A Day to Remember
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Setting: After Season 6.
Disclaimer: I do not own Bill or Karen or 24.
Dedicated to Huddyalways-24-BK-MA, take5 and Palmer4President- thanks guys for your on-going support, encouragement and much needed B/K chat... or whatever it is we actually chat about! -Mak ;)
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"Gun shot to the chest"
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"No protection"
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"Close Range"
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"Not expected to live long"
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"Weak"
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"Dying"
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She wanted to scream. She could see the happiness he'd brought into her life, and how far it was on the verge of disappearing, forever.
Her head was heavy and weak and tears rolled down her cheek; as memories of them both happily together, played through her mind. And it was all too surreal.
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The phone call. The voice that had told her, her husband had been shot. The words, like a dagger to her chest, her insides so cold, so empty. Her mind was much the same.
He wasn't even expected to live as long as he had, 8 hours.
Everyone she'd met would tell her, his actions were heroic.
He'd saved a young child and his mother, and had gambled his life for theirs.
His heroic story fluttered in thorough one ear, and slowly out the other- but even the story behind his tragic accident couldn't make up for what she knew, she could lose.
She secretly wished he hadn't saved those two souls- because if he hadn't, he would have been awake, and not plugged into numerous machines. He would have been sitting next her, awake, holding her, loving her.
But he wasn't. He didn't. And he was only just hanging on. His time was running out.
Karen was scared, more scared than ever.
She thought it was frightening having the knowledge she could have been assassinated along with the President. She thought it was frightening having to kill someone to save herself. But those past experiences could not compare to what she felt, the pain- the endless pain.
Bill was her love, her best friend and her life.
She clutched his hand and held on tight; maybe she thought, she could pull them both through the nightmare together, maybe it was a nightmare.
She needed to see his amazing blue eyes again, that beautiful smile of his- that made her feel all giddy inside and that laugh- that always made her laugh along with.
Those times. Those always treasured moments.
She needed him to open his eyes again and open his mouth again- so she could just hear the words that he was all right.
She wanted to feel his warm embrace; his soft kisses on her cheek and his calm voice so soothing and kind.
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Then the wonders of if Bill really wanted to wake up, entered Karen's mind. She shook the thoughts away. He was going to wake up whether he wanted to or not- Karen nodded. It hurt to see him so defenseless, unconscious and injured. It hurt too much. It made her mind so scrambled and her thoughts race in endless circles- like havoc in a limitless box.
She put a hand on his forehead and stroked his hair. He'd always been defensive about 'his hair'.
When she had told him it looked really old and grey, he would feign hurt and say he had purposely dyed it that way. When she suggested dying 'his hair' another colour, he would say an impossibly pathetic excuse of either 'he'd grown to like his hair that way' or 'he couldn't decide what colour to dye his hair'. Then as usual the matter was always dropped when Bill would ask Karen how she had kept her hair so perfectly blonde all this time.
That was Karen's secret, that'd she'd never tell.
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The feel of his heartbeat under her hand and the knowing that the Heartbeat monitor was still counting, were the only assurance for Karen that Bill was still alive. She looked at his face, so calm and peaceful, if she hadn't known better she would have guessed, that he was only sleeping, but the excruciating fact was that she knew he wasn't.
"Honey- please wake up," she begged him, more tears running down her face.
"You can't die now, I haven't even said 'Hello' to you today,"
"You left to get breakfast," she slightly managed a small smile "even though I said I was going to cook us pancakes- well I guess I have to agree with you," she said with a little realisation "pancakes aren't exactly my specialty…"
"I waited for your return,"
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"But you never came home,"
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"And instead I heard the news, of your little adventure- that landed you here, with a bullet in your chest," she said trying to add at least a little bit humour to her one-sided conversation… but her tears kept welling up.
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Karen was sitting beside him, her hand in a vice-like grip around Bill's.
She looked around the room, noticing the empty white walls and the seemingly bright lights. Karen thought there was something awfully symbolic, about such a white surrounding in a Hospital. All her life she had known that 'white' always symbolised something spiritual and peaceful.
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Karen's head found its ways to Bill's hospital bed and her soon afterwards her eyes slowly closed shut.
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The feeling of a hand shaking her shoulder woke her- a hospital nurse stood behind her, face solemn.
"He's beginning to stir, Ms Hayes- we're not sure yet, to how strong he is, or how many hours he has left, but I suggest you talk to him- this is most likely going to be your last chance… I'm sorry," the nurse said, as she then turned around and quickly retreated out of the room.
"Bill?" She muttered. She saw him move his head a little.
"Bill?" She said again, a bit louder. His brilliant blue eyes were soon visible as he blinked a couple times, to get used to his surroundings.
"Where am I?" Bill somehow managed to ask. Karen's eyes were full of hidden tears.
"The Hospital," Karen said with a worried smile. "You were shot honey, and you're badly injured... but we'll get through this- okay?" she quivered.
"Okay…. but Karen. Why do you have a blood-stained top- while I don't have any markings on my body at all?" Bill asked amazingly clearly although he had a tube in his mouth. She almost laughed at this false fact.
"Honey, it must be the drugs in your system- they're making you hallucinate. I don't have any…" and with that, Karen looked down at her chest, at her blood-stained top, and she felt a sudden searing pain radiating from her chest.
She turned around slowly, her feet almost giving way from under her, but when she looked behind her- nobody was there, and the patients and staff who were there- occupying the corridor just a minute ago, had mysteriously gone. She then turned back towards her husband… Bill had disappeared too.
She then collapsed, in pain, confusion and desperation.
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Karen suddenly heard a noise, like a voice- calling to her.
"Karen," she heard a familiar soothing voice call audibly. Karen blinked her eyes open. She managed to see a blurred image of Bill...
Oh thank God, it was all just a dream then, a nightmare. Bill's safe and he's here with me, as it should be. She inwardly sighed with relief.
But a certain realisation dawned upon her- her chest was still searing with the pain she had just dreamt of, and she was not in her own comfortable bed. She struggled uncomfortably to look to her right- to where Bill was, but the tubes she found in her skin and in her mouth restricted her much movement. When her eyes focused on Bill beside her, and when she felt him squeeze her hand, she knew she wasn't dreaming – this she noted- was real.
"Where am I?" She asked just managing to cough out the words. It was so bright- so white…
"The Hospital," Bill said, although he said the words so calmly, there was an unmistakable sound of worry in his voice, "You were shot darling, and you're badly injured... but we'll get through this- okay?"
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