After The Reasons

Alive. We are alive.

The ambulance starts driving and the paramedic is attaching an oxygen mask to Claire's dad. "What's your dads name, Claire?" I ask. "Henry Kline." She answers. "Okay, Henry. You need to fight to stay alive! Do you hear me!" I say as I continue to pump his chest to keep his heart beating. I look at the name badge on the paramedics shirt 'Jamie' it reads. "Jamie. Can I call you Jamie? I'm gonna call you Jamie." I say and he nods. "I need paddles!" I say, climbing off of Henry but continuing CPR. Jamie hands me the paddles and he cuts off Henry's shirt. "One... two... three... clear!" I shout and shock him. "Charge to two hundred!" I say. "One... two... three... clear!" The paddles shock Mr Kline once again and his heart starts beating again. I let out a breath and hand the paddles back to Jamie. The EKG shows a normal heart rate, but it quickly speeds up. "Tachycardia! His heart rate is speeding up! Claire do you know what blood type your father is?" I ask her. She shakes her head. "We can't do a blood transfusion without known his blood type!" Jamie says. I nod, "insert an IV drip!" I say and Jamie starts hanging the fluid while I insert the needle. The fluids start going into Mr Kline and his heart rate starts to normalise. "Okay, he's stable for now! We need to get to the hospital ASAP!" I say. "Clay, you're bleeding!" Jamie points out. I look at my arms and there is a huge cut in my arm with lots of glass inside. "I'm fine." Jamie gives me the look that doctors give you when you're being stupid, he starts looking at the cut. "There's a lot of glass in there, I'll clean it out the now but you'll need stitches." Jamie explains and starts getting equipment. "Jamie I'm fine. Mr Kline needs help not me, it's just a cut." I tell him. "Mr Kline is stable for now! We need to fix that arm so infection doesn't occur, you know this." He says firmly. I roll my eyes and give him access to my bleeding arm, he begins picking all the glass shards out of my arm and then he stitches me up. "Thanks." Jamie nods and checks Mr Kline's vitals. The ambulance comes to a halt and I open the doors, letting the doctors get to Mr Kline. Jamie walks into the hospital with the doctors, I take Jessica's hand and help her out of the ambulance and I do the same for Claire. Both Jessica and Claire are crying and shaking hysterically, which is understandable. Jessica looks at me with terror behind her eyes, "Jess... it's okay." I whisper to her. She wraps her arms around my neck and holds on tightly, sobbing into my shoulder. I hug her back tightly and tell her she's okay. "We're alive." She says. I let go of her and take her face in my hands. "We are alive, Jess. We are okay, we're alive." I say as I wipe her tears away. It's not fair, Jessica has gone through enough, she doesn't deserve this shit. "Are you Clay?" I hear a woman ask me. "Yeah." I say and turn around. "Come with me." She says. I take Jessica's hand and I take Claire's hand then we all walk into the hospital. The doctor guides us through the ER where all the people from Monets are being treated and into a private room where three police officers are sitting. "Hello, Clay." Says the one in the middle. I smile a little, "Hey Sheriff Standall." Jessica and I look at each other with shock on our faces. "Please can you three take a seat. We have to ask you some questions about what happened at Monets today." He says. We all take a seat across from the three officers. "Okay, we have Clay Jensen, Jessica Davis and... I'm sorry what's your name?" Standall asks. "Claire. Claire Kline." She says. "And Claire Kline. So, can you guys please tell me what you saw? We have officers with the others that were not injured but you three seem to be the main ones... ironically" he says looking at me and Jessica. Jessica takes hold of my hand again and she sobs a little. "What happened is we came back to this fucking town!" She shouts. I squeeze her hand. "Jess..." I whisper and shake my head when she turn to me. "We were in Monets and a guy dressed all in black came in with a gun. He started shooting people and windows then Clay told him who he was like all this personal information and then he stole the money and left." Jessica explains. "How many shots were there?" Standall asks. "Were we supposed to be counting instead of trying to dodge bullets?" Claire asks, slightly pissed off. Sheriff Standall sits back and sighs, crossing his arms. "Thirteen shots were fired. Thirteen." I say as I stare into space. "You're sure it was thirteen?" Standall asks. "He's obviously not 100% sure! He was trying not to die!" Jessica spits. "Thirteen shots were fired... I'm sure of it." I confirm. "Okay then... thank you. I'll be in touch with you all soon." He says. Standall and the other two officers stand. "Well done, Clay. I heard what you did out there... you're a hero." Standall says and reaches his hand to me. I shake it and nod then all three officers leave the room. The door opens again and a nurse walks in, "Claire Kline?" She asks. Claire stands up. "We need you to come and give us some information about your father." Claire leaves the room with the nurse. I sigh and drop my head to the table, I'm exhausted. I did not wake up with the intention of doing what I done today... that was not in the plan. "How the hell did you know all of that?" Jessica asks. "Clay that's more than you just watching Greys Anatomy! You knew exactly what to do and how to do it!" She adds. I lift my head off of the table. "I've been lying to you. I've been lying to you for a while..." I admit. Jessica puts her hands on the table, "What do you mean? What have you lied about, Clay?" She asks, clearly concerned. I should tell her. I should've told Jessica four years ago when I decided, or one of the times that I went to visit her in Scotland. "I didn't go to college to study robotics..." I begin. Jessica screws her face up slightly, confused. "I went to medical school." I say. Jessica's mouth parts slightly and her eyebrows raise, "you what?" I swallow hard. "After Justin died, I decided I didn't want to study robotics anymore. So I went to medical school so that I could help save lives... lives like Justin's." I explain. Jessica's lips turn to a very small smile. "You went to medical school and didn't tell me?" She asks, clearly a little hurt. I nod my head. This is the thing about lies... when they come out, they hurt. Jessica is my sister and I didn't tell her about a life altering decision I made, she's hurt because I lied. "I'm sorry." I say. Jessica stands up and walks to my chair, she sits on my knee and hugs me. "Don't be sorry, Clay. I just wish you'd told me... especially since you done it because of Justin." I hug Jessica back and I feel her relax finally, she's been tense since the second she saw the gunman. "I know, I'm sorry." I say. "I was so scared that you were going to die today. When you wouldn't get down on the floor... then you started talking to him!" Jessica cuts herself off and squeezes me tighter. "I thought I was going to lose you. I thought you were going to die on me!" She sobs. I hug her tighter and try to calm her down. "I'm not dead, I'm here." I tell her. "You can't die on me too... Clay you can't leave me too!" I shake my head, "Jess, I'm not going anywhere anytime soon! I'm not going to die on you." I promise her. I never thought about what I did today would effect Jessica. Saying the things I said to a gunman who had the ability to kill me when she was there... I never thought about how horrible that would have been for her. Wait... somebody tried to shoot us. "Jessica..." I say. Jessica lets go if my neck, facing me with realisation and fear on her face. "Who the hell was the shooter?"