The Circle of Life (Book 2 in the Shine Bright Like a Diamond Series)

Chapter 26 - Weird & Wild

"Unit 18, person in distress on Colehaven bridge. SFD also in attendance." Dispatch called over Tanner's radio.
"Copy that. Unit 18 responding." Ryan responded over the radio as he flicked on his lights and sirens and turned around, heading towards the address of the call.
As he arrived on the scene and climbed out his car, Ryan's heart sank. Standing on the edge of the bridge was Dani. She looked very agitated, and she had tears streaming down her face.
"Dani? It's Ryan...what's going on?" Ryan asked gently as he cautiously walked closer to the edge while making sure people stayed back.
"No! Stay back! Get away from me!!" Dani screamed as she backed up against the railing.
"It's okay. I'll stay back. Jus-Just tell me what's going on." Ryan bagged as he looked at Dani's shaken state.
"STAY AWAY FROM ME!!" Dani screamed. Ryan backed up a little to try and get the teen to calm down. He had no idea what was going. He looked back as he heard the fire department arriving. He quickly walked over to them.
"What do we have?" Jack asked Ryan as everyone got out of the vehicles.
"It's Dani." Ryan stated.
"What?!" Travis asked, shocked as he quickly moved to see what was going on.
"Wait. Something's wrong. She's really upset, and something is clearly going on." Ryan explained as the others moved to see what was happening.
"Andy, Maya, grab the ropes and harnesses. I'll rope up and get closer to her and try to talk to her. Warren and Vic, be in medical stand by. Miller, crowd control." Jack instructed as he took charge of the situation. He then walked closer to Dani with Ryan so he could look at the state the teen was in. She was looking around frantically, and she was shaking really badly. He turned and started pulling on a harness as Andy hooked him up to a line, so he was safe. Once he was secure, he started walking out as the others stayed back. As he got closer, he started taking very small steps.
"Dani." He said gently, not wanting to startle the teen.
"Dani...look at me, look at me" Jack pleaded seriously, slowly moving towards the teen as he tried to get her attention. Dani hesitantly looked at Jack. She was shaking and obviously frightened.
"What's going on?" Jack asked, trying to figure out what was wrong with the teen as he had never seen her like this. The others stood back and watched. Travis stood near the truck and watched. He was fighting back tears. The person he saw as a daughter was practically having a mental breakdown in front of him and there was nothing he could do about it. Andy snuck her phone out and started recording so she could show doctors how Dani was behaving.
"They won't stop...I need them to go away but they won't..." Dani cried.
"Who won't Dani? It's just you and me out here." Jack said calmly, trying to keep it together as this was hard on him.
"The voices...can't you hear them?" Dani asked. She looked at everyone else before she looked at Jack.
"I'm not crazy...I swear I'm not crazy" Dani muttered, as if trying to reassure herself as well as the others when she realised she was the only one who could hear the voices.
"No it's okay- " Jack started.
"I'M NOT CRAZY!" Dani screamed, starting to climb over the railing. Jack leapt forward, grabbed Dani, and pulled her back from the edge.
"Oh my god." Travis said distressed as he ran his hand over his watery eyes and watched what happened next.
"I'm not crazy, I'm not crazy, I'm not crazy..." Dani kept repeating, as she struggled against Jack who held her tightly whilst Warren and Vic sedated Dani.
"Shh...it's okay." Jack whispered, as he knelt down onto the ground with Dani in his arms. Once Dani was asleep Vic placed an oxygen mask on her face before Jack lifted her on the gurney. Once Dani was safely strapped to it, they started to wheel her to the aid car.
"I'll drive." Warren said, jumping into the driver's seat. Everyone helped load Dani into the aid car before they rushed to the truck, preparing to follow the aid car. Travis and Vic jumped into the back of the ambulance. Both vehicles rushed away from the scene, lights and sirens blaring, headed for Grey Sloan Memorial. In the back of the ambulance, Vic monitored Dani's vitals whilst Travis sat and held Dani's hand whilst he stared blankly at the wall.
"How didn't I not notice Vic? How didn't I know something was wrong?" Travis asked angrily, as he choked back tears.
"Hey...none of us saw this coming. There were no warning signs, nothing." Vic tried to explain.
"I should have seen it coming...I mean I live with her for god's sake!" Travis replied angrily.
"Hey, Travis! None of that matters now. What matters is we get her to the hospital so she can get the help she needs, yeah?" Vic said seriously, placing her hand on his arm in aid to get through to him. Travis sighed, nodded, and rubbed his face to wipe away the tears.
Shortly after they arrived at Grey Sloan Memorial. Travis remained seated as they unloaded Dani. Dr Owen Hunt was the main doctor on the case.
"Danielle Ann Flanagan. Eighteen-year-old female who was found on Colehaven bridge in a psychotic state. We have video evidence. We had to sedate her to transport her safely. All her obs are relatively normal." Warren explained, as the transferred Dani onto another bed.
"We've got her." Owen reassured them all. Travis stood by the window and looked into the trauma room, watching everything they were doing.
"Travis..." Vic called, trying to gain his attention as he stared blankly into the room at Dani. Vic placed her hand on his shoulder. Travis took a shaky breath before he turned to face his best friend. He went to say something but instead shook his head and broke down crying. Vic pulled Travis into a tight embrace and let him cry it out.
"Where are you taking her?" Travis questioned pulling away from Vic as they wheeled Dani out of the room.
"We're taking her for a CT. We're going to run every test in the book to rule every possibility out." Owen explained.
"I'll come find you once she's back." Owen reassured Travis, before he walked off after his patient down the corridor. Hesitantly, Travis and Vic went to join everyone in the waiting room.
"How is she?" Andy asked. Jack was sitting in the corner unusually quiet.
"They're running tests. It's just a waiting game now." Travis said quietly.
"Someone should call Liam and Emma." Jack said standing up suddenly and walking off quickly. Everyone sighed and sat back, preparing for a long and anxious wait for any news on Dani.

Nearly two hours passed before Owen returned to Travis in the waiting room - who was now all alone as the rest of the station were called out again to another job.
"How is she?" Travis asked Owen desperately, jumping up as he saw him coming.
"She's stable. We've still got her sedated. There's good and bad news." Owen started.
"Okay..." Travis responded.
"So, the CT revealed a tumour in her abdomen. It's not life threatening but- "Owen explained.
"Tumour? But what?" Travis asked.
"The tumour creates and releases hormones that mess with your brain. In Dani's case, it's the cause of today's events." Owen explained.
"So, there weren't any warning signs for me to see?" Travis questioned.
"No. Nobody could have seen this coming." Owen reassured him.
"Right...so what happens now?"
"We'll operate to remove the tumour and then everything will return to normal." Owen stated.
"Will it happen again?" Travis asked.
"No, these types of tumours only grow once, and they only grow where we've found it so once we dissect around the area Dani will make a full recovery." Owen said happily.
"Oh, thank god." Travis said relieved.
"We're taking her to surgery now. It should be just under two hours or so. I'll come find you once it's over." Owen added.
"Thank you." Travis mentioned, before Owen walked away.

Later that evening, Travis was sitting on the chair next to Dani's bed. He had his jacket slumped over his body as he tried to resist the urge to sleep. It had been a long day, but he wanted to be awake when Dani woke up. Emma had been there with Travis most of the day but as her dad was staying overnight to keep an eye on Dani, he had put her in one of the on-call rooms so she could get some sleep. Liam had fallen asleep by Dani's bedside earlier on and had now gone to the cafeteria to grab some food with Ryan.
"She'll be okay you know. She's been through worse." Ryan said to Liam as they sat down at a table. Liam had a sandwich, crisps, and bottle of coke as Ryan sipped on a coffee.
"I know. She doesn't seem to catch a break lately." Liam said as he opened the sandwich packet and took a bite. They sat and chatted as Liam ate his sandwich. They were disturbed by Liam's phone pinging, signalling a new message. He slid his phone off the table.
"She's awake!" He exclaimed happily, quickly getting up. He threw the empty sandwich packet into the bin before he grabbed his other stuff and quickly headed back to her room which Ryan hot on her heels. As they got back to the room, Travis was explaining what had happened to the teen.
"Well fuck...if it's going to happen, of course it would be to me." Dani said, making Liam laugh slightly.
"How are you feeling kiddo?" Ryan asked, glad to see the teen in a better state than the last time she was conscious.
"Sore and tired but I'm okay." She said shifting slightly to get more comfortable.
"I'll tell Dr Hunt on my way out. I should probably get some sleep. I have a shift in a few hours. I should probably get Emma home as well." Ryan said, noticing the time.
"She's still here?"
"Yeah. Her dad put her in one of the on-call rooms as she didn't want to leave until you were awake." Liam explained, making Dani smile.
"I'll stop by and visit tomorrow." Ryan said, grabbing his jacket from the end of Dani's bed.
"Thanks Ryan."

"Dani's awake." Ryan said as he approached Owen by the nurse's station.
"She said she's a little sore." He added.
"That's to be expected but I'll get her some more pain meds." Owen said, grabbing a tablet."
"I'm headed off now, so I can drop Emma home to get some real sleep." Ryan told Owen.
"Thank you." Owen said as he showed Ryan where the teen was.
"Em." Owen said quietly as he gently woke up his daughter.
"Huh?-" She asked, rubbing her eyes.
"Dani's awake. You can come back and see her in the morning. Ryan's going to take you home honey." Owen said as she sat up.
"Okay." Emma mumbled, still half asleep.
"Liam said for you to wear this. It's going to be cold." Ryan said, handing Emma Liam's hoodie which he had been given. Emma smiled slightly and pulled it on before she said goodbye to her dad and headed home with Ryan.

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A/N – Back with another update. I handed in the last of my graded projects last week and now I'm just working on a fun class project until we official finish our first year of University in a few weeks' time. So, now I hopefully have more time to write. We're getting closer to book three in the series!