ellymunro:
“It’ll, uh, it’ll take more than being hit by a car to keep me down.” Elly stated in response to Ian’s words. After all, this wasn’t the first time the brunette had been hit by a drunk driving while attempting to push another individual out of the way. When she was fifteen, she and some friends had been walking to some juice bar after school; and while she didn’t remember much else of that afternoon, she remembered seeing a car barreling down the street and a young boy from the daycare across the street who had happened to end up in the middle of the road. She hadn’t even given it a second thought before she darted out after the boy, pushing him out of the way and taking his place instead. That action almost cost her her life.
So she knew why Ian was so worried about her right now. He’d almost lost her the first time she’d been hit by a car. And then she went and got herself hit again… She felt like she’d be apologizing to him for the rest of her life for the worry she’d caused. But her brachial artery laceration this time was much less severe than her multiple broken ribs, the double pneumothorax due to puncture, and the concussion from last time. Her body could handle an injury to the upper arm. It couldn’t handle an injury to her chest and her lungs, especially once she’d developed pneumonia not long after.
As the nurse finally entered their shared room, Elly watched her big brother. She watched him get examined; and she watched for any sign that he wasn’t okay. She needed him okay. She didn’t know how to function if he wasn’t okay. So once the nurse left (after also stopping by her bedside to check on her vitals), she managed to lean herself up against her pillows and turn to face Ian. “I-I-I was afraid I was gonna lose you.”
As far as dangerous experiences caused by drunk drivers, the two siblings collected their fair share together. Before the incident at the mayor’s speech, both of them had been hit by drunk drivers. His had taken place place only a couple months before Elly’s. He’d been relieved he was hospitalized and treated in New York---far from LA, where his family would’ve been sick of worry to hear a drunk driver jerked the steering wheel on the opposite direction and hit him while he was riding his motorcycle. With the miles separating them, he told nobody about it; except Elly---who’d figured out something was wrong after he’d failed to contact her in four days. And, while he’d yet to experience worse physical pain than that one, there was no comparison to the despair and agony of finding out his fifteen-year-old sister had been hospitalized with broken ribs, a concussion and a double pneumothorax---the later almost costing her her life. At this point, Ian had grown used to being worried sick about her. But, even after lecturing her for hours with no end about her reckless behavior, he couldn’t help but secretly admire her bravery. Her bravery to do good and live as fully as she could despite the CF holding her back. The only reason he wouldn’t say her bravery was one of the things he loved the most about her, was because he truly loved everything about her wholeheartedly. He couldn’t pinpoint just a thing or two and put them on a list. He simply loved her. Even as they argued. Even when she’d get reckless. Even after she’d lied to him.
Elly tended to lie a lot about one particular thing: No matter what she went through, she always told him, along with everyone else, that she was fine. That nothing could get to her. Watching her as she frantically looked over his figure while the nurse examined her and hearing her voice crack upon her admission, Ian knew her armor had cracked, there and then. Because of him. Was he truly surprised to hear his sister worried sick about him? Not really. But she’d never been open to admitting her fears or weaknesses. The fact she did, meant she’d truly been shaken by watching him in a critical condition.
He wasn’t permitted to stand up, so he simply turned on his side slowly so that he could also look her in the eye with cincerity in his. “Never,” he reassured her. He wanted to reach for her hand, but she’d just been injured---he knew she wouldn’t be able to hold his. “You won’t ever lose me, Monkey. I promise. I’m not going anywhere.”
