Come Closer

James was sitting on his couch feeling a mix of different emotions. Angry, sad, pissed off. How could she do this to me, after everything we have been through, and with my captain…that is an all-time low.

He turned on the TV to try and get his mind off it. The first channel he found was a story about a car accident in Toronto.

“A cab coming from Toronto International Airport was hit by a driver who ran a red light.” James’ heart stopped for a second.

“The driver of the cab was taken to hospital; the other passenger was rushed to hospital with life threating injuries. Names of the people have not yet been realised, alcohol was not a factor in the crash.”

“No…please let not be her.” James said to himself.

James’ phone rang not even 5 minutes later, it was Meghan’s mom.

“James, Meghan has been in an accident, she is just going in for surgery. Her injuries are life threatening and we are not sure if she is going to make it.” She was crying on the other line.

James dropped the phone and sat on the couch.

“James…James” he could hear her mom saying his name.

“Sorry, Tanya…I have to go, please call me after she gets out of surgery.”

“I can’t let “I can’t marry you” be the last words I say to her.” He started crying. “I have to go home and be with her.” Talking to himself.

James made 2 phone calls, one to his coach and one to the airport.

“Coach, Meghan has been in a really bad car accident back in Canada, I need to see her.” James said to him, trying to contain his tears.

“You do what you need to do James, take all the time you need, please keep us updated.”
James was so lucky to be with such a great team who always had his back.

The next call was to the airport.

“Thank you for calling Pittsburgh International Airport how may we help you today?”
“Hi…uh, when is the next available flight to Toronto? It is an emergency.” James said.

James told the lady about the accident, he could hear the lady on the other end typing on her key board.

“Ok sir, we have an Air Canada flight leaving to Toronto in about 20 minutes, is that ok?
Since this in an emergency we can hold the plane till you get here,” The lady said.

“That is perfect.”

James gave the lady all his credit card information to pay for the flight. After everything was finalized, James threw some clothes into a carry-on suit case and called Paulie to drive him to the airport.
Once at the airport, Paulie wished him good luck, and hoped for the best.

James quickly went through security and ran to his gate where the flight attendants were waiting for him. Since the economy seats were full they put him in first class. 5 minutes later, they were up in the air heading to Toronto.
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Right from the airport James went to Toronto General Hospital; he got a cab and was there within minutes.

“Hi, can you please tell me the room number to Meghan Fuller; she was in an accident earlier.” James went up to the hospital front desk.

“She is in the Intensive Care Unit, I am only aloud to bring up immediately family, since she is in critical care…and who are you?”

“James Neal…her fiancé”

“The ICU is on the 4th floor. There is a waiting room up there; I believe she is not out of surgery yet but she will be put in room #16.”

“Thanks.” James took the elevator up to the 4th floor, right away he saw Meghan’s parents and two siblings and his heart stopped.

“Omg…” Tanya came over and hugged James tightly and started to cry. James closed his eyes and a tear came down onto his cheek. Seconds later, the doctor came out of the room taking his surgery cap off.

Everyone was quiet.

“Please tell me she is going to be ok.” Tanya said as her and James sat down.

“Surgery went well, but she is not out of the water yet. She will be carefully watched for the next few hours to make sure nothing goes wrong.”

“What happened?” James asked the doctor.

“She has 4 broken ribs which were puncturing different parts of her body, there were shards of glass all over her including her neck and face, broken collar bone, broken wrist and some severe bruising…We didn’t find any internal bleeding but we just want to keep a good eye on her just in case, Meghan is lucky to be alive.”

“Can we go in and see her?” Meghan’s dad Brad asked.

“She is still under anesthesia so she is not awake yet, but should be responsive within the next hour, only one person at a time in the room with her right now; I don’t want her to get over whelmed.” Dr. Jones said.

“James do you want to go in first?” Tanya asked.

“I can wait if you want to go first.” James was hoping to go in he wanted to be in with her right now.

“She will want to wake up with you beside her.”

James took the 6 steps to her room, opened the door and saw her laying there. She had a black eye, stitches on her face and neck where the shards of glass were, and her arm in a cast. This broke James’ heart seeing her like this.

There was a chair beside the bed where James took a seat. Her hands and arms were full of scratches, he grabbed Meghan’s hand and held it in both of his, he started to cry.

“Meghan, I’m sorry…I should have known there was nothing going on with you and Sidney. Please Meghan, you have to be ok, I cannot live without you, you are the best thing that has ever happened to me and I can’t lose you.”

Meghan squeezed James’ hand slightly, enough for him to notice.

“If you can hear me Meg, squeeze my hand again.”

And she did.

“James.” Meghan stuttered a little, saying his name so quiet that he could barely hear it.

“Babe, I’m right here.” Pushing a strand of hair from her face so she could open her eyes.

She opened her eyes very slowly and looked at him.

“Hey.” I whispered smiling a little.

“Hey, how you feeling?”

“I have been better.” Still whispering.

“Babe I’m sorry for…”

“Shhh James, we can talk about that later.”

And Meghan fell asleep.
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James left the room when the nurse came went in to check on her.

“She’s awake.” James told everyone in the waiting room. “But in the middle of conversation she fell asleep, so she’s out.”

“She is going to be in and out of sleep for the next little while, she will be very tired.” The nurse said coming out of the room, closing the door behind her.
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Tanya was in with her now while James and everyone else just sat in silence.

One of the nurses came out of a room holding a little plastic bag with some items in it.

“This is what was on Meghan when she came in.”

Her cell phone, house keys and her engagement ring which was covered in dried blood.

James took the bag and took the ring out and went to the bathroom to wash the blood off. He also splashed some water on his face and threw this hair.

“Hey.” Meghan’s younger brother Todd came into the bathroom.

“Hey Todd, how are you doing with all this?” James said drying the water off the ring.

“Alright, I’m so happy that she is going to be ok, she is my role model and having her gone would be the end of me.” Todd was looking at the ground and holding back tears. “We were surprised to see you here, with hockey and everything we had no idea, and when you showed up we all were so thankful, it’s about time you guys got married.”

The two boys came out of the bathroom and went back to the waiting room, as Tanya came out of Meghan’s room.

“James, she wants to see you.” Tanya came over and hugged James “She is awake now and more alert, still a little sleepy though.”

“How you feeling?” James asked as he walked into the room.

“Better, not as tired. They have me on lots of pain meds so I feel alright. I sat up looking at him as he sat down.

“Look James, nothing happened with me and Sidney. We were at the airport and our flight gates were right beside each other and we just talked, when my plane was boarding I hugged him and that was it.”

“I shouldn’t have jumped to conclusions like that, you wouldn’t do that and I’m sorry.”

“Why aren’t in Pittsburgh, isn’t there a game tonight?” laying my head back on the pillow.

“You are way more important; I needed to be here to make sure you were going to be ok.”

“I’ll be fine, just looking a little rough.” I laughed.

“I think you look beautiful.” James kissed my forehead and sat back down on the chair beside me and put my engagement ring back on my finger.

Notes