Chapter 4

Chip and the Admiral both jumped up on cue as Jamie approached, he looked exhausted and seemed to be having trouble looking them in the eye.

He held up his hand to try and stop the inevitable flow of questions that would soon bombard him, some of which he was certain he would not be able to answer honestly without hurting his two friends but, equally he knew however much pain it caused he was unable to lie to them;

"He's still alive, just, we lost him twice on the table but he is back with us now though for how long I don't know. He has lost a large amount of blood, his body has been in circulatory collapse but is slowly recovering. His BP has crept up slightly in the last half an hour although it is still well below the normal range. We are still transfusing him whole blood in an attempt to stabilise him. He is not responding as well and we would have hoped but he is still hanging on, although how much longer he will have the energy and willpower to do that I cannot tell you. The bullet itself took him straight through the chest, at close range it caused a large amount of damage as you can imagine. It took out two ribs which in turn punctured his lung, we have re-inflated that and done our best to plate the shattered ribs, the bits we couldn't mend we have had to remove. It shouldn't cause any lasting damage though he may end up with a slightly lopsided chest. There was also a large amount of tissue damage and also number small internal laceration caused by the bone splinters, they have caused almost as much internal bleeding as the gunshot wound itself. This will of course increase the chances of infection. The second bullet judging by the angle, was fired as he was falling, it went through his shoulder, took out his collar bone which again we have tried to plate back together, although not as successful as the ribs it should hold if he treats it with some care, ricocheted downwards and made a nasty hole in his shoulder blade as it exited. There's not much we can do for that other than wait for it to heal, during which time it will be extremely painful and debilitating. He is on every monitor, has every tube and will have a nurse with him constantly. If he becomes stable enough we will move him to ICU but at the moment any attempt at moving him could prove fatal. I'm sorry admiral, Chip I wish I had some better news for you but at least he's still alive and he has one of the best teams with state of the art facilities I know of looking after him, if anyone can keep him alive they will "

By the time Jamie had finished the colour had drained from both the Admiral and Chip, although neither expected everything to be perfect they had secretly hoped (and preyed) it would not be quite so harrowing either. Finally the Admiral looked up and met his doctor in the eye

"Just tell me one thing Jamie, will he live?"

Jamie placed his hand on his CO's shoulder and gently steered him back into the chair.

"I don't know Admiral, honestly I just don't know, his body has been through a lot, but every minute he stays alive his chances of recovery improve. We will just have to play the waiting game, there are going to be no quick fixes here we just have to give his body time to heal; do everything we can to help that and prevent anything that might cause any extra strain on his weakened system. For this reason he will be kept in the operating theatre for the time being, apart from the fact that we do not want to risk causing any damage moving him, it is the most sterile environment for him to be in to help control infection; and no I can't let you see him yet, it would be too much of an infection risk , I sorry" Expecting an argument on visiting Jamie was taken completely unaware when the Admiral rose, his voice lacking its usual strong tone

"Thank you Jamie for being so honest, the thought of life without that boy right now is unbearable, I know you are all doing your best for which I am so grateful. I cannot think of the better person to take care of him right now but we must help with that and so Chip and I" the XO looked at the admiral unsure what was coming next still too shocked to really take in properly what was being said "will leave you in peace to do your job, our thoughts and prayers are with you and Lee and we will be back but right now sitting here we are in your way, we need to get back to Seaview, I need to get back to Seaview I need to be doing something I feel so completely useless here; maybe the best way we can help right now is to take care of his lady, one less thing for him to worry about. You will tell him that wont you, not to worry we are taking care of her, he must concentrate on getting better" as the Admiral made to leave ushering Chip out with him Jamie nodded his agreement, he didn't have the heart to say that right now Lee was not going to be hearing anything. He watched the two men slowly take their leave still clearly numb from recent events and was relieved to look up and see Ski holding the door open, goodness knows how he found out or how long he had been there, but at he would be there to drive them to the Institute and to keep a watchful eye on them. As the doors closed he made his way back to the operating theatre, his patient and dear friend.