CHAPTER 12

I cannot believe how much I enjoyed writing this chapter today! I had a blast during the whole day and I'm really happy with the result. I hope I was able to convey all the emotions going through the characters, specially Danny since he's the one who has to deal with the outcome of the last episode…

I can't wait to hear what you guys think about it!

Enjoy!

- Where are you right now? – Danny asked.

- I'm studying with a friend on the garden right outside the main entrance – he heard her say, clearly still in character.

- The guys are on the way, but you need to get him to leave with you so we can take him outside, not here.

- I'll do my best – she answered shortly.

- Be careful – he added, not even sure if she was still on the line or not. Normally he would have complained by how much his phone hated him by not responding to his command of finishing the call; after all, he was still at war with technology itself, but today he was glad he could hear what was going down on the other side of the line. He had heard Annabeth's surprised expression of 'what the hell' and, at first, he thought she might still be talking to him; but then he heard Keoki's voice and what he was saying made the hairs at the back of his head stand on end.

- You're gonna do the same thing she did to me!? – what was he talking about?

- Listen to me – came Annabeth's urgent voice and that was all it took to get him to stand up from his desk chair and start a light pace behind it – I don't know what you're talking about. I swear...

- Annabeth! What's going on? – he asked with concern. He couldn't decide if interfering now would be wise or not, but what he heard next made him sprint into a run.

- You do sound just like her – Bang! He heard the shot and immediately fetched his gun from the top drawer of the desk. His office was located pretty far away from the main entrance, which is where Annabeth had said she was, and the closer he got, the more screams he heard coming from the outside. Specially since another shot had been fired. He couldn't pray enough that his legs moved faster because Annabeth, for as much as she was a badass formerly teenage spy, was still weaponless against a guy with a gun. Any number of things could go wrong and if she didn't get cover with enough time to put some distance between herself and the gun, he didn't even want to imagine what could happen.

He didn't bother to keep paying attention to the phone because he was pretty sure she must have dropped it; the voices sounded farther away and harder to hear since the first shot had been fired and so he just put it inside his pocket while he kept running. Getting closer to the main gate, he could see a wave of students running to take cover from what was currently happening outside and he really hoped none of them had gotten hurt. He couldn't help but notice that he was doing a lot of hoping and not enough doing to ensure the things he wanted, namely, finishing the shootout without anyone getting hurt or killed.

He should have known better.

The third shot rang the moment he stepped through the doors and he didn't even waste a second glancing around to pinpoint Annabeth's location because she and Keoki were the only ones left on the garden. What he saw though, made his blood freeze.

- Hey! Five-0! Drop your weapon! – he saw the guy look up from where he was hovering above Annabeth and Danny's heart did a summersault because she was sprawled on the floor, barely moving. When Keoki stood up to face him, he gave him one last warning – I said drop it! – he yelled, but he had no other choice than to fire his own weapon when he saw Keoki aiming his gun at him. Three consecutive shots center mass and the guy was dead. He finished running all the way to him and kicked the gun away from the guy's limp hands, bending down and checking for a pulse. When he found none, he crawled the rest of the way to where Annabeth was laying and his heart stopped completely.

- Anna – he said in a tight voice. What he saw in front of him made him dizzy and nauseated but he couldn't let panic take a hold of him now. There was a mess of blood on Annabeth's middle section and the rise and fall of her chest indicated that her breathing was irregular; the wheezing sound letting him know that she wasn't getting enough air and the small moans scaping her lips making it clear that she was in pain.

- Danny – she said laboriously, bringing her own hands towards her stomach and covering them in blood.

- Alright. Alright – he said urgently, trying, ineffectively, to calm himself while running his hands through his hair. He fished his phone out of his pocket where he had stored it away and managed to call 911. He didn't bother with identifying himself because just by looking at how distressed Annabeth seemed and the amount of blood seeping from the wound on her stomach, he knew they didn't have much time – I need an ambulance now. There's an officer down. GSW to the stomach. She's losing a lot of blood! – he gave the emergency operator the address to their location and then just dropped his phone on the floor without even ending the call. He needed to do something now to try and stop the bleeding; maybe buy the paramedics some time to get there. He ripped open his shirt, not caring that the buttons went flying in every direction and stayed wearing only his white t-shirt. He crushed the fabric into a ball and then pressed it down on her wound.

- Argh! – Annabeth complained and he rushed his words to try and comfort her.

- I know. I know. I'm sorry. I gotta stop the bleeding. I'm sorry – he said when he had to press down harder because blood continued to run around the edges of his shirt and his hands were starting to get tainted as well.

- Danny... I... – she coughed with the effort of talking and a new wave of pain hit her with enough vengeance to make her scrunch her eyes shut in pain. When the agony from contracting her abdominal muscles due to the coughing subsided just a bit, she opened her eyes and focused on Danny again – Danny... I don't... Not now... I...

- Shh, shh – he soothed – don't speak now, save your strength – but she shook her head, wanting to get whatever she was trying to say out.

- Not now – she repeated and for the life of him, he couldn't understand what she wanted to say.

- Listen, paramedics are on their way just hang on – Danny was starting to sweat under the stress of the situation and that combined with all the blood soaking through the shirt made his hands even more slippery. Even so, he felt Annabeth's hands weakly reaching for one of his own and so, keeping the pressure over the wound with his right hand, he clasped hers with his left one.

- Steve... Tell Steve... – but she didn't get to finish. After a couple of coughs her eyelids grew too heavy and she lost consciousness.

- No. Annabeth! Wake up! Tell Steve what, ah? Hey! – he let go of her limp hand and gently tapped her cheek but he didn't get any response – come on! Wake up! Wake up... – he could finally…finally… hear sirens in the distance and he knew that help had arrived. The screeching of tires told him that the paramedics must be already on their way to them and, sure enough, he was soon instructed to step behind to let the pair do their job. He didn't want to. God he wanted to stay right by her side, but he knew he'd only be getting in the way. He absentmindedly wiped his hands on his white t-shirt, leaving a trail of blood on it, but he didn't even notice; his eyes totally focused on how the paramedics worked on keeping his friend alive.

He saw them start an IV with fluids on her left arm and place an oxygen mask over her face. Even then, one of the paramedics was complaining about the low levels of oxygen. He kept saying that if her levels didn't come up, then they would have to intubate her on site. Danny just knew that all that talk was scaring the shit out of him. It wasn't even five minutes and the guys had strapped Annabeth to a portable stretcher to wheel her towards the ambulance.

- Are you coming with us? – one of the paramedics asked him hurriedly. He eyed the interior of the ambulance where the other paramedic continued to keep a tab on her vitals readings and then glanced back at Keoki's dead body a few paces away. He knew he should let them leave and stay behind to protect the scene, especially since there wasn't any other law enforcement officer nearby but as the paramedic shouted the question again, making it clear that they needed to leave now, he made a decision.

- Give me one sec – and he ran back towards the dead body, picking up the fallen weapon and then running to climb into the back of the ambulance. Given the circumstances, he was fine with leaving a dead body in the middle of college grounds but he couldn't leave a gun freely waiting for someone else to pick it up. He knew that HPD wouldn't be far behind and they could handle the scene; not to mention 5.0, who had been already on their way. For being the first time Steve wanted to play something by the book and without causing as much ruckus as he was used to, he was in for a surprise.

Speaking of his partner, he better call him now to let him know what had happened. Danny couldn't help thinking that it would be better if the team headed for the hospital instead of the crime scene. There was nothing much they could do there and, right now, he feared even the ambulance wouldn't get to the hospital in time.

Pff! Was this a stressful chapter to write! I couldn't help but feel for Danny… the poor guy had to handle everything on his own… and what was Annabeth trying to say to him? What did she want him to tell Steve?

I hope you liked the fact that this chapter was a bit longer than the previous two and I can assure you that next chapter will be even longer. I've already started writing it and it's coming along real nice… I can't wait to post it, which should be sometime tomorrow afternoon.

So… any comments? Please leave a review and let me know your thoughts! What do you think will happen next?