Disclaimer: Not mine.
Thank you for reading and please review. Haven't updated in a little while, sorry...having some bad writers' block.
"Hey, Sue," Bobby said a little weakly, grabbing her elbow for her attention. "Just a minute...please?"
Sue looked back up to Lucy and Tara as they followed Myles and Demetrius out of the door of Bobby's hospital room and nodded for them to continue.
I call, Sue signed to Lucy urged her onward again with an inclination of her head.
"What's up?" Sue asked with a forced cheerfullness when Lucy signed her yes in return and she turned back to Bobby.
"How are you doing, sheila?" Bobby asked, his eyes serious, unfooled by Sue's facade. "How...how's...Jack?"
"He's stabilized," Sue answered, holding on to the last threads of her reserve, trying her utmost to fight the quivering of her lip by catching it with her teeth. She gave another faux smile. "Dr. Perkins...says that he was lucky...that the bullet only caused minimal damage...for this sort of case."
"How...how...does it look?" Bobby asked again, adverting his eyes to the blue blanket spread over him, pulling at a snagged thread. "I mean...did the doctor...give...umm, say...what his chances are?"
Another tear slipped down Sue's cheek as she strangled the handle of Levi's leash in her hand, silently repremanding herself for her unchecked emotions. It was difficult to live it, to sit worrying through her every task, afraid that something would go wrong at any moment; it was much more difficult to talk about it, to try and explain the disheartening news to her friend, to Jack's best friend.
"The...the doctor said," Sue answered, chancing a glance at Bobby's bowed head after a moment of contemplative silence. "He said that his chances of survival are...about...about forty percent. His chances of a full recovery...about twenty."
Looking back up for Bobby's reply, Sue had to cock her neck uncomfortably to see his turned head clearly enough to see him swear horribly in frustration. She felt Levi's head nudge against her and reached down to pat him affectionately, her eyes remaining trained on Bobby's face.
"Damn it!" she could see Bobby's lips shout and cringed in surprise when he snatched pale pink ice pitcher from his side table and hurtle it across the room. "Damn it, Sparky! Oh, f_, Jack!"
"Bobby!" Sue breathed subconsciously in surprise and slight fear, unaware that the word actually passed her lips.
Sue's hand flew to her mouth to try and smother the sob that escaped her at Bobby's outburst. Tears fell down her face freely, blinding her vision with a watery veil and Sue felt her way backwards a foot or two to sit down on the window sofa. Fear, worry, and sorrow overflooded her heart and mind, all at once, and she felt as though she would quickly drown in it.
"Bobby," Sue begged unconsciously, clinging to the lapels of her blazer and pulling it closely around her, begging for something to hold on to before she lost herself in her agony. She could not do this any longer, she could not see the anger and rage in everyone's eyes when Jack was struggling just to stay alive. "Bobby...please. Please...don't."
Bobby looked down on Sue's fetal form, leaning her torso and head over her knees as she sat on the sofa, her soft words calling him back from his rampage. A horrible sense of guilt and regret fell over him just before the horrendous pain in his chest exploded again. Instinctively reaching for the call-button, Bobby realized that the hospital staff had beat him to it. Three or four nurses and nursing assistants flooded into the room at the chaos that he had caused and immediately crossed to his bed.
"Mr. Manning," the head nurse, Amelia, asked sharply, grabbing his IV tube and checking the water level in the bag over his head. "What's the problem?"
"Pain," Bobby managed after a minute, still watching through the pain as Sue cried into her hands on the sofa, unaware of the movements about her. "In chest."
A semi-rough hand grabbed at Sue's shoulder suddenly and she immediately jerked away, feeling as though someone may as well have slapped her. A woman of about her age was pulling upwards on her arm, obviously speaking, but her head turned backwards to Sue.
"Look at her when you speak...ah! She's...deaf," Sue saw Bobby instruct, his face drawn up in pain, but the nurse looked at her wide-eyed.
"I'm sorry, ma'am," the nurse started over. "But you'll have to leave...we can't have him getting upset and if visitors cause it, then you'll have to come back later."
"But...please," Sue argued, gently pulling her arm out of the nurses strong grip, her mind only able to half concentrate on what she was saying. She still needed to talk to Bobby. "I have to..."
"Leave her," Bobby demanded forcefully, a great deal of the pain finally subsiding as the nurses calmed him down, cleaning up the ice and adjusting his medications. "She didn't do anything...leave her...for just a few minutes."
"Very well," Amelia relented after a moment of thought, grabbing Sue's hand and pulling her forward. "Just as long as you promise to keep your coworker calm...hey...aren't you the woman that has been sitting with the neck wound in ICU?"
"Yes," Sue answered, her mind still in a mess as she continued to try and dry her tears while handling the nurses' various questions and demands. "W...why?"
"Oh, the doctor just told me to let you know that they contacted Agent Hudson's family a few hours ago...they should be here any minute," Amelia answered, releasing both Sue's hand and the handrail of Bobby's bed.
"Al...alright," Sue answered, her brain working overtime to try and keep up.
"Sue," Bobby said, pulling her attention to him with a small wave of his hand as the hospital personel finally began to leave. I'm sorry, he signed. "I really wanted to thank you...that's what I really wanted to talk about. Myles...Myles and Tara said that you saved me when I was shot...said that you dragged me under a table or something."
Sue nodded her head slowly, completely taken aback by this sudden change in temper as Bobby went back to fondling the snagged string on his blanket, his face only slightly drawn up in discomfort. Bobby's questions had stolen away her reserve, his outburst frightened her, and his thanks confused her. A nagging headache was beginning to tear at her skull and she wanted nothing more than to return to Jack's room, curl up beside him for what comfort that offered to feel his heart beat beneath her palm, and cry out all of her frustration.