and someone was taking Linnzi out.
“My wife has a head wound!” I cried out as I looked over my shoulder at the paramedics removing the car seat.
“The baby!” I yelled. “Is my daughter okay? She’s only two months old!”
“Sir, let’s get you out; the plane is on fire,” a voice said from somewhere. I couldn’t take my eyes off of the paramedics as they removed Amanda from the plane.
“Sir!” the voice yelled. “Can you move?”
I nodded and managed to get the belt off before following him out. They were running with Amanda.
“Amanda!” I cried out before I looked for Linnzi.
“Linnzi?”
“Sir, over here,” another voice said as I felt someone guiding me away from the plane. My ankle felt like it was on fire, and I looked down to see if I was even walking right as we made our way over to a helicopter. Linnzi and Amanda were both being taken to the copter, and I attempted to pick up the pace. The pain was slowly ebbing, so I was pretty positive I had sprained it and not broken it.
Then, I heard it. A scream so piercing it nearly dropped me to my knees.
Linnzi!
I ran as fast as I could, and right before I got to the helicopter a firefighter stopped me.
“No! No!” Linnzi screamed. “No!”
“What the fuck is happening!?” I cried out as I tried to make my way around the firefighter. “Linnzi?”
“Nolan!” Linnzi cried out.
“Let me go!” I said as I pushed my way past. Linnzi was holding Amanda in her arms now, and she was rocking back and forth, crying.
When she lifted her eyes and looked at me, I froze. “Nolan, she’s gone! Our baby is gone! She’s gone!”
I felt my body start to fall, but two sets of arms held me up.
Linnzi buried her face in the blanket and cried, “My baby! Why? Why my baby?”
Three hours later, I walked into Linnzi’s hospital room after they had taken her for CT scans and X-rays. She looked at me with the strangest expression as she took me in. In that moment, that second that changed everything, my entire world was turned upside down.
“Are you a doctor?” she asked.
I frowned and looked at the nurse, then back to Linnzi.
“W-what?” I asked, my voice hoarse and raw from all the crying I’d been doing.
Linnzi tilted her head and regarded me for a few moments before she asked in a confused voice, “I’m sorry, do I know you?”
In that moment, nothing was ever the same again. I turned and bolted from her room.
“Nolan?”
Linnzi’s soft voice pulled me from the memory. I looked up at her and swallowed the lump in my throat. After a few deep breaths, I said, “It was a plane accident. That’s how you got hurt.”
Her mouth fell open. “What?” she asked softly.
The sound of my heart beating in my ears made it hard to even hear her. “You were hurt in a plane accident. We were flying down from Colorado. I had a short-term assignment there and we were due to get married that weekend, so it was just easier to fly.”
She slowly shook her head as she let the words sink in.
I closed my eyes and felt a tear slip free. I heard her inhale, but I kept going. Focusing back on her, I went on. “I was flying the plane, Linnzi. It was my fault. All of it was my fault.”
Her hand came up to her mouth. “You were what?”
I waited for a moment, wondering if the memory would come back to her as I held my breath and searched her face. When she didn’t say anything, I said, “I…I was flying the plane. The main landing gear collapsed and…and…I attempted to do a go-around, but the plane didn’t respond. It…it…”
It felt like I needed to take giant gulps of air as I tried to finish telling her. Tears flowed easily down my face. “It bounced down the runway, and the wing came in contact with the runway. It…”
“Stop…” she said in a barely there voice. “Please, don’t say anything else.”
I gave her a confused look. She shook her head. “Stop. I don’t care what happened. I don’t want to know.”
Swallowing hard, I felt my jaw start to ache as I clenched down. “What do you mean, stop?”
She pushed off the fence and walked up to me. “I see the pain in your eyes, and I want you to stop. Please.”
“But—”
Linnzi pressed her finger to my lips. “Something inside me is screaming for you