CHAPTER 4
As Mike turned the corner, he could see the squad cars that had responded to the situation outside Gracie's. His heart sank and his head swam when he thought that Coop was in there, hurt or worse.
He raced ahead and showed his badge to the uniform who was cordoning off the area. The cop informed him that it was just a B&E robbery gone bad. The perp had shot 2 people in the store before the responding squad cars picked him up. EMT was on its way.
Mike raced inside the store and saw his worst nightmare – Alex lying in a pool of blood on the floor of a supermarket she visited daily. Blindly, Mike ran and cradled her head while checking for a pulse. He was relieved to find a thready one but saw that the gunshot wound to her chest had her bleeding profusely. He tried to stem the bleeding with his jacket, while screaming for the cops to get the EMT quickly. Alex was unconscious. If she were conscious, she could see the irony of becoming a store robbery target after all the misses from homicidal maniacs.
Mike started speaking softly to her, even though she had gone deathly still.
"Coop, the docs will be here in less than a minute. I need you to hang on, ok? You're a tough kid, think of all the rapists and murderers you still have to put behind bars. Think of your parents, Coop. They want you to get married and give them grandkids…" Mike's eyes started blurring as he realized that the life blood of his best friend was seeping through his fingers on to the dirty store floor.
"Coop, you gotta take Logan to the Zoo this weekend, remember? You can't break promises that you make to a 4 year old, you hear? Mercer will never speak with you again." Mike wanted to say things that he realized he didn't have the courage to say to her when she was face to face with him and in a position to retort to. But he knew that anything he said to her now, for himself, for them would only stack up points in the "Mike Chapman is a Wuss" table. Thankfully, he could see the EMTs making their way into the store.
He gently extricated himself so that the paramedics could start their work. He was unable to tear his gaze from the sight of the amount of blood that was now no more a part of Alex. He was sure that he was about to start hyperventilating, but couldn't afford to do so when he was the only one to take care of her.
"Where are you taking her?" Mike asked the paramedic who was loading Alex onto the stretcher.
"Columbia Pres" The paramedic didn't even turn around to answer her as started wheeling her towards the ambulance.
"I'm riding with you." Mike got in after Alex and held onto her hand. The same hand that she had pulled away from him earlier this evening.