She nodded rapidly. I released her and ran into the entryway, grabbing her bag. Then I stopped. I didn’t want her to realize I’d known all along about her allergy to peanuts, but I also didn’t want to move so fast I ended up saving her life.
I heard a light thump and forgot my thoughts, rushing back into the room. She’d fallen or sat down on the floor and was leaning against the base of the island. Her face was completely red and her head was lolling to the side. I could hear her struggling for air.
I could see her suffer.
I saw the unfocused panic in her eyes.
I didn’t like this.
I dropped to my knees beside her. “Piper!” I yelled when her head rolled away from me. “Piper!”
I dumped the entire contents of her bag out onto the floor and stuff went flying. I wasn’t really sure what I was looking for and figured it was some kind of medicine. I shifted through all the stuff and none of it looked like it would be what she wanted. I grabbed her by the shoulders and looked into her swollen face.
“Tell me what you need.” My heart pounded and everything inside me felt frantic. “Tell me!” I demanded.
She couldn’t talk. She was too far gone.
In mere seconds she was probably going to pass out from lack of oxygen.
I shook my head.No.
Something inside me whispered,Yes.
I didn’t want her to die.
Yes. Yes you do.
“Piper…,” I said again. “Piper, I’m sorry.”
And then Hobbs was there, pushing me out of the way with strength such a small man shouldn’t possess, and he was stabbing her in the outer thigh with something.
“What the hell are you doing, Hobbs!?!” I demanded.
“I’m helping her,” he replied without looking back at me.
He dropped the tube in his other hand and I grabbed it up to look at it. Epinephrine. “Is this medicine? Is she going to be okay?”
“Call an ambulance,” Hobbs said, finally turning around. His face was sad.
“Hobbs! Is she going to die?” How could that idea fill me with so much dread, yet so much hope?
“No, she’s going to be okay, but she needs a doctor.”
I let out a breath and then started looking for my phone. In all the confusion, I couldn’t remember what happened to it. I found it on the floor in the entryway underneath her coat. I went back to her side, dropping to my knees next to her head.
“I’m calling for help,”
“No,” she rasped. “No ambulance.”
“Piper?” I looked down, surprised she was talking.
“Good stuff,” she said and glanced at the epinephrine tube still in my hand.
“You need a doctor.”
She nodded. “You take me.”
“Yeah. Yeah, I can do that.” I felt shaky, like the time I’d almost gotten caught robbing the corner convenience store in my old neighborhood and I jumped out the bathroom window and ran for three blocks before stopping.
