pandaphin (pandaphin) wrote in morningstar_mnr, @ 2009-09-05 00:06:00 |
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Entry tags: | bridget, lara, phin, stone |
Manor>Kobol Construction Site>St. Martin's, Bridget, Phin, Late Night Friday (Stone/Lara cameo!)
It was 12:06 on the dot when the phone in the Panda apartment started ringing. Carter Grass, Phin's work partner was on the other end, pacing frantically, sweating and dirty from work. The front desk guard looked about ready to call security actually. Carter was coming to collect Bridget. There had been an accident on site and Phin was trapped under a small mountain of debris, and he was repeatedly asking for Bridget. So here Carter was, in the Manor lobby trying to get her on the phone because they wouldn't let him up to the apartment.
Bridget should have been in bed by that time, but instead she was curled up on the couch, watching a depressing episode of Mad Men and comparing the crappy marriages therein to her own. When the phone started ringing, she looked over at it in surprise. A little late for callers, wasn't it? She leaned over to quickly grab it off the coffee table, hoping to answer it before the rings could disturb the kids in their own rooms.
"Hello?" she greeted, her brow furrowed.
"Bridget!" Carter shouted into the phone, stopping mid-pace when she answered, and startling some random tenants and the doorman. Carter let out a temporarily relieved sigh. "Bridget!" He said again. "Bridget, it's Carter," He told her, a little breathless from the pacing. He'd come over from the construction site, where they were still actually cutting Phin free. Why? Because the dumbass was there late with a crew catching up on lost time at time and a half and there was some kind of accident. "I'm in your lobby," Under normal circumstance, that could have been good for a laugh, not today though. "I need you to get a coat and some shoes and come down quick as you can," He hesitated a moment. Should he tell her now or wait until he was face to face with her? Obviously he knew Phin and Bridget were having some pretty drastic marital issues at the moment but the guy was begging for her and...well he had a large chunk of building crushing him currently, so.
Bridget sat straight up at attention the very first moment Carter yelled her name. If Carter was calling her after midnight like that, then something serious had to be wrong, and when you worked construction, that could mean any number of horrible things. Her breath caught a little bit at first and she stared through the television as she processed what Carter was saying, but it didn't take her too long to recover.
"Why? What happened? Is it Phin?" she asked as she moved swiftly to her feet.
Carter was shifting on his feet. "There was an accident...at the Kobol site." He said before he cleared his throat. "Your door man wouldn't let me up to your place. Do you have someone who can watch the kids...you might...uh...be a while." He stammered a little as he spoke rapidly, back to pacing again.
Bridget felt like someone had just punched her low in the stomach. She stopped and turned to look down the hallway that led to the bedrooms. "You need to come right out and tell me what happened," she said, not able to sound as calm as she tried to be. She was flat-out assuming the worst.
Carter cleared his throat a little. "I'm not entirely sure exactly what happened. He was in late with a crew and there was a collapse. The fire department and a three man crew are," He paused to take a breath. "Are still trying to cut him free." He told her. "We're not really sure..." He hesitated again and then let out a sigh. "They're not sure how bad his injuries are."
Bridget was surprised she could actually hear Carter over the sound of her heart pounding in her ears. "Oh my God," she breathed, frozen to her spot. "Oh my God, is he conscious?" She was afraid to hear the answer.
Carter frowned. He cleared his throat again. "He..." He stammered a little. "He's asking for you." He admitted, pacing impatiently now as he waited for her. "He was conscious when I left," He told her. "Just barely," Or so it had sounded among the grunts and shallow breaths at least.
Well, that was a relief wrapped up in a whole lot of worry. Bridget's face contorted a little before she finally snapped herself out of her stupor. "...okay. Okay. I need to get someone to watch the kids, but I'll be right down," she said quickly.
Carter nodded absentmindedly before he realized he was on the phone. "Yeah." He replied. "Yeah. Okay. Just...come right on out front. I'll be in my truck." He told her as he nodded to the doorman and turned around to head that way, fishing his keys back out of his pocket with his free hand.
"Okay," Bridget nodded. She pressed the button to end the call and then stared at the phone as she went through a mental list of people nearby who would be able to watch the kids. Their neighbors across the hall were on vacation, so they were out. Who else? Bridget's eyebrows shot up and she started going through her phone's address book to find the right number. Maybe Poe Hawthorne was available. Her apartment was just down the hall.
Once she found the number for the Hawthorne place, Bridget held the phone up to her ear and jogged over to the closet to grab a coat.
Stone was already asleep, and he was quiet comfortable too, kind of tangled a good bit with Lara and the various blankets on the bed, when the phone rang. It took a moment for his brain to fully process that the phone was ringing. Then he turned his head to look at the clock on the night stand. And then he lunged for the phone on the night stand, having to reach over Lara to get it and nearly toppling them out of bed in the process. "Hello?" He asked in a groggy gruff tone into the phone, fully expecting it to be Poe and totally confused as to why she was calling the apartment instead of his cell phone.
"Hello?" Bridget echoed. It took her a few moments to a) realize that Stone Hawthorne had answered, and b) remember that it was after midnight. Oh, and c) remember that Poe Hawthorne had moved out of Morningstar Manor. Fuck.
"Fuck." Bridget scrunched her face up and shook her head before hurrying to add, "Stone, this is Bridget Pandigaeshik. I thought I was getting your sister, but I forgot...I need your help."
Lara had opened her eyes by that point, and after checking the time on Stone's alarm clock, propped herself up on her elbow and watched him with a sleepy, yet concerned look.
Stone was about to answer when she said hello and he realized it wasn't Poe but then she was cussing and then talking and Stone's eyebrows arched way up his forehead and then his forehead scrunched all together. "....Huh?" He asked, a little dumbfounded. He shook his head and moved to untangled himself from Lara and sit up. "You need my help?" he asked. Bridget...Bridget...oh. She wanted Poe. For...those kids. "Help with what, exactly?" he asked, grimacing since he thought his brain finally caught up. Also, she sounded kind of...excitable.
"I..." Bridget took a deep breath to compose herself. "There was an accident at Phin's construction site. He's trapped under something and, and losing consciousness. I need to be there, but the kids...I was calling to try and get your sister to come and watch them, but I'm frazzled and forgot that she doesn't live there anymore. Now you have the unfortunate fate of being the one I'm asking to do this because I don't think I can really devote the brain power to figuring out who else I can call." She grabbed her coat out of the closet and shut the door with her foot.
Stone blinked. "....Oh." He wasn't completely awake so it took him awhile to process all of that. The idea that he was going to have to watch those twins was kind of fucking with his brain in too many ways to pin anything down. He thought about everything that happened with him and Lara, and then he thought about the fact that dreamland him and Lara had done the opposite of real life Lara and Stone. After a moment he cleared his throat. "Um...okay," He decided with a nod. He looked down at himself and then over at Lara and then moved to look for his pajama pants. "Are they asleep?" He asked. It was late and all so...they were right?
"Yes," Bridget nodded as she attempted to hold onto the phone and pull on her coat at the same time. "Yes, they are. And they should stay asleep, so, so really you'd only just be making sure that no disasters happen." No other disasters, that is. "Thank you. Thank you so much," she said as she twisted her arm around to try and reach the other sleeve, which was hanging behind her.
Lara was totally confused. She sat up and moved over to the edge of the bed, watching Stone as he looked around.
Stone was nodding, his brow still all scrunched up and furrowed. "Okay," He agreed. "No problem," Even though it really was a problem. But her husband was like...dying or something right? Fantastic. "Just give me a minute," He looked over at Lara, "and I'll come down to your apartment." He added as he found his pants and moved back to the edge of the bed to start tugging them on. He said goodbye and hung up and then stood up and went to grab a t-shirt.
As soon as he hung up, Lara lifted herself up higher to kneel on the edge of the bed. "What the hell is going on?" she asked, with her eyes wide enough to definitely be seen in the dark.
Stone turned around as he tugged his T-shirt on. He headed back toward the bed and sat down before he started tugging his cts on and tying them. "There was some kind of construction accident with one of the Pandigaeshiks so the wife, Bridget," He finished tying one shoe and went to the other. "Was calling to ask if Poe could come over. She forgot Poe moved out...so now I have to go sit in her apartment and hope those kids don't fucking wake up," He grimaced and then couldn't help giving her a sarcastic smirk. "Want to come with me?"
Lara sat back with a frown as Stone gave her the rundown. "Yeah, of course," she nodded to his question. "You should probably hurry up though, since you're already dressed. I'll catch up." She climbed off the bed and went searching for her own clothes. She slowed a little bit as the reality set in that they were going to be babysitting twin toddlers.
Stone's eyebrows arched when she agreed. He nodded though as he finished tying his shoe. He walked around and grabbed his keys from the bureau and then moved over and kissed her shoulder before he headed for the door. "Take your time," he shrugged and then waved over his shoulder and started for the apartment door. He stopped at the table by the door, where Slate had decided to sleep in the basket on top of it that normally held things like wallets, keys or ipods. He shook his head with a smirk but picked the kitten up. He needed weaponry in case the Panda kids woke up and Slate was good at hypnotizing. Slate wasn't pleased at the disturbance at first but Stone just kept on carrying him and Slate went back to sleep as they headed down the hall. When they reached the right apartment, Stone lifted his hand and knocked on the door, but not too loud.
Bridget had her jacket and shoes on, checked in on the kids, and now was leaning against the back of one of the living room chairs as she stared at the door and bounced her foot incessantly on the floor. When Stone knocked, she sprang forward and opened the door.
The first thing she said was, "You brought a cat."
Stone nodded. "I did." He replied. "I won't let him destroy anything, he's kind of too little too anyhow. He'll sleep mostly. I'm not so good with kids," He rambled and nodded toward Slate. "Deformed cats apparently are. Decided he could be my back up."
Bridget nodded quickly and nearly cut him off at the end there. "That's really great, but I don't care right now. I'm sorry to drag you over here like this." She opened the door further and motioned for him to come in. "The kids are down the hall to the right. Penny is in the first room and Jeth is in the second room. Make yourself at home. I'm going to try and get in touch with my brother to see if he can come and take over, so hopefully you won't be here for very long."
Stone gave Bridget a little salute and a nod. Right then. He stepped through and looked down the hall where she'd pointed. He repeated the names, mentally, in an effort to remember them. He nodded. "Okay," he answered when she was finished. "Good luck," He added. He decided not to tell her that Lara was coming down too. It would just waste her time.
"Thank you," Bridget said, not just for the well-wishing, but for the fact that he came over, too. She patted her pocket to make sure she had her cell phone. "Call me if you need anything," she said, not thinking about whether or not Stone actually had her number. It was too late for him to ask anyway, because she left right away. She headed over to the elevators, just missing Lara, who was coming from the other direction.
Luckily it didn't take too long for a car to reach the sixth floor, and it was just a few (agonizingly long) minutes later that Bridget was stepping out into the lobby. She hurried over to the security desk to give the guard a quick rundown and her brother's name if and when he showed up, and then she headed outside to find Carter's truck.
Stone just nodded anyhow. He wasn't planning on calling her considering why she had to leave. He shut the door behind her but didn't lock it since Lara was going to come down eventually. And then he turned around to go look around the apartment out of curiosity...and y'know, nothing better to do.
Carter was tapping on the steering wheel impatiently and started between the clock and the doors to the Manor. When he finally saw Bridget, he pushed the brake down and got the truck into gear in preparation for when she got in. He hit the horn too so she'd know where he was.
Bridget had been looking to the right, but turned left when she heard the horn. She spotted the truck and jog-walked over to it. When she climbed in, she was mostly out of breath. "Where you there when it happened?" she asked, not sure if Carter had already told her this or not. Her mind was all over the place at the moment.
Carter started driving as soon as the door was shut, shifting gears as quick as he could as he went. "No," He answered with a shake of his head. "Alex, Tommy and Karl were with him. They were working on the second floor." He drove a little bit like a maniac as he headed towards the Kobol site. He might have run a light or two - but only when they were just turning from yellow to red. "Tommy said he sent them to get some tools they hadn't lugged with him. When they got in the cargo elevator, they heard an explosion. They got to the first floor, he was under a pile of debris." He answered matter of factly so as not to get too worked up while driving over.
Bridget stared at Carter, her eyes as wide as they could possibly get. "An explosion? What could have exploded?"
Carter shook his head and shrugged, only taking his eyes off the road for a second to glance at her. "I don't know," he shook his head, trying to figure that out himself. "Maybe he just meant it sounded like an explosion with the stuff collapsing on him, and it dropped him through to the first story," He shook his head. "I went there as soon as they called me. He just keeps asking for you and babbling incoherently." He frowned.
"Oh my God..." Bridget turned to blink out of the windshield, not really focusing on anything she saw out of it. She and Phin were in a really bad place right now, planning on getting a divorce and all, but that by no means meant she didn't still love and care about him. The fact that she did was the reason why what he'd done was so horrible. And now he was pinned under parts of a building, probably dying.
"Do you...do you know at all if he's going to be okay? Or if he's supposed to be okay?" she asked as she blinked back the beginnings of some tears.
Carter pressed his lips into a tight line. "They don't know the extent of his injuries. He's conscious," Or he was when Carter left anyway. "That's a good thing. He's delirious but that could be anything like...y'know a concussion." He frowned some. He didn't give his opinion outright but how 'okay' could a guy who had two stories of building on top of him turn out to be? Even if he survived what were his spinal injuries going to be? Was he even going to be able to continue to work on anything but desk duty stuff because of mobility? Carter wasn't going to go voicing this opinion to Bridget though, obviously.
"A concussion of top of everything else, you mean," Bridget frowned. In her mind she pictured Phin pinned from the waist down, his legs were already on the road to eventual amputation. There was also a rebar sticking through his chest, probably piercing a lung. Her face contorted some more. "Why was he even there?" Would he have gone tonight if she hadn't kicked him out of the apartment? Was he working a lot more for lack of other things to do?
Carter hesitated, eyebrows arching a little before he finally nodded. "I suppose so, yeah," He answered, unsure what, exactly, she wanted to hear him say. He also didn't know what injuries Phin had since Phin was under part of a building either so. And he didn't know if there was rebar metal sticking out of Phin's chest but it hadn't seemed like there was a ton of blood seeping out either, but Carter had no clue. Carter frowned some more as he barreled around a corner in a right turn. "He said he felt like they were running behind and he wanted to get them ahead of schedule. He promised the guys time and a half for anyone that volunteered. Alex, Tommy and Karl needed the money so, they volunteered. That's all I know." Except that yeah, Phin was feeling restless all by himself and had refused Carter and Cally's repeated offers to come stay with them or to at least come and have dinner or drinks or something. Carter definitely left that out. He wasn't jumping into the Panda divorce fray, no way. But if Phin was working for lack of other things to do, least it meant he wasn't out y'know...drinking and getting himself in trouble again so...hey positive point, or something!
So now on top of worried and terrified, Bridget also felt guilty. She nodded a little bit at Carter's response as stared out the window to figure out how far away they were. Phin needed to at least stay conscious until they got to the site. Bridget didn't know if she could live with herself if he had been asking for her and she never made it to him in time. She sniffled quickly and raised her hand up to wipe at her eyes.
Carter had a straight drive now to reach the site, so he lifted his hand free of the gear shift after putting it in second and reach out to put it on Bridget's shoulder. He didn't want to go and say something about it being okay since he had no idea what had happened from the time that he'd left the site to now. So he just drove. It took about five more minutes for them to get there. Carter drove as far as they'd let him and then cut the engine. He left the keys in the ignition and grabbed two hard hats from the back seat. He threw one on as he climbed out and then handed one to Bridget as he led the way around the truck and through various emergency personnel as well as some media crews that the police were holding back. The police let Carter and Bridget through when he told them who they were and Carter grabbed onto Bridget's hand to make sure she kept pace with him as he navigated through the building frame and to the spot where a small mountain of various building materials were still pinning Phin.
Phin was only slightly conscious at that point. He was still mumbling out a request for Bridget to the paramedic who was trying to keep him talking. His hard hat was in pieces around is head, which had he been able to think about it probably would've blown his mind a little to know he was awake after something that destroyed his protective gear was lying on top of him. His left arm was pinned tight against his chest and his hand was stuck over his the side of his neck and his jaw. His right arm was under a pile of cinder block, rebar, wood and drywall. He wasn't sure if any bones in there were broken but it fucking hurt like hell. He was pinned from the chest down. They fire fighters and crew members were shouting orders around as they used various tools to cut Phin free. They'd gotten most of his legs free since there was less debris on them but they were working on the pile pinning his torso at the same time. Having to cut through the rebar, steel and blocks was proving difficult but since they didn't know how injured Phin was, they couldn't really use too many heavy machines to just lift all the crap off of him. So the paramedic was there by his head, trying to keep a reading on his vital signs and asking him questions to assess his condition and keep him talking. Phin ignored most of them and instead asked for Bridget after popping his eyes open for a moment or two before they rolled up into his head again.
Bridget moved as fast as she could alongside Carter, but she was so distracted by all the chaos around that it was a good thing he had her hand to drag her with him. When they got to the main site of the disaster, Bridget slowed a little bit, starting to trail behind. She unconsciously squeezed his hand pretty hard as she scanned over the scene.
"I can't see him," she said quietly, probably too quiet with all the work going on.
Carter stopped and looked down at his hand when Bridget squeezed it. He located the paramedic and then squeezed her hand back and tugged her along closer. He shouted above the noise to let the fire chief know that Bridget was Phin's wife and then they were waved in. Carter headed for the paramedic, and asked the guy to move so Bridget could at least see Phin and started talking to him, but he kept his body blocking her view until the paramedic moved more to the top of Phin's head and kept a hold of the bottom of it to keep Phin's neck straight. And then Carter finally stepped to the side. He pulled Bridget forward and let go of her hand so he could put his hand on her back. Phin's eyes were just barely open and his vision was more than a little blurred.
When Carter stepped aside, Bridget's mouth fell open. She took the hand she had just been using to hold his to cover the bottom half of her face. Jesus Christ, he was completely buried. And the mass of it on his chest...she had seen enough medical shows to know that it was probably going to be really, really bad when they lifted all of that off. Or maybe even worse. Maybe they were just keeping it on so he could say goodbye to her because they knew that lifting it would completely kill him.
She dropped down next to him and reached out for his cheek with her fingers. "Phin..."
Phin blinked a few times when he heard Bridget. He let out a short shallow sigh, of relief honestly that she was actually here, not that he had really wanted her to see him like this but he didn't really think he was going to get out of this alive, so. He just wanted to see her. He turned his eyes toward her since the Paramedic was holding his head still by the back of it right were it led down to his neck and shoulders. "You're here..." he rasped out. There might've been a tear or two as well but it could hardly be held against him what with the friggin' building on top of him.
His jaw continually clenched and unclenched depending on which work crew disturbed a specific injury. He said her name a couple of times in a tired weary whisper of a tone as he fought to focus his eyes on her. They rolled up a couple of times but each time he opened them halfway and brought them back to her. "M'sorry," He told her when he managed to get enough air. He repeated it a few more times and flexed the fingers of the hand that was pinned to his neck to try and reached hers on his cheek.
It was hard for Bridget to keep fighting back the tears once she saw that Phin was crying some himself. She used her free hand to wipe at her face as she dragged the other down his cheek so she could move it to his. "Don't..." She paused to sniffle. "I don't want you to think about that right now," she shook her head. Whether he was apologizing for getting pinned under a building or apologizing for pinning that girl, it didn't matter at the moment. Bridget just wanted him to live.
She tore her eyes away from him to look at the paramedic holding his head. Bridget didn't like that at all. It had to mean there was a spinal injury, right? "Are they going to be able to get him out?" Alive?
No necessarily. It just meant that the paramedic didn't want to risk exacerbating any other possible spinal injuries he already had. The paramedic glanced at Phin and then looked at Bridget. "Right now, he's stable, Ma'am," He answered before he looked back down at Phin and moved one of his hands to the free side of his neck to feel for his pulse again.
Phin just kept his eyes on Bridget. He curled his fingers around hers, squeezing a little harder than he intended when some of the weight on the pile shifted and the crews had to stop and back away for a moment. Phin let out a strangled grunt and tried to shift his weight but couldn't really so he just scrunched his eyes shut and struggled to blurt out a quick, "I love you," because he really thought that the answer to Bridget's question was going to be 'no'.
"That didn't really answer --" Bridget cut herself off when the pile moved and Phin let out that noise. Her face fell and she looked quickly from the pile and and then down his face. She squeezed his hand back and moved so she could lean down and kiss Phin's sweaty forehead. "I love you," she said in response without even thinking about it as she picked her head back up again so she could look at him. "I really do."
She sniffled again and turned to look for Carter. She needed him to get information on what was happening since she wasn't going to leave Phin's side anytime soon.
Carter was already in the process of shouting at at least his crew members to get that shit off of Phin right now. He started lending a hand in the removal as well after throwing some gloves and goggles on. He wasn't exactly within earshot of Bridget.
Phin squeezed her hand harder after she said she loved him. He didn't really have the wits about him to wonder whether she meant it or not. He repeated a few more apologies and coughed a couple of times. Within a few more minutes the crews made a bigger dent in the pile on his torso. Phin wanted to go to sleep. He closed his eyes stayed quiet for awhile just to work on breathing a little easier now that some of the weight was gone. The paramedic tried to get Bridget's attention back so he could try to get her to get Phin talking again.
Bridget was already on top of it. When she couldn't find Carter, she looked instead at the workers she could see who were trying to relieve the pressure on the pile. She turned back down to Phin and saw that his eyes were closing and realized that was a bad thing. "Phin, hey, you need to stay awake," she said, squeezing his hand harder. "'Cause...'cause I didn't tell you about the funny thing Jeth did today." Bridget nodded and wiped her nose off with the back of her free hand.
Phin's eyes popped open just about halfway when she spoke. His face contorted into an entirely pained expression when she mentioned Jeth. His eyes welled up again. He didn't think he was getting out of this pile and that meant he was never going to see the kids again. That thought was extra depressing since he'd already missed them immensely thanks to the whole separation thing and only being able to see them so often. "I'm sorry..." he told her again. "I hurt you. I'm sorry," He repeated, throwing in an "I love you" or two. He might've said the kids' names a time or so as well, he couldn't really be sure at this point. He started rambling too, cutting off to cough or groan depending on what the crews were doing, about the kids and being sorry and that she'd be okay because of the insurance and all that. He hadn't mentioned changing it to her, but whatever, she'd find out soon enough he supposed.
Bridget frowned as Phin babbled, but she didn't make any attempt to stop him since talking meant he was awake and that was good. But when he started on the stuff with the insurance, she grimaced and shook her head. "I...let's not get ahead of ourselves here. They're..." She looked at the paramedic to see if he gave any indication of confirmation or denial as she spoke. "They're going to get you out of here..." One way or another, she supposed.
Phin was too tired to argue. "Okay..." he said. He wanted to nod but the paramedic was back to holding his head. He closed his eyes, first because of pain in his upper torso, then just because he was tired. He was really tired. He couldn't remember being this tired even with the kids were first born. Just a nap would be fine and maybe when he woke up they'd have all this shit off of him. The paramedic was a little busy trying to do his job to give Bridget some kind of facial expression but the guy was looking pretty grim over all. He reached up to the radio on his shoulder and called off some coded medical commands to his partner before he reached down to take note of Phin's pulse again. Carter was shouting down the line and one of the firefighters called out to Bridget that they'd be done in a few more minutes and just to hold on.
Well at least somebody was giving a clue as to what was going on. "Hey!" Bridget said, louder to get Phin's attention. She put her hand lightly on the side of his cheek and smiled a bit. "Did you hear that? Only a few more minutes. You just need to stay awake for a little while longer." Bridget was going to just assume that if the medical personnel thought Phin would die if they lifted the stuff off of them, someone would have told her so she could say her goodbyes. So that was at least a good sign.
Well, they didn't think he'd die right away when everything was removed, but there was the whole plausibility of internal bleeding and such. Phin shook his head, just a tiny bit before the paramedic moved his hands to stop the motion. Phin was blinking at Bridget. "I can't..." It was stupid and he normally hated the term 'can't' but his eyelids, they were really heavy. So he closed them again, and maybe loosened his grip on Bridget's hand too. The guy was tired and all.
"Yes, you can," Bridget shook her head. She squeezed his hand harder and looked up. "You need to hurry!" she yelled to no one person in particular. She turned back to Phin and bent down some more so she could get closer to his face, babbling about how he needed to stay awake.
It was nice to listen to, in the sense that he was still surprised she'd showed up. She'd said she loved him too. Phin started wondering if she was just saying it since he was dying. His mind jumped from that to wondering what the kids were going to think about him after growing up without him. He even wondered if Bridget would ever tell them what he did to her before he went and got himself killed because he had to go and work late since he was restless and full of guilt. At some point he thought about opening his eyes again but the prospect of lifting super heavy eyelids was daunting. He started murmuring about being sleepy.
"I know you are," Bridget nodded. "But you can sleep later, after they get you out of here." She sniffled again and wiped away a tear that had ended up spilling down her face. She leaned down further and kissed his cheek as she squeezed his hand again.
The crew was almost done, the pile mostly pieces that could be picked up and passed out of the way. Phin's eyes fluttered when Bridget kissed him and he managed to open them all the way to look at her but it only lasted for a moment before they rolled up and closed again. His hand relaxed most of the way after that and the Paramedic started shouting to the closest fire fighter as loud as he could that they had to get Phin clear now. The fire fighter got on the radio and pretty soon a number of the police officers and some of the other firefighters as well as the paramedic's partner came in to help clear away the last of the rubble.
Bridget started panicking as soon as Phin's grip loosened. She started alternately yelling at him to wake up again and at the people helping to do their work faster, all the while squeezing his hand as hard as she could, as the though that little bit of pain would wake him up again.
Phin's hearing kind of went wonky, kind of like everything was muffled into slow motion during a movie or something. He squeezed Bridget's hand just a little bit and that's about when he went unconscious so his grip fell completely limp and he lapsed into an uneven shallow breathing pattern. It took another five minutes or so for the rest of the rubble to be removed and then another five or so more before the paramedics could get a neck brace around him and get him first on a back board and then onto a stretcher.
Bridget stayed as close to him as she possibly could without getting in the way of the paramedics. After Phin had let go of her hand completely, any little bit of optimism she'd had shot way, way down. It seemed like it took at least half an hour for them to clear the rest of the debris off, even though it was only a few minutes. Bridget tried uselessly to call Phin back to consciousness, but he stayed out and soon he was ready to be carried away.
She looked at the closest paramedic, who was a little blurry through the tears she hadn't bothered wiping away. "Can I ride with him?" she asked, gripping Phin's hand tightly. She brought her eyes down to Phin's body, which was bloody and torn and generally fucked up.
The paramedic nodded but paid no mind to her otherwise as they started moving the stretcher out to the ambulance. Once they moved it inside one of the paramedics went to the driver's side the other other told Bridget to put her seat belt on as he started hooking up monitors and an IV line into Phin's arm. He packed up some bleeding gashes with gauze and then started trying to wake Phin up again as well, to get a better assessment of his injuries while they drove toward the hospital.
Once she was in the back of the ambulance, Bridget did as she was told and strapped herself in. She leaned forward to watch Phin, asking just a few questions of the paramedics as they rode, but not wanting to interrupt them too much as they worked.
The paramedic did the best to answer her questions while he worked. The ride to the hospital took about ten minutes, even to the paramedic it felt like it was taking forever though tonight. There was a large welt on the left side of his chest toward the top of his ribs. It was swelling pretty badly and at first the paramedic thought it was internal bleeding so he told the driver to speed it up, but then he started pressing around the area - which woke Phin up enough to make him scream and for his eyes to roll around in their sockets but not to focus on anything. It wasn't bad enough that his right leg was pretty fucking mangled and his neck and spine had unknown injuries and there were gashes all over him that was still bleeding and, oh yeah, he head a good amount of head trauma too, now the paramedic had to go and announce - intending for the other paramedic to hear and radio it in but informing Bridget as a result as well - that he thought Phin had a ruptured spleen and internal bleeding in his chest cavity. That was right around the time the ambulance turned the corner onto the street that St. Martin's was on.
Bridget certainly hadn't been expecting expecting screaming, so it was a good thing she had her seat belt on or else she might have jumped straight out of her seat. On one hand it was good that Phin was alive enough to scream, but on the other hand, he had internal bleeding. "How bad is that?" she asked the paramedic, her eyes all wide and frantic.
The paramedic was going to tell Bridget that it was very bad but the ambulance stopped and the back doors opened at the hands of Manor resident Grace Bitando. She helped the paramedic get the stretcher out of the ambulance and get the wheels down. A doctor joined them a moment later and started throwing questions at the paramedic as they moved a long the halls. Grace recognized the pair and for a moment wondered what the hell was in the water in this City that she saw so many of her fellow building tenants in her ER. She set about asking Bridget if Phin was allergic to any medications.
At the moment, Bridget could not have been more relieved when they finally reached the hospital. She unbuckled her belt as quickly as possible and followed the stretcher out. She didn't realize that Grace was one of the nurses until she started asking Bridget questions. Bridget answered them as best as she could in her agitated state.