Punk Rock-A-Bye Baby(40)

Jessi ran across the stage with fear gripping her throat. Angel and Damien were already hovering over Tommy when she got to him. The fright in Angel’s eyes scared her, and for a moment she thought Tommy was dead.

Angel quickly jumped up and held her arm for support as she dropped to Tommy’s side. “I don’t know what happened,” Angel gasped. “He just fell over.”

“Tommy! Tommy!” Jessi was frantic. Tommy lay on the floor of the stage with his mouth slightly open and the whites of his eyes peeking through the seam of his lids. He was unresponsive. Motionless. Lifeless. Her heart was palpitating and panic was driving her blood pressure through the roof.

Alyssa knelt next to Tommy and removed the Les Paul from across his chest. She pressed two fingers against his throat to feel his pulse, and lifted one of his lids to peek underneath. The unfocussed gaze of Tommy’s blue iris held a deadpan stare.

Two paramedics barreled through and instructed everyone to step back, but Jessi and Angel weren’t moving from Tommy’s side. They were both on the floor of the stage and held each other’s hand. They alternated between listening to the remarks made by the paramedics and watching Tommy for any sign of regaining consciousness.

Audra was next to them with her cell phone still at her ear. “An ambulance is on the way. They’ll be here any minute.”

Jessi nodded, but she couldn’t take her eyes off Tommy. She focused on his hands, hoping to see some kind of movement. The tiny twitch of a finger offered her a bit of reassurance, but then they all started twitching. His arms and legs jerked, and his chin stretched up to the ceiling. Jessi’s shaking hands flew to her mouth. Too many horrific thoughts filled her head, but she couldn’t stop them from multiplying.

The wail of a siren grew steadily louder, and the next thing she knew Tommy was being loaded onto a stretcher. His body had settled, but he remained unresponsive. Jessi stepped back and watched two EMS workers administer oxygen and wrap a blood pressure cuff around Tommy’s arm. Then they wheeled him away.

“Wait!” She ran after them. “We’re coming with you!” But they were already lost in the shadows behind the side curtain.

A voice called through the darkness. “Sorry. No one is allowed to ride in the ambulance. Meet us at St. Vincent’s Hospital.”

Fear almost knocked Jessi off her feet. She trembled uncontrollably and covered her mouth with a shaking hand to stifle her sobs.

Angel wrapped his arms around her and held her close to his chest. The baby kicked and turned, probably sensing her distress. Her hand went to her belly, and she tried to calm her anxiety with a few deep breaths.

Angel ran his hand up and down her back to soothe her. “He’s going to be okay,” he whispered, but his voice trembled with uncertainty. She felt the tremor in his touch and clung to him for security and hoped it also offered him some comfort, although she knew that neither would be at ease until they knew what had happened to Tommy and that he was going be okay.

“There’s a limo waiting out back.” Audra waved them toward the exit with urgency, and they all hurried out of the building.

Even though they were shrouded with security, the shouts and cries from the fans and paparazzi were suffocating on the short walk from the back of the venue to the car. Less than ten minutes had elapsed since Tommy fell to the stage, but there was already a large crowd of people outside, including photographers from the local gossip rags.

Girls were crying. Guys were shouting and calling out to Jessi and Angel. Jessi appreciated the concern from the fans who were genuinely distraught at Tommy’s collapse on stage and feared for his wellbeing, but the intrusive questions from the paparazzi were disturbing.

“Were drugs involved in Tommy’s collapse?” one paparazzo shouted.

“Is the tour schedule and the pressure of a new baby too much for him to handle?” another one asked.

Jessi ignored them, but Angel shot back, “Leave us alone! This is a family matter!”

The vehicle offered them protection from the media’s probing questions, but the worried look on everyone’s faces amplified Jessi’s anxiety. She was lost in a fog on the ride to the hospital. She saw her friends talking. She saw the worry in their eyes. But their words were silenced by her inner thoughts and the wail of the siren up ahead.

When they reached the hospital, there was a group of fans and paparazzi already there. It was as if they had been teleported from the venue to the hospital. Angel draped his arm over Jessi’s shoulder for protection from the shouting crowd, and Damien and Jimmy sandwiched them together like bodyguards. The group was immediately ushered into a corner of the Emergency Room where their security team shielded them from unwanted attention.