Chapter Four
Steve blinked and looked away from the hole in Jaime's arm and into her eyes. "Are you in pain, Sweetheart?" he asked gently.
Her words tumbled out in an all-in-one-breath rush. "No. But, Steve, I couldn't get out! My arm was pinned underneath me and there was all sorts of heavy stuff on top of me. If I kicked my way out, someone else might've been hurt. It was sorta hard to breathe, and then I think I passed out, but I did feel everything move again; that must've woke me up. Then all of a sudden I saw a patch of daylight and my arm was free and I dug my way out."
"I was digging everywhere, trying to find you. I was so worried."
Jaime couldn't help noticing the way Steve kept looking at her arm, so she looked, too. "Oh, no...isn't that" she lowered her voice "the power pack?"
Steve didn't want her to panic, so he kept his voice calm and even. "Yes, but I'm sure it's not too serious. Don't worry; we'll get it taken care of." Steve motioned to one of the exhausted staffers. "Where's Doctor Wells?"
The staffer pointed to a spot in a clear field across the road, where they'd taken some of the injured. Steve nodded his thanks and focused in for a fast, closer look. Rudy was conscious, sitting up and talking to Oscar, who appeared to have found another datacom. Steve turned to Jaime, reaching out to softly caress her face. "I'm gonna go get Rudy," he told her. "Promise me you'll stay right here."
"I could come with you -"
"Jaime, promise me!"
Shocked by the tone and forcefulness of his voice, she nodded meekly. "I...won't move. I'm sorta tired, anyhow."
Steve kissed her. "I'll be right back." She nodded and he flashed her a quick, reassuring smile before blazing a bionically-fast trail across the road. "I found her," he told Oscar and Rudy. He knew Jaime would be unable to hear them over the symphony of sirens, warning systems and alarms sounding from every direction, but he lowered his voice just the same. "We've got a problem."
"Jaime's hurt?" Rudy assumed.
Steve nodded, his face grim. "Her power pack's been punctured."
Rudy dropped his head onto his one good hand, trying to think. All three men knew without voicing it that Jaime's situation was grave. If the power pack wasn't repaired or replaced, from the moment it was damaged Jaime had somewhere between ninety minutes and two hours to live.
"There's a spare pack for each of you - buried somewhere in that mess," Rudy lamented. "And a spare from Colorado or DC wouldn't get here in time. We'll have to repair it; there's no other way."
"You can't operate with one hand...can you?" Steve asked, already knowing the answer.
"No, but I can be right there to guide you through it," Rudy told him.
"Me?" Steve took a deep breathe which failed to calm his nerves, but he knew there was no other way. Michael Marchetti was locked up in an NSB holding cell, less than two miles away, but there was no way Steve (or Rudy and Oscar) would allow Jaime's attempted killer to perform life-saving bionic surgery. Time was already rapidly ticking away; if Jaime was going to be saved, Steve would have to be her surgeon. "Alright – let's do it," he said with determination. "We'll need supplies -"
"There's nothing left..." Rudy said weakly.
Steve mind was set on rapid-fire. "Rudy, where's the Medivac?"
Rudy nodded, his eyes lighting up with hope. "Just beyond those trees; there's a hangar in the field and it's secure – steel-reinforced concrete – the chopper has everything we need."
"We can take what we need to save Jaime," Steve planned, "and then loan out the chopper for Search and Rescue. I'm betting they could use another bird in the air. We can operate in the hangar."
"I'll call the National Guard about the chopper," Oscar said, picking up the datacom.
"I'll send someone for you," Steve called over his shoulder to Rudy as he took off on the fastest bionic sprint of his life.
- - - - - -
Steve took a bench from the chopper for Rudy to sit on and even though Jaime wanted to help grab supplies, he made her sit there, too. Moving so fast that he was almost a blur, Steve brought out a gurney, a medicine box, oxygen and another box containing the tools they'd need. He hadn't told Jaime yet that he'd be performing her surgery.
"We probably need something to prop Rudy's arm up with," Jaime suggested to her husband.
Steve set the medicine box down next to Rudy (who thankfully still had a key in his pocket). "About that, Sweetheart...Rudy can't do the surgery with only one arm, but -"
"Then who -?"
Steve looked into her eyes. "Me."
"Oh."
"Rudy will be right there, walking me through it. Are you ok with that?" he asked gently.
Jaime smiled. "I trust you."
"We don't have anesthetic, Honey," Rudy told her, taking her left arm and preparing to give her a shot, "but this is a very strong painkiller; it should do the trick."
Jaime nodded, winced a bit when the needle stuck her, then hopped up onto the gurney. "Ok, Doctor Austin," she said, aiming for a light tone and almost succeeding, "let's get this show on the road."
Rudy began briefing Steve on how to begin while they waited for the shot to take effect. Two of the staffers carried Oscar into the hangar and eased him down onto the bench. He'd insisted on being there to support his friends and, truth be told, he also wanted to be some place where he couldn't see the growing number of fatalities lying on the grass.
Jaime groggily closed her eyes and, as instructed, Steve slipped the oxygen mask over her face. He had just focused in on the first two microscopic wires he'd have to re-connect when the whole world (or so it seemed) began to once again shake and lurch violently. The hangar remained standing, but tiny pieces of the ceiling crumbled off and landed at Oscar and Rudy's feet, barely missing their heads.
Was this an aftershock, or had the first violent quake merely been a harbinger of even worse jolts to come? Surrounded by solid concrete, it was hard to tell. Rudy said another (very fast) silent prayer; this was just about the worst possible timing. "It isn't safe here, after all. Oscar," he said, thinking very quickly, "can you fly a chopper?"
"It's been a lot of years, but I think so," Oscar answered.
"Call the Guard back and tell them we'll deliver the chopper." There was no doubt that, with the safety of his patient first and foremost in his mind, Rudy was now in charge. "Steve can get us off the ground and headed in the right direction. You'll just have to keep us up there until he finishes working on Jaime, then he can land the chopper."
The surgeon would be talking the Air Force pilot through surgery while the pilot talked his boss through the operation of the aircraft. It was by no means an ideal plan, but it was the only one they had.
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