Crushing Gravity
Chapter 28
From a young age, I've known loss. The loss of my mother, the loss of having no father, the loss of a sister, the loss of my pet goldfish when I was two. I've known the loss of control, the sense of belonging, and the loss of self from reality.
It's this last one that I feel now as an ear splitting scream, so full of anguish and despair, breaks the ringing silence after the gun.
Distantly, I note the burning in my throat as the panicked man runs from the store.
"Leah..? Hey… Leah. Leah, you can wake up now, the man is gone," I shake my fallen girlfriend's shoulder. "Leah, he's gone now; I want to go home. Leah... Leah!"
The longer she doesn't answer, the more feeling, namely panic, start to register in my body and brain.
A faint burning sensation is over my heart as a growing dark pool spreads outward over that same spot on Leah. My hands come away red with blood.
"Leah!"
Lyla falls to the ground on the other side of us, ripping off her jacket and pressing it over the wound.
"Matt, I need gauze and anything you can get your hands on to stop the bleeding!" She immediately shouts, snapping at the young boy, "Call an ambulance!"
"No," I say, mouth running away before a thought, any thought other than despair, gets through. "No, she can't go to a hospital... Yeah, that's right, she'll just heal. She'll heal right up and we can go home. You can wake up now, Leah. It's okay, we can go home now."
Lyla grabs my shoulder with one hand, the other firmly holding the jacket in place.
"Sam- Sam, I need you to focus. I need you to put pressure on the wound okay? Nice and firm, there you go."
"But you don't understand, she's going to be okay."
"Yes," she agrees, moving to gently slap her face. "We just need to help her be okay. Leah? Leah, can you here me? I need you to open your eyes and stay awake."
My girlfriend moans, eyes cracking open just a bit.
"There you go, keep them open; an ambulance will be here shortly to take you to the hospital."
Leah struggles weakly. "No hos'pl."
"It's okay just try and relax. Leah? No, Leah, keep you eyes open. Fuck! Matt, where are you?!"
Mathew falls to his knees beside his wife with arms full of things from the store. Somewhere in the back of my mind, the sick apathetic part that is already distancing herself, wonders if we'll have to pay for all of this.
"Matt, take over, Sam's going into shock."
Large hands cover mine, pressing down on my bloody skin.
"She's not breathing! Starting CPR!"
Somewhere inside my mind, I know it's wrong to be watching myself, no, my sister, kiss my girlfriend.
"Take the bullet out," my voice comes from nowhere, just stolen out of open space. "Just take the bullet out and she'll heal."
"How far out is the ambulance?!" Mathew calls out to the shell-shocked boy who is very pale.
"T-ten minutes."
"We don't have time for them to get here; we have to operate now."
Lyla nods, climbing to her feet. "Make sure she stays breathing while I grab the emergency kit from the car."
She doesn't wait for a response before she's gone. That's not right; I would never leave Leah. Where did I go?
"Sammy," Mathew speaks softly, "you didn't go anywhere. You're right here, please try to calm down. Take a deep breath."
I'll try.
"Thank you."
He can read my thoughts too. So strange how he and Edward can do that.
I'm soon back and I don't understand any as I rip Leah's shirt off and poke her and prod her with strange tool.
Just take the bullet out and she'll heal, just take the bullet out and she'll heal, just take the bullet out and she'll heal.
Everything will be okay.
"Everything will be okay, Sammy," I sooth myself. "Got it, hand me- Fuck!"
Is she better now? Why am I kissing her again? Is she better now? Are we celebrating?
"One-two-three-four- get the defibrillator! One-two-three-four- are you ready? Get back, Sammy...! Clear!"
Leah's body jolts.
She's wolf, not bullet proof. But she's going to be okay. Just take the bullet out and she'll heal.
"Again. Ready… Clear!"
She jolts again. I feel very light headed. Now really isn't the time for me to kiss my girlfriend. I don't feel right. Why aren't I in my body? Where did the ground go?
"Come on Leah, come on! My sister needs you; wake UP!"
Her body jolts one more time, and she sucks in a deep gasping breath.
"Oh thank god… Sow her up, Matt, before she looses any more blood."
My chest loosens, and I instinctively know that the danger has past. But I'm still so dizzy. At least the stinging sensation on my chest has gone down some.
"What the hell...? Lyla-"
"What the fuck?"
"Just take the bullet out and she'll heal," I say, leaning over my girlfriend and dragging my finger lightly through the blood surrounding the very slowly healing wound. "Leah is special. She can't go to the hospital; they can't know about her or they'll take her away."
"This looks several days old," Lyla whispers, dipping her head low so the boy can't hear her. "Sammy, what's going on?"
"She's special; no one can know about her or-"
"Okay, okay," Lyla soothes, still looking quite baffled. "The ambulance is already on the way so she has to get in and go to the hospital, but we'll take care of it."
Mathew looks shocked stupid, which is a funny expression.
"But how is this possible," he asks.
I shake my head, partly in answer, partly because I still don't feel right.
"Can't tell you."
The ambulance, whose sirens have been getting louder and louder, screech to a stop outside. Lyla hurriedly tapes gauze over the extremely slow closing wound, cursing.
"Sammy can't drive, I'll try to get one of the paramedics to ride up front with the driver."
She stands and hurries away.
After that is a blur, well, even more of a blur than it was before.
I only come-to when a door closes and I suddenly find myself in a white room, beside a white bed, and staring down at the peaceful face of Leah.
It's only then that my face slowly pinches, and a gurgled retched sound comes out.
I fumble blindly into the bed, sobbing all the while in gross snotty blubbers. I grit my teeth and try to choke back the tears like I have learned to do, but it only serves to make them come out even more violent.
"You're gonna be okay, you're gonna be okay," I murmur softly to myself, squirming to press as much into her comforting heat as possible.
Eventually, everything goes black and I'm thrown into my nightmares with a renewed ferocity.
...
I come-to by a soft humming and my face bathed in warm light. Something cold and wet touches my face, and I jerk my eyes open wide.
"Easy, baby girl," Leah soothes. Heat pools in my eyes again, but she quickly shushes me, touching the damp cloth back to my cheek, scrubbing away the swollen redness and tracks.
She dips the cloth back into a bowl on the bedside table before wringing it out to start again.
"Interesting night last night, hmm?"
"I hate you, Leah Clearwater; you're truly awful." A few tears squeeze out against much protest, but she just draws the cloth up to wipe them away again.
She laughs softly. "Maybe. I know you love me."
"I hate you; I really do."
"Okay. I'm sorry." She sighs, wincing as she reaches out to push my snot crusted hair out of my face. I must look truly awful, but Leah doesn't seem to care.
The door opens and Lyla walks in in doctors' scrubs and a lab coat, eyes looking tired. She lays a Walmart bag at the foot of the bed.
"Some clothes. I'm sure you can't wait to get out of that ruined dress."
"Thanks," I murmur.
She nods, striding forward and pressing a button the inclines the bed to sit up.
"I'm just going to check the bandages and see how much it's healed overnight, alright?"
Leah nods reluctantly and allows my sister to lower the top of her hospital gown. Something strange comes back to me, and my brow furrows at the fuzzy image.
"Did you kiss my girlfriend?"
Lyla barks a laugh. "No, I'm afraid I don't swing that way, though she is very pretty," she winks, but then her humor gives way to astonishment as she removes the bandage.
"Amazing!" I look over, grimacing at the deep red, puckering, star shaped scar. "It's almost fully healed; what gives you this power?"
Leah glances at me in question and I shake my head, letting her know that I hadn't told anything.
"It's in my blood," she says slowly. "It's something that goes back in my family for generations but only presents itself in those who have the gene in different generations. I guess you can call it magic."
Lyla nods, eyes wide and eager.
"I'm afraid that's all I can tell you. I'd have to ask permission from the elders for any more. See, it's a secret kept very close that only those directly affected by it, the elders, and our mates know.
"And she's your..." She points at me, trailing off.
"Yes," I say firmly, snuggling closer and keeping my sister's eyes defiantly.
"Okay," she accepts. "Then I'm even more relieved you pulled through."
She quickly rebandages the old looking wound and pulls Leah's gown back up. "Mathew and I are your doctors since the others can't know about this, so only we should be checking in on you. Now, unfortunately, you'll have to stay here for a couple days because, according to the hospital, you suffered a severe gunshot wound to the chest. A normal person would bed ridden for, at the very least, a week. We can probably get you out sooner under the guise that you'll be well looked after at the house."
"Thanks," Leah sighs, partly in relief, and partly in reluctance for the next few days.
Lyla nods, eyes softening on me. "I need to go make my rounds now, but just press the call button if you need anything."
With another nod, she's gone.
A/N: Did I fool anyone? Did I make any of you, even briefly, think that I would actually kill off one of our favorite characters? Or did you already guess that I would never actually do it?
Thanks so much for reading and please, please, please let me know what you think. Are these updates even going through or is there still some sort of problem?
~Silver~