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“Barney!” Leon yelped, sitting upright sharply as he felt the subtle jostling of movement as the ambulance he found himself in made a tight turn.
The last thing he remembered before just waking was meeting Barney at the manhole cover behind the diner, before feeling a sharp pain in his back and the shock instantly caused a wave of cataplexy to come over him as his entire body constricted and collapsed. He couldn’t move a muscle, stuck on the ground in the position he landed in, but he could still vaguely hear what was happening. He had heard his companion gasp as he fell, maybe towards whoever or whatever had struck him, and Leon laid there uselessly as he heard an extremely loud gunshot ricochet through the air, his ears ringing. Fear swarmed his mind. Was Barney just shot, or was Barney the one doing the shooting? Either way, the danger must be imminent and the situation dire. Barney’s life was in danger, and all Leon could do was listen. A wave of dread swept through his head at the situation, as he thought about how fucking helpless he was to stop the impending danger from potentially maiming his friend. The rush of emotion made Leon lose consciousness, despite how much he tried to fight back against the overwhelming force of his narcoleptic spell.
As he woke now, he took in his surroundings frantically. The sirens of the ambulance echoing from outside the vehicle, as he laid there on a gurney, he noticed another passenger in the ambulance with him. There laid Barney’s limp body in a stretcher, unconscious, with an oxygen mask strapped to his face, and his jacket removed and tank top pulled up to expose a bloody slash where two EMTS were sewing small stitches. One of the EMTs heard Leon’s previous shriek and looked over at him, shocked that he was awake, “Woah, you ok Buddy? How do you feel?” He said as he walked over next to Leon. “Oh my god, Barney!” Leon gasped as the dread of the situation hit him, trying to get up but stumbling and realized he was strapped down onto the stretcher. “Woah woah woah, easy now,” the EMT said, leaning above Leon and holding him still against the gurney. “My friend, is he gonna be ok?” Leon asked worriedly, glancing over at his companion. The EMT followed his gaze “Oh him?” he confirmed, “Oh yeah, he’ll be right as rain. Just putting in some small dissolvable stitches into that gash so it heals up real nicely,” the EMT said somewhat comfortingly. “He’s a real brave one, you know that?” the EMT asked, looking over at Barney reassuringly. Leon made a small noise of “Hm?” questioning the specifics of what he had meant. The EMT simply nodded softly before continuing,“He told us a bit about what had happened before we put him under. You got attacked from behind by some sort of invasive feral animal, a giant snake thing, he said, and he fought to keep the damn thing away from you. It roughed him up quite a bit, but he still managed to call an ambulance and carry you to the road.” Leon sat there flushed, the wave of information flooding over him as the EMT put a hand on Leon’s shoulder before saying, “I saw your medical ID bracelet, I assume you had a cataplexy attack out of shock when it struck you, yeah?”
Leon nodded wordlessly before the EMT continued, “Well you passing out after getting hit gave him quite the fright. He said he knew it was probably just a narcolepsy spell but didn’t want to risk any other possibilities, so he called 911,” the EMT shared before giving Leon’s shoulder a small squeeze and looking at Barney almost wistfully before he spoke once again, voice a bit quieter,“He really cares about you, you know that? He put his life on the line to protect you, no hesitation.” The EMT looked at Leon knowingly, “Friends like that are once in a lifetime, kid, so make sure to keep’em close. You two’ve got something special.”
“Uhm. Wow.” Leon said flatly, his face hot and his mouth dry, as heard his own heart rate increase as the monitors attached to him beeped quicker. “Yeah. Yeah, I will. Thank you, sir,” Leon said, thanking the kind stranger for both his actions and words. “Now I know you’re probably tired of hearing this,” the EMT started to say, “But how about you try getting some rest? I can promise your pal here will be a-ok” Leon agreed, saying “I’ll certainly try to, thank you again, sir,” before the wave of relief caused his shoulders to unclench as he leaned back down onto the surprisingly comfortable stretcher. He fell asleep again before they reached the hospital as the tight turns of the ambulance lulled him to sleep like a baby in a rocking crib.