Date night had been such a great distraction for Macy. It had been a long week with the twins at home arguing over whose toys were whose and which one got the first Oreo at snack time. Grant had seen her

exhaustion and offered to get a sitter so they could enjoy her favorite Indian restaurant this rainy Friday night when he had a rare day off from the hospital, where he worked as a trauma doctor in the ER.

They turned onto the dark country road toward home, Macy groaning over her full belly and wishing she hadn’t had those last few samosas. As they rounded the bend, two red taillights glowed through the mist in an oddly vertical line. Grant gasped as he saw it was a car rolled onto its side. He slowed their truck and quickly threw it into park, opening his door and jumping out at nearly the same moment.

He could hear a young woman screaming in the driver’s seat while a baby rasped short cries in back. He climbed up the car’s exposed carriage, lighting his phone to make vital assessments of each of them quickly. The baby appeared to be safe, just frightened and disoriented in his sideways car seat. The mom’s forehead was bleeding, one eye nearly swollen shut as she clawed at the seatbelt, legs not moving. Grant tried to open her door towards the sky, but it was jammed tight against the car’s frame, held tight by mangled metal and heavy gravity. A small fire had kindled in the engine, contorted against the angled telephone pole.

Grant looked at Macy, who ran to the car with white face and wide eyes.

“Grant, what do we do?” she cried. “ I called 911, but it’ll take them a while to get out here.”

The mom and baby’s screams intensified from inside the car.

Grant knew he had only one choice. Macy would have to see. To know.

“Macy, I… “ he started. “I have to do this. I’ll explain later.”

He grabbed the car’s heavy door and heaved upward. The metal on metal screeched and then the door flew upward, flipping in the air before it landed 30 feet away. He reached for the woman’s seatbelt and ripped it in two, holding her from falling downward through the car. Then he lifted her like a rag doll, placed her over his shoulder, and carried her to the ground. In nearly the same movement, he leapt back to the top edge of the car and pulled open the back door as if it were a curtain. He unbuckled the baby and carried her down, her cries still searching for her mother’s comfort.

Macy stood frozen for seconds, then rushed to the mother’s side.