His Touch

Chapter 62

Dominic

The sounds of the ambulance doors opening and them slamming closed came, along with hurried footsteps against the gravel. 

"What do we have?" A female voice asked coming up behind me.

"18 year old female, single penetrating bullet wound to the chest." I started, I was used to giving out information like this to paramedics but I had never expected to be having to do this for Ell. "She's lost a lot of blood." The shirt Max was holding to her chest was now completely soaked in her blood, his hands too. There was too much blood. There shouldn't be that much blood.

The female paramedic who had spoken was now crouched down next to me while her male colleague was next to Max. The woman was opening a bag of medical supplies such as gauze and dressings which she was preparing with her gloved hands, while the man was setting up a portable heart monitor to Ell.

"Is she on any regular medication or has she taken any today?" The man asks as he turns on the heart monitor.

Max shakes his head. "No regular medications."

"Fuck." I cuss under my breath. I shake my head at myself, mentally cussing myself out more. How could I have been so stupid. Of course that's why it was like this. "She took aspirin this morning, for her head." I tell them. I'd insisted she took it when she woke up from her nightmare, she had a really sore head, likely from all the vomiting and the stress. "I think she took some more just before we left too."

The lady hands a needle and vile over to the man. "We're going to administer Vitamin K to get her blood to start clotting again." She tells me. From the softness in her voice I can tell she's trying to reassure me.

I don't need her fucking reassurance, I need her to do her fucking job and save my fucking girl.

The man was prompt in measuring out the liquid from the vile into the needle before injecting it into Ell's skin.

The woman was now pressing gauze into the bullet wound on Ell's chest, taking over from Max. 

Max rocked back on his heels, one of his bloodied hands wiping his forehead of the sheen of sweat that sat at his skin's surface. I could see the stress dripping off him. "Is she... is she going to be ok?" His voice was quiet as he spoke, filled with fear. He sounded unsure of himself even as he asked, I could tell part of him was afraid to know the answer to his question, afraid to know the fate of his little sister.

I watched as the paramedics looked at each other, silently trying to decide on what to tell Max.

"Mate, she's going to be just fine." I told him after several minutes of silence had passed and the paramedics still hadn't seemed to decide what they'd tell him. "Ell is a fighter, you know she is. She didn't survive this long just to give up now." With that last statement I had it directed more at Ell herself as I needed her to hear it, I needed her to believe it so that she wouldn't give up now.

Max gives me a nod. He leans over and caresses Ell's forehead. "You hear that Ellie, you've got to keep fighting. No giving up just yet." Max speaks softly. He shakes his head, dropping it to press his forehead against hers. "Please Ellie." He sobs softly and quietly.

"Ok lads, we're going to have to take her away now." One of the paramedics spoke. It was now that I noticed the gauze was securely taped to Ell's exposed chest, the medical bag had been packed away, and the other paramedic had gone back to the ambulance and returned with the stretcher.

Max and I step back as they load her onto the stretcher and prepare her for the ambulance.

"You have to go with her." Max tells me, coming to stand at my side as we watch them taking her stretcher into the back of the ambulance. 

I look at him puzzled. "You're her brother, if anyone should go it's you."

He shakes his head solomly but never takes his eyes off her. "She's mad with me, for how I reacted to the two of you." Max says quietly. "She doesn't want me there."

"She adores you Maxwell, she would want you there fight or no fight."

"I can't." He says almost under his breath. "I..." He shakes his head as he is unable to form another sentence. But I know what he was trying to say, I know how he's feeling about this; he's scared that if he goes with her that he's going to see her die. Max can't bear to see his little sister like this, he can't bear to watch her life slipping away especially after how things had been between them the last twelve hours. I don't blame him for not wanting to watch her go through her worst, to be too scared to watch her die.

"I know." I tell him, clasping his shoulder with my hand.

Max takes a deep breath. "You'll go with her then. You'll stay with her?" Only now does Max meet my eyes with his. "You'll take care of her?"

I nod once firmly. "Of course I will." I say it in a serious tone. "I'd do anything for her, and for you Maxwell."

He nods and I can see a faint smile on his lips. "Thank you Dom. Maybe I judged too harshly earlier, but she's my little sister and I..."

"I know." I cut him off. "It's ok, we both know I deserved it." I chuckle.

"Alright, we're ready to go." The female paramedic informs Max and I as the other one goes to get into the drivers seat.

Max nods me towards the ambulance. "Go with her."

"You wait here until the clean up crew gets here, then you come meet us there." I tell him in an authoritative tone. "Max, she will need her brother through this. She'll want you there when she wakes up. So you come meet us at the hospital as soon as the crew get here."

Max nods. "Yes, Dom."

I squeeze his shoulder once more before walking off to climb into the back of the ambulance with Eloise. I sit on the side bench and clasp her hand. "You've got to pull through this Eloise, your brother needs you..." I sigh. "I need you." I whisper to her. Placing a gentle kiss on her knuckles I keep my eyes on her face.