A/N: Guys, sorry this part took so long and sorry it's so short . . . New part soon (and that's actually true this time :)
Part 3: Grieving
Dr. Williams emerged from the Surgeon's bay to be immediately accosted by two men in the waiting room. Blood shot eyes, wrinkled clothing, strained faces, these were the norm in this hospital. The younger man showed signs of all three. But the older man, presumably the patient's father, his expression was stoic. Only his eyes gave away his deep worry.
Immediately they both began to speak.
"How is she?"
"Is she ok?"
The doctor held up his hand warily. "I'm assuming you're asking about Sydney Bristow?"
They both nodded, the father impatiently.
The doctor braced himself to give the bad news.
"The bullet fractured her ribcage and a bone fragment punctured her heart. There was internal bleeding. We repaired the damage the best we could and she made it through the surgery . . ." Both men let out a breath of relief. "But she slipped into a coma soon after. I'm sorry."
The father frowned so severely that lines seemed to etch themselves permanently into his face as he turned, facing the nearest window and focused blindly outside. The younger man collapsed into the nearest chair, a look of devastation on his face.
As the doctor turned to return to the Surgeon's bay, he heard someone call to him.
When he turned around the father was once again facing him.
"What are her chances of waking up?" he asked solemnly.
The doctor paused, unwilling to give him a number. "It's important that we wait and see before speculating-"
"Doctor" the father interrupted sternly "*What* are her chances?"
He looked at them both and sighed. "She sustained major damage to her chest cavity and severe blood loss . . ." He trailed off at the father's glare and the young man's desperate look. "About 40 percent" he said, looking between the two of them regretfully.
The father's eye twitched as he turned and strode away, obviously to be alone with his grief. The young man shook his head in stunned disbelief and then his head dropped into his hands and it wasn't long before his shoulders began to shake with the force of his anguish.
The doctor turned away quietly to return the way he'd come. Their grief seemed to follow him all the way down the hall and back through the doors to the Surgeon's bay . . .
~*silence*~