Triad Love

I Can't Give Up Now

Max stands up and runs his hands all over his body looking for blood or any holes, but come up empty. He mentally thanks his lucky stars and looks down at Sam, who is starting to get up off the ground. Frowning, Max looks at Sam who has a shocked look on his face. "I can't believe that happened." Sam says as he check himself as well. As he realizes he has no marks he turns to look over at Novah. She has her hands over her chest, blood leaking between her fingers. Sam gasps and covers his mouth. Max turns in time to see Novah fall to her knees. 

Max turns and runs to Novah. "Oh no, Novah!" She collapses into his arms, still holding her chest. More blood is falling from between her fingers. Max turns to Sam, feeling angry. "This is your fault." he says as tears begin to fall from his face. "Get some help, damn you!" Sam reaches into his pocket and pulls out his phone but stops. "If I call for help I'm going to go to jail, Max." Max turns and glares at him. "Maybe you should, but if we don't do something they're both going to die!" Max screams at Sam.

All of a sudden a woman comes running up to them. She pauses looking at the scene in front of her. She runs up to Max and Novah. She hands Max her phone and tells him to call for help. He looks at the woman stunned. She replaces Novah's hands over the gun shot and looks back at Max. "What're you doing?! Call for help!" Max dials 9-1-1 and begins to tell the person on the other end what happened. As he explains Novah is pregnant the lady looks into Novah's eyes and says, "Novah, is it? I need you to fight. Not just for yourself but for your baby. Can you do that for me?" Novah weakly nods.

As Max hangs up the phone, he hands it back. The woman looks up and has no fear in her eyes. "Who are you?" Max asks. The woman smiles. "My name is Lana. I'm an emergency room doctor. I was walking past when I heard the gun shot and came running over to make sure no one was hurt." Max let's out a sigh of relief. The woman frowns at him. "Don't get so excited. I don't have anything to help other than putting pressure on the wound and hoping the ambulance gets here soon." Max's shoulders slump in defeat. His hopes not crashing to the ground.

As Max feels like he's about to watch his whole world go up in flames, the sound of sirens get closer and closer. At that moment Sam takes off running. Max is about to get up to chase him, when Lana grabs his arm. "Don't! You're needed here." Max nods, knowing she's right. Max takes Novah's hand as the EMTs walk up and begin to examine her. Novah looks so pale and her breathing is very shallow. His heart is breaking watching her struggle, knowing she is trying to fight for the baby and him.

The EMTs look at Max and ask what had happened. "Her ex showed up to talk and as she was about to tell him she was pregnant he pulled a gun on her. I tried to take the gun from him when it went off. I swear either me or him got hit. That's when we turned to see her bleeding." The EMTs nod and look around. "I take it the ex ran off as we got here?" Max nodded feeling like they didn't believe him. That's when Lana spoke up to defend him. "What he's saying is correct. When I ran over the other guy was still here but, like you said, he took off as you arrived." The EMTs nod as they get to work and load her up into the ambulance. They let Max ride with her.

Max is holding her hand as she turns her head to look at him. She tries to move her mouth to speak but Max stops her. "It's okay, No. You can tell me after you get better, okay?" Novah nods but feels more and more like she's going to pass out. The pain was getting to be too much. She blinks fast trying to keep her eyes open, scared that if she let them close they'd never open again. The EMTs are suddenly standing over her. She feels like she's under water and her hearing is muffled. "She crashing!" the EMT says. The look on Max's face makes her begin to cry. He looks like he dying inside. He runs his hands through his hair as tears run down his face. She wants to comfort him so badly but she can't even raise her hand right now.

Suddenly the pain is gone and she's just cold. She begins to feel her eye lids get heavier and heavier. She just wants to sleep. Maybe she'd wake up and this would all be a dream. Just as she's about to succumb, a voice in her head screams at her. "Don't you DARE give up! Do you hear me?! You finally have everything you've ever wanted. You can't give up now!" She suddenly gets a boost of energy and her eyes pop open wide. Her eyes are clearer now. The voice was right. She did finally have everything she's ever wanted. She has the love of her life and they were going to be a family. She fought so hard to get here that she couldn't give it all up now. She can feel Max's hand in hers. She squeezes it with all her strength and looks at him as he looks up at her. He looked so beautiful as he weakly smiled back at her. She had to say what he's been waiting for this whole time. "I love you, Max!" More tears run down his face as he leans over and kisses her hand. "I love you too, No. Please don't leave me!" As he says it, she's surrounded by darkness.