Chapter Four

After returning back home, Jace was in his dining room and he was eating dinner alone. As Jace was sitting on his chair, leaning over the table and his plate before taking a bite of his spaghetti for dinner, Jace sighed and he swallowed his spaghetti before taking a sip of his ice cold water. Jace heard a little girl's laughter once again. Jace lifted his head and he looked around the room and then looked at the kitchen and he didn't see anyone in the dining room nor the kitchen. Jace heard the little girl's laughter once again. Jace says, "hello?" It just got quiet. Jace thought he was being paranoid and so he ignored the laughter and he started to eat his dinner once again.

Jace heard laughs once again. Jace lifted his head once again and he stood up from his chair after putting down his fork on his plate and Jace walked out of the dining room, the kitchen, then he heard footsteps like running footsteps running outside of his apartment. Jace was looking down at the bottom of the door and he saw a shadow of footsteps moving. Jace said, "hello?" Jace frowned. He looked down at the door once again and he heard the little girl laughing once again. The little girl continued laughing.

Until the little girl stopped running and then the laughing also stopped. Jace was confused. He turned around and headed back to the dining room. After Jace sat down in his chair, Jace picked up his fork and he started to eat his dinner once more. Jace heard footsteps and then a little girl laughing once again. Jace was getting a bit frustrated. Jace immediately stood from his chair after putting down his fork back onto the plate, and walked to his back door and he opened it. Jace didn't even take a moment to be sure he wasn't having a stalker go after him. Jace just stood where he was and he stepped out of his apartment and he looked both ways to see if anyone was outside.

He looked down and he saw a couple people walking up the steps and laughing and talking. Jace then looked both ways once again before he stood back inside his home and he shut the door shortly afterwards. Jace just stood where he was and he felt like someone was behind him. He felt this utterly awful feeling that something evil was staring at him. Until Jace turned around and he didn't see anyone. Jace takes a deep breath and exhales his breath. Jace then continued standing where he stood and he walked straight to the kitchen.

Jace and Alex as EMTs were called to another emergency. After entering the ambulance, Alex was talking as he was driving and Jace was quiet. Jace kept having flashbacks of other first responders who found Brianna's dead body two years ago. When Jace (as he was having a flashback) kept on picturing Brianna in his memory, he kept on thinking about how he also was told about one of the law enforcement officers going up to his door of his apartment and saying that they found Brianna dead. Jace was devastated and he cried and was depressed for months.

Until he finally came out of his shell from being grieving over the loss of his little sister. Jace tells himself every day he's a fighter. He lost Brianna a couple years before Jace became an EMT. Jace's flashback ended. After Jace's flashback ended, Alex said, "Jace!" Jace looked at Alex."Oh uh, I am sorry, I'm spacing out a little bit," says Jace.

"Are you okay?" wondered Alex.

"Yeah," answered Jace, nodding his head.

"Are you sure?" wondered Alex.

"Yeah," answered Jace.

"Okay," answered Alex.

Jace and Alex arrived at a scene where a young girl Tiffany Eaten, an eight year old girl who was highly allergic to bees. She was in her backyard with her mother and as soon as Jace and Alex arrived at the scene, they'd get out of the ambulance after Jace pushed the stretcher and Alex pulling it, Jace had also grabbed the equipment. After heading to their backyard, Mrs. Eaten had been calling out for hemp and her neighbor Mrs. Jain was next to Tiffany as well. Tiffany was having trouble breathing. Her throat was closing.

And Tiffany eventually lost consciousness. "Help!" Mrs. Eaten shouted. Jace and Alex ran to the scene, and Jace grabbed the equipment bag from his shoulder and he kneels down on his knees before he starts treating Tiffany. The sun was a warm, hazy wash of gold over the Eaten family's backyard.

The air smelled of freshly cut grass, blossoming petunias, and the sweet, dizzying scent of honeysuckle clinging to the back fence. It was the kind of perfect summer afternoon that promised idyllic memories, but for EMT Jace Parker, the peaceful setting was a stark contrast to the frantic scene unfolding on the plush green lawn. Tiffany normally rosy cheeks were a pasty gray, and her lips were swollen and a mottled purple. A tiny, angry red welt stood out on her forearm, the obvious point of attack.

Jace's partner, Alex, had already torn open their medical kit, the jangle of equipment a jarring punctuation to the horrified silence of the two women standing over them. Tiffany's mother, Mrs. Eaten, hovered with her hands clasped tightly over her mouth, her eyes wide with a terror that Jace knew all too well. "She... she just went to water the flowers," Mrs. Eaten whispered, her voice a reedy, broken thing.

"It happened so fast. She just... collapsed."

Beside her, a slightly older woman with a worried expression, Mrs. Jain, wrung her hands.

"We heard her cry out," she said, her voice shaking.

"I'm so sorry, Mrs. Eaten. I should have been watching her."

"It's not your fault," Mrs. Eaten sobbed, then turned her pleading gaze to Jace. "Is she... is she going to be okay?"
Jace's focus was absolute. He

Jace gently held Tiffany's wrist, feeling for a pulse. It was faint and thready, a barely-there whisper against his fingertips. Her breathing was shallow, a wheezing struggle that was growing quieter by the second. Anaphylactic shock. The dreaded cascade of the body turning on itself.

"Alex, oxygen and an IV, now!" Jace barked, his voice sharp and commanding, cutting through the thick panic in the air. "And get that EpiPen ready!"

As Alex worked with swift, practiced movements, Jace carefully located the tiny, venom-bearing stinger still lodged in Tiffany's arm. He scraped it away with the edge of a credit card, a small but crucial action to prevent more venom from entering her system.

He grabbed the child-sized EpiPen Alex held out and, with a quick, decisive motion, pressed it against Tiffany's thigh, the auto-injector's spring-loaded needle delivering its life-saving dose of epinephrine. It was the first and most critical step, the chemical firebreak against the body's collapsing systems. The next few minutes were a blur of coordinated action.

The rhythmic beep-beep of the pulse oximeter, the rush of oxygen filling the mask over Tiffany's face, the precise insertion of the IV line. Jace monitored her vitals, his gaze flicking from the monitor to the little girl's still form, waiting for any sign of change.

He was a professional, but a deep-seated hope for a positive outcome warred with the stark reality of the situation. Finally, a faint tremor. Tiffany's eyelids fluttered, a tiny spark of life returning. Her color began to improve, the purple splotches on her lips receding, and the wheezing in her chest began to ease.

Mrs. Eaten gasped, a quiet sob of relief replacing her earlier terror. Mrs. Jain put a comforting arm around her, tears streaming down her own cheeks."She's responding," Jace said, his voice now a calm report rather than a command. He looked at Tiffany, and for a fleeting second, he saw not just a patient, but a child who had been on the edge of a precipice and had just been pulled back by a thread.

As they carefully moved Tiffany onto the gurney, the peaceful backyard seemed to return to life around them. The scent of honeysuckle was still in the air, but now it held a different kind of memory—not just of a summer afternoon, but of a small life snatched back from the brink, a quiet testament to the chaos and calm of a perfect, fragile day.