Stitches of Life

Death and All His Friends

A/N: Just gonna say this right off the bat: I sobbed while writing this chapter. You have no idea how many spelling corrections I had to make.

I'm sorry.

Chapter Sixty-Six: Death and All His Friends

It felt as though my body were on fire as I laid there on the hospital room floor; well aware of the fact that I was laying in a growing puddle of my own blood. I did my best to keep my gaze focused on the ceiling, trying to ignore the fact that I was slowly dying. Trying to ignore the fact that I may never see Joel again.

"Oh. Oh, the packing isn't holding." I heard Bailey say, but I still stared up at the ceiling as I did my best to keep myself breathing. I could feel Bailey's shaking hands messing with the makeshift bandage that she'd placed on my abdomen. "Neither of them are."

"What does that mean?" Mary asked.

"We're dying." I wheezed out. "Bleeding out."

"It means... I need to get them to an OR." Bailey said, ignoring my own answer.

"Someone is coming. Someone will come, like a-a cop-" Mary tried to tell her as I was turned onto my side. I winced as my view altered from the ceiling and onto the hospital bed that Mary had once been occupying.

"No, we need to get them to an OR." Bailey told her, not giving the younger woman a chance to finish her sentence. "That's their last chance if they're gonna live, okay?"

"How are we even gonna do that?" Mary asked as I was carefully placed onto my back once more. "We can- We can barely hold him up on his side, much less move both of them.

"Uh..." Bailey trailed off, trying to think, before she took a deep breath, pointing at something. "There. There. There. Give me the sheet. Yeah, put it out."

I could hear Percy groaning as they worked with the sheet, trying to get him situated on it. After a few minutes of them struggling with him, I saw another sheet being laid out on the floor next to me. Bailey moved me onto my side, making me look at her. I could see a mixture of Percy and I's blood covering her gloved hands, tear stains painting her cheeks. She looked more broken than I had ever seen her before.

"It's okay, it's gonna be okay." Bailey whispered as she lowered me back onto the sheet. I gave a small nod at her words, but I wasn't sure who she was trying to convince, me or herself.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

"How much further?" Mary asked as she and Bailey pulled Percy and I down the hall on the sheets.

"We're almost there." Bailey assured her. "We're gonna get them on the elevator, and then we'll be right at the OR floor. We're almost there."

"We're almost there. Okay, Charles? Bethany?" Mary smiled as Percy and as she and Bailey came to a stop, carefully lowering our heads onto the floor.

"We're almost there?" Percy asked.

"Yeah. Just a few more minutes." Mary nodded before turning her attention to me. "Okay, Bethany?"

"Uh-huh." I wheezed as I heard Bailey starting to mutter to herself.

"Dr. B?" Mary noticed, too. There was silence for moment, the only noise in the hall being Percy and I's labored and wheezy breathing.

"There's a hum... elevators make when they're on." Bailey finally spoke up again. "There's a hum. There's no hum."

"What does that mean?" Mary asked. I closed my eyes, trying to ignore the stinging from the fresh set of tears filling my eyes.