River.

Chapter 35: Sun sets on East

I stood there. Afraid to open my eyes. Afraid of what my mom was screaming about. Afraid of what I might see if I opened them.

River quickly grabbed me, turned me around so that I wasn't facing the scene, and pulled me into a tight hug so that my face was in his chest.

"Cassidy, no." He said with a shaken up voice.

I tried breaking away from him to see what had happened but he wasn't letting me go.

"You don't need to see this." He stated.

"Who is it?" I faintly asked.

He didn't respond. In fact no one did, all I heard was mom screaming.

I felt that River was right and I probably shouldn't have seen what had happened.... but my curiosity got the best of me.

I quickly broke away from him and turned around. And when I did I nearly fainted.

There, laying in a pool of blood, was Riley with a gunshot wound to the chest.

My hearing stopped. It was like all of the noise had ceased to exist. Everything was in slow motion it seemed like. As everyone was running around and freaking out I stood there. Watching my little brother on the verge of death.

Suddenly my hearing reappeared.

River held Riley while Dad called for an ambulance.

"Get me some towels!" River yelled. "Hurry he's bleeding out!"

Jordan ran and grabbed the towels in no time.

"Andrew how long did is it gonna be before the ambulance gets here?" River asked Dad.

"About 5-7 minutes." He replied.

"5- what?! Why the hell is it gonna take them so long? He'll be fucking dead before they get here!" River yelled.

"Well then do something!" AJ shouted. "There's literally 3 doctors in here at this very moment! Keep him alive until they get here!"

"We can only do so much!" Dad yelled.

"What do you mean?!"

"There's not much we can do without the necessary equipment!" Xander stated.

Riley's breathing began deteriorating. His eyes began closing.

Dad knelled down beside him.

"No, stay with me son. Come on, keep your eyes open."

Throughout all the chaos, Daniel and Xander were trying to calm mom down while Kristen had ran out the back door. AJ and Jordan were waiting for the ambulance to show up which it did a few minutes later.

They came through the door with a gurney and carefully lifted Riley onto it. River stood up and had blood all over him. He and dad, got into the back of the ambulance while me, Jordan, mom, Xander, Grayson, and AJ got into the truck with Daniel and followed them.

We arrived at the hospital a few minutes later and followed the paramedics inside. Riley was now unconscious and coughing up blood.

They lifted him from the gurney and onto a hospital bed. As they did this, Mitchell, my dad's friend that was also a doctor, ran towards us.

"Andrew what happened?!" He asked in a panic.

"I can't talk right now. I need to get ready to do surgery." Dad replied as he followed the nurses that were pushing the hospital bed into the room.

"Andrew you can't." He stated as he pulled dad back.

"And why can't I?!" He yelled.

"Because you're a neurosurgeon. Your expertise is the brain..." Mitch stated.