Detoured

The scene unfolding before her eyes all seemed so surreal. This was the type of thing you saw happening on television to other people, to complete strangers, not to you and your family. She observed everything taking place from where she sat at the back of an ambulance, eyes unblinking, as the Police sealed off the scene with yellow caution tape. The rain had now chosen to let up some, like she wished it had before they decided to jump on the road. What if she had been the one driving? What if Kelly stopped at the light when it turned yellow instead of flooring the gas pedal? Millions of scenarios blurred in her mind but she knew that if maybe they both hadn't been so distracted with arguing with one another, none of this would have taken place.

She shivered as a cold gust of wind and rain hit her and immediately clutched the thin blanket around both her body and that of the shaken child in her lap. She glanced down at her daughter who lay with her head pressed into her chest, arms wrapped securely around her waist, and felt the tears stinging her eyes. Drawing back a few loose strands of the stringy, dampened hair that clung wildly to her cheeks, Carrie tucked them behind her ear with a shaky hand. She shifted against the edge of the ambulance where she sat, holding her sleeping daughter tighter in her arms as she continued to watch the Fire Department carefully work the Jaws of Life on the mangled drivers side door. Somehow she and Lyra had made it out of that car with nothing more than a couple minor scratches. Why hadn't Kelly been that fortunate? What was taking them so long?

The flashing lights from both the Police cars and Fire trucks swirled continuously in her line of vision and she tried her best to ignore it, but it was just making this all the more real for her as the time passed by. News crews stood behind the yellow caution tape, posted among the crowd of curious spectators. She wanted to personally march over to them and throw their precious little cameras into the street but instead she chose to ignore them and slowly cast her eyes downward at the slick, black road, feeling herself drift off into space.

Carrie had been laughing sarcastically one minute and then shouting at the woman beside her in the next breath. Driving in the rain had always made her paranoid but she always tried to pass that anxiety away the best she could, but the frantic woman behind the wheel always made that extremely difficult to do.

Even though Kelly was busy talking at her, she had long since stopped paying attention. Turning slightly in her seat she focused her attention on the sleeping toddler in the backseat and allowed a brief smile to spread across her face.

"Are you even listening to me? God, Carrie," Kelly fussed, causing the blonde at her side to readjust herself in her seat until she was once again facing forward.

Carrie kept her eyes forward, refusing to look over at Kelly. "You're talking, but I'm not hearing anything you're saying," Carrie countered, refusing to let the argument escalate any further than it already had.

Kelly let out a frustrated groan. "Ugh whatever; seriously I don't even know why I bother anymore," Kelly breezed through the intersection on a yellow light seconds before it shifted to red.

"Honestly I don't know why I bother anymore either," Carrie huffed back under her breath.

Those were the last words exchanged between the two of them before the loud screech of tires sounded loudly from both vehicles. Both cars fought desperately to stop the oncoming collusion that undoubtedly was about to take place. Their car slid to a slow, crooked stop while the other continued to skid, losing all control and slamming directly into the driver's side.

Carrie flinched while slipping out of the all too fresh memory of the accident as an Officer began to approach her. She clutched her daughter more protectively to her chest as the tears she had been holding back for too long had begun to fall. She was indeed blessed to walk away from that nearly fatal crash without the slightest bit of harm, as well as the child in her arms. Silently she prayed that Kelly too would pull through this. She would give anything right now to see those hazel eyes sparkle again, something that she had noticed had been missing for entirely too long.

After five years of marriage, this was where they were led to. To a place so dark and so dead, a place lacking that feeling and emotion they once had when they first fell in love with each other. It wasn't there anymore; they had lost it long ago somewhere along the way, but she would give anything to just have that back.

If anyone had asked her five years ago where she thought she saw them heading, this road definitely wouldn't have been the one she chose.

"Miss." She blinked as her eyes lifted from the asphalt to meet the eyes of the Policeman standing in front of her. "Yes?," she managed to squeak out, feeling Lyra stir slightly in her arms.

The Officer offered a polite smile before going on. "Is there anyone you could call, anyone who..." Carrie felt her throat tighten as she caught a glimpse over the Officer's shoulder of the Fire Fighter's working together to safely remove Kelly from the mangled car.

A gasp ripped from her chest and it felt as if the wind had just been knocked out of her. "Miss?," the Officer asked again, realizing that she had drifted off. His eyes followed to where hers had lingered and quickly he turned his attention back to her. "I really think we should call someone to-"

"I'll call them from the hospital," she mumbled quietly, her eyes finally meeting the Officer's again. "I can drive you over in my squad car; it's probably best if you don't see her just yet," he suggested, and even though she wanted to protest and insist that she needed to ride along in the ambulance they were now wheeling Kelly into by stretcher, she knew better.

She nodded her head. "Okay."

Moving slowly, she slid off the back of the ambulance, adjusting Lyra in her arms as she did so and hoisted her up under her butt for better support. In silence she walked across the wet pavement behind the Officer until they closed the distance to his car. Once they reached it he pulled the back door open for them and carefully she ducked her head to enter. Shutting the door securely behind them the Officer made his way around the car and positioned himself in the driver's seat.

"Mommy." Lyra's soft, muffled voice against her chest caused Carrie to jolt as she glanced down at her daughter. "Y-yes, sweetheart?" She cleared her throat and watched Lyra lift up from her chest, her frightened hazel eyes meeting her mother's equally frightened gaze. "Where's momma?" Carrie sniffed and shut her eyes for a brief moment before opening them again.

She turned her head to the side to glance out the tinted window of the Squad car, catching a flash of the lights on the ambulance Kelly was now in before the siren wailed as it pulled away from the scene of the accident.

"Momma is...Momma is going to be fine." Even as she said it, she knew she wasn't certain of that; no one could ever be certain of anything like that. One thing she was sure of though, she refused to let her marriage fall apart or watch her family deteriorate right before her own eyes. Especially not after something as big as this.