Jade sat by his phone, waiting anxiously for her call, but it never came. His arms were still sore from the fight, his hands cut and bruised, and he was locked up in custody, with pending assault and grievous bodily harm charges. He had the money for bail, and his court date had already been set, but he had no reason to leave the relative comfort and security of his confinement. Not without her. He had no reason to even live without her, but little did he know that his whole life was going to change forever, for her.
Jade carelessly listened to the radio that was playing by the officer on duty. A broadcast caught his ear, a broadcast about a car crash not too far from where he was.
A car had been T-boned, a very familiar sounding car. One of the drivers had escaped unhurt, but the other was being airlifted to hospital. She was not expected to last the night.
Jade dismissed the report as another tragedy to grace the streets, but as time passed his feeling of dread grew deeper and deeper. Jade was snapped back to reality by a phone call. He did not recognise the number. Hesitantly answering it, Jade’s stomach dropped instantly.
“Hello, this is Sarah McLaughlin calling from St Mary Hospital, may I speak to Jade Carroll please?”
“Speaking…” Jade forced out, a lump growing in the back of his throat.
“I have you listed as the emergency contact for a Miss Naomi Bachs, is this correct?”
“Yes…”
“Naomi has been in a car crash. We strongly recommend that you or someone else comes down to the hospital right away.”
Jade said nothing. His thoughts stilled and his stomach hit the ground. He effectively went into ‘zombie mode’, unable to form the smallest thought. The officer, having listened in on the call, walked over.
“The car crash…” Jade whispered. Snapping back to reality, Jade panicked. “The hospital! I have to get to the hospital!”
“Jade?” another policeman asked, walking up to the cell.
“Yes?” Jade confirmed, his eyes still wide as he felt the walls of his confinement suffocating him.
“We’ve just received a call from the hospital. A police officer will escort you to the premises, if you so desire.”
“Yes, yes, I need to get there!”

Jade did not remember the trip. He did not remember arriving at the hospital, or finding out where Naomi was, and he barely remembered throwing the paperwork at the receptionist’s face. All he remembered was his face pressed against the glass, watching Naomi writhe in pain as the doctors tried to subdue her.
Jade burst through the doors of the operating theatre, calling out her name. Naomi’s eyes rolled as she tried to focus on the boy, but their hands locked and she clenched his hand firmly.
“You weren’t there,” the girl repeated constantly, her voice high and panicky. “I was all alone, you weren’t there.” Snapping from her delirium for a second, Naomi’s eyes sharply locked onto Jade’s. “Don’t leave me,” she begged. “Don’t ever leave me again!”
“I won’t, babe,” Jade promised. “I won’t ever leave you again.”
“Thankyou…” Naomi whispered, fading into unconsciousness as the drugs took effect.
Unable to bear the sight of his bleeding, bruised, battered girlfriend’s mangled body, Jade walked out, fiercely punching a hole in the hospital’s wall. His arm was bleeding, but he did not care. The officer that had escorted Jade moved to restrain him, but his female partner held him back, before walking over to Jade herself.
“Hey,” she said softly, “come and take a seat.” She lead Jade to a chair and sat him down, before calling a nurse to tend to his arm. In his rage, Jade had nicked a vein, but the pain did not bother him one bit. The hospital staff were surprisingly sympathetic; few had seen injuries worse than Naomi’s.
It did not matter to Jade, his mind had shut down once again, and he sat in silence for hours, even after the sun had come up. The male officer had clocked off and been replaced with another officer, but the female officer had not left Jade’s side. She could not imagine the pain he was going through, and looked up hopefully at the doctor as he approached the two.
“It’s not good…” the doctor said simply. “Her legs and right arm were crushed in the impact, along with portions of the right side of her torso… We couldn’t save the limbs, and she is still suffering from internal injuries. I… don’t think she’ll last the day…”