Chapter 11

Brian's View

An Hour Later

Everyone, meaning Nick and his family, AJ and his, Howie and his, Kevin and his, Tiffany's parents, my parents and the rest of Tiffany's family and I, were sitting in the waiting room waiting for news on Michelle or Christian. I was so worried about if they were alright or not. I'm even more worried about Courtney and the babies. I don't know what to do about that. If I could I would leave the hospital right now and look for them myself but I can't do that, I can't do that to Michelle or Christian.

"Mr. Littrell?" I heard a voice say from the waiting room entrance. My head snapped up and I stood up quickly rushing over to him. Everyone else focused their attention on the both of us.

"How are they?" I asked worried.

The doctor sighed deeply and looked in my eyes. I began to shake, I was so scared as to what was wrong.

"I'll start with Michelle, please be patient," the doctor said leading me to one of the chairs to the side. We both sat down and I fidgeted with my hands nervously.

"Michelle is in critical condition right now. She has many broken bones. She fractured her right arm in two places but those will heal easily. Her upper left arm split and she will need a separate surgery for that. She broke her right leg in about 3 spots and both her feet have several broken bones, nothing we can't fix. Surprisingly she only broke one rib from her fall. She hit her head pretty hard and it slightly split open but nothing to worry about there, that will heal quickly. These are all minor injuries to what I am really concerned about. What I'm concerned about is her spine, her fall shook her around pretty badly and as she was falling she hit her back on one of the steps causing one of her neck bones to crack. It might not sound that bad and it probably wouldn't have been but since she hit the steps numerous times the bone slide near her spinal cord and almost cut through it. X-rays show that if she didn't stop falling when she did, her spinal cord would have snapped and she would have died, luckily that isn't the case. We need to do surgery to place the bone back in it's place, we can't leave it where it is or she will surely die. That's not all though..." the doctor said leaning forward in his chair.

"It is possible that she might be paralyzed from the neck down. We are not sure yet. You see the bone is slightly putting pressure on her spinal cord and I'm afraid that maybe it will affect her body from the neck down. We need to do surgery on her as soon as possible, tomorrow morning would be best."

"I..." I began to say but it felt like my throat just closed up on me. I couldn't speak. How could all that happen to a 15 year old? She shouldn't be going through that! She could die and that thought scared me so much. I can't lose her, she's my daughter and my first born. The news the doctor had just given me terrified me to no end.

"Do what needs to be done but will she be alright?" Kevin asked from next to me. I turned my head to look at him. He had so much concern shown on his face. I gazed at everyone else, some were crying, others had a look of complete shock on their faces, others looked like they didn't even know what to feel or think.

"We aren't sure yet but we are very hopeful, I'm sure she'll be alright," the doctor said sincerely.

"I can't believe this," I muttered putting my head in my hands.

"I am deeply sorry Mr. Littrell, we are doing everything we can to help her."

"What about Christian?" I looked up at him with blurred eyes.

He looked at me for a moment and said, "Maybe I should tell you about his condition later. You seem to be in quite a deal of shock right now and I do not wish to hurt you more. You have been through a lot tonight."

"No," I said shaking my head, "Tell me now. I want to know right now what is wrong with my son."

He breathed in deeply and looked up at me, "Are you sure?"

"I'm positive, now tell me," I said.

"Christian doesn't have many broken bones, which is quite lucky for him. He has lost a great deal of blood due to the cuts from the glass. He will need a blood transfusion as quickly as possible. He is in surgery now getting the pieces of glass out of his body. He has some glass stuck pretty tightly into his skin which is causing more blood to be lost so the doctors in ER are extracting those from his body first. He will need many stitches to close up the wounds but I think he will be fine. He has a concussion and his left leg broke in 2 spots. His leg twisted under him when he fell so the upper bone cracked almost in two, he's very lucky to not have some of the injuries that could have happened to him. I will not name those now but I assure you Mr. Littrell that Christian will be fine," the doctor said smiling at me slightly.

"Oh thank goodness," I breathed out, I realized I was holding my breath almost the whole time the doctor was talking. The news of Christian upset me but made me slightly happy as well. Knowing that he was going to be alright lifted some of the weight that was on my shoulders disappear, but not entirely. He was still in critical condition and losing blood but all of that could be fixed.

"Thank you doctor," I said standing up as he did.

"You are welcome and once again I'm deeply sorry about all this. I know it was tough enough to worry about Tiffany and now hearing the news that three of your children are missing and two being in here must be overwhelming. I am deeply sorry and I'm praying for you and your family. I hope everything turns out OK."

Tears came to my eyes at the thought of Courtney, Brian and Brianna missing. They were gone, they weren't near me for me to hold them when they were scared or hurt and I knew that they were frightened right now. They are so young and I had no idea what Leighanne, Sara and Mandy were doing to them.

"Th...thank you," I said. He looked at me once more and then exited the room. I flung myself in one of the seats and started to sob. Kevin put his arm around me and hugged me to him. I just sat there and sobbed, letting all my feelings out. This was the first time that I had done this since the phone call from Nick. Everything right now was hitting me, it hit me like a ton of bricks. What I was feeling right now was something I couldn't describe or express in anyway possible. The feeling was eating me up inside. The feeling was horrible and it was so painful. It's the biggest pain that I have ever felt in my life. Fear, sadness, pain, worry, and so many other feelings were washing over me forming into one big emotion that wasn't expressible. This feeling was complete torture.

"Things will be OK," Kevin said gently. I knew he was probably right but I couldn't help but feel that nothing was going to be OK. Nothing is ever OK and that just completely ruins any trace of happiness that you might have. Life sucks...I learned that the hard way.