Matilda gave a little smile and laugh, flapping her arms and legs as she saw Ethan waking up. Cal let out a small laugh as well as tears rolled down his cheeks. His brother was going to be okay. Ethan sat up a bit and leant against his pillow, wincing a bit.
"There we go, Toad." Cal said handing his daughter to his brother. "Uncle Ethan is fine."
Matilda placed her tiny hands upon Ethan's cheeks.
"Hello, Matilda." Ethan said to his niece. "I hope your daddy looked after you well, while I was sleeping?"
"I think it was the other way round, mate." Cal told Ethan. "She was the one who was looking after me."
Ethan handed her back to him.
"What do you mean?"
"I mean when we arrived at the hospital she immediately knew something was wrong. She could sense that her uncle was in trouble, but she kept me strong. She comforted me and told me not to worry."
"Did you, Matilda? Did you tell your daddy not to worry?" Ethan smiled as he stroked her cheek.
Matilda kicked her legs. Ethan chuckled, but the started to cough. Cal picked up a glass of water and handed it to him.
"Here, take a drink."
"I'm fine." Ethan said refusing the glass. "It's not the bad."
But, it was bad. The coughing continued until it became a hoarse, chesty cough and the machines started to register a spike in Ethan's breathing. Cal pressed the emergency button, while Matilda let out a scream.
"Shhh." Cal comforted his daughter as Zoe and Rita burst in.
"What happened?" Zoe asked as she and Rita saw Ethan struggling to breathe.
"He just started coughing." Cal replied trying to calm Matilda down.
Rita kept an eye on Ethan's vitals while Zoe checked his chest with her stethoscope. The examination took much longer than Cal thought it would. To him, this worried him.
"Zoe, what is it?" Cal inquired.
Zoe continued to check Ethan's breathing.
"Rita, what are his vitals?" Zoe asked.
"Resps are slow, BP is 4. He's not improving." Rita told Zoe.
"ZOE!" Cal shouted. "What's going on?"
Zoe turned to face him. placing her stethoscope around her neck.
"I'm not sure. I think his lung might have collapsed."
"How? You said he was stable."
"He was."
They were soon interrupted by the machine going wild. Matilda started crying again.
"Okay, we need to get him to RESUS ASAP. He's crashing." Zoe instructed as she and Rita rolled out of the room with Cal following behind them.
"Ethan?" Charlie said as the rolled into RESUS.
"His lungs collapsed. We need to do a chest drain immediately." Zoe said as they got all the equipment ready.
Back outside, Cal looked on helpless as his friends tried to save his brother. He was not about to lose him, not like this. Matilda was still crying and reaching her tiny hands out. She wanted her uncle Ethan.
"Don't worry," Cal told his daughter. "He's going to be fine. He's going to be just fine."
Thought the last bit was more to reassure himself rather than her.
