A/N: Hooray for finally updating! Again, really really sorry. School's really kicking it this year, writing times have gotten few and far apart.
So I just added this chapter, didn't really want to risk the alert not getting sent out, because I'm just that desperate :P
The quote at the beginning is from Khalil Gibran, the... other one is from Albert Einstein, and is one of my favorite quotes.
PLEASE please review, and I'm really sorry guys. Going this long without updating is just mean.
Chapter 10: Friends Come and Go, Family is Forever
"Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls. The most massive characters are seared with scars."
Face sat hunched over in a hospital chair, wincing as he tugged at the bandages on his arm. He had demanded to be released right after they had sewn him up, joining Hannibal and BA who were still in the waiting room. Face watched as the clock dragged on, the second hand moving at what seemed like an agonizingly slow pace.
Visions of Murdock pervaded his mind, his psyche already too damaged to keep them out. They'd rushed the pilot onto a stretcher seconds after Hannibal carried him in. Face couldn't remember a time when the Colonel looked more strained, screaming at doctors and refusing to leave the stretcher as Murdock was wheeled into the surgery room. A monitor that they had hooked up to the pilot measured the pilot's erratic heartbeat.
Beep, beep, beep, beep, beeeeeep...
Face fidgeted in his seat as he remembered the machine sending out a single, dreaded tone, the chaos that had ensued around him as Murdock's heart gave out. Nurses and doctors immediately got a defibrillator, charging it and slamming the electric paddles onto the pilot's chest. The shock sent his body in an upwards convulsion, making Face feel nauseous. The godforsaken continuous beep did not stop, causing the nurses to charge up the paddles again. Face, Hannibal, and even B.A. were in hysterics as they called out to their friend, fighting off the orderlies and security guards until Face reached past the grasp of an officer, pain shooting up his arm. He collapsed on the floor, crying out and clutching his shoulder as his vision muddled.
Face couldn't remember much after that, it was all a blur until he came to in a hospital bed, a nice looking nurse finishing off his bandages. On any other day Face might have pulled a move on her, but he jumped out of bed, grabbing his clothes and running down the hallway to his team, ignoring outbursts from various doctors and nurses. The fact that Hannibal and B.A. were still in the waiting room told him two things: one: he hadn't been out for too long, and two: Murdock was alive.
B.A. cracked his knuckles, waiting anxiously at seconds turned into minutes and minutes turned into hours. They had been there all night, waiting and praying as half of their team got bullets removed from them. He glanced up as Face came into the room in a hospital gown, his clothing clasped in his right hand. 'Finally,' B.A. thought, 'That fool was out for over an hour, was startin' to get worried about him too...'
Without saying a word, Face crossed the waiting room, pulling on his jeans and exchanging the hospital gown for a green shirt with faded yellow writing on it. He sat forward, clasping his hands together and leaning his head onto them. B.A. briefly wondered if the Lieutenant was praying, (he'd never known Face to be very religious) but couldn't find the will to voice his question. They sat there in silence, never talking, never getting up, pleading to whatever higher power that might exist above them to let Murdock live.
Hannibal looked up from the couch as a young lady emerged from the doorway, glancing around the waiting room before looking back to her clipboard, confused.
"...James Murdock?" She stated, as if asking a question. Hannibal stood up as Face and B.A. shot out of their seats, Face cringing and rubbing his barely-bandaged shoulder.
"Are you his family?" the nurse looked at each of the men, none of which looked even remotely like Murdock.
"Yes," Hannibal answered definitively. None of them questioned the statement; it wasn't a lie. "How is he?"
The tension in the room sky-rocketed as the nurse hesitated, looking back down at her clipboard, biting her lip. Finally she answered, "He's alive."
Face sighed heavily, rubbing his eyes with his right hand to remove the tears that were threatening to form. B.A. released a breath he didn't know he was holding, running his hand over his Mohawk. The nurse continued quickly,
"He's very weak though. We lost him for a brief moment during surgery again; he's lost so much blood. He seems to have an extremely rare blood type, so we'll have to wait for a few days before we can get a supply in from a neighboring hospital." B.A. spoke up,
"Hey man, me and Murdock got the same blood type, could I donate blood for him?" The nurse looked surprised, but happy as well.
"That would be extremely helpful, if you could just fill out a few forms and we'll run you through some tests."
"Can we see him? Miss..." Face checked her name tag, "Daniels. Please." Face gave her his best, most innocent conman puppy eyes,
The nurse looked torn, "I suppose," she said tentatively, "But you'll have to be extremely quiet. He's under sedation and we can't have him waking up with the small amount of blood he has in his system. He's in the ICU, room 14b-" Hannibal immediately pushed past the woman, walking briskly down the hallway as Face gave her a half-smile before following the driven Colonel.
The nurse looked at them once more before leading B.A. down a different hallway, stopping in front of one of the blood donation rooms.
"Please have a seat, a different nurse will be in in a moment to ask you some questions and test your blood," She said with a professional grin.
"Thank you very much ma'am," B.A. responded politely.
"Oh no, don't thank me, it's my job. I'm glad to hear about your friend, you all must care about him very much," Miss Daniels much more warmly and personably, amazed by the love and devotion she had seen in all three of the men. She hadn't seen them move once during their stay while their friend was in surgery, except for the handsome (if she did say so herself) one practically fleeing his recovery room to join the other two. She went down the hallway where he and the older man had disappeared, finding a nurse to test the larger man for his blood type.
Hannibal slowly opened the door to the hospital room, stepping inside quietly, as if it were a dragon's lair. Face followed him in, looking at the hospital bed as sadness swept through him for the millionth time. 'This is different though,' the Lieutenant thought to himself, 'he's going to be alright.'
Hannibal edged up to the side of the bed, taking in Murdock's condition. The pilot was very pale and unconscious, hooked up to several drips and tubes. A heart monitor watched his pulse carefully. He did fidget at all, which was unnerving as he had developed a reputation for falling asleep in the corner of the bed and waking up on the floor on the opposite side...of the room. He looked so small amongst all of the machinery. Hannibal toke Murdock's hand into his own, wishing that the pilot would wake up, just for a moment, just so that they could see that he was alright.
Face knelt down on the opposite side of the bed, staring at the pilot. They had cleaned him up pretty well; his hair was no longer greasy, and they had wiped all of the excess blood off. Face gently brushed Murdock's hair out of his face, stroking his check and noting the prominent cut over his eye. In the fluorescent lighting, the numerous scars and bruises were more evident on his face and neck. Face felt the rage bubbling up in his stomach again, regretting that the men that had done this to him were already dead. 'The things I would do...' Face contemplated,
"I don't know if you can here me buddy," the Lieutenant started, displeased with his voice, rough from lack of use, "but you really had us scared back there. I thought B.A. was going to commit a massacre." He smirked, satisfied with staying by his friend's side, kneeling on the tile flooring. Hannibal stood across from him, just looking at Murdock, a faint smile evident across his lips.
"I tell ya, we sure know how to pick 'em; of all the gas stations, huh? We end up trekking across town doing a hundred..." Face cut off, the memories coming back too strongly, "but anyways. You got the top doctors here, man. You ask them anything you want at you'll get it; course I might have to help if you, say, order a panda or demand lightsabers or something..." Face smiled, shaking his head and looking down at the sheets, 'I'm starting to sound like Murdock' he thought to himself. He kept his head looking at the floor, clasping his hands together,
"But seriously, we were really worried about you. We didn't know how things were going to end, and if we'd lost you... if I'd lost you... I'd probably end up losing my mind..."
"The question that sometimes drives me hazy... am I, or the others crazy?" Face's head snapped up at the scratchy voice, bright blue eyes meeting brown ones. Murdock smirked weakly as Face jumped up, hugging the pilot tightly before another word could be said. He was so relieved; tears running down his face into the pilot's hair,
"Oh my God Murdock I was so worried," Face whispered into his ear, straightening as he looked over to Hannibal. The colonel would have been unreadable, except his eyes shone with tears, the sheer joy all too evident in them.
"Colonel," Murdock croaked out,
"Captain," Hannibal replied, smiling warmly and leaning forward to capture the man in a brief embrace.
"You know Murdock, you really shouldn't be awake, doc says you lost a ton of blood. Speaking of which... aren't you suppose to be under heavy sedation?" Face asked. Murdock grinned; his eyes half-open as his fought the medicine making him sleepy,
"Well you know, Faceman, when you've been given as many different combinations of drugs as I have, it takes a lot to finally konk you out." But even as he spoke, his eyes fluttered closed again as he struggled to keep them open. Face chuckled,
"It's alright Murdock, you can go back to sleep, we'll still be here when you wake up. Heck, Bosco might even be back with us by then."
"B.A.! Where is the big ol' mudsucker anyways?" Murdock's face immediately lit up at the thought of the big guy.
"He's down the hallway and around the corner, getting test done to donate blood," Hannibal said, smiling for the first time it what seemed like ages.
"Really? Donating blood? Aww, he really does care, doesn't he?" Murdock gushed, laying his head back down against the pillow with a crooked grin, finally letting the sedatives take over and drifting back into sleep.
"Yeah he does," Face said softly, pushing Murdock's unruly hair back again, ruffling it, "We all do."
B.A. flexed his arm muscle, feeling a little-headed as the nurse left his room with what felt like half of his AB negative. He didn't mind though, 'As long as it gets to the crazy fool,' he thought to himself. He stood and leaned against the bed for support, waiting a moment before fully straightening himself and walking (slowly) down the hallway. He glanced up at the doors, '11, 12a, 12b, 13, 14a... here we go.' He grabbed the door handle in haste, hesitating for a moment before walking in.
Face and Hannibal turned their heads as B.A. came in to the room. He looked over at Murdock, his muscles stiffening as he eyes the various machines and IVs he was hooked up to.
"How's he doin'?" The big man asked. Face looked at Murdock,
"Not too bad. He woke up a few minutes before you came in, seems like he'll be alright."
"Yeah, physically at least," B.A. muttered. 'Who knows what kinda stuff they did to him in there? There's no way he's gonna make it out of this without some nightmares followin' him around.' He thought glumly, 'The poor fool's already got enough monsters runnin' around inside his head, he don't need more.'
"We'll help him through it; we'll make sure he'll be alright." B.A. turned towards Hannibal's rough voice, watching the man watch Murdock, his eyes reminiscent. They'd helped each other out with things like this before; they'd always taken care of each other, this wouldn't be any different.
A/N: This is not the ending! Just letting you know. There's definitely more to come. Pretty pretty please review, even if it is just yelling at me for being so gosh darn late :( Thanks for reading! IYD24