The Good and the Bad

Nazdarovya!

Chapter Eleven

*~*~*~*

Scout could see her own hands shaking as she tried to slow Antonio's bleeding. A mixture of shock and adrenaline was flooding her system as she watched Gaby unbutton the top of her brother's shirt. She pulled off one of her winter gloves, using it in place of gauze for the bullet wound close to his collarbone.

"Try not to move. You're gonna be all right," Gaby told her brother, not sure whether or not he could really hear her at the moment.

"Gaby. Ambo!" Scout nodded to the ambulance driving by the parking lot. "Go, I've got him."

"Hey! Hey! Stop!" Gaby took off across the rest of the lot, waving her arms over her head to try and catch the driver's attention. Not getting their attention, she took it one step further by running out into the road, causing the driver to slam on his breaks. "My brother was shot! I need your help!"

"Where is he?" The paramedic in the passenger's seat asked as he climbed out.

"In the parking lot," Gabby nodded the way she'd come.

"I'll pull around." The driver told his partner, allowing Gaby to lead him back up the sidewalk and through the lot to where Scout was still working on Antonio with what she had.

"Ma'am were you hurt too?" The medic asked, recalling what Gaby had said.

"I'm fine!" Scout shook her head, not taking her eyes off of Antonio. Everything seemed to be a blur for both women as the ambulance pulled up alongside the row of parked cars. Within five minutes they had Antonio on a stretcher, rolling him into the ER.

"Gunshot wounds to the abdomen and left chest," Gaby's voice shook as she briefed the doctor that met them. "Exit under the arm caught the axillary artery."

"I'll take over the pressure," the doctor told Scout as he tired to move her hands away from Antonio.

"He's my partner." Scout didn't think her word through, keeping her hands firmly in place on Antonio.

"He's my brother," Gaby didn't question her friend's words when the doctor looked at where she'd taken control of the bleeding from Antonio's abdomen. "We're going to the OR with you."

"Can't do it. Now," the doctor shot them both down. Gaby and Scout both hesitated before they withdrew their hands, allowing the doctor and a nurse to quickly replace them. "Got it. Somebody grab the monitor. Let's get him down the hall into four. Go, go, go!"

"Ma'am, is any of the blood yours?" A nurse asked Scout as she made her way over to her.

"She's a gunshot to her arm and a head laceration," Gaby told the nurse when Scout didn't answer for herself. "She was just in here the other month for a concussion and a brain bleed too."

"Let's get someone to take a look at your arm and then we'll get an MRI for your head," the nurse started to lead both of the women towards an ER bed.

"I-I'm fine," Scout tried to tell them.

"No, you're not," Gaby called her bluff as her pulled her phone out with shaking hands, sending Shay a quick text to let her know what was going on. "Let them take care of you, Scout. Last thing we need is you slipping into a coma."

"We need to worry about Antonio right now, not me," Scout argued.

"And Antonio would want us to get you taken care of!" Gaby snapped at her friend, her emotions running thin. "Just listen to the damn doctor!"