Running To You (A Kellington Fanfiction)

Chapter Two: Extra Blankets

“Oh god.” Rydel was the first one to take action. She sat on the edge of his bed and placed the back of her hand on his forehead. “That’s not good.” She said, looking up at her brothers.

Riker nodded quickly. “I’ll get mom.” He disappeared to the front of the bus to look for his mom, surely she’d know what to do, right?

“It‘s so cold.” Ratliff said, trying to curl up tighter than he already was.

“Rocky,” Rydel said, never taking her eyes away from their friends’ shivering form. “grab some extra blankets.”

“Yeah.” He said, pulling blankets off of the other bunks and helping Rydel place them over his body.

“How are you feeling, Ell?” Rocky asked, his lips set into a firm line. To say he was worried was an understatement.

“My head hurts.” he managed to get out although his shaking body vibrated his words.

“What’s going on?” Stormie asked as she stood in between where Rydel was sitting on the bed, and Rocky was leaning against it.

Rydel stood up so that her mom could take her place, as she was much more experienced with this type of thing.

“He’s burning up, yet he’s freezing, and he says his head hurts.” Rydel explained as her mom laid a hand on his side.

“Guys, I’m right here.” Ratliff said, annoyed that they were talking about him like he wasn’t there, and trying to lighten the mood.

“Yeah, well we’re worried about you so shut up and let us figure out what’s wrong with you.” Rocky replied, jokingly.

Ratliff smiled and laughed a little. Then he started coughing. His whole body was convulsing.

“Ellington…” Stormie trailed off, waiting for the fit to pass before saying anything else.

“I’m fi-” He tried to choke out but he couldn’t seem to catch his breath. Rydel moved to help him sit up as Stormie pulled the blankets off of him. “I can’t-” He tried gasping for air. “-breathe.”

Stormie stood up in a flash. “Riker, call 9-1-1!” She yelled to her oldest son. “Rocky, Rydel, get him standing and keep him calm.”

Riker ran to them, phone in hand, eyes wide in panic “What’s happening?!”

“We don’t have time for that right now, just call 9-1-1, we need an ambulance now.” She said as she went to the kitchen, grabbing a damp washcloth.

Rocky helped Rydel pull Ratliff into a standing position. Rocky put an arm around him for support and let him lean heavily on him. He was coughing and gasping, trying to catch his breath to get much needed air. Feeling something on his lips, he put his hand to his mouth quickly. Blood. His eyes were wide, terrified.

Rydel looked at him straight in the eyes and said in a calm voice, “Ell, you need to calm down. Just try and breathe; Relax.” She looked up at Rocky briefly to see tears streaking his cheeks.

“They’ll be here in 3 minutes, guys.” Riker said, his voice wavering.

Stormie came back in and placed the cool washcloth to his burning forehead. His body was weak from exhaustion and Rocky was holding him up. The coughing had subsided for the most part but he still could not catch his breath.

“Just breathe, Ellington.” Stormie said soothingly, trying to calm him. She wiped the blood off of his mouth. “Focus on breathing.”

He was trying his hardest but he was scared; nothing like this had ever happened to him before. They were going to take him to the hospital. He hadn’t been to the hospital in lord knows how long. He was never sick. Was he going to die? What about the show tonight? What about Kelly? She’d be so worried. All of these thoughts were circling in his mind, making him panic more, which made it harder and harder to breathe.

Nobody had noticed Riker had left until he walked into the room with a trail of paramedics behind him. Everything was a blur from then on. They brought a stretcher and had Rocky help him lay on it, they put an oxygen mask over his face and an IV in his arm as they wheeled him past the rest of his family, and into the ambulance.

Rocky and Stormie rode in the ambulance with him, and Mark followed them to the hospital with the rest of his kids in the car with him. None of them said a word.

Ryland looked at the ground. He hadn’t been there, but judging by the tears on Rocky’s face, it was not good.

Rydel was staring out the window, crying silently, trying not to breakdown. She knew she had to stay strong for everyone else, but they hadn’t seen that look in his eyes.

Riker never took his eyes off of the ambulance in front of them.

And Ross looked back and forth between his siblings, trying to put it all together, but not daring to break the silence.

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Author's Note:

I am sooooooo sorry that I have not updated in like- 2 months. I suck, I know! I'm not gonna give you all my reasons as to why I couldn't update- but I will tell you this! I'M BACK! Thank you so much to the people that took time to comment on what they thought of it! As always, I would love to hear you opinions! Sorry it's so short, I wanted to get it up ASAP!

Thanks for reading!

-Lizzie