Chapter Five

Richie stayed kneeled down next to Sarah, he stroked her hair out of her face and waited for a reaction as he begged her to wake up and open her eyes.

Noah had put his books down and sat down on the tiled floor opposite of Richie, also hoping for Sarah to wake up again.

Quietly Richie kept encouraging her to open her eyes. He already had his mind made up now, as soon as she woke up they’d leave for the hospital.

To their relief Sarah finally reacted and opened her eyes, blinking a few times before focusing on Richie.

“What happened?” She asked confused.
“You fainted honey, how do you feel?” He asked gently.
“My wrist hurts.” She said, still confused.
Richie looked down at her wrist, it looked fine. “You probably sprained it again. Does your head hurt?”
“A little.”
“Okay.” Richie concluded, at least that gave him an idea of how she was doing. “Want to try and sit up?”
“Slowly.” Sarah agreed and tried to put her hands down to push herself into a sitting position but it hurt her wrist too much to do so.
“Careful.” Richie said urgently. “Let Noah and me help.” He said.

Along with her youngest son and husband’s help, Sarah finally managed to sit up. Richie made her sit so she was resting against his chest.

“How’s that?” Richie asked.
“Alright.”
“We’ll see in a minute if you can get up to go to the hospital.” Richie told her.
Sarah nodded, a year ago going to the hospital would have scared her and even though the ER wasn’t one of the places she regularly visited, it didn’t scare her anymore to go somewhere, especially if she had her husband with her.

Finally Sarah turned to Noah, remembering what had happened earlier.

“Noah, honey, are you okay?” She asked a worryingly.
Noah looked up at Richie, making eye contact for a brief second, then he nodded. “Yeah, all’s fine.”
A feeling of forgiveness made Richie smile.
“Are you sure?” Sarah asked.
“Yeah, we talked.”
Sarah nodded, understanding they had figured it out by themselves. “Okay.”

A few minutes later Noah and Richie helped Sarah to her feet and carefully walk to the car. Once Sarah was in the car, ready to go, Noah got nervous about what was going to happen. It couldn’t be that bad, his mom would be fine.

A little unsure, he stood by the car and watched Richie close Sarah’s door.

“I’ll just go inside.” Noah sighed, knowing he probably couldn’t go.

Richie looked at him, he didn’t want to leave Noah alone, he understood he wanted to make sure his mom was okay but what if Ava and Caleb came home to an empty house?

“I’ll phone you as soon as we know anything, okay?”
Noah nodded. “Okay.” He was still worried but he understood he couldn’t go, hospitals were busy enough, he’d just be in the way.

Richie continued looking at him, then pulled him in for a quick hug. “She’ll be fine.” He said as positive as he could, padded Noah’s shoulder and got in the car next to Sarah to drive her to the hospital where she worked.

The drive wasn’t very long, the roads were calm and they easily made it there within twenty minutes.


Once he parked, Richie got out of the car, and walked around to car to open Sarah’s door. He held his hand out to help Sarah out of the car more easily.

Richie held his arm around her waist and walked her into the emergency room.

Sarah was still feeling dizzy and was glad Richie was supporting her to walk.

Once the automatic doors opened for them and lead them into a long corridor, Richie looked for which way they had to go, while looking left and right he noticed a few wheelchairs in a row.

“Wanna sit?” He asked.
Sarah looked over at what he was looking at. “No, I’m not that bad.” She said and held on to him a little tighter.

They turned left and followed the way to a large room full of chairs, Richie helped Sarah to sit down in the nearest chair

“You just stay here and I’ll get you registered.”
Sarah nodded and looked through her purse to give Richie the cards he’d needed to register her. “Be quick?” She asked as she handed her things to him.
“I’ll be back in a minute.” He promised and walked up to the desk.

"How can I help you?" The lady behind the window asked him.
“My wife's been sick with some stomach bug or something” he started out, trying not to sound too worried, “but she passed out and we’re kinda worried it could be something worse 'cause she's still weak and dizzy too."

"What do you mean with weak?" He noticed she was trying to sound comforting but it didn’t help much. "Tired and shaky, she's been being sick for 3 days now.” He answered quickly.
“Do you have her ID and insurance card?”
“Yeah.”

The receptionist used a card reader to read the cards, and put in Sarah’s information while Richie nervously waited.

“Someone will be with you in a moment.” She handed the cards back and Richie returned to Sarah.

He took the seat next to Sarah and watched her, she still looked pale and shaky. She was holding her hurt arm with her other hand, carefully Richie put his arm around her waist and let her lean on him.

With his own free hand he took his phone from his jeans pocket and ignored the no cell phones signs.

8.23pm At the hospital, waiting for a doctor now