Out On a Limb

No Good Deed Goes Unpunished

Pain...he was being consumed by it like a white hot fire. Blindly, he knew he was sitting up but half of his body felt trapped and he slightly began to panic since one eye was practically swollen shut and the other, he could only guess what was happening until he realized that he could plainly smell the coppery tang of blood but he had no idea what was bleeding...only knew that it had to be blood flowing into his eye. Unfamiliar voices were calling out instructions...unfamiliar hands were holding his left arm still and he could smell the harsh aroma of alcohol just before he felt a sharp prick his hand. He cried out again and then only got louder when something was drawing his right arm tightly to his body. His right shoulder was screaming with pain so intense that waves of nausea were threatening...then suddenly, his right forearm was completely encased in a splint. It was at this point that his senses were totally overwhelmed and seconds later he was turned to his left side where he immediately threw up. Once his stomach had stopped painfully clinching, a pair of latex gloved fingers entered his mouth and he nearly gagged as they swept about, as if looking for something. He was then turned so that he was once again on his back on the ground.

At the same time, Ant was being told to stay back but hearing his friend's cries of pain then the distinct sounds of him vomiting had him growling at anyone who tried to stand in his way...including the police officer taking Hurley and Rocky to his home for safe keeping. "Move...please," he said as he walked past. Thankfully, he didn't face resistance from the man and his next obstacle was the group of firefighters and paramedics surrounding Dec and Luke.

"Declan," he called out and he watched as his friend's head slightly turned left and right, as if in search for him all the while whining, the sound keening and high pitched. The panicked cries spurred Ant on and he tried to move around the group to get to his friend. Hearing the sounds of distress, Luke turned to the nearest firefighters. "Let...Ant...get...to...him...," he said through his own pain before dropping his head back down to the ground while trying to move away from the hands probing his painful ribs.

"Ahhhh!" he cried out, his voice drowned out by those voices flying back and forth over his head, their words indiscernible as his whole world revolved around the white hot pain. Moments later, he felt warm waves lapping their way up his body before being sucked under into blackness.

"He's out..."

At the same time, Ant had forced his way to his friend's side, as he reached down to gently grasp Dec's trembling left hand, he knelt on the ground. He ran his own shaking hand over Dec's sweaty head and he listened as a list of injuries were compiled, each sounding, in his mind, more serious than the last. Moments later, Declan had been given morphine and his cries of pain diminished until they disappeared altogether as he lost consciousness.

In the background, Luke's lax body was being lifted off the ground and placed onto a stretcher before being lifted by several of his co-workers and carried across the park to a waiting ambulance.

Ant watched as his friend was swiftly being cared for just before another stretcher was lowered to his side. Moments later, he, along with three firemen were carrying Dec's stretcher across the park and through a growing crowd as if it were a gauntlet of sorts. Ant grimly kept his head down and one of the firemen shielded Dec's face as best he could with his own helmet but pictures were being taken left and right. It wasn't much longer before Dec was lifted into the ambulance and Ant was also hustled inside.

At Charing Cross Hospital, Dr. Shannon, and his staff, were standing at the ready when Luke was brought into the emergency department. Immediately, a group of medical workers descended upon him and began to assess his condition. Bloods were drawn, x-rays were ordered, as well a whole host of tests. Just as a portable x-ray machine was wheeled into the area, Dec's stretcher was rolled into the room and Dr. Shannon was at his side almost immediately only to look up and see a flustered Ant being sat in a chair across the room with one of the paramedics bending over him, checking his blood pressure and pulse.