Alex held the wiring in her left hand as she tried to get the connector into the opening. But after two hours of cybernetic repairs her hands were shaky. Grant's hands were no better. A straight hour of surgery had done him in. Now the two were working frantically to change out Rick's right lung. There wasn't a lot of time. They needed to get his respiration back up. They also needed to clean out the blood and oil in his chest cavity.
Alex was solely concerned with keeping Rick alive. Everything else could be handled later. She finally got the plug into the digital array attached to the trachea. With a soft click the new lung was in place and ready for action. Alex pulled up her handheld attached to the organ and made some adjustments.
Everything needed to be perfect, which meant that the right lung had to be synchronized to the left. If the right lung worked too slowly or too quickly it could cause breathing problems or even damage to the left lung. When the screen indicated it was ready she activated the new lung and waited for a diagnostic to come up.
Grant was busy replacing damaged wiring. The main wires that ran along Rick's spinal cord were undamaged for the most part, but some of the ones that branched off to his organs were in need of replacing. Luckily the cybernetic liver and kidney were undamaged.
He worked as quickly as his tired hands allowed him. He carefully pulled one wire out and quickly replaced it.
Alex read the diagnostic as it came up. The readings were good. She was hoping for better but the readings were high enough to go with. She unplugged the handheld and moved to check on his heart. She plugged it in and waited for the diagnostic to come up.
"We're doing alright," She murmured. "Lungs are stable, heart is looking good so far. How are you on changing out the damaged wire?"
Grant struggled with a replacement before answering. "I'm half way through." He grunted. "Damn it." He murmured. "Alex we've got a fried master chip down here." He kept his right hand inside of Rick as he looked up. "Whatever electric device they used it only damaged the real sensitive stuff."
Alex was already out of the room. A few minutes later she returned with the proper replacement. "We've got to program it." She said.
"Do it. I'll keep my hand right here." Grant replied.
"It'll take ten minutes." Alex replied exasperated. She turned to her handheld and stuck the chip into an opening. "Let me take care of the wiring for a while."
Grant nodded. She began to work on the wires that had yet to be replaced.
Alex worked quickly.
Melissa brought in some water. "I thought you might be thirsty." She said. Alex shook her head and nodded her head towards her husband. Melissa brought a glass to him. He took it with his left hand and took a long swallow.
He handed it back, "Sorry about the blood." He said as she took it trying to avoid the red fingerprints.
Melissa shrugged and took it back. She left the room.
Alex finished the wires. She threw the last one on the floor and sighed. "I think we're almost good until we can access the neural hub." She said.
The handheld beeped and she took the new master chip out. "Here. Rick's natural patterns are all saved. She reached a hand in where Grant's was and the two worked on removing the damaged chip from a digital port just above Rick's pelvis. She held the new one at the ready. As soon as the damaged one came out she pushed the new one in.
Grant looked at the old one. It was blackened a little. "Whoever this was really did a number on him." He said in agitation. "They planned that attack. They knew his weaknesses, got themselves weapons strong enough to render Rick immobile."
"They knew what to do," Alex seethed. She hated anyone who tried to destroy her family and her work. "We're done with life support and everything here correct?"
Grant nodded. "That was the only other thing I found."
"Good, let's go ahead and get him closed up. After that we'll give him a couple hours. By that time we'll have rested and the lockdown should be over by then."
Grant pulled out a dental liquid vacuum. He used it to clear away the excessive liquid in Rick's chest.
The two began to close everything up. They made sure everything was in it's proper place as they closed up the incisions they had made. After a few stitches here and there Grant pulled out his medical stapler.
Very carefully he stapled the skin together. The sound of the air pressure was loud in the quiet room. They had hardly spoken at all during the surgery.
Once that was done Grant set the stapler down. They didn't take Rick off of external life support yet. They gathered the tools and took them to the sink. Alex dropped them into a prepared disinfectant bath. Grant dimmed the lab lights and checked the machinery one final time. Everything looked good. Melissa had already left the lab. She wasn't handling all the blood very well.
Grant and Alex scrubbed the blood and oil from their hands. As they dried them off they talked about the next round of surgery. "Getting into his head will be a three hour surgery by itself." Alex said.
"I know, I hate to say it but that's got to be the only thing we do when we come back."
"I really hope we don't have to replace any memory circuits. That'll crush Rick, even if he only loses a few days." Alex murmured.
"But what needs to be replaced has to be. I just hope there's not too much damage to his brain. I can't stand the thought of what it might do." Grant whispered.
"Let's just hope the last four hours was our worst four hours." Alex said as they left the lab.
They walked past Melissa. "Do you need someone to sit up with Rick while you rest?" She asked.
"Would you do that Melissa?" Alex asked grateful.
"Not me, but Walter. He feels so useless right now." Melissa replied.
"That would be a big help to us. If someone is in there they can call us if something happens." Grant nodded. Walter was making his way slowly down the stairs. He leaned on the banister heavily.
"I can't very well sleep while my friend just lies there. Thanks for letting me help."
"Thank you Walter." Alex said.
The two took the elevator to their room. They got out of their bloodied clothes and climbed into bed in just their underwear. They were both hot. They didn't have long to wait for sleep. Exhaustion won and the two were sound asleep shortly.
Jessica couldn't sleep. She left Penny on the bed and headed down the stairs. She walked quietly remembering just where the squeaky spots were from childhood. She walked to the lab. She wanted to see Rick. No matter how bad he looked.
She entered in quietly unaware that Walter was seated inside and wide awake. The FBI agent remained silent as Jessica slipped in and approached the operating table slowly. The machinery hummed in her ears and she watched Rick's bare chest rise and fall. She glared at the staples in his chest. Hopefully they wouldn't scar too bad. Not that she minded, but she had noticed a change in Rick recently.
He wasn't liking the scars he came back from battle with. Something was up, and though he wouldn't say what it was, she was certain it had to do with cybernetics and surgeries.
She looked at his right hand. The melted off false skin left the steel skeleton visible. For a moment Jessica felt pity. She thought she knew what Rick was feeling. Every time he came out of a battle that should have killed him, every time he was forced to look at what he had become, every time Alex had to replace a cybernetic part, Rick felt just a little out of place.
At the moment his humanity was being questioned by the entire world. He was facing the fears and doubts of the people he was dedicated to protect. They had good reason to be cautious. Fiction had enjoyed making the cyborg into a villain.
She refrained from touching Rick as tears welled in her eyes. She loved Rick, loved him just the way he was. She didn't know what he was like before, and maybe that was a good thing. All she knew was that Rick was her husband and she loved him. Only a few weeks ago he'd held her shaking hands in his and promised to love her until he died.
She looked at his hand again and this time she grabbed it in her own. The metal fingers were warm and hard. She looked at the seams that opened up and revealed an array of tools with just a thought. Jessica looked at Rick's face. His nose was bandaged heavily and she imagined his long crooked nose bent out of shape.
Tears continued to fall as she just stood there. Walter remained silent. He didn't want to disturb this quiet moment.
Jess reached over and pushed Rick's blood caked hair back from his forehead. His right eye was swollen shut and a thin line of dried blood caked his eyelashes. She suddenly felt an anger. A deep sudden hatred for whoever had done this rose up in her heart. She let go of his hand and leaned close to his face. She could smell the blood and oil coming off of him, the scent of gunpowder, and the acrid smell of overheated circuits above the disinfectant.
She breathed it in. No, Rick didn't smell like she had imagined her husband would smell like. Cologne only made his usual odor worse, instead of covering it up it seemed to mingle with it. Jessica didn't mind Rick's scent though. It was unique to him alone.
She kissed his bruised cheek gently. She knew that Rick wouldn't open his eyes for her. Until his body was out of danger his systems were on a default Lockdown. He wouldn't wake up and Alex couldn't access the neural hub yet. It was akin to being in a coma. Jessica turned away and her bleary eyes met Walter's.
"Oh." She whispered in surprise. Her cheeks already red from tears grew darker.
"Sorry," Walter replied from the chair he was sitting on. "I didn't want to disturb you."
Jess nodded, "Thank you." She murmured.
"You look tired." Walter observed.
"I know." Jess replied weakly.
'You should go sleep." Walter added, "I'll keep my eyes on him."
Jess looked back at Rick and shuddered. She felt cold, tired, and furious. "Ok." She turned for the doors to the lab.
"Goodnight." Walter whispered after her.
She didn't respond. Either she didn't hear him or she was too busy muffling a sob to make a sound. She hurried out of the lab. She quickly climbed the stairs and went into the room where Penny was still asleep.
She took off her shoes and jeans and crawled into the bed next to the girl. Brain was on the bed curled up against Penny's stomach. The dog didn't even notice Jessica.
The woman forced her tears to stop. Her eyes burned. She needed to sleep, needed to forget the ordeal for a little while.
As she drifted her last thought was that someone would pay for this.
