AN- I give up apologizing. I got a full time teaching job, met the love of my life, and I just can't seem to sit and write. Sorry. :-/ (About not writing, not about the rest of it…)
Pairing: John/OC
Warning: Fluff, some angst
Boston…Kate listened attentively as Dr. Hewitt explained the risks, and signed the appropriate paperwork. She listened when the anesthesiologist took over and started explaining what he was doing. She determinedly looked at the wall and ignored the sting of the needle into her arm, signaling that her IV was successfully inserted.
"Don't worry Kate, you'll be in and out before you know it."
She smiled, looking a little strained,
"My cousin really came with her baby, no questions asked?"
Dr. Hewitt smiled gently,
"There were plenty of questions, about the safety of the child, nothing else. You're family cares about you more than you know."
Kate shrugged and felt the room get a bit fuzzy,
"They say so, don't they…" she said, drifting through a hazy world where things kept slipping away.
"How soon will we know if the transplant was successful?" Kate asked vaguely feeling her stomach drop as the elevator moved.
Dr. Hewitt shook his head,
"Like we discussed previously, we should be able to see results within 2-3 weeks, and you should notice improvement within 4-5 weeks."
Kate nodded slowly and tried to smile through the fog that was quickly closing in on her,
"Just checking, I wouldn't want to find out that you changed your story now, Doctor."
Kate smiled and thought that she thanked the OR nurses for the well- wishes as she was wheeled into Operating Room 2,
"My lucky number."
Dr. Hewitt smiled,
"That's why we're here. Are you ready Katie?"
Kate tried to smile, but her attentionfaded and she saw the colors on the edge of her vision start to blur around the edges, her eyes dreamily drifted close, unaware of the anesthesiologist checking her pulse.
"All right people, let's do this successfully and quickly," Dr. Thomas, the head surgeon, stated as he entered the room, and the longest 4-6 hours of Kate's life began, completely unaware of the storm on the horizon.
Out in Space…
John refused to rush to the computers when he got up several hours later. He forced casualness as he keyed up the satellite feed following the weather patterns on Earth. He frowned again at the growing cloud swirling over the North Atlantic. Shifting the radar to zoom in on the growing storm region his frown deepened, and he keyed in the code for Tracy Island. John pulled up an instant messaging box on an open screen and tried to contact Kate, swearing quietly when her screen name stubbornly responded with her away message… again.
A few moments later the familiar tones of an incoming video comm signal rang out through the main room.
"Hey, Dad," John said turning back to the image of his father now taking up the main screen.
"What's the problem, John?" Jeff Tracy asked, concern lacing his deep voice.
John ran a hand through his already disheveled hair,
"That storm system that was hanging out in the Atlantic Ocean has intensified and is now heading straight toward the Massachusetts coast," he explained quietly and efficiently, "The center of the storm has started a clockwise rotation about the eye. It has a forward motion of about 20 knots, and the internal wind speed is approaching gale force winds."
Jeff frowned at the information appearing on his secondary screen as his son simplified the scrolling numbers. Brains frowned at his mini-pc as he analyzed the damage projections,
"N…nnnn…n…nnnnnnot good, Mr. Tracy. The st… storm s… seems to be hhhhheaded t toward Boston. Th… the d…dddamage to a cccity of B…Boston's ssssize would b…be ca…ca…cat…ta… horrible."
Jeff nodded distractedly, studying the map of the Massachusetts coast that John had uploaded,
"What is the time table that we are looking at, John?"
John blocked out his rising feeling of dread and calculated wind speeds, and checked the distance of the storm from the coastline,
"The storm is still about 26 miles northwest of Province town, which at the current speed puts it about 3.5 hours before impact in Boston."
Jeff nodded, and keyed in something off screen,
"Set the situation timer, and start uploading the rescue files. I will sound the alarm."
John nodded,
"Affirmative, Commander."
With that Jeff signed off, and John was left to deal with his feelings of helplessness and rising panic on his own. He looked toward the map of Boston and struggled with his code of ethics, and sense of privacy. John groaned and turned determined to track Kate's computer signal. He started slipping through the firewalls, bypassing routers, sorting through intranets, and surfing across networks, trying to triangulate exact signal of one lone laptop in the middle of a city the size of Boston.
He stopped about 10 minutes later to update and finish uploading the rescue files via satellite to the island network. He waited long enough to receive the green light from Brains confirming successful upload before turning back to his attempt to track down Kate's computer. John hit the figurative brick wall when he reached the Children's Hospital Boston intranet. He scowled at the screen in consternation before remembering that Kate had mentioned being sick,
"I didn't think she mentioned the hospital," he muttered, utilizing the superior computers of Thunderbird 5 hacking into the secure hospital network and doing a patient search on all patients with the first name Kate between the ages of 18 and 23. He frowned as he studied the single search result:
Name: Williams, Katherine Noelle
Age: 20
Weight: 136 lbs.
Height: 5'2"
Blood Type: A-positive
Diagnosis: Kugelberg- Welander Disease/ Spinal Muscular Atrophy: type III
Progressive
Onset: Age 14
Symptoms: Tremors in the extremities, difficulty walking, movement became more difficult as time went on. Patient admitted in-patient status at age 18 due to family needs.
Parents: Robert J. Williams, father deceased
Patricia A. Williams, mother deceased
Length of Stay: 2 years 7 months
Attending Doctor: Dr. Jonathon Hewitt
Room: 543A
Current Location: OR 2
Special Notes: Currently 45 minutes into transplant surgery.
John stared in shock at the patient file, trying to connect the young woman on the screen to the young woman he knew only through e-mail and chat. They were the same age, parents had the same name, and she was staying in the hospital. Without knowing why, John glanced toward his e-mail and noticed that a new e-mail was from Kate, he opened the e-mail quickly, hoping for some answers. He noted that the letter was electronically dated about 2 hours earlier.
John,
I know I have been a bit whacked, and not exactly myself, but I have been sick. Really, sick- I have been in the hospital. But, GOOD NEWS! There is a new treatment that is supposed to help me. So…the next time I e-mail you, I will be myself again :-) Hopefully...
If you still want to meet me, we can talk about it then.
I missed you last night; I figured I should tell you.
KateJohn swallowed to wet his suddenly dry mouth and looked back at the storm heading straight for his helpless friend. Blocking everything else out, he set about notifying the city, and hospital about the approaching storm, hoping that the Thunderbirds would save the day this time.