Holding onto Grace
Chapter 2:-
"Hey Steve, want to come get some breakfast with me?" Danny asked. "I'm buying"
"Ah, sorry man I'll have to take a rain check on that breakfast" Steve replied.
"Why, you got something better to do?" Danny asked in disappointment.
"Kind of" Steve replied. "I was about to call you; we've got a case"
"Alright" said Danny. "Where are we going?" he asked.
Steve paused for a second and looked at April; hesitating to tell his friend where they were going.
"Steve, are you still there?" Danny asked.
"Yeah, yeah I'm here" Steve replied. "Listen Danny, I don't want to alarm you but…"
"But what?" Danny asked; nervous to what Steve might say.
"But we need to go to Grace's school" Steve replied.
"A car collided with about ten kids in the school's car park and…"
Steve was cut off when Danny hung up on him, in a rush to get to his daughters school. He just had to know if Grace was okay.
Speeding down the highway, in desperate attempt to get to Grace's school as fast as he could, he kept trying to get Rachel on the phone. He tried a total of three times and, all three times it went straight to voicemail. In frustration, he hit his steering wheel, now fearing the worst. Getting no luck on getting a hold of Rachel, he decided to call his sister. He quickly dialed her number, praying she would pick up. Within four rings, April answered the phone.
"Danny, hey" April answered.
"Hey April, where are you right now?" Danny asked desperately.
"I'm on my way to Grace's school" April replied. "I'm right behind Steve, I ran into him at the beach"
"I take it that you know what's going?" Danny asked.
"Yeah" April replied.
"So far all I know is that an out of control car collided with ten kids; I wish I could tell you more"
"Alright" Danny replied. "I'll see you in a couple of minutes"
"Okay" said April. "And Danny?" she asked.
"What?" Danny asked.
"Please, please be careful" April replied.
"We don't know yet if Grace was one of the kids who got hit by the car"
April then hears the disconnection tone.
"Danny, you there?" April asked. "Danny?"
"Damn it!" April yelled as whacked both of her hands on her steering wheel.
Ten minutes later, Steve pulled up in the school's car park, with April not too far behind. Climbing out of their cars, Steve and April saw that Chin and Kono had already arrived. They tried to get a read on their facial expressions, hoping it would give them some indication of Grace's wellbeing.
"Chin! Kono!" Steve yelled to get their attention.
Hearing Steve's voice, Chin and Kono turned around to locate Steve. Once they had turned around, they almost immediately spotted Steve and April running closely behind him. April's heart sunk, when she saw the looks on their faces; she could tell that something was terribly wrong.
"Where's Grace?" April yelled as she ran towards them. "Please tell me she's okay?"
Neither Chin nor Kono needed to say anything for April to get her answer.
"Where is she?" April asked desperately.
"Um, she's over there" Kono replied, with panic and fear in her voice, pointing to where Rachel was standing.
Without even thinking about it, April ran around Chin and Kono and ran over to wear two paramedics and a doctor were treating Grace. As April got closer, she could see that Rachel was a complete mess; watching your daughter get hit by a car, is something no parent should ever have to witness.
Watching April run over to Grace, Kono placed her right hand through her hair.
"How bad is Grace injured?" Steve asked.
"We don't know" Chin replied. "Hey, where's Danny?" he asked.
"Ah, he's on his way now" Steve replied.
"Does he know about Grace?" Kono asked.
"No, no he doesn't" Steve replied.
"And that's probably why he hasn't wrapped himself around a power pole yet"
"You spoke to him?" Kono asked.
"Yeah, he just happened to call me after I got the call from the governor" Steve replied.
"We didn't exactly finish our conversation"
Meanwhile, over by the school building, April finally reached Grace and Rachel.
"April!" Rachel yelled.
"Rachel" April said as she stopped in front of Rachel. "Rachel how is she?" she asked, desperate to get answers.
"I…I don't know" Rachel replied, sobbing. "The…they won't tell me what's going on"
"Alright" April replied. "Are you okay?" she asked.
"Yes, yes I'm fine" Rachel replied.
"Okay good" said April. "Now where's Charles?" she asked.
"I…I…I put him in the car, right after it happened" Rachel replied. April could see she was physically shaking from the shock.
"Alright you need to go and check on him" April instructed.
"But I need to stay here, wi…with Grace" said Rachel.
"I know" said April. "But you make sure he's okay; and while you do that, I'll get you some answers, okay"
April gave Rachel a quick hug before she went to check on Charles.
"Everything's going to okay Rachel" said April, trying to reassure Rachel.
"Okay guys, I need me info" said April, as she kneeled down putting her gloves on.
Over by the wall where the car came to an abrupt stop, Max was examining the man's body in the front seat.
"Hey Max, what've you got?" Steve yelled as he, Kono and Chin ran over to him.
"Well, firstly the victim is a thirty year old male, however I could not find any identification on him, or in the car" Max replied.
"Okay, what else?" asked Kono.
"Secondly, his injuries, he obtained them post-mortem" Max replied.
"Wait a second" said Steve. "Are you saying he was dead before the accident?" he asked.
"Yes" Max replied.
"Then what's the COD Max?" Chin asked.
"At this stage I am unable to tell you" Max replied. "I will have to examine him further back at the lab"
"Looks like someone was trying to cover up something" Kono stated.
"Yeah, and in the process injured ten innocent kids" Chin added.
Not even a minute later, Steve, Chin, Kono and Max saw Danny's car pull up. He had barely turned off the engine when quickly emerged from the car. His face had fear written all over it. Danny sees Rachel holding the baby by the car; he could see she was in state of panic.
"Rachel, Rachel!" Danny yelled.
"Danny, it was awful, the car…" said Rachel, holding back tears.
"Where's Grace?" Danny asked, needing to know if his daughter was okay. "Is she okay?"
Rachel didn't know how she was going to explain what happened to Danny.
"Danny, the car…the car hit her" Rachel replied.
Rachel then saw Danny's face go white.
"Okay Rachel, I need you to tell me where she is" Danny asked. "Just where is she?" he asked again.
"She's over there" said Rachel as pointed to where Grace was. "April's with her too"
Danny didn't say anything else, he just ran over to where his daughter was laying, getting treated by April and three strangers. Rachel followed him, but walked because she was holding Charles.
Steve saw him running in the direction of Grace. To avoid Danny from doing anything stupid, Steve ran over to try and stop him.
"Grace!" Danny yelled. "Grace!" he yelled again before being stopped in his tracks by Steve.
"Danny!" said Steve as he grabbed Danny's right arm.
"Steve, what are you doing? That's my daughter!" Danny yelled.
"I know" said Steve.
"And I know you want to be with her right now, but you need to stay out of the way while they help her"
"Look, Steve I need to know how my daughter is, okay" said Danny.
"So let go of my arm so I can go and do that"
Steve then saw Danny's eyes begin to well up, which left him no choice but to let go of his friend's arm.
As soon as Steve let go of Danny's arm, he continued to run over to where Grace was. When he reached where his daughter was, he saw that she had an oxygen mask covering her face and other medical equipment.
"April what's going on? Is she going to be okay?" Danny asked.
"One question at a time please, Danny" April replied.
"What's going on?" Danny asked.
Just as Danny finished asking what was going on, an alarm began to go off.
"April! What's going on?" Danny asked desperately.
"Okay, her BP is 70 over 50" April stated.
"Is that good or bad?" Danny asked as his panic levels began to rise.
"That's very bad Danny" April replied.
"She's bleeding internally" said the female doctor, Emma. "We need to get her out of here, now!" she yelled.