Chapter 5- This Can't Be Happening

Doc removed his fingers from Leo’s carotid and began to push upon his chest up and down as Amberleigh and Grayson watched in a horrified silence. The alarm continued to scream, the noise penetrating Amber’s skull, and making her head feel like it was about to fucking explode. Cori ran to the edge of the stairs and screamed up to her brother at the top of her lungs.

“Donny! We need another pair of hands down here now!”

She pushed the cart over to the stretcher and ripped open a package of electrodes attached to the machine. She slapped them on Leo’s chest expertly and quickly before she turned on the machine. Amber could do nothing but watch the scene in a stupor. Her mind not wanting to process. It hurt too much.

“Has his…his.. heart…?”stuttered Grayson.

 “Lost his pulse. His heart has gone into V-fib. It’s not a rhythm compatible with life,” explained Cori.

“What does that mean?”

Amber was still tightly gripping Grayson’s hand. But she couldn’t form coherent thoughts or words as the Doc continued CPR upon a lifeless body. Her mind detached from it being her Leo. Cori was messing with dials on the machine. Heavy fast footfalls came barreling down the stairs and seconds later Donovan appeared. He was panting and red-faced. One look at the scene before him had him scrambling to the garbage can to empty the contents of his stomach.

“This can’t be happening,” said Grayson softly.

“Prepare to shock at 200 joules,” ordered Doc, then he turned to his son, “Donny, I need you to pull yourself together and bag him.”

“Charging now. Drawling up epi on standby. Prepare to stand clear when I give the word.”

Cori pulled open the top drawer of the crash cart and removed a vial of med to draw up into a syringe. Donovan finished throwing up and pulled himself together. It was clear the boy had been trained and assisted down here before, weak stomach or not.

He pulled open a drawer and removed an oxygen mask attached to what appeared to be a football- shaped rubber bag. He pulled a plastic wrap off quickly, Ambu Bag was in red writing. He assembled the Ambu Bag with shaking hands and plugged it into the oxygen tubing. Donny then ran over above Leo and fitted the mask over the chef’s unmoving face, awaiting the signal from his father to give the breaths.

Grayson had wandered closer to Leo. The billionaire’s breaths sounded as if they were being torn painfully through a jagged hole in his chest. He found his friend’s limp hand and held onto it tightly. For dear fucking life. As if he was determined not to let Leo pass into the next life. Determined to keep his best friend in this world here or go with him.

“Leo. Please don’t go. Please don’t leave me here to deal with this shit alone. I can’t do this without you and I don’t want to. It’s you and me remember? G-Man and L-Dawg,” came a broken plea from a breaking man.

Amber was watching the billionaire crumble before her eyes, while she was numb. Watched as tears snaked from his icy blue eyes and spilled down his cheeks. Down his walls tumbled. How much could someone handle before they were broken beyond repair? And the billionaire seemed to be quickly approaching that edge of no return. That edge of darkness and no hope which was nearly fucking impossible to pull yourself up from again.

“Stand clear! Hands off!” screamed Cori.

Cori’s words didn’t seem to register in Grayson’s mind. Amber pulled him back, like her mind had shut down, but her body was functioning in auto pilot. Leo’s arm stretched across the space as Grayson didn’t or couldn’t let him go. The others had all let Leo go and moved back from the stretcher a bit. But Grayson wouldn’t let Leo go. The Doc took advantage of the interruption to instruct Donovan to give Leo two breaths of oxygen through the bag.

There was softness in her voice when Cori spoke. No longer so clinical or detached.

“You have to let him go. At least for now to save him. He needs a shock to try and put his heart back into a normal rhythm. It’s his only chance.”

Grayson nodded. He took a deep breath and gently set Leo’s arm back on the stretcher. He moved away from his friend, though it seemed to come at a great effort to do so. He looked so lost and broken, like a scared little boy. Far from the powerful man who helped run this fucking city. Amber couldn’t help but wrap her arms around his waist and held tight. He needed someone to hold onto and so did she.

Cori made sure all their hands were off Leo before she pressed a red button on the machine. Leo’s body jolted up off the table and Amber gasped. Doc immediately resumed his chest compressions and Cori pushed the Epi into Leo’s vein.

“Prepare… to... in..tubate,” managed Doc.

Amber and the other employees at The Cobra Club had taken some basic first aid courses. She remembered laughing with Ebony while her friend pretended to hump that training dummy. They hadn’t taken it all that seriously and cut up that day. Amber bitched about it being too much cardio. But now this wasn’t fucking funny at all. It was real life at stake. Leo’s precious life. She should have paid more attention and taken it more seriously. Instead of standing here useless, she could have been fucking helping to save his life. Doing something!

“Rhythm and pulse check in one minute and twenty seconds. Donny get ready to switch places with Dad.”

“Got it,” said Donny, “I’ll gather the supplies for the intubation while you prepare the meds sis.”

“Sounds like a plan little brother.”

“Come on Leo,” said Grayson, “you can fucking do this! I know you can do this! Come on Leo!”

Amber felt a tear slip down her face.  Tasted the salt upon of it on her lips.  She squeezed Grayson a bit tighter. She and Grayson could do nothing more than just watch and pray silently as the Doc and his family worked like a chaotic machine to save a life. Though the gears weren’t perfect, like Donny dropped the intubation kit, they still turned and kept going when it mattered most.

Cori yelled it was time to check for a pulse and the heart rhythm. The Doctor pushed his fingers into Leo’s neck and Cori’s eyes went to the monitor.  Amber thought the best sound she had ever heard was when her son cried for the first time in the delivery room. It had been a life changing moment. But this Christmas Day, a sound rivaled that moment in time, when Doc shouted Leo had a pulse.

“Hearts in Sinus Tach as well,” smiled Cori, “I’ll get the meds to intubate.”

“Well done team!” said Donny.

The boy grinned boyishly it even reached his grey eyes. He gave an air high five as his father’s hands were occupied with the equipment needed to intubate Leo. Amber let out a breath. Then another. She dared to hope that those peaks across the heart monitor stayed that way instead of squiggly lines. That that 118 beats per minute didn’t plummet to zero. Beside her, Grayson’s body didn’t seem so taut, but he was far from relaxed or breathing normally.

“Not in the clear just yet son. Still have lots of work to do for young Leo here. Starting with protecting his airway.”

“Is he going to make it?” asked Grayson, “recover from this?”

“I’ll do what I can for him. But we also leave it in God’s hands. We got him back rather quickly which lessens the chance of brain damage from lack of oxygen. But he also has lost lots of blood which can have the same effect to his brain or other organs. We still do not know what internal damage the bullet has caused either. Right now, you two should prepare yourself for a long night ahead.”

It hadn’t felt like a short time that Leo’s heart wasn’t beating. It had felt like fucking eternity.

“Will do. I’m not fucking going anywhere until he wakes up. And he will wake up,” declared Grayson, “Leo is the strongest person I know. He will wake up and walk the fuck out of here.”

The Doc nodded, “And I will help give him that fighting chance. Lot’s of work to do.”

Grayson reclaimed Leo’s hand again. He stood silently, not leaving his friend’s side for several hours afterwards. Amber wondered what was keeping the billionaire on his feet as the evening turned into twilight and beyond. Through it all, Grayson stood firm and didn’t let go.