Hit & Run

Chapter 2 : Stress

Chris opened her eyes. She was stunned. Groggy. Her ears were stifling. Her head hit the pavement so hard and she could feel the taste of blood in her mouth. She touched her face instinctively and saw blood on her hands. For a while, she was dazed. Half lying on the ground. She took all the strength that was left in her, raised her head and looked around her, slowly remembering and processing what had just happened. And this was when she saw him. He was lying in the middle of the street. Motionless. Lifeless.

And all came back in her mind: the noise, the car, Jim pushing her… She jumped.

"Street, Street… " He wasn't answering. She yelled louder. "Street? Jim?" Still no answer. It became scarier and scarier. Each second passing stressed the hell out of her. She got on all fours with difficulty and crawled till Jim. All was fuzzy and blurry around her. She was staggering, barely holding on her feet, barely moving forwards on her hands and knees. But she needed to get closer and checked on him. When she eventually reached him, his face was crashed on the ground, blood was everywhere. She didn't dare to touch him. Paying all the attention she could, she put her hand over his back, and shook him with care.

"Jim? Jim? Jim? Are you here? Jiiiiim, answer me, please answer me! Wake up, please wake up!" She screamed, all crying. Tears were rolling down her cheeks, mixing with her blood. Uncontrollable.

He was still. Not a move. Chris panicked even more. She felt more tears coming from her eyes, she couldn't control her emotions right now. "Please, Jim, tell something, tell me I'm too quiet, too complicated, too annoying, tell me I broke you after I pushed you away after that kiss, yell at me, just tell me something."

Deac joined the scene some minutes later. As soon as he saw Chris knelt next to Jim in the middle of the street, he ran to her, to them. "Chris! What happened?" He grabbed his talkie to call an EMT. "26- David is wounded and unconscious. 24-David has an head injury. Call an EMT immediately, it's urgent!"

He turned to Chris, still knelt next to Street. "Chris, please focus and tell what had happened. Don't worry an EMT is on its way."

She kept screaming at Street to wake up, to tell something, to forgive her. She was crying more and more. She was in a daze. Completely disconnected from reality. Totally in shock. Deac knelt near her and embraced her strongly. She eventually fell against his body as a small broken thing.

"Now Chris, please calm down and tell me what had happened. We need to tell everything to the paramedics when they'll arrive."

"He… Karlsson… He hit and ran him. He … came from nowhere… In a big red car… And then I hit my head on the ground and Jim… Oh my God, I killed him."

She cried harder. Deac hugged her hardly, repeating she had nothing to do in this. That it was Karlsson's fault, that he was the one hitting Jim. "But he was coming after me... Jim pushed me on the side of the road and he had no time to escape…"

The sirens of the EMT were coming closer. The sound of the explosion must have warned the neighbors who had called 911. It was a good thing. Jim was huddled, seriously injured. Deac let go of Chris as soon as he saw the EMT coming close. He brought the paramedics to Jim. Chris was already back next to him, asking for forgiveness.

"I… We… He…" He came closer and took her in her arms.

"Calm down, Chris. I'm here, right with you. Everything's gonna be ok."

Tan ran to Street to check on him. He was panicked, Deac could see it in his eyes. Hondo and Luca came with the Black Betty and found out the current situation. Deac nodded strongly at them. Trying to restrain Chris who wanted to remain next to Street.

"Chris, let the paramedics do their job."

"But I's my fault if he's there…I was the target. You've seen all the pics of me in the house. I was the person this man in the car wanted to kill and instead, Street pushed me and he's the victim of a hit and run while it should have been me on the ground. He saved me and now he's in a pretty bad shape. Just let me…"

She managed to escape from Deac's arms and came closer to Jim. Still crying loudly. She knelt near to his feet to let the paramedics do their jobs. Because right now they were the only thing that separated Jim from the dead world.

"Please don't leave me." She whispered. "Please, Jim… I know I screwed up… But not like this… Not now…"

As she was about to touch his feet, another paramedic pushed her. "Please Madam, stay away. Let us do our job to save your friend." The other was starting a cardiac massage.

"Give me the AED, he's on cardiac arrest!" One of the paramedics screamed at the third one. Chris was frozen. Isolated in front of all her teammates and friends assisting to the scene, as useless as she was. "3,2,1, shock!"

"Not responding. I shock him again."

Chris couldn't stop crying and moaning. All the team was paralyzed by what was happening under their eyes. One of their own was fighting for his life. And right now it was not good.

"I've got a rhythm! We need to go at the hospital, and fast, he may not hold on."

Chris got up, as fragile as she was. Staggering and shaking. She ran to the EMT. "Let me go with you."

"Right, get at the back of the truck but we need to hurry." She nodded, got up in the EMT, next to Jim, held his hand and wiped her tears with her sleeve. She looked at her colleagues and friends one last time before the doors of the EMT closed and the sirens yelled throughout the Los Angeles streets to bring Jim as quickly as possible to the hospital.

[…]

She didn't remember well what happened when they arrived at the hospital. She was pushed away. She was brought to the ER to clean and treat her head injury. She reminded of being taken to the X-ray room to make some images of her head. She heard the words "commotion", "headache", "insomnia" and "nausea" spreading around her. But she was not here. Her mind was not at the hospital. It was still in the middle of the street with Jim.

She grabbed the paper that the doctor gave her. "You're lucky, Mrs. Alonso, it could have been worse, you know."

"Got a strong head, doc." And she vanished in the corridor. She needed to hide in a corner, to cut herself from the world, to remain alone and to cry because she felt like the urge to do so. She found herself a storehouse at the end of a corridor. She didn't know where she was. To be fair, she had been wandering in every corner of the hospital since the doctor released her, just hoping seeing anyone.

She opened the door. By chance, it was not locked. She quickly closed the door behind her and hid in a nook and cranny. She sat on the ground, taking her knees against her chest and cried. She needed to let all this negative energy go away. Jim was somewhere in this hospital, fighting for his life because she had been unable to protect her own by herself. She was guilty of what was happening. She was the cause her best friend was in the OR.

She cried. Silently. On her long. How long? She didn't know. She eventually swiped her tears with the paper toilet just next to her, she used more to wipe her nose. She did her hair quickly and came out of her hideout. She couldn't hide anymore. The others must have been looking for her for a long time now. As she went back to the ER level, she saw them in the far away. It was time to be strong and not crack up. She will take care of this later when she will be alone in her bed.

Tan saw her first. "Hey Chris! Are you ok?! What did the doctor say?" Saying this, he caused Hondo, Deac and Luca to come closer and hug her.

"I'm fine, I'm fine." She wanted to stop there but she felt their quizzical looks all over her. "Just a commotion. It should be gone in a few days. Told you, I'm fine, guys."

"That's great news and you rest for the next three days. We can finish our shift without you and …"

Hondo couldn't end his sentence. "And Street." Chris concluded blankly.

"Anyone has news?" Luca asked innocently for Chris to talk. She could feel once again the heavy looks on her.

"No." She answered coldly. "We've been separated when we arrived here. The doctors took him in the trauma room and I was taken care in the ER… Just got out of it."

Luca understood he had been too harsh on this one. Chris let them and went to sit in the waiting room, on her own. Isolated. Tan, Luca, Hondo and Deac shared a look. They knew there was nothing to do when she was like this. Just wait for her to come out of her cocoon. Deac nodded and went to sit next to her, in silence.

"I'm going to the nurse station, asking if they have any news."

"Good Luca. Tan, could you call Molly for her to know what's happening. Hicks is on his way here and we need to debrief."

"On my way, Hondo."

[…]

Hondo and Hicks talked for hours. Hours they all spent in the waiting room expecting to hear any good news from the OR. Chris looked closely at the clock on the wall, secretly hoping time ran out and Street miraculously reappeared on his feet in the waiting room asking what they were all doing here, making fun of them.

"You Ok, Chris?" Deac asked as she put her feet on the chair and nestled her head over her knees. She didn't have the strength to answer. She just sighed. Deac knew he wouldn't get anything else and kept scrolling his phone, answering Annie's messages.

Two other hours passed and still no doctor to give them updates. A nurse came from time to time to tell them Jim was still in surgery. The others took a nap while waiting. They had nothing else to do anyway. But she was unable to close her eyes. She needed to stay lively in case someone came with news about Jim.

Tan woke up and raised his head. He saw she was still wide awake. He dropped a kiss on Bonnie's head who came to join them a few hours earlier and walked to Chris.

"I'm thirsty. You come with me?"

"No, thanks. I'd rather stay… You know just in case…"

"Chris, if you're away for a few minutes, it won't change something. And you should drink something. You look awful."

"Shut up!" She smiled slightly and stood up. They walked to the vending machine. Tan chose her favorite soda and handed a Coca Cola to Chris. She nodded to thank him. He was right. She felt better just by moving a little. Her feeling of well-being disappeared quickly as she saw Molly appear at the end of the corridor.

"Oh Chris, Victor. Glad you're here. What happened?! Just got your phone call, I was in court all day and had left my phone in the office."

Chris swallowed hard. She had to tell this story again. One time was enough, she didn't want to relive this nightmare again. Tan turned to her and noticed her anxiety. He put his hand on her shoulder and nodded to her with a little smile.

"Jim was hit by a car this afternoon while we were on a mission. He's in surgery for…" He stopped and looked at his watch. "For 5 hours now. And we have no idea what's going on…"

Molly remained speechless for a while. Shared between terror and anxiety. After some minutes, she managed to pronounce some words. "But why was he hit? What was he doing there?"

Tan could feel Chris stressing near him. Before Molly saw it, he started talking again. "We were on a mission and a car popped from nowhere…. Our job is risky… There are risks, we all know this… We'd have preferred it won't apply to one of us today."

It was Molly's turn to swallow hard. She was worried. Chris, as annoyed as she was at this moment without really knowing why, came closer to her and hugged her. The poor, she was as in a bad place as anyone of them and she needed support. They walked till the waiting room where Hicks was already there. He stood up showing his daughter and came to embrace her.

Tan rubbed Chris's arms before going back to Bonnie who opened her eyes as he sat next to her. She came back to her chair and waited. Alone. As she used to be.

Three hours later, the surgeon entered the waiting room. Chris jumped from her chair.

"Is he ok?" She was scared of what the doctor was gonna to tell her, to tell them.

The others heard her and woke up one after another. Soon they were all up, ready to hear the doctor's conclusion. Deac stood behind Chris just in case, Luca came by her side. They knew she will need support in case… They'd rather not think about this option and hope the surgeon was bringing good news.

"Not gonna lie, it had been a complicated surgery. Mr. Street suffered from an internal bleeding we could stop, and from a pneumotorax after one of his lung collapsed. He also the two fractures, each at one leg and a couple of broken ribs."

"Is he awake? Can we see him?" Molly asked full of hope.

"First, he's out of surgery. Just transferred in the ICU. Only two people. One after the other. No more than 5 minutes. He needs to rest but I remain really cautious about his condition. He's in critical condition. Don't want to be pessimistic but I don't know if he could make it through the night."

The last line let them all in cold awe. They were in the middle of a terrible nightmare and they were about to wake up. Hondo spoke first. "Molly and Chris, you should go and see him. He's gonna need you both."

The two women nodded, swiping the tears that couldn't stop rolling from their eyes and followed the surgeon till Jim's room.