Page 76 of Under Their Protection

“I’m doing my best to prevent that. What’s your name?” she asks as she works on Anika.

“Rowan,” I mumble.

“Who were the other two guys?” she asks.

“Boyfriends. We are polyamorous. Max is more like her husband though,” I over explain.

“She’s a lucky girl,” the paramedic says with a smile.

“I think we are the lucky ones. Sounds cheesy saying it like that,” I say.

“A little,” she says. An alarm sounds and my heart sinks.

“Greg, she’s crashing. I need you to hurry. Call it in. I’m starting compressions. Rowan, I’m going to have you breathe for her. When I stop compressions, just squeeze this twice. Okay?” she asks as he intubates Anika.

“O-Okay,” I stutter.

“Mercy Vale. This is ambulance 8274 again. Incoming GSW is receiving compressions. ETA is less than a minute,” the man driving says into his radio.

“Ambulance 8274 we have a trauma team waiting for your arrival,” the voice says.

“Alright,” the paramedic tells me. I squeeze the bag twice and she resumes compressions.

She’s going to be fine. They know what they are doing. It’s okay. She survived her parents. She can survive this.

The ambulance doors swing open and everything is a blur as Anika is taken out and whisked away. Someone in passing tells me that I need to go wait somewhere else and I can’t come with her. I don’t want her to be alone if she dies. I want her to know that I was there. But she did die. She is dead. I don’t know if they’ll get her back.

“How is she?” Theo asks as he, Annie, Andrew, Max, Emma, and Mia come running up to me. I don’t know what to say. How do I tell them she’s dying? Poor Mia.

“Rowan!” Mia says as she pulls me off to the side and out of the way. Everyone moves over with me but I can’t say it.

“What’s going on Rowan?” Max asks softly. “Please say something, man.”

“Her heart stopped,” I say quietly. “She started CPR.”

“Oh fuck,” Max says in shock.

“What the fuck happened?” Mia demands from us.

“I tried to stop her from going out there. I swear to God I tried, Mia,” Theo says as he lets his calm demeanor slip.

“Isaac put a gun to my head when we wouldn’t tell him where she was and she ran out there. She got him to let everyone go but me and Max stayed. She was trying to talk him down and he spotted Theo. He was going to go after Theo and she pushed him back and he shot her. Theo shot him and we all went to her,” I explain.

“She has to survive. She wouldn’t do this to me. She’s not going to die,” Mia says as she starts to cry. “She can’t die, Rowan. She can’t.” I pull her to me as she starts to sob.

“Max, can you call Mom, please?” I ask him and he nods. “We need to go find the waiting room in case they come out.”

“I got her killed,” Theo says, mostly to himself.

“You know better than anyone that he was going to do that regardless, Theo. She’s probably going into surgery so we need to go find the waiting room,” I say. Mia pulls away from me and hugs Theo. Annie is trying her best to console him but she too is a mess. Poor Andrew doesn’t know how to react since he doesn’t actually know Anika.

We go inside and a nurse tells me what waiting room to go to. They put us in a surgical waiting room and gave me her patient number so I can track where she’s at on the board. Right now it shows that she’s in the operating room. The nurse promised that a resident or medical student would be out to update. When I asked her if she was alive she told me she was in the surgery. I don’t want to be too hopeful just to get let down, but I don’t think they would have taken her to surgery if they hadn’t gotten her pulse back. We would have at least been told by now if they didn’t get her pulse back.

We get to the surgical waiting room and we are alone in here. My mom gets there at record speed and comes straight to me.

“She’s going to be okay,” Mom says softly. “She’s in surgery. She’ll be okay.”

“Mr. Garcia?” a woman says as she enters the room. I jump up to go to her.

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