I swore. It was late, and there were a few winding stretches of that freeway with deep embanknts, but the only guardrails you could go "through" were on the exits... everything else was concrete. It was doubtful that she could have gone off the road without a single witness.
"Please don’t hang up," Poppy whispered. "I’m so scared."
Fuck!
"I’m right here, yeah? I’m coming."
"Don’t hang up, Hatch. Please don’t hang up."
I sped out of the driveway and toward Portland. "I’m here, baby girl."
"I’m really tired."
"I need you to stay awake, Poppy, can you do that?"
My phone beeped, and I glanced at the screen. Booker had hacked into the rcedes mbrace system and sent the exact location of Maisie’s car... right along Highway 26.
"Poppy?" She didn’t respond, so I bellowed, "Poppy!"
"I’m here," she said.
I heard sirens in the background and my heart cald a little. "Do you hear that? The ambulance is close now."
"Yeah," she whispered.
"Stay awake," I ordered.
"I’m just resting my eyes like Mum does sotis."
I had a feeling if she closed her eyes, she’d be out cold in minutes. "The paradics will have questions about your mom they’ll need you to answer. You have to stay awake, so you can help her, okay?"
"Okay, Hatch."
"I an it, Poppy. They’ll need to know if she has any allergies or anything. She needs you to talk to them when they get there. I’m close. I’ll be there soon."
"They’re here now. I’m gonna hang up."
"No! Don’t hang up, Poppy. You can put the phone down, but don’t hang up."
"Mummy’s really hurt," Poppy said to whoever had just arrived. "Please help her. I can’t wake her up. She’s allergic to grass and a couple of trees. I don’t rember their nas."
"Any dicines?" a female voice asked.
"No. Just grass and trees."
"We’ve got her, honey, but I need you to co with ."
"Hatch?" Poppy asked.
"Still here, baby girl," I assured her.
"Can you tell him where you’re taking Mummy, please?" Poppy asked.
"Hello?" the woman said.
"Hey."
"Sir, this is Mary Walls, we’re taking them to OHSU."
"Okay. Maisie is the mom and Poppy’s the daughter. Last na’s Mann. Take good care of them, yeah?"
"We’ll take care of your family, sir. You can et us there."
I spoke to Poppy one more ti and then the line went dead. After checking in with Booker and being assured Ace was on his way, I headed to the crash site, right off the side of 26 before the freeway interchanges to I-5 and I-405, finding the ambulances and police cars had the road blocked off.
Pulling my truck off to the shoulder, I rushed into the chaos, my heart in my throat. I was glad to see that Poppy hadn’t been entirely correct in her assessnt of being alone. A couple of cars had pulled off to the side of the road and called 9-1-1, but one lady had her two young kids in the back, the other car was an older woman, so I really couldn’t fault them for not climbing down the embanknt.
Before I could get to the ambulance, it took off just as Ace pulled up with a tow truck. I jogged to him. "What’s goin’ on?"
"Not entirely sure yet," I said. "Looks like she guided her car off Jefferson where it went through a guard rail and down the embanknt."
"Shit," Ace said. "Who?"
"Maisie."
"Maisie?" Ace asked. "Kim’s Maisie?"
I shook my head. Cassidy was Ace’s old lady, so even though I didn’t advertise the fact I’d gone out with Maisie, Cassidy and Kim were sisters now, so they’d probably done their woman thing and over-shared. "Shut up, Ace. Just fuckin’ deal with the car, yeah? I wanna get it back to the shop. Her daughter said sothin’ was wrong with the brakes."
Once Ace was on task to deal with the car, I took off for the hospital. I lied to the admittance desk, claiming to be family until they reluctantly buzzed back and showed to a room. Poppy was sitting on the bed alone, crying.
"Poppy?"
She raised her head and relief covered her face. "You ca."
"Yeah, baby girl. Where’s your mom?" I pulled a chair up next to her and frowned. Her head was bandaged, and her left eye was starting to purple.
"I don’t know. I’m waiting to find out." She licked her lips. "I’m thirsty."
I poured her so water and handed it to her. "Who should we call, Poppy?"
"No one," she said, and took a sip of water. "Auntie Ali’s here. She just went to get the nurse." She put her hand to her head with a grimace.
"Are you in pain?"
Poppy nodded.
"Excuse ? Who the hell are you and what are you doing in here?" A petite brunette advanced on and I raised my hands in surrender.
"It’s okay, Ali. This is Hatch," Poppy said.
Ali paused and studied . "You’re Hatch?"
I nodded, bolstered by the fact Maisie had obviously ntioned . Before we could continue introductions, a nurse arrived and squeezed a syringe of morphine into Poppy’s arm. "I can only give you a little, honey, because we need you to stay awake. We’re going to take you for a scan in a little bit."
"We’ll keep her awake," Ali promised. "Any word on Maisie Mann?"
"Not yet. As soon as I know sothing, I’ll let you know." The nurse left the room and I waved Ali to the chair I’d pulled next to Poppy’s bed.
Poppy’s eyes were drooping, so I squeezed her arm gently. She looked up at , her pupils pinned. "Hmm?"
"Feeling a little better?" I asked.
She nodded.
I smiled. "I need you to tell everything you rember, okay?"
"It all happened really fast. Mum said sothing felt weird, then yelled for to hold on." She took a deep breath. "There was glass everywhere and my head hurt, but when Mummy didn’t answer , I got really scared. I pushed the rcedes ergency button and, since she keeps her cell phone in the console, I called you." She gasped. "I left her phone in the car."
"It’s okay, honey," Ali assured her. "The last thing she’s going to care about is her phone. She’ll get another one."
Another nurse walked in with a wheelchair and inford Poppy she could see her mother.
"Can we all co?" Alison asked.
"Yes. You can’t stay for long, though. Mrs. Mann’s pretty tired."
Poppy was shaky as she tried to slide off the bed, so I lifted her and set her in the wheelchair. The nurse handed Alison Poppy’s bag of personal items and then we headed toward the elevator bay.
We arrived at Maisie’s room and Poppy let out a frightened squeak. "Mummy!"
"Don’t get up, Poppet," Maisie whispered, eyeing in confusion as a nurse wheeled Poppy into the room.
I hung back and took in Maisie’s appearance. Her right arm was in a sling and a bandage was wrapped around her head. She looked like she’d taken a pretty nasty beating. I saw Poppy’s eyes widen and her face contort in fear as the nurse guided her to the side of Maisie’s bed.
"I’ll be right back," the nurse said.
Maisie nodded. "Thanks."
Damn, but I wanted to reach out and touch her. Hold her. Make sure she was really okay.
"Are you...?" Poppy asked, tears streaming down her face. "Are you okay?"
Maisie took her hand. "I’m good, love. I have to have a little surgery on my arm. It’s broken pretty bad. But they’re going to wait until my concussion clears."
"Poppy has a concussion as well," Ali said. "They just gave her so pain ds."
Maisie gave her a watery smile. "Thanks, Ali."
Poppy moved to stand.
"Don’t get up," I ordered, and Poppy sat back down.
Maisie’s eyes flew to and she bit her lip. "How... what are you doing here?"
"I called him," Poppy said.
Another nurse walked in and smiled at Maisie. "I’m here to take Poppy for her scan."
"Do I have to go by myself?" Poppy asked.
"I’ll co with you, honey," Ali offered.
"Thanks, Ali." Maisie smiled at her daughter. "It’s pretty straight forward, Poppet. Don’t be scared."
"Can Hatch co with ?"
I shook my head. "I should really head out, baby girl."
Ali frowned at , then schooled her features and faced Poppy. "I’ll co with you, sweetie. It’ll be fine. You’ll see."
"Okay, Ali. Thanks."
The nurse wheeled Poppy out and Ali followed.
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