“Where the hell are they? Let me in!” I open my eyes when I hear the roar that I could recognize anywhere. After a long day, I’m so thankful that Wes is here. I sit up in the hospital bed as he pushes the door open like a man on a mission. He freezes when he sees me and I’m worried that he’s going to think I overstepped my boundaries.

“Sir, sir please listen to me.” The nurse grabs his arm and tries to stop him, not that it matters, he is stopped dead in his tracks. “As I was saying, Annabelle’s mom is with her, but she’s going through concussion protocol so we need to keep the noise level down.”

Wes turns to the nurse and then back to me, still a little confused, but it looks like everything is starting to fall into place. “Yeah, sorry, it’s been a long day. Can we have a moment?”

“Of course.” The nurse looks at me for permission. “Miss, are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine. We’ll keep it down.” The nurse smiles and shuts the door behind her. Wes rushes over to the bed where Annabelle lays asleep looking so peaceful compared to what she was like this morning when we were stuck in the ditch.

While he’s looking her over, I fill him in with what I know and can remember. “Her leg is broken in a few places, they’ll probably need to do surgery. I’m sure the doctor will come to talk to you once he finds out you’re here. I’ve been trying to get him to wait, I didn’t want to know too much before you did.”

He holds her hand with one hand and runs his fingers through her hair with the other. “Holly, I couldn’t handle it when Jimmy called me. He was barely holding it together himself, but my baby girl, I didn’t know how bad it was. He just said that the three of you were in a ditch, run off the road by a truck and I was so fucking scared.”

I see his eyes watering and a tear slips out as he tries to blink them away. I rub my hand up and down his arm trying to comfort him. “I just about killed some poor nurse in the waiting room.”

“Why?”

‘She told me that Annabelle was with her mom and I was thinking how the fuck did she find out about the accident. I was ready to call the cops. I was barging in here with a rage I haven’t felt before.”

“I’m so sorry, Wes. It seemed like the right thing at the time.”

“Why are you sorry?” He turns his body, still holding Annabelle’s hand, and looks at me.

“I know I shouldn’t have, but I was afraid they’d separate us,” I replied in a soft whisper.

“You told them she was yours?”

I slowly nod my head. “They wanted to take me to another hospital, where they took Tiff, but I didn’t know how long it was going to take for you to get here and I couldn’t imagine her sitting in this bed alone. So I told them she was my daughter and I had to stay with her.” I take a step closer to the bed and stand next to Wes, placing my hand on Annabelle’s thigh. “They treated me here and I may have threatened bodily harm if they tried to put me in another room.”

Wes lets out a bit of a chuckle. He removes his hand from Annabelle’s and wraps his hands around my wrists. “I’ve seen you rage before, I’m sure they were scared.”

A small smile spreads across my face, “I pack a lot of punch in this 5’2” frame you know?”

Wes laughs again and then reaches up to my forehead, gently running his thumb over my forehead. “How are you darling? Are you okay?”

“Just this big ole knock on my head. Everything else is sore, but I’m okay. Have you talked to Jimmy? I don’t know how Tiff is doing.”

“I don’t know anything yet, but I told him to call once he got an update and I would do the same.”

There is a knock on the door and we both turn to see the doctor come into the room. He holds his hand out towards Wes to shake it. “Hello, sir. My name is Dr. Richardson. I wanted to get you up to date on what is happening with your daughter.”

“Hi, Dr. Richardson. Yes, my girlfriend told me some things like her broken leg.”

“Yes, well, she does have her leg broken in two places, but the good news is that it is a pretty clean break. I have put in a page to our ortho team and they should be here within an hour to go over their game plan with the two of you. She’s going to need surgery, but since she is young I imagine she’ll heal quickly.”

“What are we looking at as far as hospital stay once she gets the surgery?” Wes reaches back over and takes Annabelle’s hand in his again.

“The ortho doctor will have a better idea for you. I just want to say that this accident could have been a whole lot worse had she not been in a backward-facing car seat. Good move keeping her that way, Mom and Dad.”

“Thank you, doctor,” Wes replies. “We’re definitely happy that a broken leg is all we’re looking at.”

“Miss Moran, do you mind if I go through some tests with you?”

“Huh? Oh yeah, sure.” The doctor goes through the same tests that they’ve been doing every hour or so. It is part of their concussion protocol. At least they are doing this here and I was able to be with her in the room. Once he leaves, Wes pulls a chair up next to me and holds his arms out.

“Come here, Holly.” I slide off the bed and let him wrap his arms around me and pull me into his lap. I curl up almost like a ball and tuck my head into the crook of his shoulder and neck. “I don’t know how to thank you.”

“You don’t have to thank me for anything, Wes.” He keeps rubbing my back in the same circular pattern, it is calming and soothing to feel his touch in this way.

“Yes, I do. You could have let her be alone. You could have been thinking about yourself, but you didn’t. You thought about my baby girl and I don’t think anybody has ever done anything so selfless for me before.” I hear him starting to sniffle. He’s trying so hard to fight back the tears. I wrap my arms around his neck and squeeze him tight.

“I know she’s your everything, Wes. I’ll always put her first, I promise.” I place a small kiss against his cheek.

“I know you will, Holly.” Wes kisses the top of my head again and gently rubs my back as I lay in his arms. We don’t talk a lot, but we don’t need to talk. We lay there, listening to the silence of the room when Annabelle makes a moaning noise. We both jump out of the seat quickly when we hear Annabelle beginning to stir. We’re both right there at the side of her bed when she opens her eyes.

“Daddy?” She whines out in her croaky-sounding voice.

“Hey Banana, I’m right here.”

“Daddy, is Holly k?”

I move closer to Wes and put my hand on her, “Yeah sweetie, I’m right here.”

“Daddy, my leg got hurted.”

“I know princess, the doctor is going to come to talk to us and tell us how he’s going to fix it. You just have to keep being brave for me.”

“I wanna go home!” Her eyes fill with tears and it breaks my heart to see her so sad.

“I know you do, princess, but we have to stay here a bit longer.”

“But Santa!”

Wes reaches up and brushes some of her golden locks from her face. “We still have a couple of weeks until Santa, baby. Don’t worry.”

“And We’ll tell Santa that you’re being a super brave girl, okay?” I add to Wes’s statement.

“Will I get extra toys?” She replies with a small smile that makes Wes and I both laugh.

“I think I can talk to the big man about that sweetheart.”

This sweet girl just went through hell and all she wants is to make sure Santa knows where she is. Hopefully, she gets home before Christmas, because I’m already making a list in my head of how I’m going to spoil the ever-living crap out of her this year.