The blurred sight of her nightstand greets Jaime as she fumbles to reach for her phone. She’s vaguely aware of a shrieking sound interrupting the still of the night but it takes only a second before she realizes exactly what the sound is. It’s the fire alarm - there is a fire at St. Brendan’s and she knows in an instant that she needs to get up and help.
She’s up out of bed in seconds, phone clutched in her hand as she pulls on her fluffy robe to protect her from the cold and her slippers are stepped into. She’s only just into the hallway when she notices something horrible - the lights aren’t on in the hall. She makes her way down the familiar hall in the darkness, not thinking for the first few moments that she’s got a flashlight on her phone. When she does remember, she flicks it on in an attempt to help her see. She moves over to Leah’s door, giving a firm knock and shouting, “Leah there’s a fire!” She wants her friend to be up and helping it she wasn’t already, and Jaime continues to make her way to the stairwell.
Something else is in motion though, something Jaime would have never imagined in her thirty years. She’s steps away from the stairwell when the world seems to slow as an explosion rocks the building. The noise had been loud, piercing almost and she looks around, unsure of what the hell it was, when the floor beneath her gives way as the faculty wing collapses in on itself.
The world goes dark, her phone slipping from her grip with it’s light still emanating through the darkness until it falls to the ground feet away from her, going dark. It’s the only thing she’s able to focus on in the collapse, at least until her head slams into a pile of debris beneath her. It’s a sharp, splintering pain that radiates from a singular point and she can’t help the cry of pain that tears from her lips. She’d never felt pain like this before, but it’s far from the only pain. There’s debris scattered all over - some on her - and her muscles feel weak under the pressure.
Through her tears and the pain, Jaime manages to clamor out of the rubble in a number of minutes. She calls out for any of her friends, her colleagues, as she slowly makes her way through the bits of debris toward where she remembers the exit being. There’s no sense of time as she moves, just a desire to get out of this rubble and check on everyone - make sure everyone else is okay. The fire alarm - where had it been coming from? Nico, the students -- Erica.
Jaime’s breath hitches, limiting the air further than her shallow breathing already had. She needed to find Erica. She needed to make sure she was okay. Her colibri, her love... was this the only building attacked? And why - why had someone done this?!
She didn’t know when, but she had fallen into a heap, unable to move forward any further. Her muscles had given out, her body protesting between the trauma she had endured and the two hours of sleep she’d gotten not being enough. Tears streamed as she tried to crawl, but she didn’t get far. With the darkness inside and out she had no idea how close or how far she was to an exit. Was there even an exit anymore?
Jaime didn’t know how long she’d tried to crawl when she heard a holler of, “Cap! We’ve got a survivor!” Her eyes moved up, noting briefly that her left eye was unfocused and blurry, before she was scooped up by strong arms. The man was calling for a gurney as she was carried her into the cold night air. The world seemed to be darker than she’d ever seen it even as the flashing lights from the police and emergency vehicles illuminating parts of campus, and the cold air bit angrily into the exposed bits of skin through the ripped clothing of her pajamas. At some point she’d lost a slipper, too, and she honestly couldn’t remember when.
The EMT’s that rushed her from the building toward the ambulance were trying to reassure her that they had her, but Jaime wasn’t focused on them. She was looking around - trying her best to figure out what was going on - and she’d caught sight of the fire tearing through the residence wing.
“ERICA!” She’d screamed, fighting to get up, but the EMT’s had strapped her down and she couldn’t move. They did her best to calm her, but the tears streamed fast as her mind soared. What if Erica was hurt? She needed to save her!
St. Brendan’s was in good hands, if Jaime had been thinking rationally she would have known that. All she could think of as she was loaded into the ambulance, though, was that her students needed her and she wasn’t there to help them. One EMT climbed into the back once she was loaded, taking her pulse and listening as she kept crying for Erica. She talked about needing to save her, needing to protect her students as the ambulance raced away from the school toward Seabrook ER.
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The ride to the hospital and the ensuing trauma evaluation were a blur to Jaime. Her muscles ached worse than ever before, and the headache that had calmed down was back with a vengeance. She’d gone into a CT machine - at least that’s what she had been told it was - before being brought back to the ER to rest while they waited for the results.
Within twenty minutes, Jaime was startled by a doctor and two nurses that had come to her side, fussing over her. The last thing she remembered before the world suddenly went dark was a Doctor calling to one of the nurses that they needed to prep the life flight helicopter and alert Tufts Medical Center that there was an incoming neuro injury that required immediate surgical attention.
