“Please! You have to help him!” I cried out desperately. I was starting to feel dizzy, but I didn’t care. My main concern was Brian. My nurse continued to ignore me and kept her attention on AJ. I reached my hand up to the bedrail, and started to pull myself up. I barely even noticed the dark bruise and the blood that oozed from the hole that was in place of where my IV was ripped out of. The dizziness turned into a pulsating pain. I felt like my heart was pounding in my head and the alarms started to ring. Still, I tried to get out of the bed. I had to get to Brian.
“Lizz? Oh my...” My nurse’s head shot up when the alarms sounded. They grew more and more shrill as I started to lose my grip on reality. Everything was spinning and it hurt to breathe. It was like de já vu all over again. My nurse jumped up and grabbed me before I slipped to the floor. She leaned me back in the bed, her face growing pale.
“I need some help in here!” She shouted over her shoulder. “What’s wrong dear?”
“Brian...he’s in...trouble...” I panted. Did it hurt this bad before?
The room started to fill with people and I thought I heard AJ’s voice. He sounded so far away. The beating of my heart seemed to grow louder. My vision was going out on me. The dizzy mess that I was seeing was fading into blackness.
“Shit! She is going to go into cardiac arrest! What the hell brought this on? What happened to her? Who was that woman that I saw run out of here?”
“Young man, are you okay? You have a good sized knot on your forehead.”
“BP’s falling.”
It was so far away. “Brian.” I whispered.
“What?”
“What did she say?”
“AJ?” My voice was so weak. “Get to Brian.
“What the hell is going on here?! People, we are going to lose her if we don’t...”
AJ raced down the hall, his head pounding from the fall. When he had come to, the effects of the Albuterol had already taken their effect on Lizz. She frantically pleaded with him to get to Brian’s room since no one else took notice that he was in danger. It took a moment for the cloudiness in his head to clear, but when it clicked, AJ hauled ass out of Lizz’s room so fast that no one had a chance to stop him.
He flew by the elevators and down the steps. People jumped out of his way and some even yelled at him as he almost barreled them down. The guard in front of Brian’s door, jumped in shock as AJ slammed through the door.
Howie looked up, startled, as did a woman in blue scrubs.
“You bitch!!” AJ seethed at her.
The commotion woke Brian up and he looked around, unsure of what was happening.
“Get the hell away from him or so help me...” AJ snarled.
Agnes smiled. “Too late again huh AJ? I think you best stay where you are. The second you move and this shit goes straight into his veins.” She held Brian’s IV line just how she held Lizz’s.
Brian’s eyes widened and Howie looked from AJ to Agnes. “What’s going on?”
“What do you mean ‘too late again‘“ Brian whispered.
“I just shot Lizz up with the same shit she tried to kill herself with the first time. Now you are going to get a shot of this shit, whatever the hell it is.” Agnes smirked. Then her eyes clouded over. “My husband is dead and I will make all of you pay.
Brian paled.
“Over my dead body.” AJ glared at the woman that held his friend’s life at her mercy.
“That can be arranged.” Agnes said sweetly.
“Let’s think about this. You don’t want to do this. Is your revenge worth going to jail for?” Howie tried to reason.
“Don’t waste your breath.” AJ spat.
“Oh no, I really do want to do this. See, we don’t really need Brian and Lizz. It’s a liability to have them both around. Only one of them needs to be here in order to secure Carter’s future.” Agnes explained.
“What do you mean?” Howie narrowed her eyes at Agnes. AJ looked horrified and desperately hoped what he was thinking wasn’t true.
Brian gasped when it dawned on him. That was what Agnes had just said to upset Lizz so bad. Lizz knew. And now, so did Brian.
“If you kill us both, then what?” Brian shot at her, trying to keep the tremor out of it.
“Oh I didn’t give her enough to kill her. You on the other hand...” Agnes smiled to cover up her nervousness. On one hand, no one was going to move when she had this needle stuck in Brian’s IV. On the other, she was trapped. Unless she came up with another way out of this...
I could barely hear their voices anymore. I was slipping out of consciousness and it seemed like the harder I tried to hold on, the harder it got. I could feel the blood rushing through my veins, my erratic heartbeat in my chest, filling my ears. God it hurt so bad. Was this it? Was I going to die this time? How did I make it last time? How did I survive this?
Nick.
Nick was there last time. We didn’t know it at the time, but we had a link. We still do. In a sense, we were affecting each other from the beginning. Almost from the very beginning we understood each other. Sometimes too well. We would say all the time that we could get through anything. And we always had. We helped each other and took it a day at a time. We can do this. We said it all the time. I couldn’t leave him. I couldn’t imagine him ever not being there and I couldn’t do it to him either. I can’t do this alone though. Was he feeling this? I wasn’t going to let go. I couldn’t.
Nick!!
“What the hell is going on?” He snapped some gloves on and began assessing the situation.
“I was on my way to check on Lizz and I heard a loud crash. Some woman almost ran into me running out of the room and when I got in here, there was a young man unconscious on the floor. I saw to him, meanwhile Lizz kept repeating to ‘help him.’ I assumed she was talking about the guy on the floor. Then the alarms sounded and I saw that she was trying to get out of bed. She was drenched in sweat and her pulse was very erratic. Meanwhile that guy tore out of here like a bat outta hell.” Lizz’s nurse explained while the team worked on her.
Before Doug could answer, another alarm started to sound. “Shit! She’s not breathing. Intubate!” He worked furiously and with precision. He was not going to lose this girl. They got the tube in and began to rhymthmically bag her. Her heart was still beating, although it was very unsteady. Doug was afraid that if it stopped, he would have to use the paddles, and it would be too much for her body.
“Something caused this and I want to know what it is. What the hell is all the blood from?” He demanded.
“Somehow her IV was ripped out.” Came the reply.
“Alright, I want a CBC, BUN and creatatinine, calcium and phosphate levels, potassium level, and a hematocrit level. I want to know what happened here.” Doug ordered.