Chapter Text
“C’mon, focus, you’ve done this before” he thought.
It was supposed to be simple.
“Just wrap the bandage around the ankle, just do it!”
He was supposed to grab her ankle and stabilize it. He knew the procedure by heart now. It was not supposed to be any difficult.
But he couldn't concentrate when there was a possibility that the most important person in his life right now might be in danger.
Thomas Kinard never thought that the idea of missing someone could hurt so much. He had his far share of heartbreaks in the past, and that led him to know when to put some distance between himself and… anyone really.
He knew when to stop before the thought of missing someone would bring pain, and that's what it used to be… a thought, but never in a million years did he ever understand the magnitude of that idea turning into a reality. Until now. He tried his best to shake off the thought of Evan in trouble, and was able to, barely, finish straightening the ankle of the woman in front of him. She thanked him and after being carefully lifted by Tommy, using his shoulders for support, he guided her outside of the venue to find the first responders.
A guy, firefighter from the ‘133’ given by his helmet, approached them and immediately took over, guiding the woman towards the tents.
Tommy decided to follow them and use the opportunity to ask if he's seen someone like Evan. He explained to the firefighter how he looked like: a white, short haired, blue eyed man with similar height to his. Sadly, the first responder couldn't give him a hopeful answer of any kind.
With a simple nod and a ‘thank you’ he went on with his plan of finding his boyfriend, however, he was momentarily stopped by that same firefighter.
“Are you okay man? You're limping”
Damn it.
He knew his foot hurt whenever he took a step. He knew his ankle was sprained when it all started, and yet, Tommy couldn't care less. There wasn't anything in the world, not even his own body, that could distract him from looking for Evan.
“Y-yeah I'm okay, it's nothing” he didn't even give the other man any time to stop him before he was moving back into the theatre.
“I should rest” he thought. He knew it would take longer to heal and most likely months of desk duty and yet… when Tommy took a few seconds to look around and saw all the people holding onto each other he didn’t give a shit anymore.
“Evan!” there was a lot of screaming and desperation coming from him, one would think he had gone mad from the way he was obsessively yelling out his name, moving so fast even when that was the worst thing he could be doing for his foot.
It wasn’t until a louder, exasperated scream stopped him right in his tracks.
“No! You don’t understand! I don’t need help!” a teen girl was yelling so loud at the man assisting her. He replied, saying that she could barely walk and that she needed help. And it was true. Just like Tommy, she was limping and her arms were covered in bright red bruises, with a few even starting to look purple if you really took notice.
Tommy wasn’t planning on stopping his search for Evan, and even though the guilt would follow him for weeks, he just couldn’t leave the situation. He approached them both, quickly repeating the same soft ‘hey’ to calm her down and once she wasn’t hyperventilating he asked what she meant. The girl, whose name was Vanessa, explained the situation the best she could: Yes, she did trip while running down the stairs of her section and yes, lots of areas of her body suffered from the impact, but the real reason behind most of her injuries was her grandfather. He had fallen down the stairs while trying to get both of them down and out of the area, but that didn’t go as planned, given that after three steps down his body came rolling down, with a few people accidently bumping into it.
To say that Kinard and the other man were surprised was the understatement of the century. As soon as she finished retelling everything that happened to her grandpa, both of them helped to move her back into the section, which was completely empty at that point, since the rest had either managed to escape or were helped by first responders.
They found the elder laying next to the stairs, seemingly trying not to fall asleep, which was great since hearing the presence of more people including his granddaughter, gave him a surge of energy he hadn’t felt since the fall.
“Hello, I’m Tommy, What’s your name?” the pilot asked as he approached him, kneeling down and feeling his foot burn in the process.
“Uhm, my name’s Cesar kid” the man’s speech was slower than what would be considered normal. Tommy started a mental note on all the other possible injuries the man could’ve been experiencing: Concussion, broken ribs, even a brain bleed went through his mind.
As he was assessing the elder to rule out any other problems, checking different areas of the body while asking questions that ranged from a simple ‘What year is it?’ to ‘Can you move your feet for me?’. A howl of pain came out of Cesar’s mouth once he touched his pelvic region. Tommy took a second to stare at that area once his assessment ended. He’d seen this before, the swelling, the inability to move, the pain… he couldn’t count the amount of times they’ve had to take on hip injuries. Guess this was another one to the list.
“Cesar, I’ve assessed your injuries the best I can and I fear you have a hip injury. Now me and this gentleman right here will try to take you out with the rest, but we need you to stay with us, Okay?” the elder nodded.
They had to act fast. These types of injuries could quickly become life-threatening if not treated immediately.
As the two men were preparing to lift Cesar, Vanessa interjected, stating that she wanted to help them two. Any and all refusals from the adults only made the teen more upset. She told them it was her fault, that if she hadn’t pleaded with her parents to buy her the ticket, her grandpa wouldn’t have ended up like this.
The old man stopped any and words of guilt “You did not do any of this mija, there is absolutely no way this was your fault, we… I wanted to make this night special for you, so please, don’t work yourself up”
It took the man a lot of time to finish that last sentence and even with that, the stubbornness of the teenager was greater than anybody could’ve ever imagined. Tommy’s compassion and pain that he felt for the both them made him ultimately agree with the teen, letting her get in the end so that she wouldn’t be carrying that much weight. They all carried the Cesar, with Tommy holding his neck and upper back, the other man the lower back and Vanessa his thighs and knees.
As they brought the elder out safely to where help was, the pilot thought that was everything, that he could finally get back to find Evan.
But he was wrong.
Tommy heard another teen screaming saying that her friend wasn’t breathing and that please, somebody help them.
He left the scene rushing towards them, having to stop for a second before regaining his composure since his ankle decided to send a sharp pain through his leg. Despite this, he went up ahead, and while examining her body he asked the girl any and all information relevant to the situation. Apparently, they all came with a larger group and, just like him and his boyfriend, were split up once the human stampede started. The two of them never let each other go but at some point Sophie, the girl currently on the ground, was crushed against a wall for god knows how long.
“… Sh-she was fine, I think, b-but suddenly she was on the ground and, and…” Rachel, the girl kneeled in front of Tommy, was about to panic, but he held her by the shoulders, trying to calm her down. As soon as she was okay again, he continued his check up on Sophie. The moment his fingers pushed against her neck trying to look for a pulse Tommy new he needed to perform CPR immediately.
Just like many times before, he started to zone out while doing the chest compressions, and focused a little too much on saving the girl that he started to lose track of time. It wasn’t until his hands were practically numbed he started to consider the chance of stopping.
“Rachel… Can you tell me what time is it?” Her answer made his heart drop.
“Damn it”
He knew it was time to stop. The girl’s heart hadn’t restarted in the 15 minutes he was working on it, and yet, he was still at it, because he couldn’t let someone die. Not right now, not when the person he was missing the most was still out of his reach. But he was tired. He stopped to look for any signs that her pulse was back, but nothing came up.
“I… I’m sorry Rachel… She’s gone”
When the girl started to scream and cry over her friend Tommy realized three things. One, was that his arms and hands felt like they were on fire and moving them was like torture. Two, almost everyone around were looking at them, including a paramedic who seemed ready to enter the scene any second now. And three, Sophie was wearing a shirt with the band’s logo on it.
He wanted to cry and scream for the girl, but he couldn’t, not while Rachel was still holding onto Sophie's body, begging her to come back. He decided to approach her from behind, hugging her and whispering comforting words, encouraging her to let it all out as he tried not to break down.
“Get it together!” he thought to himself “Right now she needs you… but soon he will need you too”
The only person in his mind who could centre him back to reality was Evan. And he was going to find him.
He needed to find him.