LAST TIME-
The noise and following sentence that accompanied him into oblivion was something he prayed he would never hear.
A long, unchanging, high-pitched tone.
And.
"Get the defibrillators, she's flat lining!"
IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
It was the second time in six months that she had been to the hospital, both times concerning her best friends. But she assured herself, this time was much more serious. The waiting room wasn't crowded, but there were a couple of people to the far corner. A little boy had a gauze pad across his chest, and Taylor had overheard that a dog had attacked him.
Kelsi was sitting on the couch next to Jason, both teens' heads in their hands. Chad was leaning on the wall next to the double doors that lead outside to the ambulance deck. He would glance over his shoulder once in a while, shifting on the wall. He was nervous, they all were.
Thoughts shot through Taylor's mind as she paced. If only she had gotten to Gabriella's house sooner, if her and Chad had made it in time.
Taylor started to panic as she heard strong sirens, Chad pushing himself off the wall to stand next to her, Jason and Kelsi also joining them. Taylor looked around, nurses and Doctors had started to scamper, getting ready for the new arrivals. She saw two doctors confront each other, clipboards in hand as they went over the needed information.
"No matter what happens," she turned to look into the eyes of each of her friends, "they're going to be fine."
It was in that moment that Taylor McKessie world crashed around her.
The swinging doors to the emergency room burst open, the group of four friends flinching back. The relieved smiles on their faces dropped, however; when Troy was wheeled in on the first stretcher.
He had a breathing mask over his face and an IV in his arm. His right thigh was heavily wrapped, though Taylor could see that it was still bleeding. His shirt was off; his chest wrapped with so many bandages that Taylor could hardly see his skin. There was gauze wrapped around his left forearm as well, along with a tiny gauze pad placed over his right cheek. His blue eyes were half open, though she didn't really think he was conscious.
"BP's 120 over 80," an EMT held an IV drip bag over his head as he walked next to the stretcher.
"What happened?" one of the two doctor rushed over, falling in stride next to the stretcher.
"Troy Bolton, age seventeen. Shallow knife wounds to the right upper thigh, forearm and across the chest," the EMT answered. "He's lost a lot of blood. We need to get a transfusion in him right away."
The first double doors burst open again as Troy vanished through the ER doors, the next stretcher being rolled in. Taylor barely heard Chad's strong curse or Kelsi's choked cry. Her eyes were glued to Gabriella, her friend's body unmoving on the stretcher. Her shirt had been ripped open, her bra showing and in that moment Taylor knew Gabriella had flat lined. The red inflamed marks on her chest made Taylor's eyes water. Her best friend had…died.
"BP's 90 over 30!" It was yelled over the irregular beating of the EKG by another EMT, his voice almost panicked. The second waiting doctor rushed over, her soft brown eyes going wide. Gabriella was sweating, her olive skin clammy. All the color had drained from her once alive face. Her breathing was erratic, Taylor could see by the mask over her fogging up in irregular patterns. An IV was in her arm, but the fluid was nearly gone.
"Gabriella Montez, age seventeen. Stab wounds to the shoulder and lower back," Wes responded, swapping another bloody gauze pad from Gabriella's shoulder. "She's hemorrhaging and flat lined on the way here. We got her back but she's going into hypovolemic shock!" Another doctor rushed over with a new box of sterile gauze. "She's lost 1/5 of her normal blood supply! She's bleeding out!"
"How long has she been unconscious?" the doctor asked opening one of Gabriella's eyelids, flashing a small flashing light to see the pupils.
"Twenty minutes," Wes answered, his eyes soft.
"Get her into surgery now!" The doctor ordered from beside the stretcher. "We need to get the bleeding under control and stabilize her so we can operate!"
They passed through the ER double doors and the waiting room fell silent. Suddenly Taylor felt as if every fiber of her being was soaked with fear and sadness. Her knees turned to water and she collapsed to the ground, Chad wrapping his arms around her shoulders, but being dragged down anyway. She could feel his hot tears on the back of her shoulders, and she watched as hers fell to the white tile of the hospital floor. Chad lifted her to her feet, mumbling small, meaningless encouragements into her ear.
Two people entered through the double doors, and Taylor looked over to see Landon and another cop. She locked eyes with Landon, the police officer's orbs flowing with sympathy, his dark eyes apologizing for not bringing them back in one piece. His dark hair was a mess, almost as if he had been running his hands through it constantly, and there was the faintest hint of his eyes being bloodshot. He had been crying.
"Kyle," he turned to the officer next to him. "Tell me everything that happened."
"Well," Kyle's hands were shaking. "I've been to a lot of crime scenes, Landon, but nothing like this." He took a deep breath. "When we arrived on scene, Ethan Montez was on the ground, a tree branch protruding from his stomach. We had seen Troy dash into the cabin as we drove up, but our first priority was to apprehend Mr. Montez." Landon crossed his arms over his chest, a nervous action. "As soon as Montez saw us, he tried to get away, he ran, but my partner followed and caught up to him. He wasn't going to get very far with a tree branch sticking out of his gut."
"Is he here?" Landon asked, shifting on his feet, "In this hospital?"
"No," Kyle shook his head. "We figure there would be too many…" the cop paused, his eyes searching for the right answer, "…Complications. He was transferred to Cibola General Hospital down the road."
"Probably a smart move," Landon mused. "I don't think Mr. Bolton is going to be too happy when he gets here. And having Mr. Montez in the same hospital, though I wouldn't really care, might be a danger to the sick bastard."
"I agree," Kyle answered, looking out the window.
Though nether of the cops were very old, probably twenty-seven in age, they looked like they had been through hell. When Taylor thought about it, so had she. But she had to give Kyle credit, arriving on scene and keeping his cool, even after seeing Troy and Gabriella, wasn't something just anyone could do. The next part she eavesdropped, however; showed her how human cops are, even if they could be jerks sometimes, things really affected them. Not just anyone could peruse a career in law enforcement. You hade to had to be smart, in shape, and apparently have a strong stomach.
"You ok?" Landon asked, his hand going to rest on his friends shoulder.
Kyle shook his head, "I've just never seen anything like that before." He gave Landon a weak smile, as he calmed his shaking hands, "It just got to me a little."
"How bad was it?" Landon asked, but Kyle just shook his head. "Kyle, you have to explain to me what happened. I need to know."
Kyle closed his eyes and ran his hand over his face, "I heard the boy scream from inside the cabin. It was frantic and I rushed in, but the smell was just so strong, I thought I was going to throw up. The iron scent invaded my nose, and I could almost taste the copper. There was some much blood Landon. It was everywhere. On the walls. The floor." There were tears in his voice. That was wrong. Cops barley ever showed emotion. "I've never seen someone lose so much blood before. She was in hell and yet…."
Taylor wasn't the fainting kind, but the tone and imagery the cop used was too horrible and it made black dots form in front of her vision. It felt like she blinked twice and someone jumped events forward a minute or two, like fast forward.
"And yet what?" Landon asked, coaxing his friend.
"And yet she was conscious when I kneeled down next to her and the boy." The cops eyebrows raised, his voice almost astonished. "I don't know how, but she was. I mean, she should have been unconscious. Hell, she should have been dead. But the boy, Troy," Kyle corrected himself. Troy had a name and it deserved to be spoken. "Was talking to her, pleading, crying, anything to try to keep her awake. She was weak, but she was still conscious, and she reassured him she was going to be fine."
Kyle closed his eyes and shook his head, his hands running through his dark brown hair. "For the four seconds I was there before the paramedics arrived, I realized just how much those two kids really loved each other. And I thought about how unfair it was, that two people who were so madly in love had to go through something like that." He paused, licking his lips and looking past Landon's shoulder. Taylor looked down to the ground when he found her eyes, but he continued anyway. "And this is something I'll never forget. When I looked into his blue eyes, I saw the deepest fear I had ever seen in a human being. I was surprising because he was just a kid, but every single fiber of that boys being was scared to death that he was going to lose her…...forever."
"The whole thing just makes you question whether we're doing any good at all," Landon explained in a sigh.
"Yeah," Kyle nodded his head. "No matter how many bad guys I take down, more always seem to spring up. I don't think I can take seeing anymore innocent kids lives being taken away from them."
We have to be strong, we have to persevere," Landon's hands went to Kyle's shoulders. "Because if we don't do it, who will?"
"Yeah, I guess." Kyle nodded taking a deep breath. "I'm gonna go back to the station, fill out the paperwork for this mess."
"Ok," Landon nodded his head as his friend walked past him. "I'll see you later."
Landon turned to the group of four as Kyle left, "I'm sorry."
Taylor's head jerked back. "Why are you apologizing?"
Landon's eyes turned soft, his voice low, "I didn't get there in time to stop…"
"You got there in time to save them." Taylor spoke, hoping to give the beaten cop and herself hope.
"You brought them back to us." Chad said. "We should be thanking you. Not accepting your apology."
"If that's what you call saving them," Landon glanced over his shoulder to the ER double doors, his jaw tightening.
"You can't believe that," Kelsi stepped forward towards the tall cop. "If you have the slightest bit of doubt, things will go downhill."
Landon's head tilted to the side as he took in the four friends. For kids that were so young, they held wisdom beyond their years. Even thought he could tell they were nervous and scared, they were strong enough to believe everything would turn out fine. It was an attribute most kids lacked nowadays.
"We're their friends. We're their strength," Chad spoke strong, his hand wrapping around Taylor's, "and they need us right now more than ever." The group of four hunkered down and prepared themselves for the long wait.
IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII
Eleven hours later, well into the early hours of a new day, and the four friends were still waiting. This time, they weren't alone. Troy's parents were present, along with Gabriella's guilt ridden mother. She hadn't stopped crying since she had arrived, no matter what Mrs. Bolton tried to do, the tears still flowed.
Chad didn't blame her as he rubbed the back of his neck with his hand. He didn't know how he would have taken the news. She had arrived surprisingly fast, catching the first flight from main, and arriving in record time. But her quick arrival only gave her more time to weep.
Kelsi was asleep on the couch, her head in Jason's lap. He had one hand wrapped around her small one, the other one holding open a magazine. Taylor was sitting in the chair next to where he was standing, her eyes staring at the plain white tile of the waiting room. Her head would shot up whenever she would hear someone coming, but it usually was a receptionist or doctor for another family.
The reason why hospitals were so hated was this. They smelled of death, but looked like heaven. The strong smell of anticipant made Chad's stomach churn, but the brightness of the hallways almost gave him a false sense of hope. Nothing bad could happen in a place so white, in a place so pure. Wrong.
"Family and friends of Troy Bolton and Gabriella Montez?" the question made Chad whip around. He felt everyone else at his back, the anxiety rolling off of the group in waves.
"Yes." Jake Bolton answered, his right hand wrapping around his wife's, his left finding Miss. Montez's. No matter what happened, every single one of them was in this together.
"When Troy arrived," the doctor began, his stormy gray eyes hunkering down for a long explanation. "He had lost a lot of blood, most of it coming from the deep gash in his right thigh. We gave him a blood transfusion and once we got the bleeding under control, he stabilized reasonable fast." The doctor's body language was almost positive, "Besides some nasty looking scars, he's going to be fine."
Chad exhaled and the anxiety in the room lessened. He felt everyone behind his relax, but he looked to the doctor, the explanation was only half over. The moment he found the doctor, his relieved smile dropped. The aged man had that look. Like a veterinarian who was about to tell a little girl that her dog had passed away, Chad hated that look. The dread was building up in his stomach, and Taylor's hand found his. He knew she had noticed.
"When Gabriella arrived she was in a more critical state." the Doctor paused, his eyes softening, "she had already flat lined for two minutes before the paramedics were able to bring her back. She was already going into exsanguination, which basically means she was bleeding out. We couldn't stop the blood flow and she had already lost so much before she arrived. We took the chance and went into surgury before stabalizing her, its was the only way we could save her." The doctor paused as the waiting room fell silent, "She got out of surgery about an hour ago, we finally managed to get the bleeding under control and tie up the wounds, but…"
"But?" Taylor asked, her voice just above a whisper.
The doctor clasped his hands in front of him, "She's slipped into a coma," Chad watched as the doctors jaw clenched, and he understood that the older man hated failing. The doctor's stormy gray eyes burned with disappointment in himself as he continued through the quest sobs from the group. "And I have no idea if she's going to regain conciseness."
Chad's body went numb, one thought crossing his mind.
How the hell was he going to explain this to Troy?
.-.-.- Insert Depressing Music -.-.-.
(Review! I know it kinda sucked. Sorry.)
