by Shae Banks
Darkness shrouded the front of the house as I pulled into the driveway. Nothing seemed amiss, so I put it down to them either both being asleep, or Thom possibly being in the hot tub in the back garden.
Opening the front door, I dropped my bag by the mat, and toed off my shoes with a relieved groan to finally be home and free of them. I headed into the living room and stopped short when I spied Thom sprawled half on and half off the sofa with the blanket Lyla had been using draped across his shoulders. He’d gotten changed into a pair of jeans once he’d finished in the hot tub and had somehow managed to go to sleep in them. Fuck knows how he did it. Last time I fell asleep in jeans, I’d nearly twisted a bollock from rolling over and the material not moving with me. My chest hiccupped with an amused snort as I backed up before I woke him. We’d been made to sleep in some pretty horrendous places while on tour, but Thom, the fucker, could sleep on a clothesline.
Leaving him to sleep, I headed into the kitchen to grab a drink and see if Lyla was in there. Navigating the kitchen without putting the light on, I was momentarily blinded by the fridge light as I grabbed a bottle. I closed the door with a shove from my elbow as I twisted the cap. With the bottle half raised, something caught my attention, and I leaned across the counter to glance outside to the backyard, but stopped when the security light flickered on. I spotted Gunner in his run, pacing, but didn’t go out to him. Damn dog and his hearing, even without putting the light on, he knew I was here. He’d try his luck with puppy eyes to get into the house, and while we all had him inside throughout the day, the rule was he slept outside, much to Lyla’s disapproval.
Back turned to the window, I rested my ass against the sink as I took a large swig from the bottle, draining half the contents. Gunner’s whining grabbed my attention, but I ignored it and headed out of the kitchen in search of Lyla.
Taking the stairs two at a time, I opened Thom’s door first with care not to wake her if she was sleeping and poked my head around the door. The bed was empty with the covers untouched. Putting it down to her likely being more comfortable in Lloyd’s room, I headed there next and pushed the door open. The room was dark, the blinds still open, but still no Lyla. I’d be pissed as fuck and thinking she’d left without telling us if it wasn’t for her empty bags still resting against the end of the bed and her car still parked in the driveway.
There was only one more place she could be.
“Lyla?” I knocked on the bathroom door and waited for an answer. Nothing came, not a single word. Knowing how fickle women can be with bathroom privacy, I placed my ear against the door instead of just barging in. A twinge of something hit my nose…
My concern for her trumped her being pissed at me for barging in, so I turned the handle, thanking God she didn’t lock the door.
“Lyla, I’m coming in,” I announced, as I pushed the door open.
In the dark the smell of vomit hit me full force and made my stomach roll. Pulling the cord, the light came on and illuminated Lyla’s prone form in front of the toilet.
“Shit, Lyla, babe!” So much vomit, too much.
“Thom!” I bellowed, full of panic as I gently rolled her onto her side. Her temperature was unbelievably high, too high. I tried to make a grab for my phone, but it got stuck in my pocket. Her curls were plastered to her face from the sweat and sick she was covered in, but I didn’t care as I pulled them off her beautiful face.
“Thom! Call a fuckin’ ambulance! Fuck, come on, Lyla.” I opened her mouth and stuck my fingers inside to check if anything was blocking her airways.
Feet thundered up the stairs and a moment later, Thom skidded to a stop at the bathroom door. The sight that greeted him had the colour draining from his face.
“Oh fuck.” He patted his pockets, only to realise he didn’t have his phone, but thankfully his head was still in the game enough to grab mine.
He shoved the phone at me when he realised he couldn’t open it without my fingerprint. Knee walking to where Lyla was, I passed her off to him while I called emergency services. “Come on. Pick up, pick u—I need an ambulance. No, someone else. She isn’t conscious. No, I found her on the bathroom floor. Sixty-five—”
I rattled off the information the call handler requested, and the sound of keys tapping through the phone made me even more impatient. I watched helplessly as Thom pressed his ear to Lyla’s mouth and two fingers against her neck.
The tapping of the keys stopped, and the woman cleared her throat. “I’m sorry, we don’t have anyone in this district by that na—”
Desperation clawed at my throat, making me snap at the woman. “She just moved here. She’s from London. I’m not sure what’s wrong. She was complaining of abdominal pain. There’s so much vomit, she’s unconscious, I think…”
The concern on Thom’s face caused my own panic to spike and imagine the worst. Oh, God, no.
“Thom?” His name choked out of me through a rapidly closing throat.
“She’s still breathing, although very shallow, and her pulse is weak.” Even though his face was etched in concern, his tone was controlled, and I desperately latched on to it to stop the panic from swallowing me whole.
I relayed the information quickly to the woman and dropped the phone to move closer to them. I didn’t care about the mess, the smell, I wanted to see her sparkling eyes, her laugh, to watch her wild curls bounce as she walked. My mind began to go down a rabbit hole. What if she didn’t make it, what if this was it? I didn’t get to tell her how I fee—
“Ry!” Thom’s voice snapped me out of the panic consuming me. When he had my attention, he nodded to the door. “Go outside and wait for the ambulance so they know where we are. Leave the phone, I’ve got it. I promise, I’ll take care of her.”
It wasn’t until I ran down the stairs, barged out of the front door, and came to a stop at the end of the driveway that I realised my hands wouldn’t stop shaking and my chest felt like it was going to cave in. I could hear sirens coming from the main road, but they abruptly turned off. My heart dropped out of my ass as I wondered if they’d turned down the wrong street, but a moment later blue lights bounced off the neighbours’ houses as they rounded the corner and pulled to a stop at the curb.
Not wasting time, I doubled back and lead them through the house and up the stairs. Thom moved back once the paramedics came into the bathroom and started pulling things from their bags.
The one paramedic held his hand out to the other for the items he’d been pulling from his bag. The rubber snap of the gloves around his wrists had me watching Lyla for a reaction.
“Hello, Lyla. I’m going to slip this mask over your head. It’s nothing to worry about, just some oxygen to help you feel better.” Once he’d done that, he placed a pressure cuff around her arm and a clip on her finger.
The one who had been passing stuff to his colleague finally addressed me and Thom. “Can you tell us what happened?”
Thom stared at me while he gave his account of what happened to the paramedic. His guilt for not checking on her sooner sucked all the air from the room. “She’d been complaining of cramps earlier in the day, but was convinced it was her period. I was supposed to check on her, but she’d slept on the sofa and when she woke, she said she was going to get a drink and get into bed… I fell asleep.”
The paramedics shared a look, a look I didn’t like. Not one fuckin’ bit. “What’s wrong with her?”
The one dude left the bathroom while his colleague continued to tend to Lyla. “She’s very unwell. I’d hazard a guess at sepsis, but the cause… We need to move her now and get her admitted.”
Even standing, the panic had my leg bouncing. “Can I come with you?”
“Are you a relative?” the paramedic asked, while he continued to take things out of his bag and check Lyla over. He paused, and something flicked across his face before it disappeared.
“No, bu—”
The dude didn’t raise his head, but continued to rifle through his bag for things before
packing it all back up. “I’m sorry, I can’t allow you to ride in the ambulance. Follow us, by all means.”
I’d backed up at the racket of a gurney being hauled up the stairs. My hands clenched and unclenched with the urge to make a scene, to demand I go with her, but I knew the cost would be too great for Lyla.
They talked in hushed voices. What were they hiding? Why wouldn’t they tell us? Surely they could see we were fuckin’ panicking. I knew I was being a selfish asshole, knew if I voiced the questions it would slow them down. But, fuck…
Thom’s hand settled on my shoulder as we both watched them load her onto the stretcher before carrying her carefully down the stairs. Not once had Lyla stirred. His hand pulled me back from the edge and grounded me to the here and now.
With one last squeeze of my shoulder, Thom stepped around me and declared, “She’s in the best hands, Ry. Come on, let’s get Lyla in the ambulance and then we’ll meet them there.”
By the time we’d made it downstairs and out the door, the paramedic had made quick work of shutting his buddy and Lyla inside, which blocked our view of her.
Thom stepped up to him and followed him to his driver’s side door. “Where are you taking her?”
“The infirmary,” was all he said, as he pulled the door open, climbed in, and quickly drove away.
The blue lights flashed across the houses until they turned the corner and disappeared from view. Only once the sirens started and could be heard from the main road did it snap the pair of us into action.
Spinning on his heel, Thom dug his hand into his pocket and pulled his car keys free. “I’ll drive. Go and grab your work bag so you have something to change into once we get there.”
On autopilot, we returned to the house. I grabbed my bag from the hallway as Thom raced up the stairs. With the bag slung over my shoulder, I left the front door open for him as I got into his car. It wasn’t until Thom had pulled away and was on the main road that I realised I hadn’t put my shoes back on and I was only in my socks. I couldn’t bring myself to care though.
15
Thom
With the basics for Lyla stuffed in my work backpack, I tossed it in the back of my car and followed after the ambulance. Or tried to.
I’d already known whatever was wrong with Lyla was bad, the speed they took off at proved it.
She’d gone downhill fast, I hadn’t realised how fast because I’d fallen a-fuckin’-sleep, and when Ryan came home and found her, he’d panicked.
I’d fucking panicked when I’d woken to him shouting at the top of his lungs. He’d sounded like a wounded animal. And when I’d taken her from him, I’d realised how high her temperature was. She was unresponsive, and her eyes didn’t move under her closed lids, even with Ryan shouting and freaking out. At one point, I could’ve sworn her heart stuttered to a stop and she’d died on the bathroom floor.
The paramedics didn’t indicate what they thought was wrong, sepsis could be anything, and their refusal to allow Ryan to go with her only made him worse. His knee was jiggling beside me, the movement catching my attention once more.
He yanked on his hair before pounding his fist on the dashboard. “Fuck.”
“Calm down.” I knew it was useless, but I’d said it anyway.
I could feel the contempt in his stare boring into the side of my head.
“Ryan—” I started, only to be cut off.
“What the fuck happened to her?” Anger coated his words and the tension in the car was almost suffocating.
Was he angry with me? I was livid with myself for having fallen asleep, but I wasn’t sure where he lay the blame.
Trying not to grip the steering wheel too tightly, I attempted to ignore the anger rolling off him and guessed, “Stomach ulcer? I don’t know. She’s been suffering stomach aches for a few days, maybe it wasn’t what she thought. We’ll know more when we—”
“So put your foot down,” he snapped.
I didn’t bother to respond. Driving like a prick wouldn’t help her, I wanted to get there in one piece. The roads were quiet, since it was just after two in the morning, and getting there quicker wouldn’t solve anything, because we wouldn’t be allowed near her until they’d dealt with whatever was wrong.
His fingers drummed ceaselessly in time with his bouncing knee before his head dropped. “What if—” His words ground to a halt, and I could hear his teeth grinding.
“Don’t.” I finally lost my cool. I put up with most of his negativity, it was his way of coping, but I wouldn’t listen to it then. Not when it came to Lyla.
He wasn’t the only one who loved her.
He may not have declared it verbally, but I knew him better than he knew himself sometimes. He loved her as much as I loved them.
Ryan kept his thoughts to himself the rest of the way to the hospital. He even got out and grabbed a parking ticket without complaining about the extortionate prices while I parked the car.
The emergency waiting room was quiet, and I left Ryan to take a seat with both our bags while I enquired after Lyla at reception.
The woman at the desk was easily in her fifties, her short, bottle-blonde hair was almost white under the harsh lights. Her nose was pierced, her skin tanned and clearly sun damaged, and she wore a shell pink lipstick on her thin lips, but her smile was warm.
“Hello, love. How can I help?” Her soothing lilt reminded me of my mum and put me at ease.
Years of being in the British Armed Forces taught me to be respectful and not make demands, no matter how much I wanted to. I took a breath, and replied, “Hi. We followed an ambulance in. Lyla Aldrich, Sixty-five North—”
She was typing before I’d finished giving her all the details, and immediately answered, “She’s been taken directly to the theatre. I can’t tell you anything more than that just now, but if you sit yourself down and check back in an hour or so, there might be more information available.”
I swallowed and nodded, but wasn’t able to voice my gratitude. Instead, I gave her a thin smile and joined Ryan.
His knee was jiggling up and down again, and he clutched the backpack tightly in his left hand. Upon seeing me, he croaked, “Where?”
“Theatre,” I rasped after clearing my throat again. “Straight in. Won’t know anything for at least an hour.”
What colour was left in his face drained and he released the bag to run both hands over his face.
Weary, I sat beside him. Neither of us spoke. We didn’t need to. We both knew how serious it was, and neither of us knew what to do about it.
After three hours, too much shit vending machine coffee, and a quick switch out of clothes, we still had no updates. Ryan was close to losing his shit until his mobile went off in his pocket. I’d left mine in the car, there was little use for it in the hospital. The only person I wanted to call was in the ass end of nowhere and likely crawling around in a ditch.
Leaning into me, Ryan took the phone from his pocket. The frown on his face deepened when he looked at the screen.
Curiosity piqued, I questioned, “Who?”
His thumb hovered over the accept call button, but he shook his head and passed the phone to me while mouthing, “I don’t know.”
I automatically got up and walked to the door.
All kinds of things were running through my head as I raised the phone to my ear. “Hello?”
“He’s gone.” The usually chipper voice croaked through the phone.
Bone tired, I scrubbed at my forehead. “Sam? What the fuck are you doing calling at this time in the morning? You’re meant to be—”
“Lloyd. Thom, Lloyd died half an hour ago. They got a chopper in, but he didn’t ma—” The words came out so thick and fast that he choked.
For a moment, the silence on the other end of the phone was deafening before Sam roughly cleared his throat. “He died halfway to hospital.” His words became choked once more, and I could hear the tears in his voice as he tried to force the words out. “I can’t… I cou
ldn’t… there was nothing I could do.”
The sudden rush of adrenaline almost knocked me over, and I had to lean against the side of the building to keep myself upright. I was already running on empty, and this was a blow I wasn’t expecting.
All the questions battered through my head at once, but hearing Sam openly cry down the line pushed only one to the forefront of my mind. “Are you okay?”
A sniff and a cough came through the phone. “Yeah… No. I don’t know.”
Questions. Too many questions. It was training, and although it wasn’t the front-line, things would still be dangerous. All sorts of scenarios weaved through my mind. “What happened?”
Exhaustion made his tone deeper. “We… we don’t know. He’d been moving slower than normal, but every time I asked him what was wrong, he brushed me off. I should’ve pushed more.”
By the time he was finished explaining, the exhaustion gave way to the insufferable amount of guilt he’d placed on his shoulders. “Sam, you did everything you could.”
Ignoring me, he huffed and stated, “They’re going to get back to us once they find out what caused it.”
Just then, I pushed off from the wall and spotted a doctor approaching Ryan. Hating myself for needing to end the call, I swallowed thickly. “Sam, it wasn’t your fault. I’m sorry, this is going to sound like a bastard move, but I can’t explain right now. I need to go. Will you have this number with you?”
“I’m not sure. They took me with Lloyd so I’m still at the hospital. I haven’t been able to get myself to leave yet.” He sounded so lost and I hated myself a little more for needing to end the call so abruptly.
I closed my eyes and took a breath. Fuck. “Call me as soon as you make it back to base, please.”
“I—” He choked off.
“Sam.” It came out sterner than I’d meant it to, but I needed an answer. He wasn’t okay, but I was becoming desperate for news on Lyla, and for now, she was my priority.
“Okay,” he answered reluctantly. “I will.”
