"Help me!" he tried to yell, but the words weren't coming out right. His tongue wouldn't move and his jaw felt heavy.

He tried to survey his surroundings, but the entire left side of the room had gone completely black- including the spot where the sound of his partner's voice was echoing from.

"Carlton," she said, loudly, the top of her head floating into his vision. He tried to turn his head more to see her, but he felt tied to the ground. His brain was telling his head to move. He knew it was. But the movement wasn't happening. He was completely stuck, the pain behind his eye radiating throughout his entire skull.

Something is wrong. His brain told him.

You need help! It shouted. All rational thought flooded out of him in an instant, and in that moment, all he could feel was fear.

You're going to die! His brain screamed in terror.

"Carlton, I need you to squeeze my hands," she said loudly. He could feel her fingers resting in the middle of his right palm, but there was nothing in his left hand. "Can you squeeze them?"

Squeeze, his brain told his hands. His right hand tightened around O'Hara's fingers. He could feel it. He felt her fingers in his fist. Squeeze! He focused hard, but he couldn't make his left hand comply. He couldn't feel it. He didn't know what was happening to it. Maybe it was squeezing- he couldn't even tell.

"Good job, Carlton," Juliet said. He felt her fingers resting on his wrist.

He managed to get his head to turn enough that he could see Juliet's eyes staring intensely down at him.

"I can't feel you," he said. He studied Juliet's face. She stared at him blankly before nodding slowly and turning to look up at the man standing on his left side holding a phone.

"Juliet!" he tried again.

"It's okay, Carlton," he heard her say. He felt her put a hand on his shoulder. "Don't speak. We're gonna get you help. It's gonna be okay." She spoke slowly, deliberately. Like she was talking to a child.

But the wrinkling of her forehead gave her away. He knew her face too well, and every expression she made. And at that moment, the lines creasing her face with concern and a little bit of terror told him something was very, very wrong.

"Where are the damn paramedics?" his partner demanded, looking down at him and back up to the man holding the phone.

"They said they're five minutes away."

Carlton stared intensely at the man holding the phone. He was wringing his finger around the coiled cord and gazing wide-eyed back at Carlton.

"Juliet!" He tried to get her attention again. "What's wrong wi-"

"Carlton, it's okay," she looked intently into his eyes with her hand on his shoulder to keep him from jumping up again. "I can't understand you, but the paramedics are on their way and we are going to get you the help you need, okay?"

You can't understand me? What the hell does that mean? Get it together, O'Hara!

Carlton tried to look around, but moving his head caused a searing pain to radiate through his brain. From what he could see, which wasn't a lot, all eyes were on him. The colors in the room ran together and the whole room felt fuzzy. The pain was getting worse. He felt his eyes start to drift closed despite him willing them to stay open.

"Carlton!" He was brought back to reality by his partner tapping on his shoulder and shouting loudly. "Carlton, I need you to stay with me, okay? Open your eyes, Carlton! The paramedics are almost here."

Right on cue, the door to the gas station swung open and three men ran in pushing a stretcher.

His partner started filling them in on what had happened, and what she had done.

"Okay, Carlton," one of the paramedics said, crouching down into a squat in front of him. "My name is Kent. My partner Mike is going to help you sit up, okay?"

He nodded slowly and felt himself be lifted to a sitting position. The blurry room started to reorient itself around him.

"Okay, Carlton," Kent said, "Now I'm going to ask you to smile, like this," he pulled his cheeks into an obnoxious grin.

Can I smile? What kind of stupid question is that?

He willed his face into a smile. But his smile quickly faded when he saw his partner's face. Her forehead wrinkled with concern all over again and she looked over to the paramedics for reassurance.

"Good job, Carlton," was all he got in response. "Now I'm going to lift your hands up and I want you to close your eyes and hold them there. Can you hold them in place, like this?" Again, the paramedic lifted his own hands to demonstrate before lifting up Carltons.

"Okay, now close your eyes and hold up your hands."

Carlton shut his eyes and let the paramedic bring his hands in front of him. He held them out for a second, but he could feel them getting heavier by the second.

"Okay, thank you."

Carlton opened his eyes before dropping his hands. His left hand was distinctly lower than his right and both hands had started tingling. What is happening?

The room blurred together into one solid light and the noises began to fade into a subtle rumble in the background. He closed his eyes to bring everything back into focus, but when he opened them again, the colors and lights started spinning faster and faster and faster.

"O'Hara?" he tried to call out, but his mouth felt too heavy. He couldn't do it. He couldn't form the words. A wave of nausea ran over him and he attempted to lean forward before his breakfast spilled out onto the floor next to him.

He held his eyes closed as tightly as he could to keep the room from spinning more and tried to breathe as voices echoed around him. He felt himself lifted onto a stretcher. The movement from the ground sent his stomach on a roller coaster and he coughed to get the rest of his breakfast out.

The echoes got quieter.

Through the echoes, a small voice started calling to him. "Daddy, come pick me up!"

Lily.

"Daddy come play with me!"

You're dying.

"Daddy play horsey with me!"

You can't die.

"Daddy come-"

And then, even her precious voice was gone.

Silence.

Darkness.

One more voice reached through the void. His anchor. If he could only reach it.

His partner.

"Carlton, it's going to be…"

But her voice quickly faded away too, drowned out by the pain searing the back of his eyes.

Come back.

Don't go.

It's too dark.