She looked human.
The EMTs came for Cassie. Riley walked behind them to try and get me to let her leave with them, but I didn’t want to let her go. I was too afraid that she would break, or I would break, or one of us would break if we were pulled apart. This traumatic fate had sealed us. She was my lifeline--the air to my fucking lungs, the blood to my fucking heart. I knew that there was nothing else in the world more important than her.
“Hey, Alex, they need to take her, man,” Riley cautiously stated, once again putting his hand on my shoulder. I didn’t budge, I felt like any second that she wasn’t in my arms was a second too long. “Alex—“
“I fucking know, Riley. Fuck!” I yelled. My frustration was mounting as a few large teardrops rolled down my face. I finally let her go and the EMTs carefully loaded Cassie up on the stretcher as she winced from the pain of merely touching her body. I sat on the bed looking as they held her in place, not strapping her too tightly for fear of hurting her even further. I sat with my hand over my mouth as a few more tears trickled down, the saltiness mixing with blood as it fell onto my hand.
Once they were done loading Cassie up, they began to push her out of the room, prompting me to follow. Sergeant Nicks stood, standing before me and saying, “If you don’t mind, Sergeant Cruz, we’d like for you to stay behind so we can get a statement.”
I looked at him through the gloss of my eyes and then over to Cassie.
“Get my statement at the fucking hospital,” I answered back, not even bothering to look at him as I followed Cassie out of the room. Riley walked out behind me, throwing his arm around my shoulder as I tried hard to hold back more fucking tears. It hurt too much to see her in this state, and to know who the culprit was—and what that animal was capable of doing to her—flooded me with an inane amount of visuals that did nothing but make me sicker with each step I took. When we made it to the bottom, I saw Allen’s dick in my head again and I fucking lost it, violently throwing up as I prayed to anyone who would listen to please not have allowed that sick, demented bastard to put his shit inside of her. My head was spinning as I grew weaker with the thought, making me dizzy and unable to swallow.
“You okay, Alex?” Riley asked, steadying me on his arm. “I’m not letting you drive like this.”
“Fuck off, dude. I’m going to the hospital.”
“You’re not driving yourself. Here, Private Jacobs is my A-duty, he can take you in my truck.”
Riley tossed the keys to Jacobs, who looked stunned but quickly walked out to the parking lot, not saying anything to anyone. I looked around at the mass amounts of spectators who had formed around the area, my eyes landing on Dalton who looked about as sick as I was, and had been crying as much as I had, if not more. Our eyes met and he nodded, letting me know that he was right there with me. Ruiz was there as well, the same broken look I had seen in the room was still filling her face.
I waited for the EMTs to load her up in the back of the ambulance before Riley pushed me off in the direction of his truck. Once I was there, I hopped in and Jacobs took off for the base hospital, gunning it to get me there without a lag in time between our arrival and hers. I jumped out as he came to a stop, still feeling my stomach churning from my earlier thoughts, but finding enough resolve to brush past the people moseying along near the entrance. I rushed to the front desk, sweating and breathing hard, nearly scaring the nurse who stood there to help me.
“I’m here for Pfc. Cassie Bennett,” I breathed, nervously running my blood riddled hands over the back of my neck.
She stared at me for a second before typing something into the computer, then warily looked back up to me, politely saying, “She’s just being brought in. It’ll be a while.” She typed something else into the computer and then looked back at me and asked, “Are you family?”
The question froze me. I wasn’t Cassie’s family. I wasn’t anything to her. As far as everyone knew, I was just an instructor and she was just a student.
“No. I’m not.” I answered, hoping she would look beyond it and allow me to see her.
“Well I’m sorry—“ she stopped and I slid my ID card to her before continuing, “Sergeant Cruz. You’ll need to take a seat in the waiting area and we’ll let you know when the doctor has examined her, and if she can have visitors.”
I slowly turned away from the counter, feeling bogged down with overly sensitized emotions. I was certain that she was scared, hurting--emotionally and physically--and right now, all I wanted was to see her…to hold her…to console her… to just let her know that I was here and she was safe. That wasn’t going to happen, so I sat down in the first open seat I found, blowing out a heavily lodged breath, then dropping my face in my hands as I choked back a new set of tears that were threatening to spill. My phone buzzed, pulling me out of my overwhelming sadness and giving me something else to focus on.
Riley: Hey! First Sergeant O’Hara was up here. He’s speaking to EVERYONE about what happened. He’ll be at the hospital either tonight or some time tomorrow.
Me: Good shit. Did you speak to him?
Riley: Yeah! I told him exactly what happened. Nothing more, nothing less.
Me: Thanks, man. I appreciate it.
Riley: I’ll see you first thing in the morning. Go home, try and get some rest.
Me: I’m not fucking leaving. I’ll sleep in this goddamned waiting room if I have to.
Riley: Well in that case, I’ll be at the hospital as soon as I’m off duty. I’ll bring you some clothes and shit.
Me: Thanks!
Riley: No problem, brother!
I laid my head back on the seat, the pain from my hand beginning to take hold as my head filled with a throbbing ache. I didn’t care. I closed my eyes and slowly drifted off to sleep.
When I woke up, the nurse from earlier was standing over me, calling my name while holding an icepack to my hand. The cold compress up against my warm and sensitized skin intensified the sting that came with the touch. I tried to focus as she asked me to please follow her, standing and stretching as the pain from my hand was now filling my body. She led me into a treatment room and asked me to sit on the examination table.
“What am I in here for?” I asked, wondering how I had somehow become the patient.
“Your hand is swollen and it needs to be looked at.”
She took her blood pressure cuff and wrapped it around my arm, then placed a thermometer in my mouth, and watched the time.
“You’re all good,” she said, unstrapping the cuff and taking the thermometer out of my mouth. “The doctor will be in to see you shortly.”
I stopped her, gently grabbing her arm as she turned to walk out of the room. She looked back to me, her eyes wide, almost sympathetic.
“Please just let me know how Pfc. Bennett is doing. I just need to see her. I need to know she’s okay.”
Her look softened. She pressed her lips together, contemplating if she should talk or not. Her compassionate side won out as she blew out a breath and began talking.
“She is going to be okay. She was battered pretty badly, but her scans showed no internal damage. She has a slight concussion, a bruised nose and cheek bone, and sprained wrists. She was lucky. It could have been much worse.”
I closed my eyes as I listened to the nurse read me what felt like a fucking laundry list of things wrong with Cassie. But after thinking about how much worse things could have been, I finally settled down, knowing that she was hurt, but that she was going to be alright.