Page 128 of Never Alone
"Five minutes. Ambulance is five minutes out. I'm running in for the kit. Stay with him. Talk to him. Don't move him. You got it?"
"I got it."
He was gone.
Cole's hand was warm in mine.
"Tessa."
"I'm here."
"You okay?"
His voice was a thin thing.
"I'm fine. Cole. I'm fine. Don't worry about me."
"They didn't?—"
"They didn't touch me. I'm fine. You have to stay still."
He closed his eyes. He opened them again. He was working at the staying-with-me. I could see him do it.
"Cole. You're bleeding."
"M'okay."
"You're not okay."
"S'fine. As long as you're?—"
He stopped. He swallowed. The breath caught. The ribs.
"Don't talk. Don't—just don't talk."
"Yeah."
I put my other hand on his face. Lightly. The side of his jaw that wasn't bleeding. I didn't know where I was allowed to touch him. I didn't know what was broken.
Sean came back across the gravel. He had a red plastic kit in one hand. He went down on his knees on the other side of Cole and opened it.
"Tessa, I need you to keep his head steady. Just your hands at his temples. Light. Don't press. Yeah. Like that. Keep him talking."
I moved my hands to his head.
I kept him talking.
I told him Noah was at school. I told him Noah was looking forward to the playdate with Jack and Ben tomorrow. I told him the cabinet pulls he'd just bought were going to look good in the kitchen. I told him I was going to make him eggs when we got home. I told him every small ordinary thing I could think of while Sean worked on him with the kit, and Cole's eyes opened and closed and opened, and somewhere a siren started in the distance, and the siren got louder, and I kept talking.
The ambulance came around the corner of the building.
Two paramedics out the back, fast, with a bag and a stretcher. The driver was a man I didn't know. The other one was Quinn.
"Cole?"
She saw him on the ground. Her face did something I didn't have a word for.
"Cole!"
