Fletch POV
As the winter morning sun illuminated the room nurses continued to come in and out of ITU to take observations. With a number of blood infusions Jac and Ollie's heart rate and blood pressure were beginning to normalise and they were looking less pale. It would take a number of weeks for their bodies to replenish the blood loss. Although Jac will be very weak, she should wake up within the next 24 hours which will be a relief. Throughout the morning different colleagues come by to visit.
Roxanna is still in charge of Ollie's care and comes by every couple of hours. I can see from her face that she felt guilty for what had happened, and could not handle the grief of losing her husband, so she came into work today.
"Roxanna shouldn't you be at home on compassionate leave?"
"I don't think I can face going home after losing David, and I wanted to take on Ollie's case. He stepped in front of Dr Digby and me, and saved our lives, the least I can do is to try and save his. I couldn't save his wife Tara, but I can save him."
"I understand that, but you need to take some time for yourself. You won't be able to help anyone if you run yourself into the ground"
"You are still here, grieving like the rest of us. We have to grieve in our own way."
With that Roxanna left the room.
A couple of hours pass when Dominic and Lofty come by nervously. They both looked a bit uncertain whether they were doing the right thing. I hug Lofty sympathetically, whilst giving Dom a brief smile. Dom had worked with Fredrik during his brief time at Holby, and although it was not his intention the junior doctor prize had shown that Hanssen had chosen Dom over his own son.
"Look Dom, you don't have to do this, the shooting was not your fault. Fredrik made his choices, you could not have known that he would do this."
"I feel like I antagonised him, even if it was unintentionally. I just wanted to prove myself after Isaac."
"I know, as I said no one blames you. Take care, we need to look after each other."
Lofty places two cards by the two beds before leaving the room. Typical Lofty, it is always the small things that he does that makes a difference.
I don't mean to, but I end up falling asleep for a few hours. The monotony of ITU life getting to me. As I begin to wake up I see Sacha Levy's figure sitting opposite me. It was now 2PM.
"I'm sorry I shouldn't have fallen asleep."
"You're human, you need to rest."
"Has anything changed?" I'm annoyed at myself for not staying awake in case something happens.
"No. Have you thought about when you'll return back to work?"
"That depends on when Jac wakes up. I'll probably return sometime next week, I can imagine that they'll transfer Jac onto Darwin with all her CT complications. I'll be able to keep an eye on her from there. How about you?"
"I think I'll need to start working in a couple of days. We don't have many surgeons left, and we can't rely on locums forever. Gaskell and Hanssen want me to run AAU, so that we'll able to open our doors to new admissions."
"I see."
"I think we should put a screen between Jac and Ollie's bed. I don't think it will help Jac to see Ollie lying next to her when she wakes up."
"She'll find out eventually, and Zosia will be here soon. I don't think we'll be able to keep Zosia away from Ollie. Jac will work it out if Zosia is sitting by Ollie's bedside 24/7."
"We'll work something out. We could put Jac in HDU on Darwin when she wakes up. For the first few days she'll be vulnerable, and seeing Ollie with a head wound will probably upset her. When she's less weak we'll tell her."
Sacha steps out of the room for a few minutes to go find a nurse. When he comes back two screens are set up.
For the next hour we go back to an uncomfortable silence, with the machines and nurses being the only source of noise. Roxanna makes another quick appearance to check on Ollie, but after our conversation earlier it is clear she wants to escape the room quickly.
At around 4PM Zosia arrives. Sacha walks up to her to give her one of his bear hugs. I acknowledge her presence with a small nod, but I leave her to chat with Sacha.
"How much do you know?" Sacha asks.
"Dom told me everything, how it was Hanssen's son who came here with a gun and shot Jac, Ollie and Raf, and that Raf is dead. I know that Ollie may have severe brain damage, and may never be a surgeon again."
"We have to take things slowly day by day. Ollie will remain in an induced coma until the swelling around his brain reduces, only then can we safely wake him up."
"How is Jac doing?"
"Jac will wake up by tomorrow morning, but she will probably be stuck as a patient for a month or two. She'll need more surgery, but we have no more permanent CT surgeons. Connie Beauchamp had to perform the surgery with me to remove the bullet, but she needs to work in the ED."
"What happened to Matteo and Damon, don't they work here."
"They both left a couple of weeks ago with Nina. Jac and Ollie were holding the fort until the shooting happened."
"Maybe I can help out on Darwin, I'll be around for a while. Yale has put my placement on hold in light of what has happened."
"You will have to talk to Hanssen about it, although he has locked himself in his ivory tower and he may not be open to visitors."
"Okay, I'll stay here tonight. I don't think the jet lag will let me sleep until tomorrow morning."
At this point I interrupt the conversation.
"We have decided to put a screen between Jac and Ollie. We don't want Jac to see Ollie when she wakes up. If you're going to stay here tonight you need to remain behind the screen."
"What if she wakes up, and I'm the only person around?"
"I'll stay here tonight, just in case. When she wakes up, we'll move her to HDU, which should make things easier," I reply.
"No I'll stay here tonight, you shouldn't make your kids worried. Maybe you should go home now, I promise I'll text you when she wakes up." Sacha says.
"Fine, but Zosia stay behind the screen please until Jac has been transferred. I'll let the nurses know of the transfer on my way out. Goodnight."
