He tore out of the house, dropping to his knees beside her. “What happened?” One look at her ankle and he cursed under his breath. It was already swelling.
Charlie hopped around from one foot to the other, his face pinched with worry. “She was running. She was just running.”
“Charlie, run and lock the kitchen door,” he called out as he scooped Lily into his arms. She clung to him, still crying, and he felt a fear that had never shaken him when he was a SEAL. He’d seen men with gunshot and knife wounds, broken limbs, lacerations of all types, but his heart had never pounded as it did at that moment.
Charlie ran back to him, and he jogged out the gate of Violet’s smaller yard, heading straight to his SUV. Throwing open the door, he placed her gently into the back seat before turning to heft Charlie in next to his sister. “I’ll be right back. Gotta grab my wallet.” He locked them inside before running through the back of his house and snagging his wallet from the counter. Opening the pantry, he pulled out a plastic zipper bag and filled it with ice. Locking the kitchen door, he raced back to his SUV and climbed in.
Twisting in his seat, he watched Lily’s face, still scrunched in pain with tears running down her face, look at him with trust. “Sweetheart, I know it hurts, but try to hold this on your ankle. The ice will help, I promise.”
“Ben, where are we going?” Charlie asked in a shaky voice.
One look and Ben knew Charlie was close to tears. “We’re going to the emergency room. Lily’s ankle might just be sprained, or it could be broken. But we need to have a doctor take a look at it.” He started the engine and pulled out onto the street, forcing his breathing to steady and his heartbeat to slow while battling the urge to speed down the road.
“I want M-mom.” Lily’s voice hitched between tears, the sound stabbing straight through Ben.
“I’m going to call her right now,” he promised. Connecting his phone through his vehicle, Violet didn’t pick up so he left a message. “Babe, I don’t want you to panic, but Lily’s hurt her ankle. I’m taking her to St. Marguerite’s Hospital Emergency Room. As soon as you get this message, meet us there.”
Looking into the rearview mirror at Lily’s tear-stained face, he said, “Hang on, Lily girl. It’s going to be all right, I promise.”
Ten minutes later, he parked and scooped Lily into his arms again, racing through the ER doors with Charlie at his side. It was in his nature to bark orders, his military training expecting them to be obeyed. Frustrated at the paperwork that needed to be completed, he sat in the waiting room with a sniffling Lily on his lap, her huge, swollen ankle propped up on the chair next to him with Charlie leaning against his legs, helping to fill in the information on the forms. Handing them to the woman at the admittance desk, he begged, “Please, get to her as soon as you can.”
It only took another moment before a sweet-faced older nurse called them back. She glanced at Charlie with concern and looked at Ben. “Is there anyone else who came with you that can watch your son?”
“No, I’m the only one here.”
She nodded and led them into the triage room where a young doctor that looked to be barely out of high school walked in, his smile wide. He joked with Lily as he examined her ankle, but she only glared, crying out when the prodding hurt.
“Do you have to do that?” Ben growled. “Can’t you see the swelling?”
The doctor simply grinned as he winked at Lily. “I think your dad’s getting a tad upset.”
Ben leaned forward, checking the man’s ID to make sure he was a real doctor. Seeing he was, he glared as Lily cried out again. “Do you have to keep hurting her?”
Lily sniffled and said, “You better not upset him. He was in the Navy.” She turned her tear-stained face toward him. “Right?”
“That’s right, baby,” Ben said, forcing his voice to calm. Before he had a chance to question him again, the doctor got back to business.
“We’ll need to take a picture of the inside of your foot and ankle to see if there are any broken bones. I know you said you were playing outside, did you trip over anything?”
She shook her head, still wiping errant tears away from her eyes. “I think I stepped in a hole.”
“A hole?” Ben asked, looking down at her.
She scrunched her nose and shrugged. “It just felt like the ground sank in when I was running.”
Ben didn’t ask any more questions but sat in the hard plastic chair holding her hand with Charlie in his lap. The technicians came to roll her down the hall to the x-ray room, and he promised he’d be right there when she got back.
“Don’t worry, honey,” one of the technicians said. “We’re just going to take some pictures and then we’ll bring you right back here to Daddy.”
She had only been gone for a moment when Violet rounded the corner and bolted into the room. Before he had a chance to speak, her eyes darted around before landing on him. “Lily? Where is she?”
He stood with Charlie balanced on his hip, the little boy’s arms clinging to his neck. Taking the two steps it took to get to her, he reached out with his free hand and pulled her close. “It’s okay. They’ve just taken her to x-ray.”
“They told her all about it, Mom. They said it’s just like having a picture taken, and it won’t hurt.”
She reached out her arms, and Charlie let go of Ben, allowing his mom to pull him close. She closed her eyes and held him tight, taking a deep breath and letting it out slowly. Ben wrapped both of his arms around the two of them, hating the reason they were there but loving the fact that he could offer comfort.
“What happened?” she asked, her gaze looking over Charlie’s shoulder to him.
“I’m not sure. They were in the backyard playing with the dog when I suddenly heard her scream. I had just made it downstairs and raced out and she was lying on the ground with her ankle already swelling. I had no idea if it was just sprained or broken, but I wanted to get her here.”
She leaned in close, dropping her forehead to his chest while still keeping Charlie clutched in her arms. He kissed the top of her head and she finally focused on Charlie. “Did you see what happened?”
“I think she stepped in a hole.”
She blinked and gave a little shake of her head. “A hole? I don’t think we have holes in our yard, Charlie.”
Charlie said, “Probably because of the bad man that’s in the yard.”
Ben’s gaze shot toward Violet, finding her staring at him, her expression just as confused as his. Before they had a chance to ask Charlie more questions, the sound of Lily’s bed being rolled back into the room met their ears.
“Sweetie!”
“Mom!”
Violet easily transferred Charlie back to Ben’s arms as she leaned down and hugged Lily. He lowered Charlie to the ground and bent to kiss Lily’s head, glad to see she was no longer crying.
The nurse came in and explained that the doctor had ordered pain medication for Lily and he’d be in soon to discuss the x-ray findings. Violet sat on the edge of the bed with her daughter and Ben sat in the hard chair, Charlie balancing on his knees.
Ben’s eyes had closed for just a moment, but they opened at Charlie’s soft question. “Did you hear what that nurse called me?”