A Christmas Wish Ch. 01

"Ma'am, we need you to calm down." An officer shouted to her in hopes of distracting her long enough to get some information.

Megan didn't want anything to do with the officer she only wanted to help her sister. "Help her damn it! Can't you see she hurt? What's wrong with you people?" Megan's cries were heard for blocks as she pleaded with the emergency crews on the scene and tried effortlessly to push herself away from the police and paramedics.

~~~~

"Excuse me, sir? Is this Josh Hill?"

"Yes, who's this?" Josh replied after being called to the office phone.

"This is officer Duncan of the Oakland County Police department. I'm sorry to inform you there has been an accident. Your wife has been taken to Beaumont Hospital, sir. Sir? Sir?"

Positive identification of the occupant in the vehicle wasn't known at the time the officer made the call so he just told Josh about his wife. Josh immediately hung up the phone and rushed to the emergency room to be with her. After he saw that she was okay, just a bit shaken and with a mild concussion, the officers were able to pull him away with more information as well as questions.

"Excuse me sir? If you wouldn't mind answering some questions for the officer who first arrived on the scene of your wife's accident, we can get things cleared up here and you can go back to your wife." The officer asked patiently, knowing that Josh's life had just been turned upside down.

"Right this way," he said when Josh shook his head in agreement. He was still unaware that Amber had been in the vehicle with Megan at the time of the accident, but he would soon find out.

"No. Not at this time sir. I am unable to give any details regarding the victims of that accident," Josh heard one of the doctors that had examined his wife tell a man who appeared to be in distress standing behind the officers.

Josh looked at him with concern then was pulled to the side by another officer. "I'm sorry sir. We know this is a shock. No one expects to be standing where you are right now," the officer started, but was interrupted by a very upset and confused Josh.

"What the hell happened? Did they catch the person who did this to my wife? I feel like I'm in a horrible nightmare," he said then began to shake uncontrollably as the realization set in.

"Let it all out sir, we understand." The female officer said as she comforted Josh and walked him over to the seating area for more privacy.

"From what we know right now according to witnesses, your wife had the right of way through the intersection when she was broad-sided by a truck that ran the red light. The driver of the truck has been arrested for drunk driving. He was treated for a head injury and taken to the precinct. What we don't know is who the other person in the vehicle was." The male officer said as he pulled out his little pad of paper to look over his notes.

"Other person? What other person?" Josh asked not even thinking it could be Amber, the woman carrying his child.

"Sir, there was an unidentified woman in the passengers seat of the car your wife was driving. A pregn- -"

"Oh dear God! No!" Josh cried out and fell to his knees. "I need to see her. Where is she?"

Josh was beyond consoling with the news of his wife and then his sister-in- law, not to mention the fate of his unborn child. The police officer asked the doctors where the woman had been taken, knowing she was pronounced dead at the scene. The doctors escorted Josh and the officers to a room down the hall.

"She's in here, sir," was all that was said and Josh pushed the door open to find a body lying stiff on the stretcher, a white sheet with droplets of blood covered her face.

"Are you ready to ID the body, sir?" the doctor asked.