In the Deep *Book Two* Water Trilogy

Eleven

The race to the shore meant life or death. My body was shaking with adrenaline as I grew impatient and anxious by the seconds as I performed CPR. Audrey laid limp and cold on the boats deck; I still didn't give up. 

I counted to thirty compression's before giving her two breaths, only to repeat the process that seemed to become more and more pointless with every number. 

One. 

Two. 

Three. 

Still not breathing. 

Four. 

Five. 

Six. 

Her heart had quit. 

Seven. 

Eight. 

Nine... 

Tears filled my eyes and I sobbed. I held her in my arms, digging my face as deep into her neck as I could. The boat slowed. 

At first I had thought that Jim had given up, that we were just going to have to except that Audrey was gone and I couldn't help the rage that wanted to lash out at everything, including him. But I was wrong. Jim wasn't quitting. We had arrived at the dock behind his shop. 

"My truck is in the front parking lot," He jumped onto the dock as if he were years younger than he really was. He tied the boat. "Come on, boy! You can't quit on her now. She needs you more than anything."

Fueled by Jim's hope, I hurried to the edge and handed her gently down. I jumped off the boat, took Audrey back into my arms, and Jim and I ran to his truck. It was an old thing with pealing red paint, a dented bumper, and a torn up three-seater bench with burn makes in it. The cab of the truck smelled like tobacco and peppermint. The engine roared to life as Jim shoved into reverse and took off to the hospital. 

Only minutes in and I had already lost the hope Jim had tried to give me. 

"It's no use," I whispered. My voice lacked emotion, nothing but monotone. Audrey wouldn't have even recognized my tone. He glanced out of the corner of his eye. 

"Don't say that, Finn. Keep giving her oxygen." 

I followed the order without thinking. I felt like I was shutting down just like Audrey. How was I supposed to live without her? How could life keep going if she wasn't there? The thoughts sent me farther into depression but I kept counting the compression's and breaths I breathed into her. I lived in the ocean, I wasn't some super hero. My arms began to give out as a blue sign with a giant white H appeared in the light of the head lights. 

"We're getting close," Jim said so softly I couldn't figure out if he was talking to himself or trying to reassure me. The possibility that he was trying to comfort Audrey crossed my mind. A mile in a half later we pulled into a well lit, hospital parking lot. Jim pulled up to the front at an alarming rate, nearly taking out a few pedestrians. "Go, boy! What are you waiting for?" 

Without giving a response I leaped from the old truck and rushed through hospital, shoving someone out of the way as I did, not even caring to say sorry. 

"What the hell-" someone shouted after me but I barely heard them over my own yelling. 

"Someone! Help!" My voice raw, seeming to lose it's volume with every word that passed between my lips. Apparently my voice wasn't as quiet to the people outside my head. A woman with thick black hair and long nails wearing a pink nurses uniform jumped out of her rolling chair and immediately called for help. Other nurses rushed to her aid. The woman in the pink scrubs, from the way she was acting, was clearly new. 

"We have an emergency!" Another nurse with blonde hair pulled into a ponytail called, more in control of herself and the situation. 

"Please, you have to help her," I begged,, not realizing that I was breaking down in the middle of the hospital. "Her hearts stopped." 

"We need a stretcher!" The blonde woman yelled to another worker. 

The stretcher was there. They took Audrey out of my arms. I tried to be calm but the fact that she wasn't with me was too much. They took off towards a room with me following close behind. 

"You can't come back here," a doctor who happened to be in the hall stopped me in my tracks. 

"You don't understand, that girl is my girlfriend, I have to go with her!" I tried to force myself through. 

"Security!" 

"Audrey!" I reached for her but the nurses were already rolling her into the room and hands were holding me. My fist connecting with a jaw and I heard a crack. I thought I was going to get free until I felt a sting in my neck and cool liquid flowing through my veins. I had been sedated. 

"Finn," Jim's gravely voice cut through the silence in my head like a saw. 

"What-" I opened my eyes only to still not be able to see other than blurry forms that didn't make any sense. "Where the hell am I? Where's Audrey" I tried to get up from the weird and uncomfortable slouching position I had been in only to fall to the floor. 

"Boy, you're so drugged up all I heard out of that whole thing was Audrey." He laughed. "Now let me get you off the floor and back into the chair, okay?" 

Jim struggled to lift me. My body wasn't responding the way I wanted it to and I grunted in frustration. 

"Audrey." I repeated her name. 

"The doc said it was a miracle," Jim said as he dropped me roughly into a chair. My head rolled forward and he helped me lift it back up. "said if it hadn't been for you she never would have made it." 

I tried to smile at the thought of Audrey being okay but somehow ended up drooling on myself and being scolded by Jim since he was the only one present to clean it up.

"I hope you get over this soon, if I have to wipe one more bit of slobber off of you I'm going to leave you here." 

I, once again, fell unconscious, only thins time it was to Jim's ranting. 

I woke up by myself in the middle of a waiting room. The windows that provided a view to the outside showed that it was sometime at night, though I couldn't tell exactly what time for the life of me. I successfully sat up on my own, to my relief, before wandering around to find a desk. Instead of finding a doctor or a nurse I ran into Connor. 

"Finn!" he said, excited to see me. 

"Hey, Connor." 

"Mom, Dad, look who finally woke up," he said as he motioned for me to follow him into a room. I was greeted by Audrey's mom with a huge and a slap on the back from her dad. 

"You saved her," Mrs. Pitkus smiled, tears barely being held in. "Thank you." 

I didn't know what to say so I said nothing at all. Instead, I walked over to Audrey's bed and sat down on a chair beside it. Her face and hair had been washed of the blood but scratches, cuts, and bruises still dominated her features. My hand found its self entwining naturally with hers. 

"The doctors say she might not wake up for a while," Connor said matter-of-factly. I jumped at his sudden closeness. "She'll get better though." 

"Oh, there you are boy," Jim said as he barged into the room. "I went to get some food, came back, and the next thing I know, you were missing. Thought I would find you here; or I hoped I would at least." 

Jim shrugged as he shoved a cookie in his mouth.

"Why don't you guys go home?" He said to Audrey's family. "Finn slept a long time with those sedatives. Bet he's rested enough to watch over her for the rest of the night." 

After some debating they all decided to leave me with her so they could get some rest. Once they were gone I finally realized how much, unconscious or not, I wanted to be by myself with Audrey. 

"I love you," whispered softly as my fingers trailed gently across her skin. "And I always will."