Chapter 39

"JULIE!" Kim and Erin yelled, running in, breaking the doors in the process. Other officers ran in the side way and detained the suspect.

"SOMEBODY HELP!" Kim was in tears. She ripped Julie's vest off. She tried to plug up the gunshot wound in her shoulder. Erin took Julie's face in her hands.

"Jules, stay with us...PLEASE." She said with tears in her eyes.

Blood was starting to pool and it was soaking Erin's jeans. Kim tried putting pressure on the wound to stop the bleeding, but nothing was helping. Hank radioed for the ambulance and they promised to get there as fast as they could.

"Julie...open your eyes...come on..." Kim tried CPR to get her breathing.

Sylvie and Jessica came running in with the jump bag and a stretcher. When Sylvie realized who had been shot, a shocked expression came across her face.

"Do you know her?" She asked as they lifted Julie into the stretcher.

"She's been my friend since I was eight years old...oh god...."

The put a breathing tube in her throat and loaded her into the ambulance. Kim hopped in for the ride, while Erin stayed behind to console the other people inside. Kim took Julie's hand in hers.

"You stay with us. Don't you go anywhere."

Julie's eyes were opened ever so slightly.

"Willhite, look at me." Kim said, wiping tears away with her free hand.

Julie's eyes glanced over at her and then shut. Jessica was doing everything she could to keep Julie breathing.

"Her pulse is weak." She said, placing her thumb and forefinger on Julie's wrist.

"Please do what you can. I can't lose her..."

"I'm going to do everything I can, I just don't know how successful it will be."

Sylvie was crying, constantly wiping tears from her eyes. She turned the corners and finally arrived at Chicago Med. Jessica, along with other doctors unloaded her. Kim tried going in the operating room, but Will stopped her.

"Let me go in there. I'm begging you."

"Not in this case, you need to stay out here. I'm sorry." He put on a surgical mask and rushed into the operating room.

Erin came rushing in, with the rest of the unit behind her.

"Please tell me she's okay." Erin said, looking at Kim.

"She's lost so much blood, Will's working on her now."

Jay looked concerned. "What did he say?"

"He looked as horrified as we did. He promised to do everything he could."

"You can trust him when he says that."

In the operating room, they cracked open her chest to see if they could transfuse any artificial blood. Will looked up at the heart rate monitor.

"We don't have much time. GO!"

One of the doctors in the room ran and gathered supplies, but as he got back in the room, the lines on the monitor went flat. Will tried shocking her awake, but it was too late.

"I'm calling it...10:32." He removed the mask from his face and covered her up.

A lump formed in his throat as he exited the room. He headed out to the waiting room, everyone looked up.

"Is she okay?" Leslie asked.

He looked down. "I'm sorry..."

"So she's...?" Kim bit her lip to try stopping the tears.

He sadly shook his head.

"NO!" Kim was in tears. Erin pulled her into a hug. Leslie, Gabby and the other girls joined in on it.

"She was my best friend..."

"That should be me in there, dead. Not her. THAT SHOULD HAVE BEEN ME!" Erin screamed. "THIS IS ALL MY FAULT! WHY DIDN'T I STOP HER?!"

Jay pulled her into a hug and began rubbing her back.

"Shh."

"Why did she have to go in there?! I should've gone in there! If only we hadn't been at that restaurant...It's my fault she's dead!"

"It's not your fault. She wanted to go in there. Look at all the people she saved. She risked her life for them, she put her job before her own life. That's the Julie Willhite we all knew and loved."

Out of everyone, Kim was crying the hardest. She was looking through pictures from the summer she met Julie. She had found one they took on the first day of camp. It was of them sitting on the floor inside their cabin. Tears fell from her cheeks and onto the phone screen. Alec walked in the waiting room from the door that lead out into the hallway.

"What's wrong?" He asked, noticing everyone crying.

"It's Julie." Kim said.

"What about her?" He asked.

Kim lead him into the hallway and stood outside the operating room where Julie lay.

"No..." He realized it was Julie who was lying on the table.

"I'm sorry..." Kim hugged him.

"We were planning on having another baby so Emmy and Liam could have a little brother or sister..."

He slid down the wall in tears and Kim sat next to him.

"They did all they could, Alec."

"I was supposed to meet her for a late dinner..."

"I was on my way to Venice, but I had a gut feeling something was wrong when she hung up on FaceTime. It scared me half to death."

"How am I gonna explain this to Emmy and Liam? She's their entire world. I can't tell them that they're mother is dead, I just can't."

"If you tell them, they're gonna get the feeling that something's wrong. I don't want to tell them either, but they deserve to know."

Alec took a deep breath and sighed. "I guess you're right."

"I'm not gonna straight up tell them, I'm just gonna let them kind of figure it out on their own."