"He is on a ventilator – breathing on his own isn't possible right now. His lungs are just too damaged."
Sophie cut to the chase: What did they say the prognosis is?
Nate hesitated, not yet willing to tell them the whole story, but still realizing they deserved the truth. "It's not good. There was so much smoke, and most of it chemical. They don't know if the lungs can recover."
"And…"
"Some burns, damage to the throat from the smoke and heat. Can't imagine it, but that voice may be even rougher. Having the building collapse on him didn't help either."
They knew he was holding back, so saying nothing, they just continued to stare Nate down. He closed his eyes for a moment.
"Oxygen deprivation. They won't know for certain about brain damage unless he wakes up."
"UNTIL he wakes up" Parker corrected angrily.
"Unless, Parker. And I won't lie to any of you – that is a big unless."
There were a few moments of silence in the room as each processed what they were hearing. The moment ended with the sound of Hardison's coffee cup slamming into a wall at high speed, and shattering into tiny shards. "I'll clean that up in a minute" he said and started to leave the room.
"Hardison get back here. What have we got on this fire?"
"What have we got? Nothing. Why would we?"
"Because the residents said the doors were blocked, Eliot said there were barrels of chemicals in what was an abandoned building, and the fire captain on the scene mentioned arson. SO what have we got?"
The team continued to stare at him, not quite ready to get over their shock.
Get them focused on something - anything - that would keep them going forward. "Look – we can't do anything to help Eliot recover, but we can make sure whoever is responsible for this pays. So – whether he knows it or not Eliot is our client. And WHEN" – he looked at Parker, and she smiled grimly and nodded – "he wakes up he will want answers. Don't you think we should have them ready?"
Hardison was scanning through volumes of forms and blueprints on screens in front of him. The paper trail on ownership of the warehouse was unbelievable. The building had been everything from a slaughterhouse to a warehouse, and a dozen things in between over the years, including at the end, a chemical storage depot. Those barrels had been sitting there since, probably slowly leaking. He had automated searches trying to match names to find out if the place really was being sold, or was it all a shell transfer. Every time he looked up at the screen, his eye went to the inserted transmission in the upper corner. He had hacked into the hospital computers, and had a camera on Eliot. He was also getting all the information from the medical monitors. You didn't have to have a medical degree to see things weren't looking good. But he was still hanging on, which was a lot more than the experts had expected. Of course, they didn't know him.
"I'm telling you – nobody owns the building. It was abandoned a couple years back when the whole economy tanking thing was going on. The owner just walked away from it and a couple of other places and left them vacant. Even the banks don't want 'em, cause there is no interest in the area at the moment. Only folks that cared about that building were the ones sleeping in it."
"And Eliot" Parker said. "Don't forget Eliot cared". She was sitting beside his spot at the table, and kept turning to look at the photo she had placed on his chair. It didn't feel right having meetings without him, and the image beamed in from the hospital was not the look she was going for.
"We know Parker. Nobody is forgetting about Eliot." Sophie was beginning to worry about how Parker was dealing with this. She remembered when her own death scene had played out, and how much trouble Parker seemed to have accepting that Sophie wasn't a ghost. Eliot's absence in reality, but constant presence on the screen seemed to create the same confusion.
"Where did the owner go?" Nate tried to bring them back to business.
"Oakland Cemetery. He died about 6 months after. Heart attack."
"OK – so we have no leads on who set this place up"
"Cops have nothing from the former residents – officially or unofficially. I hacked into the Department Arson team and they have it listed as suspicious, but no leads. Not really putting a lot of work into. You know, homeless folk, no 'Powers that Be' interested."
"Guessing there isn't much surveillance info in the area."
"Nah – most of the cameras that are there are busted."
"OK – time to get physical. We will have to go to the area and do our own investi-" Nate stopped talking. Something had changed, and it took him a moment to register. The tone from Eliot's heart monitor – flat line.
All eyes in the room went to the monitor – which Hardison immediately move to full size on the screen. Medical personal were flooding in, checking his pupils, injecting adrenalin and prepping the defibrillator. Sophie tried to reach out Parker to support her, but the younger woman pulled away and leaned into Hardison.
They watched mumbling words of encouragement, feeling helpless. They jumped with each shock he was given, and held their breath waiting for the next sounds. The rhythm returned, there was a slight movement of Eliot's head and the hospital staff switched to a less frantic looking routine, resetting Eliot's monitors and getting him settled again. No one spoke in the office for several minutes, then Nate picked up as if nothing had happened.
"We will do our own investigation."
"That's it" Sophie glared at him. "Just move forward. Forgive us if we need a couple of minutes to absorb what just almost happened. We aren't ready for Eliot to die, so we humans will take some time to process what we just watched."
"Do what you have to do. We'll regroup in 30 minutes with the plan." Nate walked out of the office and down the hall to the washroom. Locking the door he collapsed on the floor in front of the toilet and spent the next two minutes puking his guts out, and five after that crying quietly. He didn't know how he would deal with the reality when Eliot died. He knew, they all did, that they had been incredible lucky to survive the last three years, especially Eliot, given the chances he took. The others had no idea how close they'd come to losing him in a warehouse gun battle recently, nor did Eliot ever want them to find out. But Nate knew. He knew most of the chances Eliot took. He knew about the pain Eliot suffered quietly, from broken ribs, concussions, dislocations and lord knew what else. He also had an idea of the emotional torture Eliot dealt with every day. No details, there would never be details. But occasionally after a very long day and one beer too many, Eliot hint at the ghosts and demons in his world. Then he would shut down again, as if no discussion had ever taken place. Nate knew most of this just by watching. He was good at watching and reading people. And watching Eliot now, he wanted more than anything to let him feel the support and love of the team. And there was no way to do that. All he could do was wait, and in the meantime, get justice.
He finished cleaning himself out, opening the door to go back to the office. When he stepped out, they were waiting at the end of the hall. Standing, staring, smirking just a little. "Smooth move tough guy. Let's get back to work."
Eliot couldn't figure out why everything was so bright.He tried to close his eyes against the lights, but discovered they were already closed. There was a hum of activity around him, and it took him only a couple of seconds to register the sounds of a respirator, and a heart monitor.He listened to the rhythms for bit, and concluded somebody was in trouble.That was a lot of life support being generated.A couple of seconds later his eyes popped open in the realization that someone was him.He was plugged into monitors and IVs and God knows what else, and he was completely helpless.He tried to speak, and couldn't. He tried to move, and couldn't.But something he did had brought attention down on him, as he watched white coats come near.
"Well Mr. Taylor – good to see you awake. I bet you're pretty confused.Don't try to talk. You have a badly burned throat, and you have a tube to help your breathing." Taylor – who the hell is Taylor? "Is it OK if we call you Eliot? Your friends said you would probably prefer to be less formal." Friends - what friends? He didn't remember having friends. Come to think of it, he was having trouble remembering much of anything. "We're going to check your vitals for a few minutes.One of the nurses is calling your friends now to let them know you are awake.I'm willing to bet they will be here before we finish with your testing. I'm going to let them fill you in on what happened to you. Don't worry about anything – you've got lots of people watching out for you."
"OK" he thought "so Eliot Taylor has friends coming. Maybe the visuals will help me figure this out."
The team hustled down the hospital corridor, trying not to break into a run.
"So Doc – how is he doing?"
"Hold up – no one is going in right now. We're just finishing some tests. Come over here and sit down for a minute."
Nate felt the knot that had all but disappeared when Eliot woke up, tightening again. He had seen that look in a Doctor's eyes before. That was the look he saw when he was told there was nothing more that could be done for Sam. That was a look he never wanted to see again, yet here it was.
"I wish I could sugar coat this for you, but there isn't an easy way to say this. Eliot is 'awake', and his pupils are slightly responsive, which is good. But he has not reacted in any way to verbal of physical stimulation. There are some muscular reflexes of course, but no sign of conscious movement or activity – or thought. I'm sorry. I wish I had better news."
Sophie broke the silence. "He'll react to us. Can we see him? He'll know us."
"I hope you're right. Yes, by all means you can see him – two at a time though. Say his name, and yours, often. It might help break through. But don't crowd him, don't force him. He is still very weak, and the breathing is still fully supported by the respirator."
Nate and Sophie slowly walked up to the bed. "Hey there guy…" Nate's voice started to crack, so he started again. "Hey Eliot, enough of this lying around. Hardison is the only guy on the team who sleeps in."
"Eliot – it's Sophie. We're here with you and everything is going to be fine. You need to try to wake up Eliot. We need you to come back to us"
"What does she means I need to wake up? I'm awake.OK – I can't talk but I am awake. I'm looking right at them. Or I would be if I could just move my eyes around a bit more.Wait – I can't change what I'm looking at?I can't talk?"He could feel a growing panic inside.He was awake, but not awake.He didn't know where he was, who he was, or who all these people were.Whatever the hell was happening, this was not good.
"Listen Eliot, it's Nate. I really need you to try to focus on what I am saying. You were in a fire. Do you remember any of that? You were trapped and it took us a bit of time to get you out. You weren't burned too badly, but there was a lot of smoke – that's why you're having trouble breathing. Eliot, do you remember any of this? – Come on man, give me something"
A fire.There was a fire? He tried to bring up a memory, but couldn't find anything.He did have a sense of heaviness, of not being able to move, but no tangible reason why. He wished his friends would step back into his line of vision.Especially – what did she said her name was – Sophie.That was someone worth making the effort to look at. OK – why didn't that thought feel right?
"Eliot, it's Sophie. We're not going anywhere. From now on one of us will always be here with you and we are going to get you through this. I'm going to hold your hand Eliot, but I won't touch the IV. You let me know if I'm hurting you."
He couldn't feel the warm touch on his hand.She said she was holding it carefully, for fear of causing him pain.Pain would be ok right now.Feeling anything would be ok right now.
Nate couldn't look at him. Couldn't look at the blank stare. The open eyes, not seeing. He looked dead and it scared Nate so deeply he could hardly breathe. "Eliot – it's Nate. The Doctor said it is going to take a bit of time for you to remember everything that happened, and we're going to try to fill you in. Maybe that will help speed the memories along. Is that ok with you Eliot?
Why did they keep saying his name like he was some kind of child? It was embarrassing to have them talk to him this way.He knew who he was – Eliot Tay- no Eliot Spencer.He was Eliot Spencer!OK – who the hell is Eliot Spencer?
