Never Tear Us Apart
Chapter
Twenty-One
Chloe sat in the back of the open ambulance, a blanket wrapped around her shoulder as she nervously waited for news about Noah. They had bandaged the cut at the back of her skull and given her a bottle of water, which she slowly sipped as she looked around. The outside of what remained of the mansion was swarming with firefighters, paramedics, police and ISA agents.
She had been completely lost in her thoughts when Greta came to sit beside her. Chloe shook herself out of her reverie and made a weak attempt at smiling. "Hey Greta..."
"Hey... Where's Brady?"
"Against my better wishes, he is out there searching for Noah..."
Greta's eyes were wide with surprise. "But -- he was shot. He should be getting medical attention."
Chloe sighed softly and pulled the blanket further down her shoulders. "That's exactly what I said... But, you know Brady, he won't stop until he finds Noah or until he's... he's too weak to go on. Just like his father."
There was a long moment of silence between the two women, and Greta coughed slightly from the smoke inhalation before she spoke again. "Chloe -- what you said earlier... about Stefano not being my father..."
"I was just making it up, Greta. I don't know anything that you don't already know... I was just trying to stall, and that's the best I could come up with it."
"But -- what if you were right? I mean, there is no solid proof that Stefano was my father."
Chloe looked at her curiously and pursed her eyebrows together. "Your mother told you he was..."
Greta nodded and continued, the gears in her head beginning to click into place. "Yeah, but like you said earlier, she wasn't exactly a trustworthy person. I wouldn't put it past her to lie to me about Stefano being my father. I did love her, but I never trusted her..."
"But why would she have reason to lie to you?"
"Because she could. My mother never needed a *reason* to lie... That's why she was so frighteningly good at it. She just did it for fun."
Chloe nodded and brushed a stray piece of hair behind her ears. "I know the type... So, now you're thinking that who? Who is your father?"
Greta frowned and looked into her friend's eyes. "I -- I don't know. But, and maybe this sounds ridiculous, but -- I've always felt like John's daughter. Always. Even when I was a little girl. It just fits, you know? I used to think it was just because of the kind of person he is. A loving, caring, protector. You know, that's the kind of person a little girl WANTS to be her father... But, in my heart, he's the closest thing to a father I've ever had."
"Well, Greta... You are an amazing person, so kind, caring, loving, honest, every good quality I can think of. You must have gotten that from somewhere... Maybe it was John, maybe it was somebody else."
"I certainly didn't get it from my mother, and if Stefano is my father, I didn't get it from him either..."
Chloe sighed loudly and then smiled at Greta. "You know, I've never told you this before... But, it was because of you that I sort of re-started the search for my own paternity."
Greta stared at her in shock, blinking her eyes rapidly. "Because of me? But... Why me?"
"When Brady and I were on our honeymoon, and we ran in to you here in Venice... You mentioned something about coming to terms with who you are, and who your father was. It really got me to thinking about my own father, and it was when we got back to Salem that we started investigating."
"Wow... And look at how well that turned out for you."
Chloe shrugged slightly and bit the edge of her lip. "Technically, yes. I have a great family... I'm very lucky to have all of them... But, I still have never spoken to my father. I just haven't been able to bring myself to talk to him... I don't know if I'll ever be able to."
Greta smiled at her and put her arm around Chloe's shoulder. "I know the feeling, believe me... Strange though, here we are in Venice again, talking about paternity... It's like our friendship has come full circle, except now I'm the one who isn't sure who her father is."
Chloe chuckled softly and nodded in agreement. "Funny how that works, I guess..."
Their conversation was interrupted when they heard shouting coming from the pile of smoking rubble that had once been Stefano's home. Rescue workers all began dashing towards one particular area, and both women stared at each other in confusion. Greta's forehead wrinkled as she tried to make out what was being said.
"What are they shouting?"
Chloe listened for a second and then shook her head. "I have no idea..."
Without a second thought, she latched her hand on to Greta's arm and pulled her out of the back of the ambulance. "Come on, Greta, we're going to go find out..."
They ran together towards the site of all the commotion, even though an ISA agent tried to stop them, blocking their pathway for a moment. "Ladies! Please go back to the ambulance!"
Chloe pushed past him and shouted as the two of them jogged past the agent, leaving him behind. "No way! That's my husband in there!"
They arrived at the crowd of workers gathered around as they were lifting Noah's limp form on to a gurney. Two paramedics immediately began working on him, hooking him up to equipment. Chloe spotted Brady standing on the other side of the gurney as he asked a paramedic for an update.
"He's alive? Is he alive?"
"Yes, sir, but just barely. We have to get him to a hospital right away." The paramedic answered him in a thick Italian accent as the female paramedic was prying something out of Noah's hand.
Greta and Chloe stared at Noah as he was wheeled away towards the ambulance. He was out cold and covered with soot and ashes, barely recognizable underneath all of the debris. The female paramedic handed something to Brady and then followed her partner towards the ambulance.
Chloe went to stand at Brady's side, and Greta followed her. He was staring strangely at his now closed hand and shaking his head slightly. Chloe laid her hand on his uninjured shoulder and stared at him with concern.
"Brady... What is it? What's in your hand?"
Brady barely seemed to notice she was there, muttering under his breath in a frustrated tone. "That sonofabitch, Maguire... If he makes it through this, I'm going to kill him..."
Greta stared at him in confusion, wondering what could have got Brady so riled up. "Brady... What happened? What's wrong?"
Brady slowly opened his hand, revealing the the thin vial of blue liquid. The antidote that would hopefully save his father's life. Greta and Chloe gasped simultaneously, and Chloe lightly touched it with her index finger.
"Brady, oh my God... it's the cure... It's your father's cure."
Brady nodded slightly and finally turned his head to look in the wide blue eyes of his wife. "It is. And, Noah risked his life to go back for it... In all the confusion, I forgot that it had fallen on the floor... But, Noah... He went back for it. He must have seen it there and... he risked his life for a man he's never even met."
Chloe smiled widely and ran her hand gently over his arm. "Noah is a hero. Just like you..."
Brady smiled back at her and kissed her forehead briefly. "Just like you, you mean... And Greta... The two of you were so brave tonight, you saved my life -- twice in one night."
Greta laid her hand on Brady's other arm and smiled at him. Neither woman had really thought of their actions as being heroic. They had no other choice than to take two human lives tonight, something that neither of them thought they would ever be able to do. However, as the old saying goes, desperate times call for desperate measures.
"Well, Brady... You saved my life the other night, so I kind of owed you one."
Brady coughed loudly and nodded in agreement, the smoke from the burnt-out ruins must have been getting to him. "Well, now we can call it even."
Greta's smile faded as she looked closer at him, even in the dark of the night she could see how pale he looked. "Brady... You don't look so good. Maybe we should get you --"
Brady interrupted her with a wave of his hand. "I'm fine, Greta... Just a little tired from all the searching."
Chloe shook her head and wiped a thin sheen of sweat from his forehead, his skin felt cold and clammy to her. "Brady, you're not fine... You were shot, barely had any medical attention at all, and then you went off to search for Noah. You need to get to a hospital now..."
"No, I need a phone... I need to call and check on my father."
Brady began to walk off but only made it a few steps before he started to topple. Thankfully, Greta and Chloe were on either side of him to keep him from falling over. Chloe gripped his arm tightly and gave him a stern look, the same one she gave to their son when he was in to something he wasn't supposed to be in to.
Greta turned to yell at the nearest firefighter as she held on to Brady's other arm. "Hey! We need some help right now! We've got to take him to the hospital!"
Brady stared at Chloe groggily, trembling slightly as he must have finally been feeling the effects of the gunshot wound. "Diva, I'm fine..."
Chloe looked at him doubtfully and rolled her eyes. "Yeah, you look fine. Drop the macho act for five seconds please..."
Perfectly on cue with her words, Brady's eyes rolled back in to his head and he fell unconscious. Two of the rescue workers arrived just as he was slipping out of the grip of the two women. They pulled Brady up on to the gurney and began wheeling him towards one of the waiting ambulances. Chloe clutched his hand and looked fearfully into the eyes of the young man pushing the gurney.
"Is he okay?"
"I think he just passed out. From the shock... He'll be fine. You can ride with us to the hospital, ma'am."
Chloe nodded and looked back at Greta. "Greta... Can you make it to the hospital on your own?"
Greta nodded and gave Chloe a brief hug as they neared the ambulance. "Yeah, I'll get one of the cops to drive me... Just go with your husband."
"Okay, I'll see you there..."
Chloe waved at her friend as they boarded the ambulance and closed the doors. The ambulance driver turned the sirens on and they began speeding towards the nearest hospital. The paramedic was working on Brady as Chloe slipped the antidote vial out of his cool hand. She looked at it sadly for a moment and then slipped it into her jeans pocket.
She held on to his hand again and sighed softly. So much had been risked tonight, and she prayed that it wasn't in vain. The paramedic had said that Brady was only in shock, and she trusted that. However, Noah's condition was unknown, and he had bravely risked his life to save John Black's.
Chloe laid her hand over the pocket of her jeans, feeling the vial underneath it. She muttered quietly, hoping that it wasn't too late already. "We have to get this to Salem... somehow..."
She leaned forward and brushed a piece of hair off of Brady's forehead, moving over him to kiss his brow softly. "And we will... We will save your father, Brady. We'll make sure Noah didn't do this in vain."