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Episode 52, "Costs"


FOR NEW READERS: Previously, on Friends and Foes:
In a heated chaotic situation, Ross Michaels held Alex Harrison hostage with the child of best friends (and newly weds) Taylor and Amber Brookdale. Heroically, Alex's other best friend Devin Barbieri stormed into the room in an attempt to save Alex and the baby. In a twist of fate, Ross shot Devin once in the forehead and Alex three times in the chest and stomach before police officers stormed the apartment and were forced to kill Ross. Kathleen, a paramedic assisting Devin to the hospital, reveals that she is acquainted with him somehow. We leave off with a Doctor reporting on Alex's condition...

HOSPITAL WAITING ROOM

“What is it, doctor?” Taylor says, short of breathe. His eyes are full with chaos, grief, and even remorse. He clenches Candice's hand furiously and nervously. Alex's best friend and fiancee. For a moment, its sad and poetic. She looks at him for a split moment, noticing the cracks on his lips and the pale death white look on his face. Her eyes well with tears as she looks into Taylor's eyes. So dark, so heavy.

Is this lifetime of fear ever to end for the love of her life? Will he survive? Pleas God, let him live. Will her relationship with him survive the madness that constantly pursues him like an undying nightmare? On the other side of that wall, she knows, that Alex is fighting the title fight of his life. She looks at Taylor again. His two closest friends are fighting for their lives.

They are more than just his friends. They are his brothers. His soulmates.

“Doctor-” Taylor says again. He feels his lungs almost collapse, and his heart feels as though it will simply stop. He looks at the Doctor for what seems like an eternity.

“Alex is still undergoing an emergency operation. It seems the first bullet lodged itself deep into his upper bicep muscle, which is now stable. We removed the bullet and were able to stop the bleeding. The second bullet lodged itself into his stomach, and has punctured his large intestine and is causing massive internal bleeding. However,” he pauses and looks at the young faces before him, “--the third bullet has proven more detrimental than the first two. Unfortunately, it lodged itself deep into the left side of the chest cavity and has punctured Alex's heart. Now, we were able to remove the bullet but once again, the heart is undergoing massive contusions and bleeding.”

Taylor's emotions grow cold for the first time in hours. The cold sweat drips from his forehead to the floor, and his grip on Candice's hand loosens and releases. His mouth drops for a moment, and he consciously forces himself to take a deep breathe and exhale, in a motion that seems to never end. The words ring through his mind, and he struggles to piece them together.

“What are you saying, Doctor?” Taylor asks in barely a whisper. His voice cracks and he looks away from the Doctor to his feet. He knows.

“There's no simple answer, son.” He says, frowning. “Unfortunately,”

“STOP.” Amber interrupts. “Just-- stop saying 'unfortunately' like you care, doctor. We're not idiots. I need to know whether or not my husband's friends are going to DIE TONIGHT?!”

Broken under the pressure, Amber grasps her mouth and turns away, presumably to go check on her baby in the Child Care Center. Taylor looks on. Cold as ice.

WOMEN'S BATHROOM

Amber clutches on to the sink, frustrated. She lets out a deep exhale and then turns on the facet and splashes some water onto her face. She already looks terrible, tired, and worn. She dabs a paper towel across her forehead and stares at her reflection in the mirror.

Her face is red and raw from tears, her cheeks swollen and eyes dark and puffy. “Pull it together.”

Suddenly, a voice interrupts her train of thought. “Wow, you are a mess.”

Amber looks up to see Kathleen, the same paramedic who rode in the ambulance with Devin. Amber sighs. They are obviously acquainted, and Amber does not have the patience or the energy.

“Thanks.” Amber retorts, painfully. There is not a sarcastic bone in her body at this point. “What are you doing here Kathleen?”

Kathleen frowns and sympathizes for a moment. “I work here.”

“Oh.”

There is an uncomfortable silence between the two.

Kathleen finally bursts with what she is meaning to say, “So I know you don't really know me that well...”

“I don't know you at all,” Amber says quietly, turning to face this stranger. “And if you don't mind this is kind of a hard time for me right now...”

“I know Devin pretty well,” Kathleen says, “and I am just here to offer my condolences. I know Alex and Devin are your friends..”

“Yes, they are,” Amber interrupts, frazzled, “...and they aren't dead quite yet. So save your condolences.”

WAITING ROOM

The Doctor continues despite Amber's outburst. “Listen, the heart is an extremely tender and sensitive muscle. If we can contain the bleeding and repair the puncture wound then there is hope for him,”

“But..” Candice says angrily. “Where is the BUT?”

The Doctor hesitates. “But, as it stands it may be technically impossible to operate on his heart. The damage may be beyond repair. We can put you on the list for a donor transplant, though at this time it is so backed up that it may be impossible to attain a substitute, and we only have an hour. Maybe less.”

Candice's mouth is dropped. She loses her footing, and stumbles into Taylor's side, collapsing to her knees and grabbing on to his arm. He looks on, emotionless, as Candice clutches at his arm, sprawling on the floor in agony. She gasps for air, sobbing, almost choking on her tears. Mucuous and sweat run from her nose to her chin as she pounds at her chest in grief. “Please God... Please God!” She wails. The scene is too much for Taylor to take.

“So until then?” He says, now choking back the tears himself.

“Till then we will continue and try to find a way to get into the chest cavity and operate on his heart.” He bows his head, takes a moment, and walks back into the operating room.

Taylor collapses to the floor and into Candice's embrace. They rock back and forth together. “I'm sorry,” she says, “I should be strong for you right now Taylor, I'm so sorry. They are your like your brothers, why am I being so selfish?”

He attempts to collect himself, “Are you kidding me? This is...beyond comprehension right now. I can't even-- I know you love Alex and want him to be your husband. I love them both too.” He breaks into tears. “We just have to wait, and pray.”

They hold each other for dear life.

WOMEN'S BATHROOM

Kathleen steps back, offended. “I don't even understand why you are so emotionally invested in this? I mean, what's really at stake here for you? Your husband and your baby are FINE. They survived. C'mon. You're not really going to tell me that you give a rats ass whether or not his friends live?”

“You are out of line!” Amber snaps. She snatches up her purse and begins to make for the door, but Kathleen's words stop her dead in her tracks.

“Am I?”

Amber stays with her back faced towards Kathleen, but something about what she has said is deeply disturbing. Is she right? Amber turns around and glares at Kathleen angrily.

“I don't know who the Hell you think you are, but you are tactless and cruel. I don't even know you, and you barge in here and proceed to tell me that I am some monster?” Amber shakes her head and scoffs. “I don't have time for this. I am going to go wait for my friends.”

“I heard what you said to Candice in the waiting room, Amber.” Kathleen replies. “I don't want to cause any problems. But if you were praying that God take one life in place of another, then yes...that is a monstrosity.”

Amber swiftly takes a step towards Kathleen. She erupts, her emotions, anger, guilt, grief, spill from her. “And who are YOU to judge? How the Hell do you know what it feels like? YES, yes, I prayed to God that he would take Alex and not my son. Yes! YES!”

Kathleen steps back.

“And what of it? I'm sorry that I did, I'm sorry that I thought that way. But what would have you done, Nancy Drew? What?! My baby was locked inside MY home with some crazed lunatic, waving his gun around, threatening to kill everyone...”

“Okay,” Kathleen says, intimidated, “I'm sorry. Just-- please, calm down.”

Amber stops feeling the need to explain herself. Emotionally ruined, she turns and storms out of the bathroom.

Remorseful, Kathleen turns to the mirror and looks at herself.

THE HOSPITAL LOBBY

Amber tries to collect herself as she rejoins Candice and Taylor. “What a mess.”

As she approaches them, she notices an urgent look on their faces. When Taylor sees her, he quickly grabs his wife's arm and holds her close to him.

“Thank God you're here.” Candice says. “The Doctors have news about Devin.”

ROLL CLOSING CREDITS

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