Disclaimer; so I forgot to mention before the first chapter, but I plan to add a fair bit of humour (or attempts at humour) into this story, because it does get intense and I want to try to balance that at least a little with some funny lines here and there. Once that I have in mind is actually from a very popular show, and if they can make a woman getting hit by a car her bus was driving funny, then maybe I can try with this lol! Also this chapter is where the actual medical stuff starts to happen and I was pretty nervous writing it since the story is in New York, so the procedures are all United States-based and I'm in Canada, but thankfully I found the perfect wikipedia to help me out haha. Regardless, I'm not going to beat myself up if this story isn't 100% medically accurate to real life, Grey's Anatomy isn't I'm pretty sure and they're a major television show. Anyway, enjoy this next chapter! I'm going on a 6 hour car ride on Monday so hopefully I can get some more chapters in by Monday night (or Tuesday). Also please review if it's not too much trouble! Encouragement and critiques fuel the fire!

- TwilightzoneGoddess

Chapter 2 - Emergency

Josée couldn't hear her own scream; the blood-chilling sound unable to be registered because her senses were overpowered by the fear and shock, the utter disbelief of what was happening. One moment Jacques was fumbling away from her - the next he was on the floor; not twitching, or convulsing, just limp. Josée fell to her knees beside him, hoping that her brain would come up with a helpful action to do in the moment - turning his body to the recovery position, use her phone's flashlight to see if his eyes respond to stimuli, or even just sticking her fingers to his neck to check for a pulse. Nothing, she couldn't function. Not that she's the most helpful in a regular emergency, but this was the one man she'd go to the ends of the earth for, and yet all she could manage to do was hold his head and wail. Jacques had fainted before, but never as dramatic as this (and Jacques was a pretty dramatic guy). Josée was so enthralled in her own fear that she didn't notice Don stepping in.

"Somebody grab an AED!" He yelled; followed by "the networks not going to be happy about this" under his breath. He then took out his cell and called 911.

"Hi, we're at the Marriott in Manhattan, a man collapsed." He paused to hear the operator's feedback. "23 I think, maybe 24 years…I don't know, I didn't see what happened, I talked to him a few minutes before it happened, he was really pale and in a daze almost…No, no medical conditions as far as I know." With the operator still on the line, he was finally able to talk off the phone. "Someone go to the front doors to meet the paramedics! Does anyone know CPR?" He gestured to the Geniuses who were apart of the mob the rest of the cast had made around the commotion. "Mary, Eulogy, you two are smart, you gotta know CPR!" Before either could speak, Dwayne answered.

"I got it Don! I've been certified since Junior was born!" He began chest compressions on Jacques, pushing Josée out of the way. "Stay with us Jacques! Don ask when that ambulance will get here!" He didn't have to answer this as thankfully, the ambulances in NYC are the only cars that don't get stuck in the city's famous traffic. Soon Tom and Jen came in ushering two paramedics, they quickly went to work.

"Thanks sir, we'll take it from here." One of the medics stated to Dwayne as he motioned for him to get out of the way. "I'm going to need everyone to back up here, and who here made the call?" He asked. Then Don got up close again so he could properly answer the EMT.

"I did."

"You said he collapses, did he hit his head at all when he fell?"

"No, not that I saw."

"Are you a family member?"

"No, w-we're doing a reality show, I'm the host, he's one of the contestants." He then pointed at Josée. "She's the only one here who's remotely close to him."

"I'm afraid there's no room for her to ride in the ambula—" Josée spoke up for the first time since the drama started.

"NON! I cannot leave him, I must go with him!" Don tried to calm her down. "It's alright, we'll follow them in a taxi and make sure we'll stay right behind them until we get to the hospital. And all the other teams will follow behind us.

Then from the group Chet spoke, "hey how come we gotta go too Don?"

"Not time for explaining right now, just everyone go outside, find a cab, and I'll let you all know which hospital we end up at!"

Though the quarrel between Don and Chet was a bit distracting, the paramedics were able to timely place Jacques on a gurney and get an oxygen mask on his face. "We gotta go now, he's barely got a pulse." This statement caused Josée some brief hysterics as she and Don swiftly followed them out the hotel. Luckily many taxis were parked out front waiting for passengers, allowing Don and Josée to rush into the one immediate behind the ambulance. As they followed to the hospital, Don made sure to take care of some important phone calls: calling the show's producers of insurance purposes, as well as so a mass email can be sent out asap to the rest of the cast with the address of the hospital and the reasoning why its mandatory that they go as well; long story short, if anything happens, they're all already at a hospital, because young athletic guys don't just collapse, until it's confirmed whether he's dead or not, everyone else has to stay in the same place where Don is to prevent further liability (the network can't take two deaths in one season). Next was the more unfortunate of the two: calling his family.

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Jacques' mother Amélie was finishing up the dishes from breakfast. Although her and her husband Jean weren't particularly proud of their son's actions on the show (in fact they were downright mortified at some parts), all the same they were excited to see their only son again and especially after so long. Approximately a year ago, he left for a competition in Sweden, of which he caught a nasty flu (and poor Amélie was so sad she couldn't be there for her bébé while he was sick), and then it was off to Toronto for the start of the race. However, unbeknownst to her, she'd be seeing her son sooner than she anticipated.

Jacques' father walked in with the newspaper and sat down at the island to finish it off.

"Jean" Amélie started to ask him, "has Marie called you yet zis morning?" She inquired about their daughter, who was currently studying abroad in the UK. Soon after she finished the phone suddenly rang and she picked it up to answer. Jean began his response to her, but was interrupted by the drop of his wife's face to shear terror and the sound of the hone hitting the kitchen floor.

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"Okay I called his parents, their on their way." Don told Josée. "Thankfully Montréal is about a two hour flight only, but let's just hope whatever is wrong that he lasts that long." Don realized too late how poor his choice of words were just then, and despite extremely disliking Josée as a person, he couldn't help feel awful for basically telling her that there's a chance her partner could die. He tried to console her, and thought of something else he could say to make her forget his last sentence. "If you'd like I could call your mom t—"

"NON, NON, NON!" Josée spat at him. "Don't you dare, she mustn't come down here and she mustn't know about zis!"

Don just felt worse now, but also curious about why the sudden and harsh reaction; however, before he could press her further about it, they arrived outside the hospital's ER.