“I’ll hold her neck. Just roll her over! She’s not breathing.”
Within two seconds, Ava was on her back, and Ruben removed her mouthguard as Chris began pumping her chest. Ruben screamed for a doctor again, but saw why there had been no immediate response. Nash had accepted the belt, staggered and collapsed. She had been caught by a member of her team and was convulsing. She was moved to her side and vomited a glob of blood, barely able to hold herself up.
The crowd was stunned into almost silence.
“Come on!” Chris yelled, “Ava! Come on!”
As the paramedics marched in, two sets of them, they split off to each fighter. Those coming to Ava, jostled Chris and Ruben had to pull him out of the way. They sat down, looking at their bloodied hands, not a drop was theirs. The paramedics immediately resumed the CPR Chris had started, and Ruben was bumped hard by a cameraman behind him, trying to get a shot.
“What the fuck are you doing?” Ruben yelled, turning and lashing out. “Get that fucking camera out of here!”
Ruben was held back and pushed away by the rest of the crew as he heard Chris yelling his name. Ava was breathing again, but she needed a hospital. Ruben’s chest hurt as he looked down at her, oxygen mask over her face, tears in her eyes. Crying yet not making a sound. Did she know where she was? Did she know what had happened? Was it shock? Was it pain?
“Babes!” he screamed from behind the paramedics. His war with the camera crew forgotten. “We’re here, hunni! We’re right here!”
Chris joined him, and they pushed away even more cameramen that were preventing her from being carried out of the ring, then followed as closely as they could. Through the arena, through the backstage area, and finally into the loading dock where an ambulance was waiting. They both rode in the back with Ava and one paramedic. In silence, save for sniffles, they both tenderly touched her hand with their fingers.
Wheeling her into emergency was bad enough, but having her wait in the hall for a doctor was agonising.
“I can’t believe this...” Ruben said, pressing his back to the wall. “This is like a bad dream.”
“Yeah well, we are awake. She isn’t. I hope this snaps you out of it.”
“What? Snaps me out of what? You blame me for this?”
“No. I blame me. I sat back and said nothing while you convinced her to go along with this. It was absolutely insane for her to face Nash. A seasoned veteran of ten years against a semi-pro fighter?
What the fuck did you think was going to happen?”
“What are you talking about? The board started this, I didn’t ask for it. They presented us with an amazing opportunity—”
“RUBEN! SHE. STOPPED. BREATHING!” Chris screamed, flinging his arm out towards the wheeled bed. “LOOK AT HER!”
Ruben was about to scream back, but his eyes found Ava again, and Chris’ words mixed with the sight of her lifeless body. Eyes closed. Remnants of fresh tears still evident on her face.
Chris put his hands on his hips. “This has got nothing to do with the fucking board, and you know it. It’s about you. Always about you. This is Robert Gasnier all over again. The board took a liking to you and presented you with a nice little jump in the rankings if you got past Gasnier. Everyone told you it was shady, but you didn’t listen. You’ve never lived that down and you saw another chance for glory and jumped at it. No risk. No fear. No fucking thought. My fear was always that you saw a chance to relive your past through Ava.”
“Don’t you dare say that to me.”
“Why can’t I? Prove me wrong! Pushing her? Fine. Training her hard? Fine. Putting her up to pro? Fine. But to accept this fight, even as an exhibition? Were you even thinking of Ava when you said yes? Or were you thinking of you? How you never got to hold that championship you wanted so badly. You never thought you’d ever get another shot at being in the spotlight. Suddenly it was there and your eyes just lit up.”
“She said yes!”
“She trusted you! She followed you! She trusted us! I let her down too. I should’ve stopped this.”
“So why didn’t you, then?”
“Because I...” He paused, looking at her again. “Because I love her so much, and I couldn’t stand to break her heart by having her think I didn’t believe in her.”
“Do you think I don’t believe in her?”
Chris stiffened. “We failed our baby girl.”
Ruben looked up from the floor, puzzled. “She’s a grown woman. We aren’t her parents.”
“Well who’s gonna be if we’re not? Have you thought about that? That night she was abused... she came to you. She could’ve gone to the Police but she wanted YOU. Like you were the only thing that could protect her. She CLUNG to you. You brought her home, and I fell in love with her. We took her in. We trained her... and now...”
“We made her strong. She will get through this. She wanted this. I made a judgement call...”