“SENA!!”

Vision hazy.

It was like a dream occurring in slow motion.

A dream I held no control over.

What happened? Where was I?

It was raining all wrong. Why was it raining the wrong way?

Oh, yeah, it came back to me in a scared rush.

Inside a damaged car that was now laid on its side. The side I was on.

I don’t know how many minutes had gone by.

It felt like seconds and years.

My eyelids struggled to open all the way, but I knew I had to force them.

“SENA! Baby, talk to me?”

I couldn’t move, and my head hurt so badly.

Nausea with the slightest moved inches.

I’d been in a car accident!

I needed to get out. Jesus. I had to get out!

“Kitten, help is coming, okay? Hang on, baby. Talk to me, say something, baby.”

I heard Noah far away through my ringing ears and all the rain battering the side of the car. Over the screaming of my brain sending out danger alerts and through my rushing blood I heard him. My boy.

I couldn’t move to see the street. Couldn’t reach to where the phone was.

“Noah…”

And then a pain unlike anything I’ve ever felt before sliced all down my side.

I was being ripped from the inside.

It took a while to realize it was me screaming. That god-awful screaming was coming out of me.

Pain made me blind.

Oh, it was bad. It was so fucking bad.

The baby. The baby!

No. No. No. No. No. No, this wasn’t happening.

This couldn’t be happening.

It was too soon.

“Noah!” I think I shrieked his name, fingers desperately trying to get purchase on anything to get myself out of my seat.

My head foggy and my vision spotty. I couldn’t reach my seatbelt. I was sitting in the wrong position and everything felt odd. Blood rushed to my head causing dizziness swamping through me.

Just like the rain, my seat was all wrong.

“Help is coming, Sena. Hold on for me, baby.”

“Love...you. Noah. The baby, please. I can’t—it hurts, Noah.”

Bile curdled into my throat.

He cursed.

And swore.

And roared through the speakers.

I’d never heard Noah’s voice like that before. Stripped down and terrified.  

I didn’t know if it was because my hearing was distorted, my fucking bells ringing, or I was listening to my own rapid heartbeat, but I felt somehow, I had to tell him everything. “It’s okay, Noah. I’m fine. I love you. You know, that right? I love you so much. I’ve always loved you.” What if I never shivered again from seeing his raw achingly base passion? A sob caught in my throat. “Noah. I adore you, don’t forget, okay? I have no regrets,” other than I might not get out of this.

Crap. There went my tears again.

“Jesus. Sena, don’t. Fuck, don’t. You can tell me how much you love me in a few minutes when I see you. The ambulance has been dispatched, they’re coming, baby. I’m gonna be at the hospital waiting for you.”

My boy always taking care of me. I blinked, watched a path of rain drops running down the window.

“A few more minutes, be strong for me.” I hiccupped a louder sob listening to his panicked voice. Noah was never in a panic. “Christ, it fucking crushes me when you cry. Just a few minutes, baby. Hang on.”

Breathing.

I’m a mom. This couldn’t be happening. I needed to get out. I was a mom.

If I never got the chance to become Noah’s wife I was still a mom right now and my baby needed me to get out of this car.

The only problem being, I was in agony.

I couldn’t tell which part of me hurt more, it was all over and everywhere.

I felt like I’d had the stuffing knocked out of me.

It was difficult to take in air with the tightness of my seatbelt.

And I’d been right; I was hopeless in a crisis.

I touched around for the clasp to my seatbelt and found it fixed tightly in place powerless to unlock it. The airbag brushed against my cheek and I slowly realized it had deployed on impact.

I heard people nearby. And throughout Noah’s constant reassurance I tried to signal to whoever was outside that I needed help.

This couldn’t be happening.

Not now.

Not now we had everything.

We were happy, dammit.

This wasn’t supposed to happen.

When I blinked, my head swam, and nausea attacked with a vengeance, roiling through my stomach.

Noah’s voice drifted into a blur, though I tried again to tell him how much I loved him.

He needed to know he was my everything and I’d been so damn happy because of him.

The rain was loud like thunder in my ears. I figured it was going to be hard for anyone being outside in this. I hoped they wore a thick coat.

Noah.

Our baby.

I prayed so hard.

Please God. Don’t do this to us.

We were happy.

I prayed until the blackness took me under.

 

~*~*~

 

“Ma’am. We’re gonna get you out, okay?”

“Neck brace.”

“BP dropping.”

I roused to too many voices in my head and hands I didn’t recognize touching me.

“Noah…”

“Ma’am, it’s gonna be okay. My name is Tyrell, we’re here to help.” The voice to the left of me said. “Can you tell me where it hurts?”

“Baby. My baby. Please help my baby.” My garbled words came out croakily. “I’m six months pregnant. Check my baby first, please.”

“We will, ma’am. We need this door off now!”

“Ma’am, can you tell me your name?”

“S—Sena. Like John Cena but with an S.”

The deep voice above me chuckled.

“Hey, that’s real cool, Sena. Just relax for me, we’re just gonna give you some oxygen.”

Noah.

I needed Noah.

“Spotting of blood …. Legs ... chance of labor … move her …”

“BP… low … move her now …”

My lower portion was being torn in half. I groaned sucking in good clean oxygen.

I desperately wanted to stay awake to tell them to help my baby. It didn’t matter about me, just make sure my baby was okay.

But the blackness was too strong, and it swallowed me whole.

Then there was nothing.

No pain.

No rain spitting down on me.

Just … nothing.

And in the nothing I found relief.