At this point I wouldn’t doubt it, with the time of the year and with the number of times she was out in the cold for extended periods this past week. Aside from the ice storm and walking to and from class, she also sat out in the cold with her dad the Saturday after Thanksgiving to watch me play.
Walking closer, I can see the dark circles under her eyes, which are a dull brown, not their usual warm honey color. She’s blinking slowly and heavily, her breathing labored as she struggles to keep her eyes open. Her face seems to grow paler, and she sways.
As if in a movie, time slows to an antagonizing speed as I watch Olivia’s legs buckle beneath her. Without a second thought, I take off, running full force toward her. It feels like I’m running from yards away to reach her, when in reality, it’s probably less than thirty feet.
Just as she’s about to hit the floor, I dive, somehow managing to catch her and break most of her fall.
I hear Delilah scream, interrupting the movie-like trance, and everything snaps back to regular speed so fast it gives me whiplash.
With shaky hands, my heart thumping wilder than it ever has on any field during a game, I gather Olivia up in my arms. I barely hear the commotion from everyone around us, and everything happens in such a blur that I don’t even realize I’m rushing her to Chase’s truck, Delilah hot on my heels.
“Ohmygod, ohmygod, ohmygod,” Delilah repeats. “What happened?”
Olivia makes a small groaning noise, and I look down at her in my arms. Her eyes slowly flutter halfway open as she comes to, looking disoriented.
“Olivia?” My voice sounds strange.
“What happened?” she asks.
“I was going to ask you the same thing.”
I get to Chase’s truck and get Delilah to grab the keys out of my backpack and open the door. I gently place Olivia in the passenger seat.
“Are you all right?” I ask, my eyes scanning her for any serious injuries. I brush some hair out of her face as she blinks, trying to regain her bearings.
“Yeah, I’m okay,” she says uncertainly, her hand coming up to lightly rub her forehead. “Just tired.” I notice the rasp in her voice, the strain of it. She also sounds a bit nasally, like her nose is stuffed up.
“You scared the shit out of me,” Delilah says, pressing her hand to her heart. “I’ve never seen someone just drop like that.”
“Let’s get you to the hospital and get you checked out,” I murmur, buckling her in.
A look of fear flashes across her face. “It’s okay, guys. I’m fine. Really.”
Delilah and I glance at each other, as if to sayYeah, right.
“Better to be safe than sorry,” Delilah tries to persuade her.
“Yeah, Finch. You really scared the hell out of both of us,” I admit.
She scans my face, and my expression must say it all, because she slowly nods, agreeing.
Delilah offers to stay back to let Tracy know why we aren’t there and to fill us in on what we’re going to miss in lab today. I take Olivia to the emergency room, and they get her back into a room fairly quickly to take her vitals and begin some standard testing.
Olivia allows me to go back into the room with her after the nurse and doctor check her out. Once they step out to go evaluate her tests and I step in, Cora rushes through the door, looking frantic.
“Olivia,” she says, shocked and breathless. “Baby, what happened?” She walks over to Olivia’s bed, gently grabbing her face in her hands as her wide, worried eyes scan Olivia head to toe. “I saw your name on the board and came running as fast as I could.”
“I’m okay, Cora,” Olivia assures her, filling her in on what happened.
Cora frowns, her eyes darting to the monitors Olivia is hooked up to, reading her vitals.
“We just had dinner last night. You seemed fine other than a stuffy nose,” she mutters to herself, trying to figure out what went wrong.
Cora runs through taking Olivia’s vitals again. She takes her temperature and blood pressure and pulls out her stethoscope to check her heart and breathing. In my opinion, she seems to go over the top with it, doing unnecessary and excessive nurse-y type things. But what do I know.
Once Cora is done with her own personal examination, the doctor steps back into the room with her clipboard.
“Miss McCausland.” She hugs the clipboard to her chest. “Good news. As far as your tests go, everything looks fairly normal. Other than some dehydration and signs of a common cold, everything looks fine.”
