“Davey…car accident…hurt real bad…taken by ambulance to the hospital.”
Jack didn’t hear the rest of what his fellow newsie had to say for he took off running towards the hospital.
Upon arrival, Jack found Davey’s younger brother Les sitting in a chair, his head in his hands.
“Les!” Jack said.
Les looked up slowly.
“Oh Jack” he said, realizing who it was.
He jumped up from his chair and ran into Jack’s open arms.
“I’m so scared, Jack. He’s hurt real, real bad. The do-doctors said they do-don’t know if he’s going to make it” said Les through sobs.
Jack swallowed hard.
He released his arms from around Les and got down to his level.
Though he knew Les’s answer to his next question would hurt him, he had to know.
“What happened, Les?”
Les turned away, tears streaming down his dirt covered cheeks.
“We were on our usual route and it was really windy. I-I didn’t mean for the pa-papers to fly away, but they did. I thought h-he wouldn’t notice if I ran into the r-road to go get em’, but when he saw me there, he bol-bolted out to help me pick em’ up and that’s when the c-c-car came speeding down the road. He h-had just enough time to push m-me out of the way, but it struck him and he went flying through the air and-”
“That’s enough” said Jack, noticing how much Les was shaking.
He wrapped his arms around the younger Jacobs boy once more and held him as he cried.
“I can’t lose him, Jack. I can’t.”
“I know” Jack replied, “where is he now?”
“In the operating room. They’ve been trying to resuscitate him for the last twenty minutes.”
“Resuscitate?!” Jack said, shocked.
Les nodded.
“We have to go him” said Jack, standing up straight and starting to shake as well.
“We can’t. I tried. The doctor wouldn’t allow me back there.”
“Where are your parents?” asked Jack, walking in the direction of the operating room.
“On their way” said Les, frantically trying to keep up with Jack as he maneuvered his way down the many hallways of the hospital.
It wasn’t long before they found exactly what they were looking for.
The operating room was a large white room with a single bed where Davey lay surrounded by multiple doctors performing CPR on him.
Jack pressed his hand against the glass of the observation room and watched in horror as the doctors tried again and again to unsuccessfully resuscitate Davey.
Les watched too, his eyes wide and his heart beating at an irregular pace.
“Come on Davey. Don’t die on me, buddy” said Jack, quietly.
Through all the confusion, Jack caught sight of Davey’s face which was barely recognizable under all the blood and bruises.
As each attempt resulted in more failure and Jack’s body flopped lifelessly on the table, Jack began to scream and pound on the glass, which startled Les.
One of the doctor’s inside stopped what he was doing and made eye contact with the two boys on the other side of the glass and taking his mask off began to walk towards them.
“No, he needs us!” said Les, as the man grabbed onto he and Jack and tried to direct them out of there.
“Davey, come back to me, please!” Jack said, frantically.
“Move along!” said the doctor.
“NO!” Jack cried out, fighting back against the doctor.
“Young man, this is not something that either one of you need to see. It’s been thirty minutes. If he doesn’t come back in the next few, he’s not coming back at all!”
Les stopped dead in his tracks as he realized what the doctor’s words meant while Jack continued pushing, attempting to get close to his friend again.
Out of frustration, Jack raised his fist in an attempt to hit the doctor, but Les stopped him.
“Jack, look!”
Jack turned and it was then that his ears registered the faint beeping of the heart monitor and as the screen came into focus, he saw the straight line begin to form mountains and out of the corner of his eye, he saw the small rise and fall of Davey’s chest and heard him inhale deeply.
The doctor let go of Jack’s arm and apologized and headed back into the operating room to help his co-workers.
Les and Jack embraced, tears streaming down both their faces.
“I knew he’d pull through! You Jacobs boys are tough!” said Jack, gently punching Les in the arm.
Les didn’t even mind because his brother was alive and that’s all that mattered.
6 hours later…
Davey stirred in bed causing Jack and Les to both wake up out of a dead sleep.
Immediately after being resuscitated, Davey had been moved into a standard hospital room so that he could rest.
His parents had arrived not long after and his mother had sat at his bedside bawling her eyes out until someone came in and took her and her husband somewhere to talk about the cost of treatment.
Davey turned his head towards his best friend and brother and a small smile formed on his lips.
“How do I look?”
“No better than usual” said Jack, smiling.
Davey began to laugh, but Jack could tell that it pained him greatly.
Davey turned to Les, who seemed somewhat afraid to face his brother.
“I’m sorry you had to get hurt saving me” said Les, “it should have been me who got hit, not you.”
Tears had started to form in his eyes once again and Davey lifted his hand to wipe them.
“Don’t for one minute think that it was your fault that I was hurt. I did what any older brother would do in that situation.”
Les leaped forward and hugged Davey who hugged him back to the best of his ability.
“Now go find mom and dad.”
Les nodded and got up from the bed and left the room.
Davey looked once again at Jack.
“Thanks for coming” said Davey.
“Of course. When I found out that you were hurt, it was like I was the one that was hurt and I felt like I was never going to get better until I knew that you were alright too.”
“Well, I’m glad you’re here and that we’re both okay.”
Davey paused.
“You’re my best friend, Jack. Well, actually, you’re more like a brother to me and I don’t know what I’d do without you.”
Jack placed his hand on his friend’s shoulder.
“Save the sentiment for when you’re not loaded up on drugs and actually mean it.”
They both laughed at that one.
YOU ACTUALLY WROTE ME THE FIC??? FRICK I LOVE THIS THANK YOU!
