RUBI - Part One

RUBI - PART ONE

Rubi's POV of that fateful night. Paramedic Rhys is from the Skins series, and the doctor mentioned is Marc from Between Ghosts and Soul To Keep.

We got him back. Me pumping his chest. Mats breathing air into his lungs.

Tunnel vision.

I forgot about Liliana. I forgot about River downstairs with her. I forgot about everything except the absolute certainty that Embry, my friend, my brother, wasn't dying on his fucking bathroom floor.

That, and a desperate, heartfelt prayer to whatever deity had sent Locke Halliwell into my life. Because without the vaguely stoned lessons I'd talked him into one night on the road, parked round the back of a Welcome Break, I wouldn't have had a clue how to do this. Not a real one, anyway.

Em took some raggedy breaths, his pulse weak against the fingers I'd plumbed into his neck. But it was oxygen. He was alive.

For now.

"Get him on his side, Mats. In case he pukes again."

My voice sounded a million miles away, awash with an eerie calm I didn't feel as my heart clattered against my eardrums, a relentless tattoo of panic.

He's gonna die. Like Lark did. He was never yours to keep.

As if he'd heard my vicious thoughts, Embry groaned, a wretched sound that came from his soul, and his battered body heaved, more blood pouring from his mouth.

Mateo ripped a towel from the rail and wiped it away. I shifted so he could reach his husband better, but I didn't look at him.

Can't.

I'd break.

"Ambulance is coming," I said instead. "They'll fix it, Mats. He'll be okay."

It could've been a lie. Fuck, maybe it was. I cleaned up enough that the paramedics wouldn't slip on the bathroom floor, praying Em didn't stop breathing again, all the while vacillating like a wild, broken thing between straining my ears for sirens and asking a God I didn't believe in to let my brother cheat death a second fucking time.

Let him live. He doesn't deserve this.

And even if he did, that sweet kid downstairs couldn't lose the love of a man she'd only just found. She couldn't lose her fucking father —cos there was no way Mats would survive this. He lived for Embry. Without him…

Fuck.

It felt like a century passed, but finally I heard the wail of a siren filtering through the open bathroom window. "I'll let them in."

Mateo didn't answer, too fixated on keeping Embry alive.

I left the bathroom and dashed downstairs.

River had shut the living room door, concealing this nightmare from Liliana. What the fuck he was telling her; I couldn't even think about.

I hauled the front door open.

A lone paramedic greeted me, a fast-response estate car flashing at the end of the driveway.

My stomach dropped. "Where's the ambulance? He needs to get to a hospital."

The paramedic held up his hands, one clutching a big green bag. "Rubi, it's me. Rhys. Harry's brother, remember? I was at the station down the road when the call came in. I recognised the names and came running."

It took a full second for his words to manifest into a reality I understood. For his face to become one I recognised as my physiotherapist's younger brother. The physiotherapist that was married to Embry's cousin.

Joe .

Shit.

I hadn't called him.

I hadn't called any fucker except 999.

Cam . Fuck. Nash . They needed to know.

I stepped aside to let Rhys charge past me. His footsteps were loud on the stairs, but without them, I might've died a slow death where I stood.

The living room door opened a crack.

River saw me and stepped out. "Find some car keys. I need to get her out of here."

I didn't disagree.

Mateo kept the keys to his dad-mobile by the door, hanging on a hook, ready to go.

I snatched them and tossed them to Riv. There were blues-and-twos at the end of the drive, but there was shit all I could do about that. "Take her to Orla's. Juana's there. Nash too. Stay with them till I call you."

Our gazes locked. Heartbreak and fear flowed between us.

Guilt.

Then River was gone, and I hit the stairs again.

In the bathroom, Rhys had Embry on his back, cannulas jabbed in his arms, an oxygen mask over his blood-streaked face.

His lips aren't blue anymore . My sole thought as I blocked the top of the stairs, my back to the front door as I heard it open and close.

A second later, a car engine rumbled. River drove away, taking Liliana with him, and a tiny fragment inside me relaxed. If I took any comfort from this, it was that she wouldn't see Embry half dead and covered in tubes.

Then it hit me that if this shit was as bad as it looked, there was every chance she'd never see him again at all.

Raw pain swamped me. I clutched the wall for support as Rhys placed Mateo's hand on the oxygen mask and rose.

He pointed at the nearest bedroom and preceded me through the door.

Inside, he shut us in and spoke swiftly into his radio, calm and precise, cos it wasn't his brother dying on the bathroom floor.

That ain't fair. They're still family.

But goddamn it, no one loved Embry like we did.

Rhys dropped his radio. "I've called for the chopper. We're going to airlift him to Truro, so you need to make sure Mateo gets there without killing anyone. Don't let him drive."

Truro.

Fucking Cornwall.

"Why are you taking him there?"

"It's faster in the bird, and the A&E consultant on shift tonight has a specialty in gastro injuries. Honestly, I'd fly Embry to Marc if it was twice the distance away."

"Fuck." I brought both hands to my head. "I need to find another car."

"Can you do that?"

Cam. Decoy. Alexei. Those were my immediate options. Rhys stepped out while I dragged my phone out of my pocket again.

It had blood on it.

So did I. My T-shirt was saturated.

Ignoring it, I fired off urgent texts, hitting up group chats and personal phones, buzzing every number I could think of until someone—until Cam —called me back.

"Talk to me."

I blurted it all out.

Cam cursed. "I'm coming."

He hung up. Long seconds later, I heard the vibrations of the approaching helicopter.

Fucking hell. This was really happening.

Rhys came out of the bathroom again. "You need to go out and meet the chopper crew. They're gonna land in the park."

Numb, I ran downstairs and out of my house. The chopper was circling two streets away and I pegged it along the pavement, stones and broken glass digging into my feet.

I made it as the bird came down. Another paramedic and a doctor got out, and I guided them to the house.

Cam pulled up as they dashed inside.

He shot out of the car, eyes widening as they landed on me. "What the fuck happened?"

"I don't know."

It was the truth. Em was sick. He was dying.

I had nothing else.