AN: hello fellow Rhekker shippers! I'm back with another story for you. Shout out to Rhekkerunicorn for sending me a prompt that resulted in this little creation. Thank you!
This chapter is a prologue and is a bit dark. It will make more sense as you read the story on, I promise. Reviews and constructive criticism are highly appreciated!
Disclaimer: I don't own NBC or Chicago Med. All rights belong to Derek Haas, Michael Brandt and Dick Wolf and co.
After Lexi's mum knocked three times on their neighbour's door, the door swung inwards, revealing an excited-looking kid the same age as the pouting girl; her best friend Sadie, and her best friend's mother, Sam.
Ignoring everyone, Lexi crossed her arms and stormed into the sitting room. She dramatically threw herself down onto the sofa.
Sadie looked confused at her friend's demeanour and held up a thumb to ask if everything was ok. The girl shook her head, still glowering.
"Here we go; one grumpy kid, her backpack and some money for lunch" she heard her mother say wearily, handing the backpack to Sam before running a hand through her blonde curls.
Sam looked from the adult at the door to Lexi. She frowned while asking, "What's up with her?"
"She's mad that I have to go to work…" Lexi's mum explained sheepishly.
Sam tut-tutted towards Lexi. "No need to sulk about that, Lexi!"
Before Lexi could answer back, the retort already on the tip of her tongue, her mother quickly defused the situation by interjecting with; "So, where are you taking Lexi and Sadie today? It's gonna be a beautiful day, isn't it?"
The neighbour happily replied; "I know the girls love the sea, so I'm going to take them to the pier. And if everyone is well-behaved…"
She gave Lexi a pointed look.
"… then we'll get ice-cream!"
"Ice-cream! Yummy, huh!"
But Lexi ignored her mother's attempt to get her to cheer up.
With a sigh, the young woman crossed the threshold and squatted in front of her daughter.
"Come on, sweetie, I know you were hoping I'd get the day off. Don't you think I wanted that too? I'm sorry." she said softly.
When she got no reply, she added, "Let's not leave with such an ugly atmosphere between us. And don't spoil your day because of this."
Lexi still refused to make eye contact, instead she steadily stared past her mum's shoulder at the door. The door through which her mum would soon leave without her to go to work while she stayed with Sadie and Sam.
The blonde woman squeezed her daughter's knees, trying to get her to acknowledge her.
"Look, I'll be home by 5 pm. Afterwards, I'll take you out for a bike ride through the park. We'll watch the sun set and have a picnic by the pond."
"But I wanted to spend the whole day at the park. You promised we'd spend the whole day at the park, together" she whined.
"I know baby, I know." Her mother sounded pained.
Deep down, despite the hurt and anger she felt, Lexi knew that her mother had no choice in the matter and that pouting didn't do anyone any good.
They seemed to be at an impasse.
Finally, Lexi relented and she met her mother's gaze.
"You promise to take me this evening?"
"I do."
"And will you buy me ice-cream?" she asked, still sounding a bit begrudged.
"You're already gonna have an ice-cream with Sadie!" her mum reminded her with a grin.
She shrugged; "Can't I have 2? One with her, one with you?"
"You can" she decided, still smiling fondly. "Come here" she added, pulling the girl down to her for a goodbye hug.
"I love you, peanut" her mum said as she pulled away. She pressed a kiss on either cheek before letting go of the girl.
Lexi mumbled, "I love you too, Leguminosae."
Her mum grinned at that. Lexi had always been confused about the nickname peanut and hadn't simply accepted it. So, once she'd quizzed her mum about where a peanut came from. 'Peanut plant' hadn't satisfied her, so then she'd asked which family a peanut came from. When her mum informed her that a peanut came from the Leguminosae family, the reverse nickname was born. It became their special way of addressing each other.
Ruffling her girl's locks, she said "See ya. Have fun, don't fall into the water!"
With a quick thank you to their neighbour, Lexi's mum let herself out.
Silence fell into the room and the girl struggled to contain her tears. She didn't want to go to the pier. She wanted to go to the park with her mum. Just as she'd promised her three weeks ago. Why hadn't she been give the leave? It wasn't fair.
Sadie rushed up towards Lexi, sensing her distress. "Don't be sad. We'll have a great time together!"
She tried not to scoff. Although she knew her friend meant well; she was just trying to cheer her, Sadie couldn't really understand her frustration and sadness. After all, her mum was always at home, not constantly at work.
Lexi immediately felt guilty at her thoughts. Her mum was only doing what was best for the both of them. It wasn't ok for her to hold that against her.
"How about I lend you my shoes? I know you love them!" Sadie interrupted her thoughts.
That helped perk her up a bit. She did love them; they were pink after all!
But as she joined Sadie and Sam for breakfast, she couldn't bring herself to enjoy her oatmeal. She aimlessly pushed the porridge around.
Sam sighed, clearly fed up already with her behaviour, "Lexi, I can't have you moping around like that all day. Would it make you feel any better if we went to the park instead of the pier?"
Lexi looked up.
She supposed it would have to do.
So, she nodded.
Once they arrived, Sam squeezed each of the hands resting in hers. "You girls gonna play hide-and-seek?" she asked cheerfully, stopping by a bench.
Lexi glanced around Sam at Sadie, whose eyes lit up as she asked "Yeah! Do you want to, Lex?"
A smile broke out onto Lexi's lips and she nodded. She loved hide-and-seek.
As Sam let go of their hands and called after them not to wander too far, Lexi shouted, "You count, I'll hide!"
Since she and her mum played it often (and since her mum always found her), she had a lot of practice and was very good at hiding. Sadie would never find her.
As Sadie started to loudly count down from 20, the blonde girl flitted off along the path, not heeding to Sam's plea. She could barely hear her friend's counting anymore as she ducked around bushes and started a diagonal ascent up a little hill that brought her up onto a higher plain of the park.
As she looked around, she frowned. Maybe this move hadn't been a good idea. Apart from the steep dip behind her that led into dense bushes, this plateau had no shelter whatsoever.
There were numerous people on the field. They had blankets spread out and were clearly having picnics.
It was too late to find a different hiding place. Maybe she could simply hang close to a family, pretend to be playing next to them, as if she were their kid. Once Sadie found the plateau, she would never think of checking the obvious for her friend.
Grinning at her idea, Lexi was just about to skip out into the open field, when she spotted a man.
He threw her off because he looked so out of place. He just didn't fit into the picture.
A shiver ran down her spine as she froze to consider him.
The man was standing right in front of her but wasn't facing her; he was facing the right side of the field. He wore closed shoes, dark, dirty-looking jeans and a black hoodie.
Despite the warm weather, his hood was drawn up, shadows hiding his face.
He simply stood motionless, staring, while everyone else enjoyed the splendid day; the people there were laughing and chatting, kids were running around, throwing frisbees and flying kites, adults were eating or reading on blankets.
Before she could shrug it off, he started to lift an arm right out in front of him.
Was that… was that a gun in his hand? Lexi's eyes widened. It was.
Still frozen, she watched him squeeze the trigger. She heard small bang bang bangs and saw people starting to fall to the ground.
She couldn't help it. She screamed at the top of her lungs, the sound piercing through the air, warning everyone of what was happening.
And chaos erupted. Suddenly, people realised and began running away, picnics forgotten, the gun was trained on her and something pushed her backwards, ripping through her.
She gasped as she hit the ground, her insides screaming. Her shoe got stuck on a root at the ledge and she felt that sandal slipping off her foot.
Her body rolled down a couple of metres, her limbs being scraped unrelentingly against the stones and roots poking out of the rough ground, until a gnarly bush firmly hit her back and held her upright on one side, facing the ledge.
She wheezed in shock; one lung felt particularly wet and heavy. Above her, frantic cries and shrieks continued, as did those bang bangs.
Lexi whimpered with each bang and made no move to get up. It wasn't safe to go back out there. And she couldn't retrace her steps through the bushes when her upper body was in such acute pain.
Tears started falling down her face.
"HELP!" she screeched, desperately wanting someone to find her. Anyone but that man.
Black dots started to dance in her vision.
Maybe she was too good at hiding.
But her mum would manage to find her, right?
She was too good.
Too good.
Too.
Lexi drifted in and out of consciousness as if she were riding waves.
The first time she came to, there was perfect silence. Birds were chirping in the vicinity. Breathing was difficult as each breath sent a stabbing pain through her torso.
"Help" she gurgled, something bitter wetting her tongue. Blood.
No one replied.
She should rest, conserve her energy for when someone came back for her. For when Sam told her mum she was missing and her mum came or sent someone looking for her.
Her eyes closed.
But she would only rest. She had to find her mum, she had to tell her how sorry she was for her behaviour this morning. If only she'd just accepted the situation and gone happily to the pier. She had to tell her how much she loved her.
But she slipped right back into oblivion.
"Come on, Matthew, there's no one else here. It's been almost 2 hours! Let's get out of here!" someone said. The voice was so quiet that she almost missed it.
She fought to open her eyes again.
"'M here" she tried to shout. She barely managed to whisper the words as the pain flared up within, like a flame licking her heart.
"Oh" she whimpered as her body convulsed in agony.
"Ben, I'm telling you, something doesn't feel right…" a second voice insisted.
"There!" the same voice shouted loudly barely two seconds later.
Suddenly, an array of footsteps shook the ground above her.
"Oh God!"
Three men were leaning over the ledge, looking down at her, wearing identical expressions of horror.
"Hey there, little girl, we've got you!" the one that had shouted 'there' promised. He had friendly brown eyes and chocolate skin.
"My name is Matt, I'm a paramedic" he added, carefully climbing down into the ditch next to her, pressing two fingers against her carotid.
She smiled weakly.
One of the two men on top of the ledge disappeared from her field of vision.
"My mum?" she asked. Had she sent them?
"We'll find her, sweetie" he promised as he gently lifted her shirt. It tried to stick to her skin.
Matthew turned to his buddy; "Ben, she has a weak pulse and an obvious GSW to the chest. We have to get her out of here ASAP."
"Lift her up; Nick's almost back with the stretcher…"
He turned back to Lexi. "My friends and I will take you to hospital now, ok?"
Lexi smiled again. So it had been her mum that sent them.
"This might hurt, ok? What's your name?"
His arms snaked beneath her knees and shoulders and he stood carefully, cradling her to his chest.
A wave of dizziness descended suddenly on her as the change in position caused blood to start spurting out of her wound.
"Crap! Her position had been slowing the bleeding! She's haemorrhaging heavily!" Matthew said, frantically climbing up the steep hill.
As everything around her spun madly and her brain could no longer process all the swirling colours, she closed her eyes to block out the confusion.
Next thing she knew, something stung her, no; something passed right through her, searing red-hot for a split second, jolting her right back to wakefulness.
Beep. Beep. Beep.
"I have a heartbeat!" a new voice declared relieved.
She sucked in a huge breath of fresh air. Big mistake. Ouch!
The voice kept talking medical garble.
Fear started growing within her. What was going on? What was he saying; opening her up? Why wasn't her mum there yet? They were at hospital already, right?
Lexi, once again, dragged her eyes open, needing answers.
And a pair of green eyes trained on her.
They were so pretty.
"Hold on" the man said to whomever he'd been talking to before crouching closer to her.
"Hello there, my name is Connor" he addressed her, smiling reassuringly. She immediately felt the fear bubbling down again. He looked so kind and strong.
"H-hi, Connor" Lexi wheezed, gazing trustingly up at him.
She somehow knew he would keep her safe until her mum was there.