Disclaimer: I don't own Numb3rs or the characters, hell I don't even own the roof over my head!
A/N: I may have taken the odd liberty (don't I always?!) so forgive me if there are a few oddities! I did do some research on my subject though. Thank you so much for the reviews and the alerts, I was quite literally stunned by your response!
Light was shining through the gap in Colby Granger's bedroom curtains. He blearily opened one eye, suddenly very aware that he was in desperate need of a visit to the bathroom. Going to roll out of bed in the same way as any other day turned out to be a mistake, as he had, in his just woken state, forgotten about his argument with the Northgate Dam spillway. He ended up falling back on to the bed with a groan. It wasn't so much that he was in pain, well not that really agonising pain but more that nagging discomfort, of the kind you get when you've run too far, spent too much time at the gym or maybe had a bit of a beating. He figured that the beating would cover it, only his was by water, not by a human being, though at the time the water had pummelled him more efficiently then any person could have. Getting up, this time slower, Colby carefully and slowly made his way to the bathroom, he took care of his full bladder, washed his face and cleaned his teeth. He realised that he was also hungry and he had no idea what the time was, padding back into the bedroom he pulled on a pair of sweatpants and a shirt. The clock showed it was just after 11am. What the hell? Don had dropped him off around 10am yesterday morning, at least he assumed that had been yesterday, that meant he had slept for the best part of 24 hours. He couldn't remember ever having done that before, with the exception of drug induced sleep when in the hospital. If he'd slept so long why did he feel so crap still. He mentally ran through the checklist Brian had provided him with, he crossed them all off the list, so he just put it down to sleeping too long, if there was such a thing and that his body needed food. Heading out to the kitchen he checked the fridge, he hadn't done a shop in a while, so there wasn't much in it. He grabbed a carton of OJ and poured himself a glass and opened the cupboards, nothing there but cereal. He got himself a bowl and spoon and poured in the cereal and the last bit of milk that was left then sat himself at his dining table and ate. Once finished he drank the rest of the OJ and put both the bowl and glass into the sink to be washed up later. Feeling better for getting something to eat he decided to take a shower and take a walk to the nearby store to get some essentials to tide him over. He couldn't drive anywhere since Don had made certain his car remained at the FBI offices.
Showered, changed into a pair of grey jeans and a loose fitting white shirt, no way could he manage to get into a t-shirt the way his shoulders were feeling. He grabbed his wallet and house keys, locked up and made his way slowly down the stairs, deciding slowly was going to be the way of things for a couple of days at least. The store was only a couple of blocks from his apartment, and would normally have only taken him 10 minutes to walk, 30 minutes later he finally made it to the store. A few minutes from the store he had started to cough. He thought about turning back but could see the store and knew he needed those essentials. 20 minutes later he was checking out. Carrying the bags he realised that the cough had got a little more persistent. He'd get back to the apartment and call Brian, he didn't think it was serious enough to go to the hospital but the medic had said to call him if he was worried and though he wasn't really he didn't want another lecture because he hadn't called, better to be safe than lectured, right? Of course he could have used his cell if he hadn't been stupid enough to leave it at home, something he hadn't realised until he was 5 minutes down the road and he couldn't be bothered to turn back to get it. It took just over another 30 minutes for him to make it back to the apartment building, he was tired, perhaps the walk had been too much, but he'd call Brian, have a lay down and be right as rain tomorrow, ready to go back on duty. The cough was starting to get on his nerves now, and his chest was hurting, probably from the damn coughing. Unlocking the door to the apartment complex he started to make his way up the stairs to his apartment, he got to the top and found he was short of breath. Alarm bells started ringing loudly. What was it Brian had said? Coughing, pain in his chest, difficulty breathing, that was 3 of the boxes ticked, he needed to get into his apartment but found he could go no further and crumpled to the floor at the top of the flight of stairs, just metres from his apartment door, from the phone that would bring him the help he so desperately needed. It was getting harder to breathe, the air he was taking in was insufficient for his body's needs, getting dizzy he rested his head on the floor, he'd take a minute then he'd get to his door, even if he had to crawl on his hands and knees.
David stood impatiently outside the complex, he was desperate to get into the building and check on his friend. Why hadn't he suggested to Colby that they exchange keys again? Did he still not trust his partner? NO! That wasn't it, he just never got round to bringing it up. Looking at his watch he realised he'd only called Don a matter of minutes ago, time was dragging. It was possible that another of Colby's friends had popped round, taken him out maybe. What friends though? David wasn't aware of any other friends, none of the team really socialised outside of their group, the hours, the amount of time left at the end of a long day investigating. They were a family and spent a lot of time together, though he knew that both Megan and Colby practiced different types of martial arts and they each had their hobbies. David himself helped out at a Community Centre, once upon a time Colby would join him there now and then, something they hadn't done in a while. The kids had loved the large Agent and had run both of them ragged playing basketball, it had been a blast. Next time he went he'd make sure he asked his friend to join him, it was time to get their friendship fully back on track, back to the way things used to be. No, better than before.
"Excuse me young man." The voice of an elderly lady broke into his thoughts.
"Ma'am?" David asked politely.
"You are standin' in my way!" She pointed towards the door he was standing in front of, his large frame completely blocking it.
"Oh, I'm sorry." He stepped to one side, the lady eyed him suspiciously, her steel grey eyes missing nothing.
"You lost?" She asked.
"Actually, I'm here to visit a friend, but I can't get hold of him, he was sent home from work sick and I wanted to check on him."
"Is that right?" The elderly lady had not been born yesterday, she knew not to trust a man loitering outside of the building, but there was something in the man's eyes, it looked like fear. "Who's your friend?" She asked.
"Colby Granger, do you know him?"
"I do. Lovely young man, so polite and helpful." Still not quite trusting the man before her and not wanting to give too much away.
This lady was cagey, David thought to himself. Not a bad thing in this day and age. "Ma'am, I wouldn't normally ask this, but would you be willing to let me into the building?"
"Now young man, do I look like I don't have all my marbles?" She asked.
"Mrs…?"
"Ms Eleanor Jones." She supplied.
"Ms Jones, I work with Colby at the FBI, he's my partner." He pulled out his badge and showed it to her. "He was injured in the line of duty 2 days ago and he's now not answering his phone, I'm worried about him. Perhaps, if you won't let me in, you'd be willing to go to his apartment and knock on his door for me, see if you can get hold of him."
Eleanor Jones took the ID and studied it carefully, noting the name, it had actually been Colby that had cautioned her about allowing just anyone into the building, he had spent a lot of time checking her home was secure, he had also spoken about his partner, a man he referred to as a brother, she recalled his name was David, the same as on the ID , she was now sure, standing before her was that man, he was almost beside himself. "Sonny, you look like you're about to jump out of your skin, Colby speaks about you all the time, you come in and check on him."
David smiled at the woman, grateful for her consideration, as well as surprised that Colby had spoken of him to her. "Thank you Ms Jones."
"You may call me Eleanor, Agent Sinclair, any friend of Colby's can use my first name." She smiled warmly, changing the steel grey eyes to warm pools.
"Then you can call me David." He returned what he saw as a compliment. He waited whilst she used her key to unlock the door, he stepped inside holding the door open for her.
"Ah a gentleman just like Colby." She turned to walk down the corridor towards her ground floor flat and gasped as her eyes fell on a figure laying at the top of the stairs, the bottom of which she had to pass.
Hearing her gasp, David was by her side moments later, following her line of sight he saw the same figure, instantly recognising it as that of his partner. "Colby!" He shouted, taking the stairs 2 at a time. When he reached his side he found that his breathing was laboured. Grabbing his cell he called control requesting an ambulance for an Agent down, hoping that those words would bring help all the quicker. He then dialled Don's number again.
"Eppes."
"Don, it's bad, he's bad…" David babbled.
"David, calm down. What's happened?" Megan spoke, never had she heard David babble, so it had to be Colby and it had to be serious.
"One of his neighbours let me in as she was entering after I showed my badge, he's slumped at the top of the stairs, his breathing is laboured. I've called for an ambulance."
"We'll be there in 10 minutes." Megan shut the phone off as Don hit the sirens, not the first time they had used them to get to the scene of an injured colleague in a hurry.
David turned his full attention back to his partner, after briefly glancing at Eleanor who was still standing at the bottom of the stairs. A compassionate man he was torn between being with Colby and making sure that Eleanor was alright. Seemingly sensing the Agent's concern Eleanor spoke. "I'll make sure that the paramedics can get in."
David gave her a grateful smile. "Colby, man, can you hear me?" He gently shook him.
Colby was finding it harder and harder to catch a breath, he was aware that he was laying on something hard, but stranger still was he could hear David's voice. He was so tired, but he heard panic in that voice, he needed to let his partner know he could hear him. Steeling himself he managed one word. "David."
"You're gonna be OK. Ambulance is on the way, stay with me bud."
"Hard. To. Breathe."
"I know, just take it easy. I'm here, I want you to stay with me." He repeated.
"Tired."
David heard the sweet sound of sirens. "Hear that man? That's help, they'll be here soon." He watched Colby closely, willing him to stay awake, stay alive. Moments later the sirens stopped and he heard the sounds of doors opening and then slamming, followed by running feet. Eleanor's voice carried up the stairs as she directed the 2 paramedics to where their patient lay.
"Sir? What happened?" The older, male paramedic asked.
David quickly gave them a run down on how he had found Colby, the incident in the spillway and what he had observed since finding him, stepping out of their way as he did so.
"Gimme the O2." The male paramedic turned to the younger female one, who instantly did as instructed. "Go grab the chair, we're gonna need to carry him out of here." Leaving the O2 on the ground next to the patient she ran back down to the ambulance. The man spoke to Colby. "Can you hear me? My name is Jack, we're gonna take good care of you, alright?"
Colby managed to nod slightly in response. Though the oxygen was helping a little it still hurt to take even a shallow breath. He felt a slight scratch as the man who had identified himself as Jack slid a needle into the back of his hand, allowing him to connect up an IV. As much as he wanted to, he couldn't keep his eyes open any longer and drifted into unconsciousness.
Don and Megan pulled into the car park a few minutes after the ambulance, they were just in time to see the paramedics carrying their colleague in a chair to the ambulance, David hot on their heels. They spoke to him briefly whilst Colby was transferred from the chair they had used to get him out of the apartment onto the gurney, raising the back so he was sitting up. His colour was grey, his lips had a tinge of blue. "I'm going to go to the hospital with him." Stated David.
"We'll follow." Don replied. Turning he found an elderly lady before him.
"David." Came her quiet, concerned voice, causing the worried agent to turn. "Please let me know how he's doing when you know anything?"
"Eleanor, of course I will. Give your number to Agent Eppes here." He indicated Don, before squeezing her hand and jumping into the back of the ambulance. The lady quickly gave Don her number, which he wrote down in his pad, assuring her he would call as soon as there was news. He had no idea who she was, but from David's reaction to her he knew that it was important to him. He got back behind the wheel of the SUV, Megan climbing into the passenger seat, barely getting the door closed before Don took off after the ambulance.
David grabbed hold of Colby's hand as soon as he was sat in the back whilst allowing Jack to do his job. He hooked him up to a heart monitor and pulse oximeter. All David knew was his friend was struggling for breath and the beeps coming from the monitors were doing nothing to reassure him as they weren't the regular rhythm of a normal heart rate. "Is he gonna be OK?" He asked nervously.
"I suspect it's secondary drowning, from what you've told me about the incident in the spillway. It causes pulmonary oedema, making it difficult for the patient to breathe. Its serious, I'm sorry I can't say more than that at the moment." Jack wanted to reassure this man, but he didn't want to lie. The ambulance pulled up outside the ER, the doors were flung open and all David heard was a lot of medical jargon as they unloaded his brother. He followed them into the ER until a nurse stopped him. "This is as far as you can go for now I'm afraid." She said sympathetically. "Someone will come out and speak to you once he's been seen." With that she headed into the trauma room and the door closed behind her.
Colby sat on the bed he had been transferred to, he had come round as they had moved him from the gurney, doing his best to respond to the questions the doctors and nurses were throwing at him whilst trying to catch his breath. He was not a man to show fear, but at that moment he was terrified, memories of not being able to get his breath on that damn freighter when Lancer stuck him with the needle. Drowning, that's what he said the feeling had been likened to, well Colby now knew first hand that the drug did replicate that feeling exactly. A knowledge he would rather not have had. Somewhere deep in his mind he knew the fact that he was panicking wasn't helping but he couldn't bring his fear under control, he didn't know how. The doctor and nurses had tried to put something over his head, some kind of mask, but he fought them, his fear making him stronger than normal.
"Colby, you need to let us help you, we're trying to put a mask on which will administer high concentration oxygen, you have Pulmonary oedema which is preventing the exchange of oxygen. Will you please let us put it on?" A Doctor asked him. Colby looked into the sincere, warm brown eyes of the man and decided that it couldn't make him feel any worse than he did already and nodded his consent. He felt as much as saw the mask being placed on his face, the difference between this and his previous experience of an oxygen mask was there were 2 straps round his head. "This is called CPAP, Continuous Positive Airway Pressure, it will deliver the oxygen in a higher concentration than a normal mask, it's not going to be particularly comfortable, but we need to get your lungs working properly, so try to bear with it alright?" The Doctor explained, making sure his patient was ready, then indicating to the nurse that she should switch the oxygen flow on. "You will find it harder to breathe out initially, just try to let it do it's job and relax, I know that's easier said than done, but once you get used to it breathing should be much easier."
Colby trusted the medical staff to know what they were talking about in the same way that he would expect them to trust him if there was somebody in here waving a gun about, so he figured he'd go with it. The staff continued to check him over thoroughly, the doctor checked all his cuts and bruises, removing the bandages off the Agent's hands. He could see that the treatment the young man had received following the adventure in the dam spillway had been excellent, but there was an early indication of infection in one of the palms so he instructed a nurse to administer some antibiotics via the IV they had set up. The nurses had stripped him to his boxers and had him wrapped in warm blankets, although still finding breathing difficult the mask was helping, and he was calmer. The Doctor had left to arrange for Colby to be transferred to the high dependency unit, he would need to be closely monitored whilst the CPAP was being used. Once the transfer was arranged he finally approached his patient's friends.
"Are you here with Agent Granger?" He received 3 nods of assent. He explained that Colby was by no means out of the woods, but was more comfortable, he told them about the CPAP, how it would help and that he was being transferred to a high dependency unit shortly and they could see their friend once he was settled there. Going back into the trauma room the calmer patient he had left was once more starting to show signs of distress. "Colby?" He hurried over to him. "Having more trouble breathing?" If that was the case they were going to have to put him on a ventilator, something he'd rather not do as chances of a full recovery would diminish.
Colby in the meantime wondered how he was supposed to get across to the doctor what the problem was with this mask on his face, he shook his head at the Doctor's question. He put his hand on his chest and tried to pull a face, the seal of the mask prevented him from doing much else.
"Is your chest hurting?" The Doctor asked. Colby looked relieved that the game of charades hadn't gone on longer and nodded. "Alright, I'll give you a little morphine for that." He turned to instruct the nurse on dosage and a few minutes later Colby was a little more comfortable.
David, Don and Megan watched as the Doctor headed back into the trauma room that currently held their friend.
"Why don't we head upstairs and wait until we can see him?" Suggested Megan, she could see that she was going to have do the rational thinking. David was shuffling his feet, a look of guilt plastered across his face. Don stared out the ER doors, a similar look of guilt. She was quite sure the reasons for the guilt were completely different. She figured she would call in reinforcements when neither man responded to her question, leaving the ER she made a quick call before returning to the 2 men and pushing them gently towards the elevator that would lead them to the floor with the HDU on it, she continued guiding them to the waiting room then went to let one of the nurses know why they were there. She received assurances that as soon as Agent Granger arrived and was settled she would let them know.
Returning to the waiting room she found David and Don sitting a few chairs apart and completely lost in their own worlds, sighing she took a seat where she could keep an eye on both of them and waited for her back up to arrive. Megan didn't have to wait long until the door to the room they were in opened and admitted Alan and Charlie Eppes, neither David or Don looked up.
Alan walked over to his eldest son and cleared his throat. "Donnie?" He said softly.
Startled Don looked up. "Dad, Charlie? What are you doing here?"
"Megan called us, she thought some support was in order." Charlie replied.
Don leaned round his Dad, who was currently blocking his view of his most senior agent. She suddenly found her nails very interesting. Alan and Charlie took a seat either side of Don, whilst Megan got herself up, put a hand on David's shoulder and manoeuvred him to the opposite end of the room so she could speak with him privately.
"Don?" Alan asked again, waiting for the dark brown eyes to meet his. "This is not your fault."
"I sent him to the dam with Charlie and Amita, I allowed him to keep working, I didn't check on him, did I mention that I allowed him to keep working?!" Don ran a hand through his hair and looked at his watch for maybe the hundredth time since arriving at the hospital.
Charlie put his hand on his brother's. "Don, if Colby hadn't been there something could have happened to someone else." He gave Don a moment to take this in. "If Amita and I hadn't been there Colby may have drowned." Don thought about it, there was truth in what Charlie had said, but he still allowed the man to return to work.
"Donnie, I'm sure Colby won't mind me pointing out that he is a grown man, a very stubborn, independent, grown man, if he said he wanted to stay at work and the medic backed his decision then there was nothing you could do about it." Alan stated.
At that moment the waiting room door opened again, this time Tim King stood in the open doorway, filling it with his broad form, standing just behind him was Brian, the medic that had treated Colby. Tim stepped to one side to allow Brian to enter, the medic approached Don. "I'm sorry about Colby."
Tim watched carefully, if Eppes did anything to upset his Agent then he would step in. Brian had been beating himself up about his decision to allow Granger to return to work the first time he saw him, but he was a great medic, and Tim was sure that no decision Brian had made had brought them to this point. In fact he was sure that nobody, not even the great mathematician sitting in the room, could have predicted this would happen. Secondary drowning was rare in cases like Colby's.
Don looked up into the worried eyes of the medic, who seemed to be bracing himself for some kind of tongue lashing. He stood up and placed a hand on the medic's shoulder. "It wasn't your fault Brian. As Dad just said Colby can be very persuasive when he wants to be." Alan smiled, not exactly what he'd said, but close enough, it also seemed his eldest had momentarily stopped beating himself up.
Brian and Tim both sighed with relief. The medic still felt bad, but he hadn't thought that Colby was in any danger, he had spoken to the Doctor in the ER and had been reassured by him that sometimes there are no signs until a couple of days later.
At the other end of the waiting room Megan had been waiting for David to talk to her, but as yet he had remained silent. Deciding the man needed a prod she spoke first. "What's going on in that head of yours Sinclair?" She asked.
"If only I'd had the spare key, I could have got into the apartment building sooner." David rested his head on his hands.
"Maybe if I had checked on him on my way to the office, like I had thought about doing… David, what ifs aren't going to do you or him any good now. I suggest you focus on the fact that the 2 of you have been better friends in the last weeks than before the whole Lancer thing, despite the fact I know you think differently. So, you didn't think to take his spare key back, and he didn't think to give it to you, or get yours, get over it!" Megan had learnt from the period after Colby returned to the LA offices after getting out of hospital following the triple agent case that it was no good tiptoeing round the subject, she needed to be blunt and give David a bit of a kick. "Neither of you could have predicted this and, David, you were there for him when it mattered. If it hadn't been for your determination to check on him…" She left the words unsaid, everyone in the room was all too aware that they could have lost their friend and that he was still not completely out of the woods.
Stepping into the waiting room the nurse was surprised to see 7 people waiting, she had only seen 3 people come in. "Are you all here for Agent Granger?" They all turned to face her and nodded. "Right, well you can't all go and see him at once, divide yourselves up into 2 groups and only a few minutes please, he needs to rest." She said sternly, Don, David and Megan quickly followed the nurse out to Colby's room. "Just a few minutes." She reminded, leaving them so they could have some privacy.
The 3 FBI Agents stepped into the room, despite being told about the CPAP being used it was still a bit of a shock to see Colby resting, eyes closed, in a semi-upright position with the mask covering most of his face. The monitors beeped in a now steady rhythm, much to David's relief. Crossing over to the bedside Megan rested her hand on Colby's, causing him to open his eyes. He gave a small smile to try to reassure her as he could see her eyes clouded with worry.
"Granger I'm going to get you fitted with water wings!" She blurted, it was the first thing to come to her mind. The man did have an uncanny knack for ending up in water, perhaps they should just insist that he wore a life jacket as well as a Kevlar vest, or maybe someone could design a Kevlar vest with a life jacket incorporated in it. She squeezed his hand and was relieved to feel him squeeze back.
Don stepped forward, Colby thought the man looked tired and felt bad for being the cause of the concern that was also in the eyes of his Supervisor. "In future, if I tell you to go home, you go home. Got it?!" Not really in a position to argue, which was rather unfair, Colby just nodded slightly. "Get some rest."
David was the last of the team to appear at his bedside. Colby's heart clenched at the look on his partner's face. Guilt was written over his face. Lifting his hand he grabbed David's arm and shook his head, giving him a smile. Turning to Don, David held out his hand, understanding what the man was after Don handed it over. Turning back to his friend David pulled out his keys and showed Colby the keys he held in his other hand which Don had given him, the man recognised them as being the keys to his apartment that he had been keeping in his drawer at the office, he watched as David slid the spare keys on to his own key ring. "When you get out of here, I'm gonna give you my key again." He turned away from the bed for a moment, then turned back with a big grin on his face. "Don't think that means you can drop by in the middle of the night though!" His partner had previously developed the habit of dropping by when he couldn't sleep after a case, on a couple of occasions David had Claudia staying, Colby had frightened her half to death. He patted his partner's arm. "See you tomorrow."
As they exited Tim, Brian, Alan and Charlie entered, they all just wanted to reassure themselves that Colby really was still with them. As soon as Colby saw Brian he started to try to say something to the man, he wanted to reassure him that it wasn't his fault, Colby had listened to Brian the second time, it was just unfortunate that when he recognised the symptoms the medic had described he hadn't had his cell with him to call for help. Brian seeing the Agent struggling put his hand up. "It's alright Colby, we'll talk in a couple of days and you can tell me all about it, but David's already told me you didn't have your cell with you to call for help. It'll be alright." He found himself reassuring the agent.
Tim smiled, not something the HRT leader did very often, he liked Granger and the whole Eppes team, they worked well together and he would have hated for this incident to get in the way of that. He pointed a finger at Colby. "Granger, stay out of mischief for a while huh?"
Colby nodded his head in response, he had no intention of ending up back in the hospital anytime soon, then having thought that he realised that he hadn't intended on getting washed into the spillway either.
"You're coming to Chez Eppes, when you get discharged from here Colby." Charlie stated.
When the young man started to shake his head Alan put in his thoughts. "Oh yes you are young man. My eldest is going to need to be assured that you are alright, the best way to do that is for you to stay with us. No arguments for once, eh?"
Colby gave a tired smile, he might be able to argue with, Don, or Charlie, or even Alan, but no way could he fight all 3 Eppes men, when they were in agreement on something they were a force to be reckoned with. Alan seeing that Colby was tiring quickly smiled, pulled the blankets up around the man and watched him drift off to sleep, the CPAP having eased his breathing enough to help him rest.
The following morning Colby woke not knowing where he was, firstly he was sitting up, which in itself was odd, he had something over his face which was disconcerting to say the least. He felt like there was something he should be remembering, but his memory was a little hazy, this in turn made him panic. Reaching up he tried to remove the offending item from his face. Suddenly the room filled with the sound of an alarm and he was surrounded by people he didn't know.
"Colby, can you hear me, you're in hospital, calm down." A female voice said off to his right. "You need to calm down, breathe normally, we'll try to make you more comfortable alright?" The man on the bed nodded. "Lets get the mask off, it's making him panic, lets see how he tolerates a normal oxygen mask."
It was with some relief the mask practically covering his whole face was removed and a lighter mask placed over his nose and mouth, he was now able to take in his surroundings a bit easier and suddenly he remembered everything in minute detail and suddenly wished he could go back to having a hazy memory of the passed few days. "That better Colby?" The same voice from a few minutes ago asked gently. Looking in the direction of the voice Colby saw a blonde haired female in a white coat, presumably this was his doctor. Seeing his confusion the doctor quickly introduced herself. "I'm Doctor Jamieson, I've been looking after you throughout the night. You've given us a few little scares, but all in all, you're doing much better. Can you remember why you're here?"
"Pulmonary something, secondary drowning?" He asked, his voice muffled by the mask.
"That's right, pulmonary oedema. We've removed the CPAP mask and we'll see how you manage with just the normal mask for a while, but any signs of deterioration in your O2 levels and the CPAP goes back on, OK?"
"Yeah, alright." He agreed reluctantly. He must have been really out of it to allow them to put that thing on his face.
"Feeling up to some visitors? There are a few people desperate to see how you're doing."
He nodded, knowing it was likely to be David, Don and Megan. He might as well get the lectures about going out without his cell over and done with now, then perhaps he could get some more sleep, he was inexplicably tired.
The Doctor left the room to go and speak with the visitors she had mentioned. "Don't look so worried." She tried to reassure them. "He just reacted badly to waking up fully with the CPAP mask in place, he's on normal oxygen now, if he tolerates that and his stats remain stable he'll be transferred to the general floor this afternoon, then all being well discharge tomorrow."
"What were the little scares you referred to?" Megan asked.
"He kept falling asleep and then panicking on waking up, just like now, except he wasn't ready to have the CPAP removed at the time, but he doesn't seem to remember that, which is a good thing. Trauma can affect people in strange ways. Now you can all go in and see him for a few minutes." She motioned for the nurses to give the group some privacy. There were more people than she would normally allow in at once, but she had the feeling her patient would benefit from the visit.
The nursing staff had lowered the head of Colby's bed slightly so he was laid back a little further. He was surprised to see not just the other members of his team, but Alan and Charlie enter the room.
"Morning Colb, how you feeling?" Megan asked, sitting on the side of his bed and taking his left hand, careful to avoid the cannular.
"Like I'm never going swimming again!" Murmured Colby.
"Well, bud, I can't say that you didn't scare the shit outta us, avoidance of water would be good except in the case of showers." Don smiled from his position at the bottom of the bed.
"Man, what about surfing?" Asked David incredulously, knowing it was another thing Colby loved to do in his limited downtime.
"Might have to make an exception for that." Colby smiled at his partner who was sitting on the other side of the bed from Megan.
"Well, Colby Granger, it does an old man's heart good to see you breathing easier and talking." Alan said softly, all of his son's team were an extended family and coming so close on the heels of the Lancer incident this had been one scare too many.
"You're never going anywhere on your own again, you know that don't you?" Asked Charlie, smiling.
Colby removed the oxygen mask, it was very important to the agent that the mathematician hear him loud and clear. "Wasn't on my own, had my very own hero with me when I went into the spillway." Colby's tired green eyes met Charlie's brown ones. "I never got the chance to say it, but thank you Charlie, you saved my life."
Don glanced over at his brother who was shifting position uncomfortable at the attention he was suddenly getting and blushing furiously. He was amazed, he didn't think he had ever seen Charlie bashful about an achievement in his life. He reached over and patted his brother on the shoulder, grinning at him with pride.
A strident voice came from behind the group. "Special Agent Granger put that mask back on, right this minute!" They parted to see a small nurse, in her 50's, rush towards the bed. Colby looked momentarily surprised before deciding it would be beneficial to follow her instructions and placed the mask back on. She checked her patient, mumbling to herself. "Damn law enforcement, think they're damned invincible, never do as they're told. Special Agent my ass, not got the brains he was born with."
Colby met the looks of the others standing behind her, all of them trying their hardest not to laugh at this onslaught of mumbling from the diminutive form. Something told them that she may be small, but was definitely not to be messed with. The nurse turned on the group. "Out! Every last one of you, get out of this room, now!" They all glanced back over at Colby who looked at them with big green pleading eyes, begging them to stay and protect him. Instead they all smiled gleefully and called out their 'goodbyes' and 'see you later' as they left a very uncomfortable looking Colby being tucked in by the irate nurse. They all laughed the whole way out to the cars, the look on their friend's face had been priceless, but it was also the relief of knowing that he was doing well and would likely be discharged from the hospital tomorrow into the care of Alan Eppes. The youngest team member would be back causing havoc before they knew it.
A/N: I had planned to end it there, but perhaps there is a bit more to this story, would be interested in your thoughts.
For those of you that have read Oblivion and Emergence, the promised follow up is currently a work in progress, but this kind of stole my attention, I will start posting that one soon.