"I need a doctor in here now," Robert yelled, as he carried an unconscious Anna into the emergency room. One of the nurses motioned for him to lay her onto a gurney, and he answered a few simple questions about her medical history before they wheeled her into the E.R. Robert prided himself on being strong and sensible but right now he could not stop the tears from filling his eyes. The thought of a life without Anna Devane was inconceivable.
"Daddy…Daddy, what happened," his daughter Robin was tearfully asking as she walked into his arms. He was suddenly very glad that he called her on the way. They would both need each other right now.
"We were trying to stop a madman from shooting multiple people and your mom was shot trying to help. It all happened so fast…I couldn't help her Robin…"
"It's not your fault daddy," she says, as she looks into his eyes. "It's not. You're still in love with her aren't you?"
"Until the day I die," he says, and Robin hugs him again. "She will be alright daddy. Mom is a fighter. She always has been. "
He holds his daughter close as they wait for news on a woman they both cannot help but see as invincible. They pray that her luck has not run out.
++++
Matthew and Rachel rushed into the hospital with their baby sister…she had stopped breathing again in the car but when they tried to give her CPR, she was suddenly breathing again, although very shallowly.
"We need some help in here," Rachel shouted. Matthew was still holding their sister when the nurse asked what happened. "She stopped breathing for about twenty seconds," Rachel said. "Mom said this has happened before. Please help her. She's been through so much already in her short life."
Another nurse came out with an incubator and Matthew lowers little Justice into it. "We are going to take very good care of your baby sister," the nurses say, as they wheel her away. Matthew and Rachel hug as fear grips both of them.
"She has to be okay Rach…Not just for our sake but especially mom and dad…I don't think they can handle anything else after what they've been through."
"What you've been through too little Brother. It is okay to cry you know. I promise I won't tell anyone."
He forces a smile and then says with conviction "If there is any justice in this world, Colin and Melanie will both die like Daniel. They don't deserve to breathe the same air as mom and dad."
"They don't," Rachel agrees, as she pulls her brother closer. "But you are safe now Matthew…Mom and your dad will be too. They are stronger than those animals. "
"I hope you are right," he says, and just as she assures him she is Nora and Bo are holding each other up as they walk into the hospital, Fish right behind him.
"Mom…Dad…Are you okay?" Matthew asks.
"We will be now," they say, as they hug their son and Rachel. A couple minutes later, a nurse comes around the corner with two wheelchairs.
"Sit down. You two have had far too much excitement for one day. You need an examination."
The nurse helped Bo into his wheelchair but the moment he let go of Nora's arm, a blinding headache renders her immobilized and she collapses. The last thing she says before she falls into unconsciousness is "Why do I feel so dizzy?" Bo calls her name but the nurse holds him back so he cannot get to her.
"You need to calm down Mr. Buchanan. We are doing everything we can for your wife."
"What is wrong with her? Why isn't she waking up?"
"That's what we are going to find out," the nurse says, as a nurse lifts Nora into a gurney. Bo watches them wheel her away with a newfound sense of helplessness. Please God…let his wife be okay. He could not handle it if something happened to her. She and their children are everything to him. Absolutely everything.