who nodded and got on one knee next to her mom. "Let me," he said, and gently moved her mother's hand to feel for a pulse with his own, steadier fingers. It seemed to take forever, but he finally nodded. "He's okay. He's breathing, too. I think he just passed out."
Claire's mother was crying, but Claire thought she probably didn't even know she was doing it. She had a frozen, blank expression that Claire thought was scarier than the scream had been. "Th-thank you, Shane. I don't think we should move him."
"We should turn him on his side," Shane said. "Recovery position."
Claire's mother looked at him oddly, as if she wondered how exactly he knew all of this. Claire knew, all too well. He'd come home to find his parents passed out a lot, during that nightmare time when they'd been on the road, running from Morganville and memories. Checking for pulse and breathing and making sure they didn't choke on vomit was just a normal thing to do, for him.
Shane rolled her father onto his side and settled him as comfortably as possible, then sat back and said, "Better call an ambulance. You'll probably want him to go to the hospital, right? Mrs. Danvers?"
She blinked and slowly nodded, then got up and used the desk phone to call 911. While she did, Claire stared down at her dad's still, pale face. He looked awful. Now that the adrenaline shock was fading, tears were threatening to drown her, and she didn't want to cry, couldn't cry, not now. Her mom needed her to be strong.
Her dad opened his eyes. His pupils looked huge, but then they shrank back to normal size. Having his eyes open didn't actually make her feel that much better, because he looked at them like they were strangers.
Even Claire.
When he tried to sit up, Shane put a big hand on his shoulder and said, "Sir, you'd better stay down until the ambulance gets here, okay? Just rest. Do you remember what happened?"
Her dad blinked, very slowly, and focused on Shane's face. "Do I know you?" he asked. He sounded . . . confused. Claire's throat went tight and hot, and she choked back tears again.
"Yes, sir, I'm Shane, Claire's boyfriend. We had a talk last week about your daughter."
Claire looked at Shane then, because that was the first she'd heard of any talk. Not that it was a bad thing, but she couldn't believe he'd gone off and talked to her dad without her. What a . . . medieval thing to do.
"Oh," Dad said, and turned his head to look at Claire. "You're too young to be dating, Claire. You should at least wait a couple of years."
That was . . . random. And odd. She blinked and said, "Okay, Dad, don't--We'll talk about it later, all right?"
The response time of ambulances in Morganville was fast--after all, it wasn't that big a town--so Claire wasn't surprised to hear sirens already in the distance. "You're going to be okay, Daddy," she said, and took his hand in hers. "You're going to be fine."
He tried to smile. "I have to be, don't I? I have to see you go to college."
"But--" But I'm in college. No, she must have misunderstood him. He probably meant he wanted to see her graduate from college.
Because otherwise, what sense did that make? Anyway, it was probably normal for him to be a little confused. He'd passed out, and it was almost certainly his heart; she knew the doctors had been treating him for a while. Maybe this time they could fix it.
"I love you, baby," he said. "I love you and your mom very much; you know that, right?"
He put his hand on her cheek, and finally the tears just spilled over in a hot mess down her face. She put her fingers around his. "I know," she whispered. "Don't leave, Daddy."
The ambulance sirens were loud now, right in front of the house, and Claire's mom dropped down next to Shane again, touched his shoulder, and said, "Would you go let them in, honey?"
He was gone in seconds, pounding down the stairs, racing to the front door. It didn't seem long at all before Claire heard the rattle of metal and heavy footsteps, and then the room was crowded with two big paramedics, one male, one female, who moved her and her mom out of the way so they could lay out all their kits. Claire backed up to the wall