15
“Amy?”
I open my eyes and blink a few times, but can’t manage to see who is talking to me—everything is really blurry and they sound far off.
“Her eyes are open!”
Pain shoots through my head at the volume of their voice. I can feel a set of hands on my back, trying to help me sit up. I continue to blink… each time my vision clears up a little more.
“Amy… are you OK?”
I nod in response, mostly because I recognize the voice as belonging to Harriet. I turn my head to the left and lean forward a little. My vision clears up a little more and I’m finally able to identify her.
“You really gave us all a scare,” Harriet says.
I have no idea what she’s talking about.
“Where… am… I?”
“You’re in your trailer.”
I turn to the man who just spoke. He’s kneeling next to Harriet, but he doesn’t look familiar. I look at his shirt and see the logo of the fire department. Luke is standing behind him, with a smile on his face… but even I can tell he’s worried and trying to act tough.
“You gave us a real scare,” Harriet says, repeating herself.
“What… what do you mean?”
“Amy… I need you to look at me,” the firefighter says.
I turn to look at him, but the shooting pain comes back. I wince and close my eyes.
“Are you OK?”
I nod slowly and wait to open my eyes until the pain subsides a little.
“My head… it really hurts.”
“I’m sure,” he says, “you were hit by a collapsing house. It’s a miracle you’re even alive.”
It all comes rushing back as he talks to me. The ceiling… it fell on us as I was helping Barry out of the house.
“Barry….”
“He’s fine,” Harriet says, “thanks to you.”
I look down at the floor and nod slowly.
“That was a very brave thing for you to do,” the firefighter says, “very brave… and very stupid. You could have gotten yourself killed trying to save him.”
I swallow and look up at him. He sighs and puts his hand on my arm.
“But the collapse was even worse where you pulled him from. We likely wouldn’t have been able to get to him in time… so you did save his life.”
I’m still trying to process everything that happened, but I’m glad that what I did was enough to save Barry.
“I feel… dizzy.”
“I’m sure,” he says, “like I said… the ceiling collapsed on you. It hit you in the head, knocked you out and we pulled you out of there.”
I look down at my clothes. They are barely recognizable as more than rags and I just now notice they aren’t exactly covering my body. I put my arms across my chest in an attempt to at least cover myself up a little.
“Can you give us some… privacy, Luke?” Harriet asks.
“Of course.”
His face turns red as he turns and walks out of the trailer. Harriet gets up and grabs a blanket off the counter which she drapes over me. I wrap it around myself and sigh as I look down at the floor and close my eyes. It seems to help the pain in my head, at least a little, so I’m just going with it.
“I need to check her vitals… but then I think we should take her to the hospital… just to be sure.”
“Sure,” Harriet says. “Can you give us a minute?”
“Yes.”
He stands up, walks out of my trailer and closes the door behind himself. I feel the couch move as Harriet sits down next to me. She puts her hand on my knee and squeezes it gently.
“Are you OK?” she asks.
I nod slowly without opening my eyes.
“You really scared me.”
“Sorry… I… I just reacted.”
“I know… I get it. I would have done the same thing in your position. I’m grateful that you did it… you save Barry from himself.”
She’s being a little hard on him. It was an accident, after all, but I don’t have the energy to defend him in an argument with Harriet.
“I have to tell you something, Amy. I called Spencer as soon as they pulled you out of the building. I waited to make sure you were alive… but I felt like he deserved to know.”
Crap. Spencer hadn’t even crossed my mind since I woke up, mostly because I didn’t think he’d know about what happened. It makes sense that Harriet called him… and I’m sure he’s freaking out right now.
“I need to call him.”
“Try to make it quick. I’ll stall the firefighter… and then he’s going to do your vitals.”
“I don’t think I need to go to the… hospital.”
“You’re going.”
Harriet stands up and walks out of my trailer before I can utter a single syllable more in protest. I just want to go home and relax… and sleep. I reach and grab my purse of the counter. Pain flows through my entire body, even with the slightest movement. Ugh. I take my phone out and pull up Spencer’s number. It only rings once before he picks up.
“Is it you?” he asks.
“Hey….”
“It’s such a relief to hear your voice… you have no idea.”
“Yeah… sorry about that. I’m sure this isn’t how you planned to spend your night.”
“I don’t care about that. I was so worried about you… it was tearing me up inside.”
“Sorry. Are you at your hotel?”
“No, I’m on the way to the airport.”
“What do you mean?”
“I’m coming to see you.”
“You don’t need to do that.”
“Please,” he says, “just let me come see you. I already cleared it with the director and producers. I told them you have just been in an accident and I needed to head back to L.A. for a couple of days. It’s not like they can do anything about it.”
“Whatever you want.”
“That’s more like it.”
I crack a smile at his comment, but even that makes my whole head hurt.
“I’m sorry about all this,” I say.
“Don’t be… seriously. Harriet told me what you did. That man owes you his life. You are the bravest person I know… that’s for sure.”
“I don’t even know why I did it… I just reacted.”
“Who knows what could have happened if you thought about it.”
“Yeah… maybe you’re right.”
I take a deep breath and look out the window. The sun is getting low in the sky and it sounds like I’m not going to be getting home anytime soon.
“Listen,” Spencer says, “we’re pulling up to the airport now. I’ll call you as soon as I land.”
“OK… sounds good.”
“I can’t wait to kiss you… and Arte.”
“Oh… crap.”
“What?” he asks.
“Arte… I totally… they want me to go to the hospital, to get checked out… but I need to go pick her up.”
“Don’t worry… I already called Sheki. She’s going to watch Arte until we’re ready to come pick her up.”
“Thanks… I feel like a terrible mother. I can’t believe I forgot about her.”
“Amy… you just got hit in the head by a burning building and were knocked unconscious… you’re allowed to forget about our dog. It’s OK.”
“I love you.”
“I love you, too.”
“I can’t wait to see you,” I say.
“I’ll be there as soon as I can.”
“Bye.”
I lower my phone and end the call. My brain hurts from our short phone call. I guess Harriet and the firefighter are right… I should probably go to the hospital just to make sure I really am OK.
I put my phone back in my purse and stand up from the couch. I’m feeling a little dizzy, so I stand there for a minute until I feel stable enough to head outside. I take a deep breath, open the door and step out. Everyone from the set is still here and they’re standing in a semi-circle around my trailer. They all start to clap as I step out. Harriet and the firefighter walk over to me. I smile and wave at the crowd as I attempt to put on a brave face, even though I feel like I can barely stand right now.
Behind everyone, I can see the ruins of the house we used for the shot. So much for getting the shot right on our only try. I can’t help wonder what Harriet is going to do. Just thinking about it hurts my head.
“Let’s get you checked out and then off to the hospital,” the firefighter says, as he walks up to me.
“I’m OK… just a little dizzy.”
He leads me over to a chair and has me sit down so he can take my blood pressure. At least my headache has started to fade a little, but I’m not feeling that great. Not surprising, though, given what happened to me. I just hope that it doesn’t push back my plans to head to Europe and spend time with Spencer. He is headed here… which I guess a little time together will make up for a delay in our shooting schedule. I’m looking forward to seeing him… and I hope he gets here soon.
I walk out of the hospital and take a deep breath of what is comparatively clean air. Gina is walking toward the door and waves at me to get my attention. I smile and wave back. It’s good to see her and I’m glad she was around to come pick me up when I called.
For as much praise as I received on set, including that ovation before I left, there wasn’t anyone able to go with me and take me home when I was released. Which ended up being fine, but it still struck me as a little strange. Harriet was the only one who offered and I wasn’t about to ask her to do that for me—I can only imagine how much work she has ahead of her as she tries to undue the mess from today.
“How are you?” Gina asks.
I shrug as she turns and we walk toward her car.
“I’ve been better. You?”
“I’m fine… but I’m not the one who had a burning house fall on them.”
I shake my head and look down at my feet as we walk. I’m still a little dizzy and feel like it’s taking every ounce of my focus to make sure I don’t fall. It’s a little worrying, but the only alternative was that the doctor said I could spend the night in the hospital. That would mean I wouldn’t be home when Spencer gets here and I didn’t want him to land and find out I was there—it would’ve stressed him out beyond belief.
“Yeah… it wasn’t as bad as it sounds.”
“That’s good,” Gina says, as we get into her car, “because it sounded pretty bad.”
She starts the car and pulls out of the parking lot.
“Which house did you want me to take you to?”
“Mine… if you don’t mind.”
“Not at all… whatever you need.”
“Thanks. Spencer should get in some time during the night and I think I’d rather be there when he does.”
“That makes sense.”
I still feel bad that he’s flying half way around the world to see me and to make sure I’m OK… but I got the impression that changing his mind would be an impossible task, which is why I didn’t bother trying. That and I was still feeling pretty out of it from the accident.
“I guess I need to call Dex and tell him what happened.”
“Actually… I… I called him after we got off the phone.”
“Oh.”
“Sorry… I hope you’re not upset.”
“No,” I say, shaking my head. “It’s totally fine… thank you for doing that.”
“Of course, Miss Amy. I thought he should know.”
“Is he around?”
“He was in Mexico for a couple of days… with Miss Thomas… but he said they would be here late tonight.”
I wince and look out the window of the car as we get closer to the house. It’s bad enough that Spencer is coming, but having Dex and Brenda cut short their time together makes me feel awful. I need to figure out some way to make it up to them… maybe Spencer can help me think of something.
“OK, thanks. I’ll send him a text to let him know that I’m home.”
“No problem.”
Gina pulls her car up in front of the house and turns off the engine.
“Did you want me to come in?” she asks.
“No… I think I’ll be fine, thanks.”
“You’re sure?”
“Yeah, thanks for giving me a ride.”
“Of course, Miss Amy. Call me if there is anything else you need.”
“I will.”
I smile at her and get out of the car. The dizzy feeling is almost completely gone, which is a good sign and it means I should be able to sleep tonight. I’m tired right now, but I’d like to stay up until Spencer lands, but that might not be until the middle of the night and I doubt I can last that long. I glance over my shoulder and wave to Gina as I reach the front door. She waves back before starting her car and pulling away.
It feels good to be home… even though it’s not quite the same as when Spencer is here. I finally feel at home here, which is a nice feeling. For some reason it always felt like it was Spencer’s house… but now I feel at home here, too. I guess maybe it’s because of Arte. It’s as if she makes our little family whole and it’s an amazing feeling.
I sit down on the couch and take out my phone to text Dex. This whole thing strikes me as a bit ironic—Brenda was just asking when the four of us were going to spend some time together and that’s exactly what’s about to happen. Obviously none of us wanted it to happen like this, but it’ll still be nice to see her because I do miss talking to her and hanging out.