"Hanging On"

Chapter 2

Brenda watched in utter horror as the car came to a rest at the bottom of the steep hill. The tears had come instantaneously to her eyes as soon as she saw Jax's car begin to skid. "JAX!!!!!!" Stunned into silence, the only thing she could hear now was the beating of her heart. She slowly brought herself to her senses and opened the car door cautiously. She was dreading what she was about to see.

Stepping over to the side of the road, she saw the tire tracks leading down the hill and at the bottom, there was the car with one headlight shining into the trees. The one point of common sense in her head told her to call 911 first, before she tried to get down that hill. Quickly, she turned and picked up the car phone again. When the operator answered, Brenda calmly and quietly told them what had happened. The operator could tell this woman was in shock. Promising to send help right away, the operator hung up as Brenda continued to hold the phone to her ear.

Suddenly, she came to life. "Jax! Jax! Can you hear me? Jax!" She dashed to the hill again and began a clumsy descent down the ice-covered grass and leaves. She could see as she was running where the car had broken tree branches on its way down. Continuing to shout for him, Brenda finally reached the car. Taking a deep breath, she peered in the cracked window.

She could see Jax in the driver's seat, his seatbelt still fastened across his chest. He had a deep gash over his left eye and he was unconscious. It appeared he had hit his head on the steering wheel when the car finally came to a stop. The front of the car was crumpled and dented, the windshield broken and shattered among the leaves and along the dashboard. Brenda tried the car door to see if she could open it at all. Surprisingly, she was able to get it to crack about two feet from the frame before it stopped. She reached her hand into him to see if he was breathing. She could feel his chest rising slightly with each seemingly painful breath he took. She knew better than to try to unfasten the seatbelt or try to move him.

Not knowing what else to do, Brenda stood by the car for a few seconds, before she realized she could see someone standing at the top of the hill. When she looked up she saw the flashing red and blue lights of a police car. The officer was calling to her. He had just begun his trip down the hill to see what had happened.

"Miss? Miss? What happened? Are you hurt? Miss?"

Brenda turned to see the officer now standing next to her with his hand on her shoulder. "I-I…I'm fine. It's my…fiancé …he was in the accident…not me…he was." She made a slight gesture to the car in front of her, indicating there was someone inside. The officer shone his flashlight in the vehicle and saw the blond man slumped in the seat. He quickly reached in to feel for a pulse. Finding one, he picked up the radio he carried and called to the ambulance what was there.

When he finished describing the scene to the ambulance drivers, the officer turned to Brenda again. "Can you tell me what happened?" He pulled out his notepad, as this might be his only chance to get a statement from her for awhile.

"I-I…I don't know. One minute I was talking to him and the next his car was sliding down the hill. It looked like he skidded on some ice. I knew it was getting too dangerous to drive, and he was telling me we should just go home. He knows how to drive in weather like this, I know he does. It had to be something else, black ice or something." She was rambling, not being completely coherent now. The officer was patient, taking down everything she said that was relevant to the accident. "He was telling me to be careful and then his car was going down that hill. The last thing I heard him say…the last thing…he shouted my name." She wiped at the steady stream of tears on her face, doing nothing to stop them. She turned to look at Jax in the car again. She felt so helpless. She couldn't do anything to help him.

The paramedics were making their way down the hill with a backboard. They had to be very careful and went slowly. When they finally made it down, they assessed the scene and asked Brenda to step back from the car. One of the medics reached into the car and took the vital signs from Jax, recording the pulse and trying to see what injuries he could. He unfastened the seatbelt and Jax immediately moved toward the door. They tried to open the door further than Brenda could and with the three of them pulling were able to get it to budge about a foot more. Before stepping away from Jax, the medic strapped a neck collar onto him. They tried to pull him from the car when they realized one of his legs was stuck between the steering wheel and the seat. It was obvious from the position and how tight the grip was that the leg was broken. They tried several times to get the steering wheel to move up, and finally it moved about an inch. It proved to be just enough to get Jax's leg out. Placing him on the backboard, they had to figure the way to get him back up the hill.

By then, another police officer had arrived, as had another ambulance. Pulling the board up the hill, the medics followed closely. The officer with Brenda helped her get back up the hill without hurting herself. Once back on the road, she watched as they put Jax in the ambulance. They continued to check his vital signs and monitor him. Knowing they couldn't keep her there, the officer helped Brenda step up into the ambulance and shut the door.

On the ride to General Hospital, Brenda gripped Jax's hand. There was nothing the medics could say that she would comprehend right now. This was her fiancé, the love of her life. She was not going to let go. The ambulance screamed through the streets. For some reason, Brenda looked at her watch and realized it had only been two hours. She felt like her entire life had just passed by her. She was so lost without him, and the fear shone through her eyes and poured out in her desperate tears.

Finally, the ambulance pulled up to the emergency entrance to GH. The medics quickly unloaded the stretcher Jax was on. Brenda quickly followed, still trying to keep hold of his hand. They walked quickly through the short hallway into the emergency room where Dr. Joe Scanlon met them. The medics rattled off several sentences only Joe could understand while Brenda continued to hold Jax's hand.

She tried to go with them into the trauma room, but a nurse quickly told her she couldn't be in there. Having to watch through the door, not being able to hold his hand, Brenda was truly lost. The tears ran faster and steadier than ever before. The flurry of activity before her confused her. She watched and tried to focus on one person, but they all moved so quickly. Eventually it all blurred together and not being able to see anymore, Brenda collapsed.

"Brenda? Brenda, are you awake?" She opened her eyes slowly and groggily.

"Where am I?" Then her vision focused and she remembered it all. The tears came back to her eyes. She looked to see who it was who was saying her name.

Lois was sitting on the couch in the waiting room with her. She had been there since Bobbie Spencer had called her, telling her that Brenda and Jax had come in. It was all she knew, and she'd come immediately, not even waiting to hang up the phone. She had been waiting for Brenda to come around to find out what happened.

Brenda just sat there for a few minutes, rehashing in her memory the event of the night. Looking at her watch again, it had only been three hours. How did time pass so slowly?

"Brenda, what happened? Is Jax okay?"

She just turned to look at Lois and the tears began again with a vengeance. "Oh, God, I don't know. I don't know if he's okay. Lois, it was awful. It was so awful to see it happen." She proceeded to tell the whole story again, sobbing the whole time. She had watched him plunge off that road into the darkness.

Lois was shocked by the whole thing. She put her arms around Brenda and held her. They sat like that for a long time. Finally, Brenda looked up to see Joe coming towards them. He walked directly to them to tell them what was happening.

"Brenda, Jax is in a coma. His vital signs are good, but we are going to have to operate on him. He sustained internal injuries during the accident and we need to repair them right away." She watched as the team from the trauma room wheeled his gurney to the elevators. "We are taking him to surgery now. He has suffered the head injury, as I told you. He also has broken his right leg and has four cracked or broken ribs."

Brenda stood looking at Joe in silence. Lois jumped in to ask the questions. "How long will the surgery be? And when can we see him?"

"The surgery will take about three to four hours and I'd say you can probably see him about two hours after it. When he is moved to his room in ICU." Joe excused himself so that he could go scrub for the surgery.

Lois looked at Brenda and saw she was about to buckle again. She led her to the couch and went to get some coffee from the vending machine. Coming back, she handed one to Brenda, but all she did was wrap her hands around it. She didn't make a move to sip it. Lois went to find a nurse to find out where they should wait while Jax was in surgery. The nurse told her where on the seventh floor they were to go and Lois went back to Brenda. She picked up their coats and motioned to Brenda to get up and follow her. They got into the elevator to go to the seventh floor waiting area.

Once they got to the enclosed room, Lois closed the glass door and guided Brenda to one of the three couches in the room, sitting next to her. Now there was nothing to do but wait…and pray.

 

Chapter 3