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Chapter Nine
“Bill!” Ayla screamed. He wasn’t moving and Pluto had taken off into the preserve. The horse wasn’t her concern at the moment.
Trying to dismount from Ivory in a hurry, she lost her balance and toppled to the ground. Tears rolled down her face as she quickly crawled towards him, while Ivory turned and watched her. Regan’s face was deathly white, his body lay at an odd angle. Ayla’s heart skipped when she realized his neck might be broken.
“Bill, oh my God, Bill, open your eyes! You can’t just make me fall in love with you and then go and die! It doesn’t work that way and I’ll kill you myself if you think it does!”
Regan groaned, then roared as pain shot through his lower back.
“Bill, oh honey, please, thank God,” she whispered, reaching her for cell phone.
Regan cried out again as pain raced through his body.
The woods blocked her cell signal. “Son of a bitch!” she threw the phone to the ground in frustration.
“I’m going for help,” her voice trembled. “Don’t move, baby. Please, don’t move.”
Pain was all Regan knew. Scorching, blinding pain raged through his entire pelvic region. Gasping for air, he wiggled his toes. His legs were ok, thank God, but the pain throbbed non-stop through his lower back.
Ayla raced toward the stables. Bursting into his office she grabbed the phone and dialed 911.
“I need an ambulance to the Regan-Wheeler Stables, on Glen Road, right now!” she cried into the phone. “My boyfriend’s been thrown from a horse and I don’t think he can move!”
Slamming the phone down after they confirmed the address, her hands shook as she found the list of phone numbers Regan kept in his desk.
“Dan, this Ayla. There’s been an accident. Bill’s been thrown by Pluto-the ambulance is coming-meet us at Sleepyside Hospital if you get this!”
Her next call was to the Manor House and Celia.
Ayla ran back to Bill, whose breathing was shallow and rapid, and his eyes dilated.
“An ambulance is coming baby, stay with me.” She touched his face as he cried out in pain again.
Oh God, don’t let him be paralyzed! she thought frantically. It’s my fault- he was too busy correcting me to pay attention to Pluto!
A tear leaked from his pain-filled emerald eyes.
Celia Delanoy ran up the path toward them from Manor House. The pretty blonde was pale as she reached them.
“Can you feel your legs?” Ayla whispered.
Teeth clenched, he nodded, letting out another roar of pain that brought tears to her eyes. She noticed his hands seemed locked in a position like a duck bill and his breathing was still shallow.
Finally she heard the sirens. Celia knelt on his other side, smoothing his bright red hair, and murmuring quietly to him. She had called Tom immediately, followed by Matthew Wheeler.
“I’ll be right back, baby,” Ayla whispered. “I’m going to go meet them.”
Regan just moaned in agony as she scrambled to her feet and ran back toward the stables. Celia took his hand.
Pain was all he could feel. The scorching, lancing pain wouldn’t stop.
“Regan, don’t try to move ok?” Celia said. “Are you dizzy?”
Regan nodded. She dabbed at his eyes when she saw a tear slide out.
Ayla saw the ambulance pulling in. Waving her arms wildly as the ambulance arrived, she dashed forward.
“He’s in the preserve. Please hurry,” she begged, as the paramedics got out and unloaded their gurney.
As they hurried toward Regan, the paramedics began asking her questions. She didn’t know if he was allergic to any medications. She had called his nephew. She didn’t know if he had ever been thrown off before, she highly doubted it.
“Mr. Regan?” the short, chubby paramedic knelt next to him. “Can you hear me?”
Regan nodded.
“Can you talk at all?” he asked.
“I ‘ant feel my ‘ongue,” he managed.
Ayla gasped at his slurred speech.
“It’s ok,” the skinnier paramedic said quickly. “Its just hyperventilation. You’re not getting enough carbon dioxide.”
Regan groaned again as the searing pain swelled up into his back. I can feel my legs. Thank god for small miracles, he thought, gritting his teeth as they prepared to move him.
A howl of pain came from him as they shifted him onto the stretcher.
Ayla felt her tears rolling fast as she watched Regan be strapped down to the gurney.
A tall, sturdy youth with blond curls appeared on the path.
“What happened?” Bobby Belden demanded. “I saw an ambulance go by!”
“Regan got thrown,” Ayla answered. “By Pluto!”
“Regan? Thrown? Our Regan?”
“Bobby can you take care of the horses?” Ayla wiped her eyes. “I want to go with them in the ambulance. Pluto took off.”
“Yeah sure. Is he going to be ok?” Bobby demanded. Regan had been one of his best friend since he was six. Regan had even built him a tree house in the preserve that still stood.
“God, I hope so!” Ayla whispered, hurrying after the paramedics.
“Can’t you give him something for the pain?” Ayla demanded as Regan cried out when they lifted the stretcher.
“Not until a doctor looks at him ma’am,” one of them replied.
The ride to the hospital passed in a blur for Ayla, as she stroked Regan’s hand. His green eyes were focused on her but she shushed him when he tried to talk. The paramedics were holding a bag over his mouth carefully, trying to get him to breathe slower and relax.
An hour later, Ayla was at the nurses desk for the third time, asking when he’d be seen. The nurse just glared at her.
“When the next doctor is free,” the nurse snapped, infuriating Ayla more.
Bill had been moaning in pain since they arrived. His moans were getting louder, and now that he had regained his speech, was cussing like a sailor. Loudly.
“You’ve said that three times. His back could be broken! What the hell is wrong with you people?” she demanded.
Her phone beeped and she answered it.
“How’s Uncle Bill?”
“Oh Dan,” she leaned against the counter. “We’re in the ER-he’s the hallway and they’re ignoring him! He’s in so much pain-”
“I’m coming in now. See you in a minute.” Dan hung up.
A moment later the good looking young man was busting through the doors, in uniform and with his badge up to halt any questions.
“Matt Wheeler will be here any moment,” he spoke in a low voice. “Then we’ll see some action. Where’s Uncle Bill?”
Ayla wipe her red rimmed eyes and led Dan to his uncle. Dan took one look at the big man strapped down on a gurney, his handsome face almost as white as the sheets and contorted in pain, his vivid hair a flame against it. Dan steeled himself against Regan’s obvious agony.
“Hey Danny boy,” Regan groaned, gripping the sides of the gurney.
“You stubborn old goat. Were you showing off again?” he tried to tease but his voice almost cracked.
“Stubborn horse, stubborn rider.” Regan smiled weakly.
“Figures. Has anyone been to see him?” Dan asked.
Ayla shook her head. Dan glanced around and grinned at what he saw. Several young nurses were whispering at the two men walking rapidly through the hall. One wore a white lab coat, a distinguished looking man in his fifties and looking very nervous. Matt Wheeler was at his side, in his thousand dollar, tailored suit, and clearly in charge. The tall, broad shouldered, redheaded millionaire made an imposing figure.
“He’s right over here Mr. Wheeler,” the doctor was telling him. Dan’s sharp eyes picked out the doctor’s id badge. This was the Chief of Staff, personally escorting Matthew to Dan’s uncle.
Matthew saw Dan and Ayla and strode forward.
“Bill,” he stood over his partner. “What the hell happened out there? Has a doctor been over yet?”
“Pluto threw me.” Regan gripped the edges of the gurney in pain. “No doctor.”
“We’re taking him to x-ray in a just a moment. I have them coming now,” the Chief said nervously. Matthew ignored him, focusing on his business partner.
“He threw you? I’ll shoot that animal myself-”
“No!” Regan, Ayla and Dan exclaimed.
“It wasn’t intentional,” Regan said. “Something spooked him and I couldn’t control him.”
“You? You couldn’t control Pluto?” Matthew demanded incredulously.
“Right. He was frisky, I got distracted. I should have been paying more attention.”
Matthew just stared at his partner.
“You’ve been handling that horse for two years and you couldn’t control him?”
“He was distracted by me,” Ayla blurted out. “He was correcting me on handling Ivory.”
“I should have run Pluto a bit before we went on that walk. It’s my own damn fault.” Regan groaned in agony.
Matt ran his hand through his thick red hair.
“Don’t put Pluto down, Matt, please,” Dan spoke up. “Jim loves that horse as much as you and Uncle Bill. You know he wanted to take him to Vermont with him.”
Matt nodded. “I know. I just-when I got that message-dammit Bill you could have been killed!”
“Excuse me, got a couple shots here,” a blonde nurse in blue scrubs appeared, looking cross. Ayla, Matt and Dan stepped back. Regan’s gurney was against the wall, and the nurse pulled the hanging curtain around her and Regan.
“You allergic to any medicine Mr. Regan?”
“No,” he grunted. She produced two needles from her pocket.
“What is that?” he asked weakly.
“One is valium, the other is morphine. I’m going to have to kind of roll you a bit.”
“Don’t make me move,” he groaned.
“I’ll do this as quick as I can.”
Regan groaned loudly as she rolled him slightly on the right, then the left, but he barely felt the needles go into his hip. The throbbing however, continued to rage through his lower back.
“Push your feet against my hand Mr. Regan . . .good. Don’t bend your knee but shift your leg . . . good. Pain anywhere else? No? All right, we’re gonna head down to x-ray right now, Mr. Regan.”
Regan closed his eyes, hoping for the drugs to kick in quickly. As he was whisked away, he saw Dan’s arm around Ayla, her golden head resting on his shoulder.
***
“How much longer?” he growled. He had lost track of time. The slight decrease in pain was long gone as the x-ray technician had moved, twisted, pulled and rearranged his body. Pain throbbed throughout his whole body and for the first time since his sister had left the orphanage and him behind, he wanted to really cry. On his tall frame it barely covered him.
“Just a couple more,” the tech scurried behind his shield. “Hold your breath …”
Ayla was folded uncomfortably into the chair next to the space where Regan’s gurney had been. Dan stood at her side, Matt had gone to harass the nurses into speeding things up.
After about forty five minutes, Regan was wheeled back.
“Just give me something for the goddamn pain,” he snarled at the orderly who moved him.
“Didn’t those do anything?” the nurse was back.
“No!” he snapped. Ayla flinched at his tone, but the nurse didn’t.
“All right, hang on.” She ran off.
“Cupcake, can you get me some ice?” he looked at Ayla, who nodded. She hurried toward the nurses station.
“Let it out Uncle Bill,” Dan smiled. “Cuss all you want, she’s out of hearing range.”
Regan just groaned in pain.
“Hang in there, you old goat,” Dan squeezed his uncle’s hand.
Matt was on his cell phone, barking orders to someone.
“Here, honey,” Ayla returned with a bag of ice.
“Danny, see if you can help her get it under me. Maybe it’ll numb the pain.”
“I don’t think we should move-“
“Daniel, please,” Regan said firmly. “I’ll try to pull myself up.”
Dan sighed and placed his hands on his uncle right hip as Regan gripped the side of the gurney. Dan pushed gently as Regan pulled, roaring in pain as Ayla slid the ice under him.
“Don’t move him!” the blonde nurse dashed over. “His back is broken!”
Ayla gasped as Dan reached to steady her.
“He wanted ice for the pain-” Dan answered. Broken? Regan’s back was broken? Surely not the spinal cord, he could move his legs and feet.
“I’ve got something right here,” The nurse was tying a rubber strip around his upper arm and quickly inserted an iv. Through it, she injected something.
“This is Dilaudid, Mr. Regan,” the nurse said. “Count to twenty and you should be feeling real good.”
“’Bout damn time,” Regan muttered. He felt the rush through his blood. Within seconds, his emerald eyes glazed over.
Dan chuckled as he visibly saw his uncle’s body relax.
“Wow,” Regan muttered. “Post orgasmic bliss without the fun.”
Ayla giggled as Dan’s jaw dropped.
“That’s something I never thought I’d hear out of him,” Dan muttered, noticing Ayla’s blush.
“Cupcake, I hope I make you feel half this good,” Regan murmured, his eyes closing.
Ayla’s face was almost the color of Regan’s hair as she smothered her laughter. Dan just shook his head. Matt was still on his phone and hadn’t heard the comments.
Moments later a doctor appeared. Shaking hands with Matt and Dan, he quickly launched into an explanation. Matt was done with his call and listening closely.
“Simply put, he broke his lumbar one vertebrae, and fractured lumbar two. Crushed, actually,” the doctor said. Ayla moaned and Dan slipped his arm around her. Regan was half asleep from the medication and not paying attention.
“He can feel his legs, which is good. Means there’s no paralysis and the spinal cord is in tact. The hyperventilation was normal, he got the wind knocked out of him, hard.”
“Will he be able to ride again?” Dan asked quietly.
“I think so. But it’s going to be awhile. A long while, probably a year at least.” Ayla closed her eyes. “Any broken bone takes six to eight weeks to heal. Mr. Regan is in exceptional physical shape, but I still expect it’ll be about eight weeks, maybe ten before the bones heal. He’s going to be fitted for a brace, but we’re going to have to admit him for a few days to observe him, keep him medicated, and let the nueros treat him. I also want a CAT scan and a full MRI. Thankfully, he didn’t snap his spinal cord, or he would be paralyzed.”
Ayla buried her head in Dan’s shoulder.
“We need to transfer him to White Plains. They have a great neuroscience center there, and I’d feel more comfortable with him in their hands.”
“Why neurology and not orthopedics?” Matt asked.
“Because the spinal cord is involved and it’s the base of the nervous system. A different part of the body wouldn’t be so severe with such cause to worry.”
Matt nodded.
“As soon as a room opens up over there, we’ll transport him by ambulance. In the mean time, we’ll do the CAT scan here, and keep him medicated so he’s not in pain.”
Dan, Ayla and Matt all nodded. As soon as the doctor was gone, Matt was on the phone, ordering a room to be found at White Plains General.
Ayla glanced at Regan and realized he was awake.
“Did you hear all that?” she asked. Regan nodded.
“Who’s going to take care of the stables?” he asked slowly. His brain was still floating away.
“Don’t worry about that Bill,” Matt said, snapping his cell phone shut. “I’ve already taken care of it.”
Regan nodded. A moment later his gurney was taken away for a CAT scan.
“You came in with Bill Regan?” a short, very pregnant nurse walked up to Ayla.
“Yes, why?”
“He has very basic insurance, with limited hospital coverage. I thought he’d want to know.”
“Send the bills to me,” Ayla and Matt spoke together, then smiled at each other.
“Don’t worry about. Do whatever you need to get him well,” Matt answered. “The bills will be taken care of.”
Dan knew Regan would have a fit over the bills being paid by someone else but he didn’t care. It would be a year before his uncle could ride. Bill was going to be furious once that news sunk in. Furious and who knew what else. Dan had seen what happened to people who were forced to give up the one thing they truly loved, that they had devoted their lives to. But it’s only temporary, he reminded himself. It’s just going to take a while to get him back in the saddle.
“Uncle Bill never gets sick, so he has minimum insurance,” Dan sighed.
“Don’t worry about it,” Ayla said quickly.
“I’ve already got someone to temporarily fill in for Bill, but I don’t want him to think he’s being pushed out,” Matt said. “I want him healed properly and permanently before he even thinks about getting on one of those horses. It’ll likely be weeks, maybe months before he can walk on his own. I don’t want him worrying about the horses.”
Dan and Ayla agreed. Dan glanced at her pale face.
“Hey, sit,” he said gently, leading her to the chair. “You want some coffee?”
“Sure,” she said quietly.
“We’ve been here for a couple hours, you hungry?” Dan asked. She shook her head no.
“I’ll go get some coffee. Matt?”
“Sure, Dan. Thanks.”
While Dan was gone, Matthew took a moment to study the young woman in front of him.
“You’ve grown into a lovely woman, Miss Martin,” he smiled down at her. He hadn’t seen her since she was a teenager. She had the beauty her vile mother didn’t, a genuine softness in the eyes and a pretty smile without the calculation. The blonde hair was from her father, but she had none of his arrogance or slime. They actually did something right with her, Matt thought. It was easy to see why Bill was so taken with her. Pretty, friendly, and smart, according to both Bill and Dan.
Ayla looked up and smiled back. “Thank you, Mr. Wheeler.”
“Call me Matt. I know Bill is very taken with you.”
She blushed. “I’m uh, pretty taken with him too,” she admitted.
Matt smiled as he leaned against the wall.
“Bill’s a good man. I’ve hoped all these years he would find a nice girl.”
Ayla blushed harder. “We’re just getting started, really.”
“Well, everyone needs a start somewhere,” Matt said soothingly. He was very fond of his partner, and had subtly tried to set him up with what Matt considered eligible young ladies, to Bill’s annoyance. He had never even considered the Martin girl, mostly due to her loathsome parents. It appeared the apple fell very far from the tree though.
Regan meanwhile was having a ball. It took four techs to move him, gripping the sheet he was on, to lift him to the CAT scan table.
“Four of you huh? Sorry, I’m a big guy,” he muttered, his brain still floating. “Wow, that’s a big machine.”
“Don’t worry about it, Mr. Regan. You ever had one of these?”
“Nope. But I sure do feel good.”
“Well, that’s good. You won’t feel a thing. Just lie there.”
Regan’s mind wandered, remembering how Ayla had smiled at him right before Pluto threw him. Her beautiful ocean colored eyes swam in front of him, somewhere in the back of his head, he heard whispering she loved him.
Regan knew he was dreaming. Neither had confessed that yet. The thought terrified him. Opening his soul to her. She had snagged his heart the moment she turned from watching Jupiter, and flashed that smile at him, with the sun bouncing off her golden hair. He had never told a woman he loved her. He had begun to think he would never have someone to say it to. That was all changed now.
Ayla sipped the coffee Dan brought her, wincing at the bitterness.
“I know, it’s crap but, it’s all they have,” Dan grimaced as he took a sip of his.
Matt took one sip and set it down. “They’ve got to be kidding.”
Ayla was dozing with her head against the wall when Regan was brought back. He was drifting in and out of sleep, but he smiled sleepily when he saw her.
“How do you feel, Uncle Bill?” Dan asked.
Ayla opened her eyes and stood up, stretching her back.
“Pain’s coming back,” Regan grunted. “And uh, can you tell someone I need to, uh, relieve myself?”
Dan smirked. “Yeah, I'll see if they can hunt you up a bed pan.”
The blonde nurse that had given him the shot walked by a moment later.
“Hey, my uncle needs a bed pan,” he said.
“Is he going to be sick?”
“No, he needs to relieve his bladder,” Dan said quietly.
“I’ll be right back with a catheter!” she said cheerily.
“Catheter? What?” Bill raised his head. “Just give me a bedpan!”
“No can do!” she sang as she disappeared around the corner. “You’re not going anywhere!”
Dan turned to his uncle and hid his smile at Regan’s stricken expression.
“They’re going to put a catheter in me?” Regan looked around wildly.
The nurse returned and pulled the curtain around him for privacy. When she emerged a few minutes later, she had covered him with a blanket and he was furious and tense. Ayla took his hand.
“This is humiliating,” he muttered. Leaning down, she brushed her lips against his.
“It’s just temporary,” she said softly. “Don’t worry about it.”
“Yeah, well, it’s not stuck up your-” he stopped before he finished the sentence. Ayla kissed him again.
“It’s necessary right now, okay?”
Regan just growled as the throbbing started to intensify.
“Can I least get some more of that dilated stuff?”
“Dilaudid,” she corrected. “And I’ll ask.”
While she went to find the nurse, Matt stepped over to him.
“Nice girl you got there, Bill.”
“She’s great,” Regan shifted restlessly and groaned. Not a good idea as the throbbing pain was coming on fast and strong.
“I suggest you keep her around. Her parents are somewhat unpleasant, but she’s a good girl.”
“I’m into her.” Regan smiled at his partner and Matt grinned back, understanding what Regan wasn’t saying out loud.
Author Notes
-A big thank you to my editors, Kate and Robin. Any mistakes are mine!
- Call it Mary Sue-ing if you want, but yes, Regan’s accident is based on my own. Dilaudid is what they gave me and I swear it really was post orgasmic bliss. It must have been because JD said I was admiring some really ‘fugly’ man in the hallway.
- Even the best rider can have an accident. Remember to pay attention and keep your heels down!
-Word Count – 3,733
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