Title: "Home Run" Zou's Edition - Chapter 1
Original story by: roomtable202
Edited by: Zou
Fandom: The Unit
Disclaimer: This is intended as a fan fiction, on characters owned by their original creators and I am not making a profit out of it.
Note: It was very exciting when Zou offered to review and edit the "Home Run" story. When I received the first chapters reviewed I've found Zou's editing so compelling that I thought it deserved a place of its own. I hope you all enjoy this terrific version of the original story as much as I do and let Zou know.
Bob Brown came to awareness with a start, to nothingness, or so it seemed. He was surrounded by darkness; in utter silence. The disorientation caused a flash of panic to hit his nervous system causing adrenaline to surge through his body in a flight or fight reflex. His senses provided him no input and apart from the overwhelming panic he couldn't identify what was real and what wasn't. In fact, he wasn't even sure if his eyes were open and he was in real darkness or if he was entrenched in some nightmare manufactured by his unconscious mind from which he had yet to awaken.
"Hey! Wake up! Come on!" a voice intruded into Bob's darkness.
Then suddenly Bob was enveloped in blinding light and engulfed in unbearable pain; it consumed him like fire.
"God, no!!" he groaned out. He would have screamed but the pain had taken his breath away. Instead he tried to physically move away from the source of his torment only to be stopped short by a new wave of fire coursing through him.
"I've got you!! I've got you!! Stay still. "Again came the voice somewhere just beyond Bob's sight.
"No!!" he answered and tried once more to more away from the pain eating away at his nerve endings like acid.
"Hey! Hey! Hey! Bob! Bobbo!! Look at me! Look at me!" This time the words were accompanied by hands grabbing his head and turning Bob's face toward the source of the demanding voice.
"Oh, God!!" Bob's eyes opened for a brief second then quickly closed again as the bright light caused a sharp pain to lance through his head. He took a breath and tried to orientate himself to no avail. Then responding to the insistent tapping on his cheek, he again opened his eyes. The tapping continued until Bob turned his eyes straight ahead and finally focused on the intense gaze of his teammate hovering over him.
Seeing that Bob had finally focused and appeared to be at least somewhat aware, Grey started speaking to him again. "Listen, listen, listen," repeated Carlito in a rhythmic cadence using the power of his words and their delivery in a slightly hypnotic manner. "I'm gonna check you out now . . . Be calm! Just be calm." While his face was intense he voice remained smooth and authoritative.
"No!! Don't!! Please!! Don't!!" Bob begged brokenly, not yet prepared to have the level of pain coursing through him increase, even through well-meaning and necessary medical care.
Grey would have given Bob the moment he needed to center himself, but knew that he didn't have that luxury. He tried to gently pull Bob's hands away from his already blood soaked pant leg and when that proved futile he hardened his voice and commanded, "Move your hands, Bob!" When that too failed to get the desired response he channeled Colonel Ryan and barked "Hands off!! HANDS OFF NOW SOLDIER!!"
Years of military training kicked in and Bob's conditioned response to the command caused him to immediately release the hold he had on his leg.
"What's sticking out of my leg?! Is it my bone?" Bob asked, not able to focus clearly, but having felt the splintered object near the site of the most intense pain.
"No, no . . . It's some little branch that got through. Calm down . . . It's Ok." Grey responded downplaying the severity of the injury he was seeing.
"Bad enough to shot me some morphine?"
"Not right now. It's not as bad as it seems. Just let me have a look." Grey responded, not telling Bob that morphine in his present state of shock could be fatal. "Be calm," he continued, trying to distract the injured man while he peeled away more of the jumpsuit to get a better look at the injury concealed there.
"Oohhh!! God!!" Bob yelled through gritted teeth as the pain flared even higher.
"Hold on . . . Hold on . . . Be still now!" Grey instructed, trying to determine the best way to deal with Bob's wound and staunch the bleeding.
"Oh, God!!"
"You're a lucky man, Bob . . . . Hold on! Let's do this together!!" Grey continued, wishing that he had another set of hands to help him manage Bob and his injuries.
"Stop! Please stop!! STOP!!" Bob, rasped as dark spots flashed before his eyes and his vision began to dim from the agony.
"I know! I know! Relax, relax! Listen to me . . . Calm down . . . Calm down!! Take it easy . . . Ok, Ok, Ok . . . Look at me, Bob . . . You have to calm down; control your breathing . . . I need you to hang on . . . You hang on, you hear me?" Grey stopped working on Bob for a moment and instead focused on calming his teammate and keeping him from slipping further into shock. "Bob, I need to fix this now man. You're losing too much blood and I don't happen to have any extra to lend to you. Do you understand? We have to do this now." Grey stared intently at Bob until the injured man's pain filled eyes settled on his. "Are you good to go now?" he then asked, and waited for an affirmative nod from his teammate.
Bob managed a few more minutes before he again cried out, "Stop!! Stop!! God, please stop!""
"We're almost finished . . . !! Come on . . . ! Don't fight me, man!!" Grey responded, even as he saw the fight leaving Bob and his resistance diminishing.
"Be done. Please. I can't take any more." Bob moaned, his eyes closing and his face going pale.
"It's almost over!! . . . I know it hurts like hell . . . but it's almost over, I promise. You hold on now! You'll feel better in a minute." Grey said as he focused on simply getting pressure bandages on the heavily bleeding wound on Bob's leg without dislodging the wood that had impaled it. He knew that if he simply pulled it out that the bleeding could be catastrophic. It would need to be done under more controlled conditions then he currently had. He needed Bob to be still and his condition more stable before he even considered removing the piece of wood that was deeply imbedded in his leg. For now just controlling the bleeding would have to do. The sudden silence that surrounded him made Grey look up sharply. "Bob! Bob! Don't do this to me now. Talk to me, man. Stay with me! . . . Bob!! Bob!! Come on Bob, the worst is over, it's over man" Carlito assured his teammate. "Shit!" he quietly signed under his breath, too softly for Bob to hear.
After doing all that he could to tend to Bob's most life threatening injury, and deeming that the rest would have to wait a little longer, Grey grasped Bob under the arms and pulled him into a half seated position. While he knew that he could not keep Bob upright for long because of the blood loss, Grey decided that it was worth the risk for a few minutes. He then moved swiftly behind his mate, knees bent on both sides of Bob, cradling him against his chest, trying to quiet his shivering by wrapping his arms securely around him. The idea was to both keep Bob warm and hopefully pass on to him, even in his semi-conscious state a sense of reassurance sufficient to allow him to center himself and regain some control over his senses. Grey had seen it many times in the field; if you could just give a soldier a moment to accept his new situation he could adapt to just about anything . . . even horrific pain.
Grey sat quietly supporting Bob, not sure how good a job he was doing on calming Bob's tremors as his own body vibrated slightly in the afterglow of the adrenaline rush he had just been on. Grey focused on calming his own breathing and while he waited for Bob to settle down he set about assessing their current situation and crafting a plan to get them both out of there safe and as whole as possible.
"You can lean on me now. I've got you, I've got you." He murmured to his teammate.
Despite his condition, Bob responded to Grey's words and relaxed into the comfort and safety of the embrace that was being provided to him. Teammates were the one shelter in the storm that could always be relied upon and Bob unconsciously responded to that shelter now. His eyes were closed and as he stared to calm his head began drifting forward towards his chest. But still, belying his weakened condition, he firmly gripped Grey's arms as if he was pulling strength directly from his teammate's body. Bob finally seemed to be gathered his willpower and emotional equilibrium. His ragged breathing started to steady as he synchronizing with Grey's.
Grey closed his own eyes and started speaking in a low calm tone of voice, as if to a spooked animal. "That's it Bob. Just take it easy, now. Don't fight it. Take in the pain. Breathe; breathe . . . 4-3-2-1 . . . Hold it. 1-2-3-4 . . . Again . . . 4-3-2-1 . . . Hold it. 1-2-3-4 . . . Think of Kim and Serena and Teddy . . . It was so much fun playing soccer with the kids at Serena's birthday party. Think of the party. Think of your family. . . Hey, you even scored a goal, which isn't saying much considering your competition was all six year olds."
Bob never said a word, but over the next few minutes Grey could feel him steadying, relaxing and his breathing becoming less hitched. Bob seemed to be striving for total calm, probably self-conscious about his reaction to the situation, likely believing it to have been an overreaction. Bob was all about control, Grey knew. Soon, the worst of the pain appeared to have subsided or at least to be controlled by sheer will. It was then that Grey felt Bob stiffen in his arms. Bob opened his eyes and looked down to see that he was still holding tightly onto Grey's arms and with a sudden jerking movement he pulled his hand free. He struggled to untangle himself from Grey's forceful embrace but it didn't take much effort for Grey to overpower Bob's meager efforts and keep Bob where he was.
"What? We're not dating anymore? You flushing me down the toilet now? Hey, it's OK . . . Better there than here." Grey teased as he gave a furtive glance at Bob's face seeing a slight blush on his still very pale face.
"Allow a father a little pride, huh? Someone might be googleearthing us just right now . . . " Bob replied, already giving up his efforts to twist free from Grey.
"How are you feeling, man?"
"Like shit . . . "
"You OK if I take a look over the rest of you now?"
"Suit yourself . . . " Bob replied nonchalantly, although some hesitation was still evident in his voice.
"Listen, I need you to sit tight just a few more minutes. If your vitals are more stable I'll give you that shot of morphine and put you to sleep during the worst part of patching you up. You with me?"
"It's OK. Go on. I'm fine now." Bob answered, turning his face away from Grey's, but not before Grey saw the embarrassment and resignation in his eyes.
Grey knew that this loss of control would eat away at Bob, but there was nothing he could do about it right now. He had to deal with the medical issues at hand and he'd deal with the psychological one's later, if need be. Or if he was lucky they would be picked up by then and those would be someone else's problem.
Rising from the ground, Grey passed an arm around Bob and eased him back down to the ground. He felt Bob wince at the movement and his eyes slammed shut either from pain, dizziness or both, but he didn't utter a sound. Once he was sure that Bob was as comfortable as he was going to get Grey moved down Bob's body running his hands expertly over it as he went; cataloging the injuries as he found them. In his mind he was detailing what he had to deal with and in what order, especially given their limited supplies. He also decided what would just have to wait or go untreated. He ended up kneeling again beside Bob's left leg needing to take a closer look at the most serious injury and to determine if there were others that he had not seen earlier through all the blood. . With no warning he grasped the two sides of the torn pant leg and in a swift motion tore the fabric to bare the rest of limb.
"Easy!! That hurts!!" Bob instinctively tried to shove away Grey's hands to stop the sudden stab of pain that had shot up his leg by the slight movement the tearing had caused.
"We are a bit jumpy today, aren't we? Your virtue's safe, I promise. Put your hands in your pockets and keep them there. Let me work." Grey replied calmly.
Turning his head away, Bob took a deep steadying breath. "All right", he hissed in pain. Although he grimaced at some of the manipulations and the probing, he hung tough and didn't try to stop Grey again.
"You're gonna need lots of knitting, bro . . . and maybe more. I'm not gonna lie to you, it looks pretty bad, but, we'll see to that. Just hang on." Grey started talking while he checked Bob over. "Most of the wounds are from the branches you fell through. You also hit your head on to the rocks when you landed, you have a good size lump on your head but you weren't out too long so I'll take that to mean that the chances of a serious head injury are not too high. That's good for you since it means I'll let you have some of the happy juice. You let me know if the world starts to go wonky on you or your head starts pounding too much though." Grey continued his litany. "I see one broken rib, and perhaps a few cracked or bruised ones, but I don't see any signs of internal bleeding. Thank god. But you are going to be one big bruise for a while, man. The worst of the damage seems to be concentrated on your leg. The important thing is none of these should kill you if we take care of them and . . . ?
".. and if we can get out of this hole" Bob finished. "What's the last you saw from the Team?"
"I didn't see any of them. I jumped right after you. I was focused on you." Grey replied without looking up.
"So, you don't even know if they followed or not? Hell! What were you thinking, man?!"
"HALO jump. 30,000 feet, pitch dark night? Total radio blackout, no GPS. Dude, does a grenade entangled in your parachute rigging ring a bell? It was you who jumped ahead of signal so as not to blast the whole bird. Which I'm sure everyone appreciated by the way. I just followed suit when I saw you going head down like a stone and struggling to reach your ripcord. Don't know what the others did or had time to do."
"I- . . . I don't remember" Bob muttered.
"Hey, . . . No drama . . . We were extremely lucky to get rid of that when we did. A hundred meters more of a drop and we would both be decorating quite a few of those trees by now and we are not even close to Christmas. Don't tell me you didn't have it secured . . . " Grey questioned.
"I won't, then. Look, you probably feel like punishing me some more for that, but is there anything you can do to ease this pain? I don't know how much longer I can hold out." Bob said, not meeting Grey's eyes as he once again admitted that his control was slipping.
"Gimme a minute. Let me finish and do a vitals check then I'll make you more comfortable. Once you're in la-la land I'll do all sorts of horrible things to you . . . Just think on that for a moment." Grey said in a teasing voice; however, he hadn't failed to notice that Bob had not really answered his question about whether the grenade was secured or not.