I couldn’t breathe. I felt like I was in a bad dream and if I tried really hard I would wake up and this wouldn’t be happening. My best friend would not be bleeding to death on the floor a few feet away from me.

Only I didn’t wake up.

No matter how many times I opened and closed my eyes, Drake was still lying on the ground, coughing up blood and clutching his stomach.

It was only when he let out a groan of pure agony that I finally found my legs and realised this was not going away. I had to help him.

I sprinted over to where he was, collapsing to my knees and grabbing the back of his head gently placing it on my lap. Blood was around his mouth and I placed my hand over his to put more pressure on the bullet wound.

“Drake, Drake stay with me!” I almost yelled in his face hysterically.

I was barely aware of what was going on around me as all my concentration was on keeping him awake, but I vaguely took in the fact that Jace tackled Holly to the ground and took the gun away from her, knocking her out with one clean punch.

Apart from Holly’s unconscious body on the floor, it was only us agents and Jace in the room now. Jace got to his feet and stood next to me with the look of panic on his face as he looked down at Drake.

I turned to Chris “Call an ambulance!”

Chris was one step ahead and before I even finished my sentence his phone was next to his ear.

“My friend has just been shot we need help now!” He ordered down the phone, pausing as he listened to the woman on the other end who spoke loud enough for us to hear a muffled voice. Chris looked confused before he turned to me and Jace “Where the hell are we?! What’s the address?”

Jace quickly told him the address of the place and Chris repeated it down the phone, but not before long I could sense he was starting to lose his temper with the woman on the phone.

“I just told you my friend has been shot and you’re asking me if I need an ambulance, fire brigade or police?! Are you fucking kiddin’me woman?!” he screamed down the line, the panic of the situation clearly causing him to snap like that “If you ask stupid questions then I will use as much abusive language as I want.” The woman said something down the other end and fury blazed on Chris’s face “I have a friend who is bleeding to death and you’re threatening to hang up on me for abusive language? Listen to me, if you do not send someone here in the next 5 minutes I will personally come down there and bitch slap you myself.”

Chris snapped his phone shut, not bothering to waste another minute on the bitch on the phone as he was clearly too worried about Drake. “Mate, someone is on their way. And when they get here I may have to start beating innocent women.”

Drake let out a strained laugh which made a pang of hope shoot through me. He was laughing, he would be okay. He had to be okay.

I took my attention away from Drake and looked up, finally realising that Connor had not said a word. My eyes landed on him and that was enough to make all hope I had mere seconds ago fade away.

Connor is normally the joker of the group. The guy who would laugh and start cracking jokes while being covered in guts and blood. The guy who we all rely on to make the situation brighter when something goes bad.

Only now as my eyes landed on him I didn’t see the joker or the guy who would make the situation better.

I saw a scared boy who was watching his best friend slowly fade away.

He was frozen to the spot, his eyes open an unblinking. His breath was caught in his throat and the pure fear I saw in his eyes was truly frightening.

You see Connor and Drake were more than just friends and partners, they were like brothers. When Connor joined the agency Drake took him under his wing, and slowly with them living together and working together they became so close that you forgot they had only met 2 and a half years ago. Drake had been there for Connor at the hardest time of his life where he had to leave his friends and family behind, and in the midst of all of this happening they were like family.

So what he was feeling right now as he watched Drake on the floor with a bullet hole in his stomach I could never imagine, because as close as me and Drake were, it didn’t compare to the bond they had.

It was only when Drake let out a scream of agony that Connor snapped out of his trance, and in a flash he was by Drakes side on the floor, realising he didn’t have time to freak out or be scared.

He had to be here for his brother.

“D, D listen to me someone is on their way okay?” Connor tried to say as calmly as possible, but the panic in his voice was unavoidable “You gotta stay awake so you can watch Chris go psycho on the paramedics.”

Drake let out another strained laugh, only to scrunch his face in pain shortly after.

“You know I’ve been shot before, but this time I can honestly say it hurts like a bitch.” Drake managed to say, his voice was weak and I could tell with every word another shot of pain rain through his body.

“You’re going to get through this man, we’re going to get you patched up and spend the next week at home watching Fresh Prince and trying to get all our progress back on COD.” Connor managed to give him a faint smile, the hope filling his voice made everyone in the room feel better. He sounded confident, but I couldn’t help but notice he sounded like he was trying to convince himself as well as everyone else.

The corner of Drake’s mouth tugged up faintly “Only if Faith promises not to knock me out with the controller again.”

I didn’t even know I was crying until I heard a laugh escape through my tears. I sniffled and smiled down at Drake.

“I promise I won’t. All you gotta do is hang in there a little longer and you can play as much Xbox as you want. I will not complain once.” No matter what I said or how confident I tried to sound, my voice came out as a plea. I was begging him to hang in there.

“How can you refuse an offer like that?” Connor grinned at Drake.

He tried to return the grin, but instead his lids seemed to become heavy because his eyes began to flutter closed and I could tell he was trying with everything he had to keep them open. Panic rushed through my body.

I placed my hand on his cheek, shaking his face slightly to keep him conscious.

“Drake! Drake open your eyes!” I begged noticing Connor grab Drakes hand and holding it up, squeezing it slightly as an attempt to keep him awake. I let out a sob as I carried on shaking him gently “Drake please open your eyes.”

I vaguely heard the crying from besides me from Jace and Chris. Chris was hovering over all of us with his hands behind his head, gritting his teeth with moisture in his eyes. Both of them looked scared. They looked terrified.

Drake’s eyes opened slightly and he looked around the room before his eyes landed up at me with an amused smile on his face “What a bunch of girls, all crying over me.”

I wanted to laugh at his attempt to lighten the mood, but his words just made the tears fall harder. My hand brushed the short hair away from his damp forehead as I tried to hold the tears down. His eyes threatened to close again but it was Connor this time who was shaking him gently as a frantic attempt to keep him with us.

“D listen to me, keep your damn eyes open and just hang in there.” Connor voice was meant to sound like an order but due to the fact he was gritting his teeth together as the tears fell down his face it sounded like a plea.

The smile on Drake’s face never left, but he shook his head slightly. “Con, It was going to happen sooner or later.” Drake’s voice was so faint we barely heard it. He let out a small chuckle “Besides, for an agent I’m way past my expiry date anyway.”

Connor gritted his teeth together to hold the tears back as best as he could. He shook his head violently and sniffled “Don’t you dare say that. You’ve lasted this long and you are not going out like this.” Connor was squeezing Drakes hand tighter as if to show how serious he was about his words. Then I saw his composure slip and he let out a sob “You can’t leave me man. You can’t leave me on my own. Brothers remember? You gotta be there for me.” Connor was begging through sobs.

I’ve seen many disturbing things in my life, but watching a fully grown man who was trained to have a heart of stone, hide his emotions and kill without feeling guilt break down like this was probably the most disturbing thing I have ever seen. Throughout all my years of living with the guys, I’ve never seen one of them cry. They were too composed for that, too ‘butch’ as they would put it.

But now, no one cared about appearances. The idea of losing a member of our family was enough to let any hard composure crumble.

“You’ll do fine Con, after all you did learn from the best.” Drake responded, his voice as weak as the grin on his face. Connor let out a choked laugh which was slowly washed away as the realisation of everything hit him.

Through the blurriness of my tears I studied Drake’s face, and all hope inside me washed away as I saw the smile on his lips. It was a smile that showed me happiness, but it also showed me defeat. He knew he wasn’t going to win this one and judging by the look on his face he was happy to lose to it.

“You know, when you spend 6 years as an agent you always picture how you’re going to die.” Drake spoke, looking directly up at the ceiling “You always think because you left everything behind that you’re going to die alone. You never expect to spend your last moments with your family.” The smile on his lips grew wider as his eyes looked between each one of us, genuine happiness lined his features “Turns out I was one of the lucky bastards.”

Those were the last words he spoke as he finally stopped fighting and let his eyes drift shut, the same content smile on his face.

Drake was gone.

The tears poured out of me as I lowered my head down onto his chest, sobbing into it uncontrollably. I didn’t know how I was ever going to stop crying.

Connor gripped Drakes hand inbetween both of his, resting his forehead on them and crying over the death of his sibling. Connor didn’t lose a friend, he lost a brother.

Chris collapsed onto the ground, resting his elbows on his knees and holding his head in his hand muffling his sobs. Again, Chris didn’t just lose a friend, he lost a member of his family.

Jace was still on his feet, his eyes watering and pressing his fist against his mouth to silence his cries. He had only met Drake a few weeks ago, but the two had become close. Drake did not trust easy, and Jace was one of the few people he had let in.

And that’s how we all stayed for god knows how long, surrounding the body of Drake Compton and mourning the death of someone we loved. None of us wanted to leave his side, all of us wanted to shake him awake and order him to come back. Without asking I knew that anyone of us would get on their knees and beg anyone who listened to have him back, anyone one of us would trade places with him in a heartbeat just to have him breathing again, making jokes and acting his normal cocky self.

He was gone less than 5 minutes, and we needed him back already.

When I heard the movement in the room, I immediately knew who it was because none of the guys had spoke or moved, unable to stop the tears that were coming out of them.

I lifted my head off Drake’s chest, taking a few deep breaths as I tried to stop crying. My breath was heavy and my vision was blurred as I turned my head and saw her, lifting herself off the ground as she began to regain consciousness.

Our best friend was gone, and a piece of shit traitor like that was still breathing.

With determination I swallowed the sobs down and concentrated on the anger that was slowly bubbling up until I could feel it flowing out of me.

I narrowed my eyes at my target, vowing that I would have the satisfaction of ending the bitch myself if it was the last thing I ever did on this earth.

I lifted my hand off Drake’s, slowly raising it to my face and staring at the blood that covered it.

Drake’s blood.

I gritted my teeth together so hard I through they were going to break.

Fuck letting my emotions stop me this time. I'm going to rip her fucking head off.

..

A/N: chapter was one of the hardest to write, i love Drake! let me know what you think guys as always and thank you for reading! xx