The Girl he Wants

43- I Found his Dead Body.

RECAP: Jay and Elizabeth are rushed to the hospital. Hanes, Ruth, and Asher find the dead body and are clueless. Natalie and Sam talk about Natalie's stomach pains.

***ELIZABETH'S P.O.V***

   Elizabeth swallows a huge, uncomfortable lump that has formed in her throat and asks, "How much longer until we are at the hospital?"

   "Five minutes tops." The driver calls from the front, his authoritative voice echoing inside Elizabeth's twirling head.

   "Okay." Elizabeth shuts her eyes only to wipe her tears away. When she opens them again, she squeezes Jay's hand and peers at his face.

    His lips are as pale as a ghost and below his closed eyes he has two huge, shadow-filled lines. It's as if darkness has settled over him like a cloud of smoke.

As for Elizabeth, she's numb with shock and questions. What happened? Why did those men stab him in the alleyway? Were they the same people who killed John Shelton in the next alleyway down?

"Uh..." Jay painfully moans, his head rolling to the side. Elizabeth automatically throws her hands to him, holding his head in her shaking, bloody hands.

   Her blue eyes grow as wide as the sea as her heart skips an awful beat. "Jay?!"

   Jay goes still again and it seems as if his body is nothing but a statue as it lies on the stretcher. Elizabeth chokes on her own tears, half-certain he isn't breathing. Her scream pierces the air, jolting her heart awake. "Jay! Jay!"

   The medics move to Jay, one starting CPR. Elizabeth remains near him for only a few seconds and then they say, "Move away, ma'am."

   Elizabeth is forced to move away as she stares blankly and watches the scene unfold. Every pump the medic makes on Jay's chest is a dagger to Elizabeth's heart. Every breath they release into Jay is a sting to her temple.

    She begins rocking, holding her abdomen. "Come on Jay! Jay! Breathe!" Elizabeth herself can't breathe. Jay is frozen in place, his eyes shut and his lips sealed.

   "We're here!" The driver exclaims as the vehicle comes to a lurching halt by the hospital's emergency entrance. All Elizabeth can think, though, is that they are too late. That he's gone. That it's her fault. That he'll never be able to find happiness.

  Elizabeth holds her breath as the two EMT's grab the stretcher and bring him out of the van. Next, they begin rolling him in the lobby, Elizabeth following close behind. Her heart couldn't be throbbing any harder and her eyes couldn't sting any more.

   "Breathe Jay!" Elizabeth says over the sound of her incessant heartbeat. "Breathe!"

   The bright hospital lights glitter over everything, casting a deep headache inside Elizabeth's head. Doctors and nurses watch the stretcher fly by, a few bystanders staring with wide-eyes and curiously narrowed eyebrows.

   The blank walls are so bright and unnerving that Elizabeth has to glance away in order to concentrate. She's nearly running behind the stretcher, her footsteps echoing in the hallway, as they speed toward a set of huge white doors.

   "You can't go past this point." One EMT calls behind him, glancing back to meet Elizabeth's worried gaze.

   Elizabeth stops dead in her tracks and nearly slams into the doors. Fortunately, she doesn't, but has to stare through the small square windows. Behind the doors there is a long hallway and at the moment the EMT's are wheeling Jay through it. They turn left and disappear in a doorway, cutting off Elizabeth's view of her close friend.