Fuck me. I try to rip open the packaging for the bandages but with one hand it’s just too hard. Georgie tries to help but her little fingers can’t quite manage, so it’s up to my teeth. The packaging scrapes along my cut lip and stings like a mother fucker.
“Come on, come on,” I groan as I desperately try to tear it open. I’m losing too much blood. I need to do something before I become a burden on Georgie.
I finally get the packaging open and instantly press it into the wound. I hiss out before remembering Georgie is probably freaking out and try my hardest to reign it in.
Urgent banging on the other side of the bathroom door has me dropping the bandages and flying to Georgie. I push us into the wall with my body protectively covering hers. Fear rips through me again. He’s back.
“Gigi,” I hear Mel’s voice from the other side. “Are you in here? Open the fucking door.”
“Fuck,” I grunt. It’s just Mel. I put Georgie down and run to the door. I open it quickly and Mel comes tearing in before closing it right behind her.
“Are you o-, Fuck,” she shrieks as she takes in the wound on my shoulder and lip. She instantly jumps into action and I’ve never been happier.
“Georgie ok?” she asks as she makes quick work of bandaging me up.
“Fine,” I grunt, “Just freaked out.”
“Ok,” she nods before moving onto my lip.
I pull her hand away from me. “What’s going on out there?”
“The guy lost his daughter during surgery last week, he’s obviously having trouble coming to terms with that.”
“Right, ok. Is he still on a rampage?”
“Yeah,” she says as she lets out a shaky breath. “I’ve counted ten shots so far.” She brings her hands back up to attend to my lip and I push her away. “Stop it,” she demands. “I need to fix this.”
“No, you don’t. It’s fine. We need to get out there and help.”
“No. I need to get out there. You’re injured and you’re just going to slow me down. You need to stay here and make sure Georgie is safe. Besides, if you don’t get pain relief soon, you’re going to be out for the count.”
“Fine,” I grunt, knowing she’s one hundred percent right.
“Right, I’m out of here, I just needed to make sure you were ok first.
I nod my head, terrified for my best friend but she’s doing the right thing. The children on this ward need her now more than ever. “If you can, get any kids who don’t have anyone in here. I’ll do what I can.”
She darts out of the room and returns only seconds later before tossing some pain relief through the door. It’s not the strong stuff, but it should at least help.
With that, Mel disappears and I send a silent plea that she’ll be okay.
Chapter 16
Sean
I reach across the counter and hand the woman a twenty dollar bill. The last fifteen hours have been horrific. I swear, every new day is another day where my world is challenged in some sort of way, today and last night just happens to be one of the worst challenges yet.
I head towards the tables and feel so unbelievably grateful for Gigi. She’s absolutely amazing, giving me this chance to eat and refuel. I’ll never be able to thank her enough for this. I swear, I’ll spend the rest of forever trying to make up to her all the wonderful things she’s done for me and Georgie.
Like I said, she is fucking amazing. Unbelievable. Incredible.
A deafening alarm screeches through the hospital bringing the cafeteria to an absolute standstill. I stand like a fucking moron in the middle of the cafeteria looking around, trying to find some sort of clue as to what has caused the alarm.
Maybe there’s an emergency that has mass casualties and it’s alerting all the staff. Maybe it’s an emergency weather warning, telling us to prepare. I don’t fucking know, but the noise is eerie.
The nurses that stand motionless before me instantly look down at their pagers before running at full speed right out the doors. What the fuck? The other staff in the cafeteria quickly follow them out which is when the sinking feeling in my gut truly sets in.
“What’s going on?” I yell out to a nurse as she runs past. She ignores me in her hurry to get out.
Everyone else in the cafeteria begins freaking out and follows their lead. I find myself in the lobby with the rest of the crowd. Someone pushes on the front doors to find them locked before yelling out in panic.
What the fuck is going on here? If this is just a drill then they need to fucking tell me, otherwise I need to get up to Georgie. This alarm is bound to freak her out.
A man in a suit stands up on the reception desk. “Attention,” he calls out three times before having to give an ear shattering whistle to gain their attention. Finally, some fucking answers.
It takes a moment but eventually everyone in the lobby turns to face the man. He straightens his tie and clears his throat. “Calm down,” he instructs the crowd. “This is not a drill. I repeat. This is not a drill. As of three minutes ago, the hospital was put on lockdown. I need you all to keep calm and take a seat. The doors have been locked. Please keep your children with you at all times,” he explains. “I’m sure the situation will be handled shortly. Your patience is appreciated.”
“What situation?” I call out.
“That information is strictly off limits,” he replies, gaining outbursts from the massive crowd.
“Bullshit. We have the right to know if we’re in danger,” I tell him, begging him to challenge me on the law.
He presses his lips together before turning to another man who very wisely gives a nod. The suited guy turns back to the crowd. “We currently have an armed man on the third floor,” he explains.
Fuck, no. That’s the maternity and Pediatrics floor.
I make a fucking run for it.
The lawyer in me screams to tell the man to unlock the front doors to let the crowd out to safety, but they’re not my priority. Georgie and Gigi are on the third floor. A million thoughts fly through my mind but I don’t give myself a chance to process them. All I know is that I need to get to them. I need to make sure they’re alright.
I reach the elevator and hit the button three times, only the button doesn’t light up. Shit, the fucking hospital is on lockdown, of course, the damn elevators aren’t working.
I dart to the stairs and rush up them two at a time. I pass level one, followed by two and finally three.
I bust through the door, letting it rebound off the wall behind. It slams with a bang and push myself forward. I come to a screeching stop at the doors for the Pediatric ward. I try to push through but the door doesn’t budge.
I hear a gunshot followed by screaming on the other side of the door and the panic rises within me. I look through the window and see right up the hallway, but nothing explains what the hell is going on. People are running around with terror on their faces but I can’t see who their running from.
Mel stands in the nurse’s station, desperately hiding behind a wall looking into Georgie’s room and I pray Gigi is still with her. She says something before ducking down and disappearing under the table.
Georgie’s door closes which is when I notice a man step out of a room, take two steps forward, kicks in the next door, points his gun and aims.
Fuck no.
I bang on the door trying to budge it, but it’s not use, the door is rock solid, made specifically for this reason. I need to get in there. I smash my fist into the glass window, but it’s too thick. “Fuck,” I curse as I frantically look around.
I see a fire extinguisher on the wall half way up the hall and I sprint to get to it. I rip it off the wall and make my way back, using the momentum from my run to try and break the window.
A shot rings out and I find myself pausing, desperate to find out where the hell the guy is. He appears in the hall once again and screams out before taking two long strides and placing him right in front of Georgie’s room.
“NO,” I scream as
he brings his booted foot up and simply kicks it in. “NO, you fucking bastard.” It’s no use, no one on the opposite side of the door would be able to hear me, especially with the sound of the alarm still ringing out.
He steps into the room and I bring the fire extinguisher up and slam it against the window over and over again. A crack appears in the window and I give it everything I’ve got. A shot rings out and my world comes crashing down.
The man appears and I vow I will fucking kill him.
He moves onto his next target.
The window finally gives way and I hoist myself up and push myself through the narrow space. Another shot calls out as my feet finally touch the floor. He appears back in the hallway and I break out in a sprint.
I distantly notice Mel darting across the hall into Georgie’s room and people rushing towards the broken window, desperate to get themselves out, but my main focus is the man who has just spotted me coming at him.
His eyes widen and he brings his arm up, ready to shoot, but I duck low and ram my shoulder straight into his stomach. The force throws us both back into the wall and it caves under the weight.
He tries to fight me off but I’ve got the upper hand here. His arm flies back, still firmly clutching the gun. I grab his wrist and overpower him, I bring my elbow straight down into the hollow under his rib cage and wind him.
He gasps for breath and I tackle the gun out of his hand. A desperate need to turn it on him comes over me but this bastard deserves to spend the rest of his life rotting is prison. I bring the butt of his gun down on his temple and instantly knock the fucker out before absolutely annihilating him, giving him a punch for each and every shot I heard ring out of his damn gun. I then give a few extra for my daughter.
“Sean,” I hear my name screeched across the ward. I look up to find Mel running towards me with a needle in her hand.
She instantly falls to her knees beside the guy and jabs the needle into his neck. “It’s a sedative. It will put him out long enough for the police to get here,” she explains before getting up and rushing back down the hallway. Something screams within me that the sedative is certainly not hospital procedure, but I let it go. If she gets busted for it later, I’ll defend her until the day I die. She yells over her shoulder. “You need to go to Gigi, she needs help.”
At that, all thoughts of the sedative are gone. I get up off the fucker and race down to Georgie’s room.
I burst in through the door and the first thing I see is the pools of blood staining the bed right in the spot I left Georgie. I’m thrown back to the image of Sara’s hospital bed with a pool of blood, but I push it away. I need to find my daughter. I frantically look around the room. Supplies from a cupboard are thrown all over the floor and drips of blood lead into the bathroom.
I dash across the room and reach for the handle. I give it a hard tug but the fucking door is locked. “Georgie, are you in there?” I yell, desperate to find my baby ok.
The door opens and I find my little girl standing in the doorway drenched in blood. I drop to my knees before and look her over.
“She’s alright,” I hear from a deflated voice behind her. I push the door further open and gasp as I see Gigi slumped on the cold tiles in her bra. Blood covers her body and face and she looks as though she’s about to pass out. “Fuck,” I grunt as I run into the room.
Her eyes flutter as I touch her and she tries to give me an encouraging smile. I get a good look at her and from the soaking bandages on her front and back, it’s clear she’s been shot right through her shoulder.
I bend down so she can see me. “What do I do?” I ask frantically, having no fucking clue what she needs right now.
“I… I need to help,” she says with a tear in her eye.
“Gigi,” I demand. “What do I do?”
She opens her mouth to say something but nothing comes out. She lets out a sigh as her eye close again. “Daddy, hewlp her,” Georgie begs.
Having no other option, I scoop Gigi up in my arms and run out to the hallway to find the police pilling in through the doors with a bunch of doctors and nurses flooding in behind them. They instantly scatter through the ward offering their help wherever they can.
A doctor runs straight up to me and takes a look at Gigi. His eyes widen as he recognizes her and orders me to place her down on the bed inside Georgie’s room. “I need an available team in here, now,” he calls out over the noise of the ward.
A nurse rushes in before me and strips the bloodied sheets off the bed. She doesn’t get a chance to put a new ones down as I lay Gigi on the mattress. Georgie’s vital signs monitor is now attached to Gigi as other nurses flurry around, preparing her for surgery.
“You’re going to be ok,” I tell her, hoping she can hear me. “You better fucking come back to me, Gigi, you hear me? I can’t do this again.”
The locks on the wheels are flicked and before I know it, she’s being wheeled out of the room with a nurse calling out to clear the way.
I’m left in the room with a crying Georgie. I grab her a change of clothes and scoop her into my arms. “Are you alright, Georgie?” I ask, knowing she’s going to have a lot of confusing emotions rushing through her right now, emotions that she wouldn’t be able to understand.
She’s never witnessed such awful things before and I need to get her out of here. I need her to be safe with someone I trust, so I can be here for Gigi.
I quickly get Georgie into clean clothes and leave the bloodied ones behind which is when I notice a piece of metal on the ground.
Holy fucking shit. It’s Gigi’s bullet. I quickly grab it, hoping Georgie doesn’t asks what it is and slide it into my pocket. I know the police are probably going to want it but they already have so much evidence to nail the fucker. They can do without this.
This bullet is going straight to Gigi. She deserves it as a trophy, something she can look to afterward to remind her just how strong she is. It might take her a little while to come around to the idea of it, but eventually she might appreciate it.
I step out of the room to find most of the drama has died down. Police are still flooding the hallways and cries are heard throughout the ward. It looks as though most patients have either been seen to or are in the middle of being seen to, while everyone else who is not needed is either in the waiting room or have disappeared as to not get in the way.
“Hey,” a familiar voice asks from beside me. I turn to find Tom looking at me with relief written all over his face. I give him a tight smile. “You ok?” he questions as his eyes roam over Georgie.
“Only just,” I tell him honestly.
“Have, um… have you seen Mel? is she alright?”
“Yeah, man. She’s doing great,” I tell him.
He nods his head before looking back up at me. “Look, I thought I’d get in first. The guys are going to ask you for a statement, so I thought it’d be best if I did it.”
“Yeah, thanks,” I say as he points to a chair.
I take a seat and he pulls out a recorder. “Just tell me exactly what happened through your eyes. Where you were when it started, what you saw, what you did.”
I do just that. I tell him every last detail as it’s fresh in my mind. I tell him how my heart stopped when I thought Georgie had been injured, how I belted the shit out of the guy and how I found Gigi drenched in blood. The only part I skip right past is the sedative Mel jammed into the bastard’s neck, though knowing Tom’s confusing feelings for her, he’s probably happy I did.
I finish my statement and he looks to me with a cringe. “Do you mind if I ask Georgie her recap of what happened?”
I look to Georgie and know the story is going to be hard to tell, but ultimately, it’s her decision if she’s ready to tell it. “Do you want to tell Uncle Tom what happened today when the big alarm went off?”
She looks up at me with her bottom lip jutted out. I feel as though she’s about to say no when she surprises me with a nod. She turns to Tom and climbs across my lap
and straight into his.
“Da nowse woked me up,” she tells him.
“Oh no,” he says. “That’s not good. What happened when you woke up?”
“Gigi put me in da closet wike daddy does when we pway hide and seek. She told me it was wreally important to be quiet.”
“What happened when you were in the closet?”
“I was wreally quiet and dere was a big bang,” she says, clapping her hands together to emphasize how loud the bang was.
I cringe hearing it coming from her perspective but at the same time I’m relieved she didn’t see him shooting.
“That’s really good, Georgie. What came after the big bang?”
“Gigi took me to da bathwoom. She had lots of bwood and I had to take her shirt off.”
“Why did you do that?”
“Cause she was bweeding.”
“Right, ok. Did anything else happen?”
“Da girl came in and Gigi squished me in da wall.”
My heart rate increases as I realize the extent Gigi went to protect my little girl. She jammed her in a closet, got shot in her place and shielded her with her body when she thought she was at risk.
This woman is phenomenal.
Tom wraps up his interview with Georgie and looks up at me as she climbs back into my lap. “Gigi is amazing,” he tells me. “I think I owe her an apology.”
“Yeah, I think you’re right, man.”
His eyes find something behind me and I turn to see Mel, which is when Tom flies out of his chair and bolts towards her. She falls into his arms and instantly bursts into tears. I’m not even going to pretend I know what’s going on here, but in this moment, I’m happy she has him.
I get up and start to make my way out of the ward when a nurse stops me near the door. “Excuse me, Mr. Waters?” she says. I turn with a groan and give her a questioning look, hating that I’m appearing so rude right now. “I apologize, but Georgia is still an admitted patient here for observations. I completely understand if you’d like to discharge her, however, I cannot recommend it, especially with the stress today has brought. It would be easy for her to slip into another asthma attack.”
Sean: Denver Royalty (Book 3) Page 12