They flutter open again as the ambulance jerks to a stop and the EMT springs into action to offload me and the stretcher. A small team of nurses rush out of the ER doors to help him, and they instantly start peppering us both with questions about what happened and what’s already been done.

The EMT fills them in, but I don’t have enough energy or coordination to add anything before the nurses wheel me into the hospital. Everything happens so quickly that I lose track of where I’m at or who’s talking to me as they get me into a room and hooked up to an IV. I barely even feel the needle piercing my skin.

They run a battery of tests and imaging that I’m too out of it to keep track of to make sure I’m not bleeding internally or anything like that, then mercifully leave me alone in a hospital bed for what feels like hours.

I sleep off and on, periodically coming to only to go right back out again.

At some point, a doctor enters the room and gently stirs me awake.

“Mr. Murray?” she asks quietly as I try to force my eyes to focus on her. “Can you hear me?”

I nod, which hurts, but not as badly as before. “Yes, I hear you.”

My voice comes out raspy, like I’ve been gargling gravel, but the doctor nods approvingly.

“Good. I have good news. All the tests came back negative for any major injuries or internal damage. As far as we can tell, you’ve got signs of a mild concussion, but it’s not too bad. You’ll need to rest up and take it easy so we’re probably going to keep you overnight just so we can keep an eye on you, but I expect you’ll be fine.”

I breathe a shuddery sigh of relief, and for the first time since the incident, the reality of how much worse it could’ve been hits me. If that reckless bastard had checked me in a different spot or used a little bit more force when he did, he could’ve paralyzed me—or worse.

I hope he’s at least getting a suspension for this shit.

The doctor says something else to me about moving me to another room, and I nod again, but I’m barely listening. She pats my shoulder gently and then leaves, and a couple of hospital staff come in to wheel me out of the room.

They roll my bed down the hall, and as we round the corner into the new room where I’ll be spending the night, it doesn’t do my aching head any favors to see Coach Dunaway already there waiting for me.