I Can Hear Your Heart (A Heartstopper FanFic -- BOOK 1)

15. Precipice

Nellie was whining.

She kept trying to get to Charlie, to lick his face, but Dawson kept pulling her back.

It was becoming almost impossible for Nick to discern Charlie's ragged heartbeat when his own was pounding so loudly in his ears.

He didn't know how long he knelt there. All he knew was the slick red blood that now coated his hands to his wrists. The lake water had turned a lot of it pink and streaky but more was slipping between his fingers at an alarming rate.

Charlie. Charlie. Charlie.

Suddenly, a pair of hands wrapped around Nick's wrists and someone was pulling him away.

"No. I have to -- I have to keep pressure..."

At some point an ambulance had arrived and the hands around his wrists belonged to one of the paramedics. They were speaking calmly but firmly to him. He could hear the words but their meaning was being lost on the way to his brain.

Then Charlie was being lifted onto a stretcher and Nick was on his feet.

Distantly, Dawson was shouting something at him. Something about Nellie. Something about meeting him at the hospital.

Nick didn't care. He didn't care to see that woman ever again.

No one stopped him climbing into the ambulance after Charlie. He was glad no one tried.

Someone pushed him into a seat and fastened a seat belt around him. A blanket was draped over his shoulders.

The ambulance started to move. It suddenly became clear to him that the woman speaking to him was waiting for an answer.

"Sir? Are you hurt?"

"Charlie..."

The other two paramedics were a flurry of activity around the stretcher where Charlie lay.

Charlie. Charlie. Charlie.

Nick tugged at the seatbelt buckle and made to move toward him.

"Please stay in your seat, sir. Your friend is in safe hands, I assure you --"

"Boyfriend. He's my boyfriend."

"Okay," said the paramedic calmly. She was scribbling something on a clipboard. "Can you tell me his full name and date of birth?"

Nick heard himself speak as if it was someone else. "Charles Francis Spring. 27th April 1995."

"Blood type?"

"I don't know."

"Contact number? For a parent or guardian?"

"I don't know."

"That's okay. Don't worry --"

But Nick was no longer paying attention. The tiniest noise, a shift of breath -- Charlie's head moved a fraction of an inch. "Nick..."

Nick unclipped the seat belt before he knew what he was doing. The paramedic with the clipboard was there immediately, a firm hand against his chest, preventing him from moving any further.

"Charlie! I'm here!"

Nick heard Charlie gasp in pain. The smallness of his voice broke Nick's heart into pieces. "Nick?"

"Let me go to him," Nick gasped. "Please?"

One of the paramedics spoke calmly to Charlie. "Your friend is right here, okay. You need to relax as much as you can. You need to conserve your energy --"