Dillon

Every single day we are together, is the greatest day of my life…

I make my way to the ambulance, unseen by my father, but not by the cops or Wasp and Tic. They all give me a look wanting to know if I’m crazy. I may be acting crazy right now, but I need to stop the blood flow Carson is having. If not, he may bleed out and I can’t have that weighing on my conscience.

“Hey man,” I say to the paramedic sitting in the back of the bus. Luckily, he’s seen me at the hospital and recognizes me right away.

“Dr. Connelly, what can I do for you?”

“I need a couple of favors,” I go on to tell him what I need so I can tend to Carson’s wound, and inform him I need him to get inside of the shop and tend to Ariel and my son. He quickly gets me a bag together and then finds the closest officer to him to let him know he’s going in to care for Ariel with or without his assistance. He has balls of steel going up against this cop and going into a scene that he is, I’ll have to remember to thank him properly once this is all over with. I watch as the officer guards him as he makes his way to and then in the shop. Meanwhile, the cop has his gun aimed at the scene. My father is only paying attention to his fellow officers he’s standing off with and the woman whose head he has his service weapon pressed to. I catch Wasp’s attention and signal him to come over to me.

“What are you doing Dillon?” he asks me between his teeth. “You should be inside with your woman and let us handle this mess out here.”

“Look at Carson,” I tell him. “Do you see how much blood he’s losing? If we wait too much longer he could bleed out and there is no coming back from that. I need to treat him, now.” He hears the urgency in my voice and looks over at Carson.

“Didn’t realize it was that bad, fuck!” He gives some kind of hand signal to Tic who looks at his brother. Once Tic has Carson’s attention, he motions him my way. When Carson looks my way, I lift up the bag to show him. He tries to shake his head no, but I nod my head yes. We go back and forth a couple of times until Wasp gives him a look that I’m assuming means to come here and come now. I thank Wasp and as Carson makes it my way I can tell he’s none to happy with having to leave.

“I need to be over there,” Carson says to me. “It’s my fault she’s in that predicament,” he says with anger lacing his voice.

“Why’s that?” I ask him, wanting to know what happened.

“When I went out with Emory to get the bag, I looked around but saw nothing. It was clear so we kept going. I looked around the car again, but still saw nothing. I let my guard down then, talking with Em. We were both so excited about the baby coming that I didn’t notice him jump out of the back seat of the car until it was too late. He shot me and when I hit the ground he grabbed Em and put the gun to her head. I followed him slowly as he led her away from me, he was demanding to see you, or Ariel. I told him there was no way he was getting near either of you, I told him it was doin’ him no good to hold her hostage. That we’d never give into his demands. Then he started asking about where his wife was, I told him I had no idea. He didn’t believe me, he pressed the gun rougher into her temple. Next thing I know we’re surrounded by the cops and my brothers. I hadn’t realized until I saw them that we’d made our way to the front. Some brother I am,” he says holding his head down ashamed of himself.

“You did everything right,” Wasp rasps out, affected by his story as much as I am. Who would’ve thought to look in the back of the car? I voice that opinion out loud and Wasp answers at the same time as Carson.

“I should’ve,” from Carson.

“No one would’ve thought to look in the back seat, not even me,” from Wasp.

“If you’re ever in a situation like this again, I’m guessing you’ll look in the back from now on.” I say to Carson.

“Betch’a sweet ass I will,” he replies to me. I remove his hand from his neck now that that’s out of the way and begin to work. It looks to be more of a graze, so I clean it and look inside the wound the best I can. Using a flashlight, I don’t see any nicked arteries, so I numb him up with some lidocaine and begin stitching him up. Eleven stitches and thirty minutes later, my father is lying dead in the middle of the street and I’m in the back of the ambulance with my wife. This is the first time I’ll be entering the hospital, not in the role of doctor, but as an expectant father.