim answered, and he stepped back outside to try her number. He called six times and each time her phone rang and rang, then went to voicemail.

Oh hell no. Voicemail is not going to be how she finds out about this, Tim asserted, his jaw set with determination. I’ll try back in a little bit.

And he stepped back inside to check on not just his rig partner, but one of the best friends he’d made in his lifetime.

After twenty minutes, Tim stepped back outside to try to reach Karli again and was relieved when his phone rang.

“Karli? Is that you?” he asked, and when she confirmed, he told her Jordan was hurt and what hospital they were in.

***

At two-eighteen a.m. a frantic pounding on her bedroom door startled Sarah out of a very sound sleep. She opened it to find a hysterical Karli.

“Something’s happened to Jordan,” Karli sobbed. “I need to go.”

Sarah was instantly awake and already reaching for the t-shirt and yoga pants on the top of her dresser.

“Two minutes, and I’ll drive you,” she said, and Karli nodded.

Sarah beat her promise by forty-five seconds, and they locked the front door and headed to Sarah’s car. She made sure Karli was buckled in, then swiftly moved through the parking lot to leave the complex.

“Which hospital?”

“Medical City, off of Matlock.”

“Okay. Breathe, Karli, he’s gonna be all right.”

“I… hope…so…,” Karli managed between huge gulping sobs.

Sarah reached over and held Karli’s hand tightly as she drove through the night. At last, the hospital was in sight, and Sarah turned in at the Emergency Room entrance and drove up to the passenger drop-off doors.

“Go on,” she said, squeezing Karli’s hand. “I need to park, and then I’ll be right in, okay?”

Karli only nodded, tears streaming, and maneuvered her hugely pregnant frame out of the car then waddled as fast as she could into the building.

Sarah watched her go, then looped around and pulled into the first spot she could find. She got out, grabbed her purse, locked her car, and jogged toward the same entrance Karli had gone through.

When she walked through the doors, already slightly out of breath from adrenaline, what she saw stopped her in her tracks and almost dropped her jaw wide open.

Karli, her best friend, was standing beside and talking to a man in an Arlington Fire Department EMT uniform.

It was none other than Tim Fresco, the man Sarah had left at the altar. And he hadn’t noticed her - yet.

What… how… Sarah’s brain completely failed her, and for a moment she could only stare as she fought the overwhelming urge to run into his arms.

Focus, Sarah. Karli needs you more than ever right now.

Somehow, she managed to compose herself and slowly continued forward until she was standing by Karli’s side.

***

Tim had been waiting in the main lobby of the emergency room for Karli to arrive so he could take her to the room where everyone had gathered to wait for news. She’d mentioned needing to wait a few minutes for someone named Sarah, and he’d nodded in acknowledgment.

He did a double take when he finally noticed the woman approaching them, thinking at first that he’d seen a mirage. Karli’s Sarah was his Sarah.