“You too. Liam,” Emmy replied with a genuine smile. And before she knew it, Callum and Dylan had come to kiss her on the cheek too.
Emmy glanced over at Finn and the smile on his face said it all. He was happy, and that made Emmy feel happy too.
“You know, there was a time I believed I would never see Finn look as happy as he does right now,” Nell said as she and Emmy walked to the front door later that evening.
The night was finally over, all the worries Emmy had before she arrived had been for nothing. Everyone had turned out to be so warm and welcoming. Even spending time with Liam had been a lot easier than Emmy had believed it would be. He was as sweet and caring as she remembered, but she saw a new side to him too. She could see he was the mischievous one of the five brothers, and it just made Emmy like him more.
“Finn is very sweet,” Emmy said as she looked up at Nell. “He has become my friend more than anything. I really do care about him.”
“I believe you do,” Nell said looking down at Emmy and smiled. “And I’m grateful for your honesty about your relationship earlier. I believe that you will do whatever it takes to keep Finn safe, but I want you to promise me that you don’t forget about you too.”
“I won’t,” Emmy promise her.
“I know I’m not your mother, Emmy,” Nell continued. “And I don’t ever believe I could take her place, but if you ever need to talk, or need a mother’s advice; my door is always open to you, Sweetie.”
“Thank you, Nell,” Emmy said as she instinctively reached up and hugged the woman tightly.
“Whenever you ladies are ready?” Sean called from next to Finn’s car, Emmy released Nell before she turned and hurried down the front steps of the house, out to where Finn was waiting for her.
“Don’t be a stranger,” Sean said, as he kissed Emmy on the cheek, before he opened the car door.
“I won’t,” Emmy promised before she climbed into the car, as Sean closed the door.
Finn started the car, pulling away down the driveway. Before he pulled out onto the road, he glanced over at Emmy and smiled.
“What?” She asked as she gave him a curious look.
“Just you!” Finn replied and his answer made Emmy laugh, that made Finn laugh too.
“You’re in a good mood,” Emmy said as she watched him as he drove.
“Why wouldn’t I be,” Finn shrugged as he kept his focus on the road ahead. “Life is finally how I want it to be. I love my job, I have an amazing family, and most of all, the girl I love is sitting beside me, and she loves me back.”
“Yes she does,” Emmy said with a smile as she rested her head back against the headrest, closing her eyes.
“So are we going to your place or mine?” Finn asked.
Emmy opened her eyes and was just about to answer Finn when there was a loud screeching sound, followed by a deafening bang. Emmy felt like she was flying slowly through the air, before she crashed back down to earth with a thump, and her whole body was propelled forward.
Her body crashed into the airbag with force, before it bounced backward and to the side where her head slammed against the window, then there was nothing but silence.
For a moment, the only sound Emmy could hear was her own breathing. She wanted to scream but her body didn’t seem to be responding, the pain in her head was unlike anything she had ever felt before. She could feel her body strain against the seatbelt as a sudden sharp pain shot through her entire body, before everything went black.
“EMMY! EMMY!” Finn’s voice crashed into her head and she could hear the panic in his voice. “Please talk to me.”
Emmy tried to open her eyes, but she was just so sleepy, and once more everything went black.
The sound of sirens in the distance, woke Emmy once more, but she felt disorientated, every part of her body seemed to ache. For a moment, she had no idea what had just happened.
She tried to think, to remember. She was with Finn, they were coming back from his parent’s house.
FINN! She thought suddenly as panic washed over her. She needed to check that he was okay, but her body was just too tired.
“EMMY!” Finn’s voice called out suddenly. She didn’t move a muscle, nor did she make a sound. “EMMY! TALK TO ME!”
Emmy wanted to tell him that she could hear him, that she was okay, but nothing seemed to work.
“EMMY!” Finn shouted out in desperation once again and Emmy could hear the panic in his voice. She tried to speak, tried to let him know she was okay, but she could barely make a sound. “STAY WITH ME! PLEASE! HELP IS ON THE WAY!”
Emmy just felt too tired, as once more she allowed the darkness to pull her away again.
Chapter 19
Finn stood by the side of the road, and held his breath as he watched the emergency service pull his car apart to get Emmy out. His wrist hurt like hell, he had a cut on his forehead, other than a few cuts and bruises, he was fine. But he knew that Emmy wasn’t, and it almost broke him completely.
He had no idea what had just happened. One minute they were driving home, their life was good; next minute they were pinned inside his car, and he had no idea what had hit him.
He pulled his eyes away from his car for a moment, glancing over at the mangled remains of the car that was on the far side of the road. It was almost unrecognisable as any kind of car he had ever seen before. Then he looked at the black body bag being loaded into the back of a coroners van, and his stomach heaved. The driver of the other car was dead, now Finn didn’t know if Emmy was going to die too.
How did this happen? He repeated over and over in his head.
“Sir,” a paramedic said as she stepped in front of him and wrapped a foil blanket around his shoulders. “We really need to take you to the ER now. You’ve banged your head, and we really need to make sure that you’re okay.”
“I’m not going anywhere until Emmy is out of the car,” Finn said as his gaze once again returned to his car. He wanted to go and be there for her, but the first responders wouldn’t let him get any closer to the car. He just wanted to go and hold her, and tell her she was going to be okay. He wanted her to know that she was not alone.
Suddenly there was a screech of brakes, as a car pulled up, then a commotion as someone pushed their way through the police line.
“I’m Detective Murphy” Liam’s voice carried across the chaos, pulling Finn out of his daydream. “Now get the hell out of my way; that’s my brother.”
Finn turned to see Liam rushing toward him.
“Finn!” Liam exclaimed as he hurried up to him and hugged him tightly. “One of the guys from the station called me. Are you okay?”
“I…I’m fine!” Finn said as he looked at his brother, still feeling somewhat dazed from the crash. “Emmy… she… she’s still in the car.”
“They’re going to get her out,” Liam tried to assure him, but Finn could see from the look of fear in his brother’s eyes that even he knew that things weren’t good. “How did this happen?”
“I don’t know,” Finn said as he looked back over at the car. “We were driving home, everything was okay, then this car; it just came out of nowhere.”
“Let me go talk to the officers over there,” Liam said as he nodded toward the group of police officers that were making sure the on lookers weren’t getting too close. “I’ll see what I can find out.”
Finn nodded, but the truth was, he didn’t care how this happened, he just wanted Emmy to be okay.
Liam hurried towards the other officers, and Finn quickly returned his attention back to where Emmy was.
A couple of moments later, the rescue service all began to move and Finn realised that they had Emmy free from the car. Without even thinking, he ran towards them and had just reached her when one of the rescuers jumped in front of him.
“Please, I need to see that she is okay,” Finn pleaded, looking up into his face.
“We are taking care of her, Sir,” the guy replied, refusing to let Finn pass
. “You just need to let us do our job, I promise, she is in good hands.”
“Finn!” Liam said suddenly next to him once more. “They are going to take her to UCSF Medical Centre. Dylan is already there and he is waiting for her.”
“I just need to talk to her,” Finn pleaded, knowing that he didn’t sound rational. He just wanted to see her, to know she was okay. “I need to tell her that she isn’t alone.”
“And you will, Finn,” Liam said his voice calm and completely flat. “But right now, they need to take her, and they need you to go in the other ambulance, because you need to be checked too.”
“But I’m okay,” he insisted. “I’m not leaving Emmy.”
“I know,” Liam replied with a smile. “But they still want to check you over.”
“I want to go with her,” he said, knowing that he just couldn’t let her drive away. “That’s the only way you’re getting me into the back of one of those things.”
Liam turned, looking at the fire fighter standing before them, and gave him a pleading look.
“You can’t get in the way, you need to let them do their job, no matter what happens,” he instructed Finn as he took hold of his arm, leading him towards the ambulance, and called out to the paramedics that were taking care of Emmy. “I got another passenger for you boys.”
“Well he better get in quick, because we are rolling in ten seconds,” one of the paramedics replied without looking up from what he was doing.”
“I’ll see you at the hospital,” Liam called out, as Finn climbed up into the back of the ambulance, before Liam closed the doors behind him.
He quickly took his seat, but he couldn’t take his eyes off Emmy. She looked so small and helpless. There was some padding taped to her forehead, and she was wearing a collar around her neck, that kind of scrunched up her face. There was an oxygen mask over her mouth, there seemed to be wires and tubes everywhere.
But the main thing Finn noticed was the blood. There just seemed to be so much blood, he didn’t know where it was coming from, but he knew that it wasn’t good.
So he focused on her face, or at least what he could see of it, as he listened to the steady beeping of the heart monitor. He knew as long as the beeping remained the same, she was okay; she was still alive.
“Is she going to be okay?” He finally asked the paramedic, no longer able to hold his question inside.
“We are doing everything we can for her, Sir,” he replied without looking up from Emmy.
“I know,” Finn whispered as a pain seemed to wrap around his heart. Finn knew that the pain wasn’t caused from an injury he had. The pain was something deeper, something he felt in his very soul.
Please don’t leave me! He pleaded again and again in his head, as he willed her to keep fighting. I can’t survive without you, Emmy. I don’t know how.
Suddenly the ambulance came to an abrupt stop, before Finn had time to think, the doors were flung open and they were moving once more.
The moment he saw Dylan, he could feel a sense of relief wash over him. He knew that his brother knew how important she was to him, that he would do whatever it took to make sure she survived.
“Emmy Warner!” The paramedic yelled as he climbed down from the back of the ambulance. “Twenty-four years old, Front seat passenger. Passenger side took the full impact.”
Finn tried to keep up with them as they hurried inside, but suddenly he felt woozy and he struggled to keep up.
“Zoey!” Dylan shouted at one of the other doctors. “Take care of my brother.”
Finn looked at him just as they reached another set of doors
“Finn, I’ve got her!” Dylan assured him just before they vanished behind the door.
Finn could feel his legs buckle beneath him, as everything seemed to go black.
“Finn,” a voice crashed into his head. Finn instantly flicked open his eyes and found a pair of chocolate coloured eyes staring down at him. “Hey, welcome back.”
“What happened?” Finn asked as he tried to push himself up on the bed and was surprised to find himself wearing a hospital gown and his wrist in a plaster cast.
“I’m Zoey, I’m your doctor,” the girl said as she gave him a warm smile. “You took quiet a bump to the head, also it seems you have a broken wrist too, but other than that you’re going to be just fine. You were very lucky.”
“Emmy!” Finn exclaimed as everything came crashing back into his mind. He went to climb up from the bed. “I need to go and check on her.”
“You can’t,” Zoey said as she pressed her hands to his chest, stopping him from standing up. “Not right now. Emmy is in surgery. Dylan said that as soon as he has some news, he will let us know.”
“Surgery!” Finn exclaimed as he heart started to hammer in his chest. “What’s wrong with her?”
“I honestly don’t know,” Zoey replied as she gave him a sad smile. “But Dylan is with her, so is Doctor Abrams, So, she is in good hands.”
“Okay,” Finn nodded, but her words offered him little comfort.
“Your family are all outside,” Zoey continued. “Do you feel up to some visitors?”
Finn nodded his response, but he didn’t say a word. Instead he closed his eyes, as the memory of Emmy slumped over in the car crashed into his mind.
When the car stopped rolling, for a moment Finn felt dazed and confused; he had no idea what the hell had just happened. But as he lifted his head, he remembered that Emmy was next to him. He turned to her, but
she was just slumped against the car door, and he couldn’t tell if she was even breathing.
“Emmy!” He had called out again and again, but there was no answers. He tried to reach over to her, but his seat belt had him locked into his seat. He quickly reached down to try and free himself, but there was just so much pain in his hand, he couldn’t press down on the release for the belt.
“EMMY!” He cried out again, this time she made a sound. It was like she was in pain and she was trying to cry out, but she was just too weak. “EMMY! TALK TO ME!”
She didn’t move, much less reply.
“EMMY!” he shouted out in desperation once again. “STAY WITH ME! PLEASE! HELP IS ON THE WAY!”
Finn heard the door open, and he opened his eyes once more. Tears instantly spilled down his face the moment he looked up at his mother, as she hurried to him, wrapping him in her arms.
“I’ve got you, Sweetheart,” Nell whispered, and Finn could tell that she was upset too. “Everything is going to be okay.”
“Mom, I can’t lose her,” he breathed out against his mother’s shoulder, his tears falling freely.
“I know, Finn,” Nell replied as she just held him tighter.
“If she dies…” Finn began, but he couldn’t even finish his thought. He just couldn’t imagine his life without her now. “She shouldn’t have to die alone. I need to be with her.”
“Dylan is with her,” Nell said as she released Finn, but took his face in her hands. “So she isn’t alone. But you have to believe that she is going to be okay. She is a fighter, Finn. Look at everything that girl has been through, and she survived. You have to believe that she will survive this too.”
Finn nodded before he looked up and saw his father, Landen, Amelia, and Callum standing at the end of his bed. He was grateful to have his family there, not that he ever believed for a second that they wouldn’t be, but still he was happy to see them. Then he thought about Emmy, and he realised that there would be no family waiting for her. He hated that she was all alone.
“Do you remember what happened?” Callum asked as he gave his brother a worried look, as if he was unsure if he should even ask the question.
“We were just heading home,” Finn said as he tried his hardest to remember what had happened. “The car just came out of nowhere. It…it hit Emmy’s side of the car, and then… It just happened so quickly.”
“He ran a red light,” Liam said suddenly, as he walked in to the room as Finn was speakin
g. “You and Emmy had the green light, and this asshole was going too fast to stop. I spoke to George, a guy I know in dispatch. I asked him to pull up the traffic camera for that junction. He said that there was nothing you could have done. He said this asshole was driving like a maniac.”
“Is he hurt?” Landen asked, and Finn could hear the anger in his brother’s voice. “Because I’m going to nail that son of a bitch to a cross, I swear to God, I will.”
“They believe he was killed on impact,” Liam replied, but this wasn’t news to Finn. He had seen them take his body away from the scene.
But until he knew that Emmy was okay, nothing else really mattered.
“I have asked the ME to run a tox screen,” Liam continued. “George said, that from the way he was driving, he was almost certain that this asshole was wasted.”
“How does this even happen?” Amelia said as she wiped the tears from her eyes. “This is so unfair.”
Landen wrapped his arms around his wife, pulling her closer to him as the room went quiet.
They all sat there in silence, no one said another word for what felt like forever to Finn. Finally, the door opened, then Dylan walked into the room and Finn knew by the look on his face that the news wasn’t good.
“She’s alive,” he said quickly, as he was reading Finn expression. “As you already know, Emmy’s side of the car took most of the impact, her body was thrown forward with such force, well, I’m amazed she is still alive. But she is. She has a broken arm, and there was some lacerations to her face, arm and leg. But there was also some internal injuries, including a ruptured spleen, which we had to remove, and a laceration to her liver, but we now have the bleeding under control.”
“Oh thank goodness for that,” Nell exclaimed, but Finn knew he wasn’t done yet. He knew it by the look in his eyes.
“There’s more,” he said as his eyes never left his brother’s.
“We believe, that when Emmy was thrown forward, she bounced off the airbag with such speed,” Dylan continued as Finn held his breath, before his brother continued. “It launched her backward, hitting her head off the frame of the door. The resulted in a hairline fracture in her skull.”
Finn (The Murphy Boys Book 2) Page 17