"Shit! Carly, hold on tight, the tires don't seem to be gripping anything!" was the last thing I heard before being thrown forward as the car hit something.
I woke up with a foggy head. Where was I? What had happened? I looked around and tried to get my bearings, but couldn't see very far in front of me-my eyes were heavy and my vision fuzzy.
The last thing I remembered was driving home with Grey … we'd hit a patch of ice … oh my god, we'd hit something!
As my vision cleared slightly, I could make out the airbag that had deployed in front of me. I looked over at Grey and my heart lurched. My mind refused to accept what my eyes were seeing-he was hunched over the steering wheel, his airbag had deployed but it looked like something was wrong with it.
I frantically tried to undo my seatbelt, calling Grey's name over and over-no response. He had a cut on his head, there was blood everywhere. I finally managed to get my seatbelt loose and winced at the pain as I reached over for Grey-I felt his neck and thanked God there was a pulse to be felt. I tried calling his name but still there was no response. I took off my jacket and held it to the gash on his head.
I reached for my purse in the foot well of the car-I searched frantically for my mobile phone but couldn't find it. I tried my car door and thankfully, it opened without a problem. I slowly got out of the car-it hurt to move too much or too quickly. I stood outside and looked around for a house but we were on the stretch of road between the Sterlings' home and mine that didn't have houses-there was nothing except fields. I felt like screaming but just breathing was hurting me enough as it was. I hoped a car would pass by soon but for now, I had to get to Grey's side of the car and see if the door could be opened.
The door was crushed against a cement median barrier. I couldn't open it. A frustrated scream escaped my throat, leaving my chest in so much pain. I walked back to my side of the car as carefully as I could.
I looked around the inside of the car for my phone-I didn't want to hurt Grey by looking around for his.
Finally, I located my phone lodged under my seat and called the emergency services. I gave them the details of the crash and where we were. I told them that Grey was hurt badly and they said that police and an ambulance would attend the scene as soon as they could-as far as I was concerned that wasn't fast enough. Grey seemed to be bleeding an awful lot as I sat holding my jacket to stem the flow of blood. I couldn't do much more for him, so I sat and took his hand in mine.
"They'll be here soon, sweetheart, just hang in there." I prayed he could hear me.
What felt like an eternity later-but in reality probably wasn't very long-sirens could be heard in the still night air. I saw the ambulance in the distance and was thankful that someone would be able to do something to help Grey.
"What happened here, Miss?" a police officer asked as he opened my car door.
"I don't know. We were driving and all of a sudden Grey couldn't regain control of the steering wheel-I think we hit a patch of black ice or something. I remember Grey saying to hold tight, but then nothing until I woke up next to him."
I saw the paramedic assessing the situation on Grey's side of the vehicle.
"We're going to need to cut him out of the car," I heard someone say.
"Okay, Miss, and what did you see when you woke up?" the policeman continued.
"Look, are these questions really necessary right now? All I want is to get Grey to the hospital and then I'll answer all the questions you like!"
"Sorry, Miss, I'm just trying to assess what happened to better help the paramedics," he said in a gentler tone.
"Oh. Umm … I woke up, my head was fuzzy and I couldn't remember anything. When my vision cleared, I saw Grey slumped over with a cut on his head-it looked to me like his airbag didn't deploy properly."
"Okay, and did you move him at any point?"
"No. I didn't want to in case he has injuries I'm not aware of. I took my jacket and applied it the head wound to slow the bleeding then took hold of his hand, but that was all."
"Okay," he said and then stood to talk to the paramedic.
I looked over at Grey, still unconscious and bleeding. My heart lurched again and I barely had time to get out of the car before throwing up. The policeman came and sat with me while they waited for a second ambulance to turn up.
"I'm not going anywhere until Grey is moved," I said to the paramedic as she came up to my side of the car.
"Okay, Miss, but can you at least sit in the back of the ambulance for me?" she asked kindly.
"Can everybody stop calling me Miss? My name is Carly."
"Sorry, Carly. Please, just come with me-I promise we won't leave until your boyfriend is moved. They have to cut him out of the car now and it would be better if you weren't sitting here. I can take a look at that cut on your head, too."
I followed her to the waiting ambulance. I saw that a fire engine was now on the scene and a fire crew were getting the equipment ready to cut Grey from the car.
I took a seat in the back of the ambulance but made the paramedic leave the door open. She came to sit next to me and began cleaning the cut I didn't know I had on my head.
"You know, Carly, this is quite deep, it'll need stitches. I'll bandage it up for now, then I'll need to give you a check over everywhere else."
"Okay," I mumbled.
She bandaged my head then asked me to lift up my top so she could inspect me.
"It looks like you'll have a seat belt bruise across your torso. Do you mind if I touch you to assess anything internal?"
"Go ahead."
She probed around my ribs and abdomen, causing me to wince and moan in pain.
"Okay, Carly, I think you could have a couple of cracked ribs."
"I don't care, I just want to know how Grey is."
"I'll go and find out if you like-but only if you promise not to move," she said kindly.
"I won't, just go to him."
A couple of minutes later, the cutting gear began to make loud noises as the firemen began to cut into Grey's car. I began to cry and once I started, I couldn't stop. I sat and sobbed as the paramedic held my hand. She had closed the back door of the ambulance while they cut him out so I didn't have to see it happening.
"I can't lose him," I sobbed.
"It's okay, Carly, just take some deep breaths. They're cutting him out so that we can get him to the hospital as quickly as possible to assess what's wrong with him."
"He can't die. That's the man I want to spend the rest of my life with."
The paramedic soothed me and rubbed my back while I cried more than I had in a very long time.
Suddenly, there was silence in the air. She got out of the ambulance to see what was happening. As she got out, I saw them putting a spinal board behind Grey-he already had a neck brace on, they must have done that before cutting into the car. I watched them pull Grey out of the car and I started crying even more. He couldn't die, not now-we'd been apart for ten years and had only had moments back together. I wanted to grow old and grey together.
"He's ready to be taken to hospital now, Carly. Will you let us take you, too?" the paramedic asked as she climbed back into the ambulance with me.
"Yes. Is he okay, what's happening?"
"We don't know much except he came round and was in lots of pain-the paramedic gave him an injection to help with the pain. We won't really know more until we get back to the hospital."
"Then let's go."
She told the ambulance driver that we could go and I heard the sirens of the other ambulance. I didn't think of that was a good sign, I've only ever thought of people dying needing the sirens. I know that's not true, but I panicked nonetheless.
As we arrived at the hospital, I was taken into a bay and told that a nurse would be with me shortly. As soon as the nurse arrived, I asked her if she knew anything about Grey. She didn't, but promised to find out what she could-she stitched my head wound and I barely felt a thing. I felt numb to everything that was going on.
A doctor came by to assess my other injuries and determined that I most likely had cracked ribs and that was what was causing my shortness of breath-though I hadn't really noticed because I was too worried about Grey. The doctor told me I would need an x-ray to see if he was right about my ribs but I refused to go anywhere until I knew more about Grey's condition.
"It looks like your partner has suffered a blow to the head, caused by the airbag not deploying fully, so we are keeping him under a light sedation," the doctor explained a short while later. "He also looks to have two or more cracked ribs, he's struggling to breathe. Then there's the fact that he looks to have broken his left leg, so he has been taken to x-ray and will be back soon."