Little Lynch

911

"Grab the butter!" Ell yelled. I giggled, running for the fridge. "Faster, Zee! The world depends on it!"

"No it doesn't! It's just butter for our popcorn!"

"Well, my world depends on it," Ellington joked.

"Mine too."

I sat on the couch and Ell followed carrying a bowl of popcorn. He sat next to me and turned on the movie. We watched in peace for a while, before Ell started to make fun of every little thing any character did. I joined in and we laughed nonstop for a while. But my chest got really tight after a few minutes, so I stopped laughing.

"What's wrong?" Ellington asked.

"I can't breathe," I whispered, which was all I was able to do at the moment.

"Are you okay? Should I call someone?" I started to cough, a lot. I couldn't catch my breath and felt really weak. "Hey, stay with me. Don't shut your eyes," Ell stammered. He pulled his phone out of his pocket and dialed 911 before calling Ryland. "They'll be here soon." And that's all I remember before shutting my eyes and falling unconscious.

• • • 

I woke up in a truck. No, an ambulance.

"Blood pressure is 90 over 50!" someone called. I had a mask on over my mouth and a little clip on my finger. I was scared.

"You're going to be alright, we have everything under control, okay?" A nurse explained.

"Where is Ryland?" I asked.

"He's your brother?" I nodded. "He's meeting you at the hospital, we're almost there. Just stay with us. Keep your eyes open." I nodded again. It was a long 5 minutes to the hospital. They pushed me in and I really wanted to go to sleep. I was exhausted. But I stayed awake. I got put into a room with lots of doctors and nurses. They were poking my and telling me to do lots of different things.

"Take a deep breath for me," one said.

"Let me see you wiggle your fingers," another said.

"Follow this light but only with your eyes, don't move your head."

"Stay still, we have to get an accurate read." It was hard to follow all the instructions and I was worried I would have another panic attack like I did earlier. But I didn't. Of all the things I didn't want to happen, I would much rather have a panic attack than stop breathing. But it was in the past now and I was going to get help.

"When can I see Ryland?" I asked.

"Who?" A few nurses asked each other but someone told them that he was my brother.

"Soon," a nurse told me.

"Okay," I sighed.

"Just try and do what we say and stay awake. It'll make it go faster and you'll be a lot more comfortable."

"Okay." After a lot of jabbing and commands, I was wheeled to a room.

I stared at the ceiling and waited Ry and Ell. I hoped no one else came.

"Baby!" Ryland called as he ran into my room. I started to cry, I was so happy to see him.

"No, Zanni. Smile. I never thought I'd get to see your smile again. Don't cry!" I smiled for him, but tears were still falling. Ellington walked into the room soon after, wrapping me in his arms in a very protective way. I knew that under the watch of these two, nothing could happen.

"I'm tired," I muttered, closing my eyes. I listened to the song Ryland had been humming for a while as he pushed my hair out of my eyes and kept stroking it. I soon fell into a peaceful sleep with two people that I knew loved me very much.

• • •

I awoke next to Riker. Riker!

I slowly opened my eyes, still exhausted.

"Hey, sweetheart. How are you doing?" I shrugged.

"I'm tired," I groaned.

"I know," Riker said, holding my hand and kissing my forehead. "Go back to sleep." I did.

• • •

"We think she had an allergic reaction. We want to do a radioallergosorbent test to make sure."

"What's that?" I asked.

"In short, it is just a blood test to test what the patient, in this case, Rosannah, is allergic to."

"But, when we found out Rydel was allergic to cats and dogs, she didn't need that," Riker questioned.

"This is because, one, allergies like that are easy to diagnose, with common symptoms. Two, those are airbourne allergies. We have no idea what Rosannah could be allergic to, or if this is even the case. It could be a skin irritant, something like cats and dogs, or something she ate. It will be easier and more accurate to determine something with this test."  

• • •

"Okay, this seems okay. Are you up for it, Ro?" Riker asked in my hospital room later that night.

"What?"

"The... um... radio-all- I don't know, that thing they were talking about earlier with the allergy test. Does it sound okay? Something you would be okay doing?" I nodded, knowing I had no other choice. "And Ry and Ell and I will be there, too. So we never loose sight of you and you know we won't let anything happen to you."

"Yeah," I mumbled.

"I don't want you to go into this blindly, you have a choice."

"No I don't, I'll die if I say no."

"So say yes, unless you have a very good reason to say no."

"Okay, fine. I'm scared. I just want to go home."

"I do too, baby. But you don't need to be scared because we all love you very much and will not let anything happen to you."

"It's gonna hurt."

"I'll hold your hand. And we can go out for ice cream after, how's that sound. Ross told me you wanted ice cream when I was here with Violet and Spencer. Would you like me to take you on a special Rosie-Rikey outing?"

"Okay."

And that was the end to one of the scariest days I have ever had.