Cry Me A River

Chapter Twenty Five - Touch and Go

{Landon}

"Hey baby brother." I looked up to see Michael walking down the hall.

"What the hell are you doing here?" I asked with a smile, my first in over eight hours.

"Mom called, told me what happened, and I figured you could use some help against mom and her 'let's-talk-about-it' attitude," he replied. I gave him a quick hug just as Andi came jogging down the hall. I had come to the other end of it to get some space from everyone. They were all watching me like I would break any minute. I'm not saying I won't, because it's very possible, but them watching doesn't help.

"Landon! Dakota is stable," she blurted, breathing heavily.

"Really? Can - can we see her?" I asked, my heart beginning to race. Andi shook her head, glancing at Michael.

"Not yet. She's still out of it, and she could become unstable at any minute. They want to keep all the stress away from her," she explained. "You can go look at her though. She's in the PACU."

"The what?" Michael wondered.

"The Post-Anesthesia Care Unit. Basically it's where critical patients go after surgery to be observed."

"You know this... why?" he asked.

"I'm going to medical school after graduation. I want to be a doctor," Andi answered.

"Hey guys... Dakota?"

"Oh right. C'mon," Andi remembered, leading the way down the hall to Dakota's room.

When we got there, Dakota's parents were standing by the door, watching her. I hung back by Pierce and my mom, but I could still see her through the window.

"How're you holding up?" my mom whispered, resting a hand on my back. With my arms crossed, I glanced down at her and then back to Dakota lying in the bed.

"Better now that she's out of surgery and stable," I replied. My mom nodded, wrapping an arm around my waist and her other around Michael's torso.

"Hey, Landon. I want to apologize about earlier. This wasn't your fault," Dakota's dad said, walking over to me.

"It's alright." He gave me a tight smile and shook my hand. If only he knew.

**************

"Here mom," I said, handing her a cup of cafeteria coffee as I passed her in the hall. She smiled and kept walking. She had gone back to work today, after Kota got out of surgery, and the Miller's had sent everyone home. Although they couldn't get rid of me and had agreed to let me stay. She still hasn't woken up yet.

Just then, a loud "Code Blue" screeched out of the speakers. Panic started to rise in me, making my stomach churn. It got worse when nurses and doctors began running past me, toward Kota, down the hall.

"No, no, no, no, no," I mumbled, dropping my coffee in a nearby trash can and taking off after them. When I reached Dakota's room, I saw it was flooded with hospital personnel. I needed to see her. That was the only thing on my mind: get to Dakota.

"Hey, hey, hey," Michael said, stopping me in my tracks.

"What the hell happened!?" I yelled.

"Lan, calm down. I don't know, but I think they're taking her back to surgery," he informed me calmly, a hand on my chest to stop me. They rushed her out of the room and down the hall, her monitors beeping rapidly. I huffed out a breath and stepped back, clasping my hands behind my head. Mike crossed his arms and we spent the next minutes waiting.

After only fifteen minutes, which felt like hours, the doctor finally came out to talk.

"Is it alright if they stay?" he asked Mr. Miller, who responded with a nod. "Okay, so she's stable for the moment so I took the opportunity to come out here and let you know what's going on. The bullet managed to miss all the major organs, however it did nick the Thoracic Aorta. Now, when we went in the first time, it was very difficult to find the bleed, but we did. We did a temporary stitch to give it time to heal first, and let her gather her strength, but it didn't hold as long as we hoped it would have, hence today. Now, I do have some bad news. We've gone ahead and put in a permanent stitch, so it should hold, but if it doesn't, I can't guarantee she'll be strong enough to survive a third surgery."

"So you're saying that if this happens again, Dakota could die?" her dad clarified.

"I'm afraid so, yes. I promise you, we'll do everything in our power to make sure she makes it through this," he told us.

"I'm gonna kill him," I mumbled, turning and walking down the hall. Michael didn't follow me, and for that, I was grateful.

**************

"Danny!" I yelled, walking up to his van which I'd finally found outside a warehouse. He got out of the open passenger door and met me behind his van.

"Finally decide to pay up?" he asked.

"Asshole," I said through my clenched jaw. I pulled back my fist and hit him, knocking him to the ground. Then, before he could react, I sat on his chest and began throwing punch after punch after punch. I was seeing red, blood and anger. "Who is your boss!? Who would make you shoot her!?" I screamed at him. He coughed, turning his head and spitting blood out of his mouth.

"Jonathan! Okay? My boss is Jonathan," he blurted. Suddenly, two sets of strong arms were pulling me off of Danny.

"Tell Jonathan that if he doesn't kill Danny, I will," I threatened to a group of other gang members behind Danny.

The two holding me shoved me back toward the exit of the warehouse, so I fixed my shirt and started walking, my hand immovable. As I neared the length of sidewalk where Dakota was shot, my phone began buzzing in my pocket.

"Yeah?" I answered, not bothering to check the caller ID.

"Dakota is stable again, man," Pierce told me. "They just brought her back to the room."

"Are you there?" I wondered.

"No, Elle texted me, and I figured I'd let you know if you didn't already," he replied.

"Oh, thanks. I didn't, but I'll head there now," I replied absentmindedly, looking at the red stain on the cement.

"How're you holding up? I haven't talked to you since Friday," he asked. I sighed, passing the ice cream parlor and the still marked off sidewalk and continued on to the hospital.

"I'm fine. Been better," I lied. Pierce was quiet for a minute.

"It wasn't your fault, you know."

"I know Pierce," I lied again. I don't want to talk about this right now.

"I've gotta go. Later," he said, hanging up. I huffed, slipping my phone back into my pocket and taking my sweet time to get back. I was worried about what Dakota would say when, if, she woke up, and the thought of losing her nearly broke my heart for the third time in seventy two hours.