.................Sorry, but about Helen;
Helen barely felt the impact, at first. The hollow-point bullet slammed into her abdomen, flattening itself and fragmenting, causing massive internal damage. Helen stumbled sideways towards the wall as Eric and Brandon lifted their shotguns from the floor, swinging them around towards Dimitri as Jon followed suit. one problem, Dimitri used the Deputies 45, as being a standard issue, they aren't supposed to be using hollow-point rounds.
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and Jon, though seriously wounded, had joined Brandon and Eric at Helen's side. Seeing that Helen was losing massive amounts of blood, Eric glanced around for a towel. Finding none, he shucked off his shirt and eased it under Helen's arm, trying to slow the loss of blood. One of the bikers, who had been an army medic years before, rushed to aid Helen, though his first glance told him that the effort was likely to be in vain.
Helen, slipping into the first vestiges of shock, fought off the clawing numbness as she looked at her three boys. She'd seen enough to know that Dimitri had taken Chase, and she knew what had to be done. Drawing a painful, ragged breath, she said, "Go after them, save Chase. There's no time, just go, now." Seeing the hesitancy in their eyes, and knowing that they didn't want to leave her side, Helen added, as her voice fell to a ragged whisper, "There's nothing you can do for me. Jon can stay with me, he's hit bad too.
Eric's eyes met Helen's, and in spite of his grief, he knew that she was right. His goodbye was simple, a soft caress that left a smear of his blood from the base of her ear, to her chin. Without a word, though his heart felt like it was being ripped in two, Eric tore himself away as he set his jaw in resolute defiance, before standing and snatching the keys to the Jeep from a kitchen drawer.
Back at the ranch, the former army medic had tried to slow Helen's bleeding and had elevated her legs, but there was little else he could do. He had grave doubts that anything could be done to save her; she was fading fast. Barbra held Helen's clammy hand, murmuring, "Stay with me babe, just hang on." Joe put an arm around Barbra, trying to comfort her, but feeling the sobs she was stifling.
Jon returned to Helen's side, only to see that her eyes were closed. Feeling an emptiness, accompanied by a deep sense of foreboding, he glanced at the former medic, who shook his head with a sad, barely perceptible motion.