The Playboy King's Bride

Chapter 4

Stella sat in the hallway of the hospital with her head in her hands, doing everything she could not to cry. Her skin almost dripped with black sweat that soaked through her clothes and made her chilly, but she couldn’t be bothered with that right now.

In her minds eye, all she saw was the gray haired man who she had tackled to get him out of the way of a rogue big rig.

After she had tackled him, the truck had skidded a few more meters before finally coming to a stop. Still, thick smoke billowed from it’s engine and blew just far enough to enshroud them from onlookers. Stella had tried yelling at him, but between the smoke entering her lungs and the yells of everyone on the other side of the smoke she couldn’t even hear herself.

Shaking him roughly, he still didn’t seem to hear her, Stella began to worry that he had hit his head. Knowing that him being unconscious after that would be a bad thing, she began tapping his cheeks and checking around his head for any signs of blood coming out.

Finding none, she looked around again. The smoke sat heavily in the air with no sign of dissipating, but if he had been having trouble before, he probably couldn’t breathe at all right now, when she herself was struggling.

Not seeing any other solution, and no one coming to help her, she grabbed the collar of his shirt and began pulling with all her strength. The man was significantly larger than her, and she wondered briefly what could be so wrong with him that she had been able to tackle him. When his shirt only seemed to be coming off instead of pulling him, she squatted and wrapped her arms around his shoulders, pulling him partway up and leaning completely on her at the same time.

Every step felt like agony as her lungs burned her chest and she tasted the air on her tongue. It tasted like gasoline and burnt food on a grill, but she didn’t have any time or spare material to cover her mouth, and her priority was really his breathing anyway. Her legs shook under his weight as she struggled with every step.

Even as she thought she would have to set him down she noticed the faintest bit of light between the swirls of darkness. Immediately feeling a surge of relief she hauled him higher and started backing toward it with renewed vigor. In another agonizing moment she had broken through the dense cloud. Thick tendrils still reached out to her, trying to drag her back in, but she took another two steps to put just enough distance before her strength finally left her completely.

When she collapsed the man ended up laying on top of her, but she noted that this time his arm did move as if his body knew it needed to wake up. Without the strength to move any further she sat there with his torso in her lap and looked at the scene.

Everywhere people were in chaos. Some where running toward the truck, others away, while others only stood and stared, or had their phones out, recording the scene. One man was yelling into a phone and she quickly caught his attention. Still yelling, he ran to her side.

“I’ve got someone here! They came out of the smoke, a man and woman-,”

Realizing he must be talking to emergency services she relayed that she was fine, but the man seemed to be unconscious, no blood loss that she knew of, and had been having breathing problems before the accident. While she talked she began shaking him again, hoping that this time he would wake up since they lay in the fresh air.

The man on the phone was eventually asked to report on the status of the truck and so moved away after giving her description so the paramedics could find her. Before long she could hear the sirens of approaching ambulances and couldn’t help the smile on her face. Looking down at her lap, she noticed that the man’s eyes were cracked, peering at her dazedly. Not knowing if he could hear her, she still did her best to smile reassuringly.

“You’re going to be fine. Medics are here now.”

It couldn’t have been more than ten minutes since the original disaster, but she couldn’t remember ever feeling this exhausted, even after hiking mountains as a teenager. Looking down at the man in her lap, she hoped he would be OK after some help. She couldn’t imagine he would be in good shape right now if he was having trouble breathing before, and now his lungs filled with whatever had been in the air. The fact he had been unconscious through the whole thing worried her even more.

An EMT found her immediately when three ambulances pulled up. After asking her questions while also putting the man in an oxygen mask, he recommended that she come with them to the hospital as the truck had been filled with toxic material. Anyone who had been in the smoke needed to be checked out.

Her man’s eyes remained fixed on her the whole time she talked, not straying once from her face as they grew steadily wider and more aware. Although dilated, she noted that he had the most piercing sea-blue eyes she had ever seen. The less glassy they looked, the more it seemed as though he could see into her very soul.

Normally this type of feeling would have made her uncomfortable, especially as she sat in the ambulance next to where they had laid him, getting ready to be taken to a hospital, but something in them told her that he held no malice toward her. She even got a tugging in her heart that told her he was now a friend.

Once at the hospital he had been carted away for more tests. He still had not said anything, or moved, but his eyes had stayed open, and trained on Stella for as long as they were in the same room. Once he was gone, she had been checked, and after having an oxygen mask for a few minutes, she had been cleared.

After asking about the man, and verifying that she was no relation of his, and had no idea who he was, she was given a brief statement that he had some other issues going on, and would have to stay for further monitoring. After giving her contact information and a police report she started to exit the hospital. Only after a moment did she realize that instead of going to the elevators she had found a mostly empty hall.

She found the nearest chair and collapsed into it. Every part of her ached as though she had run a marathon after being hit by a truck…THAT truck. Putting her head in her hands the past hour flashed across her mind, causing her eyes to swell. In the moment she hadn’t thought of anything other than getting him out, but now that she had a moment she couldn’t believe she had done any of those things.

If she had stayed put she wouldn’t have been in danger at all. She wouldn’t have been anywhere near the black smoke, wouldn’t be here in the hospital. She might have been on the useless onlookers, more interested in catching a video than helping.

This made her wonder if there were any other casualties. What happened to the truck driver? Were there any other casualties? As far as she had seen only one other ambulance had shown up, but she had been so preoccupied that she didn’t stop to see who was in it, or how many.

“No doubt it’ll be on the news tonight.” She decided. “Maybe I’ll watch long enough to hear of any casualties. That’ll be nice. To watch as though I wasn’t there…but I’d like to hear good news about that man.” With that determination she stood up and exited the building, ready for a shower, and to put this entire day behind her.