Sorry it's been awhile since I've updated! 17 hour semesters are no joke. SO MUCH WORK.
...
Almost done! Getting closer to the end!
When Sam woke up hours later, there were only two things he knew; the first was that he was finally out of that room, away from Saleem and his torture. The second thing was that he was in pain, a lot of pain.
Exposing his eyes to the dim light of the room sent shockwaves of pain throughout his already aching head, so Sam squeezed them shut and blindly felt around for the button to the pain pump he knew had to be near. Feeling around on the bed, his hand brushed up against something. Before Sam could grab it, the button fell to the floor with a loud, cracking sound and suddenly, Sam was back in that warehouse starring Saleem in the face.
In the silence of his hospital room, Sam could hear the cracking sound of Saleem's whip in perfect clarity. He could see Saleem's snarling smile and he could feel every skin-splitting strike of the whip.
Sam was thrashing around in his hospital bed, trying to get away from the whip that continued to hit him. The alarms in his room began beeping and blaring, signaling his accelerating heart rate. Sam could hear several pairs of footsteps running towards him and before he could even register what he was doing, Sam had pulled his chest tube and IV out, disconnected all of the monitors on him and was huddled in the corner, cowering in fear from the medical personnel that had just arrived in the room.
"Get me a chest tray, suture kit and a sedative," Dr. Liotta ordered immediately upon seeing Sam in the corner, breathing raggedly and losing a steady stream of blood from the freshly opened chest tube incision.
Taking a few steps closer, Dr. Liotta noticed Sam's wild, unfocused eyes and recognized the signs of a flashback. With a saddened sigh, Dr. Liotta looked away in just enough time to see two male nurses reaching towards Sam to help him. Before he could order them to stop, Sam had already mistaken them for a threat and lashed out, sending one of them to the ground on his butt and the other dodging Sam's flaying fists and arms.
"Stay away from him," Dr. Liotta exclaimed. "And don't touch him! He's having a flashback."
At a loss of what to do, all medical personnel in the room including the two nurses closest to Sam, stepped back, giving him plenty of room.
The nurse that Dr. Liotta had sent away returned to the room, necessary equipment in hand. She put the syringe containing the sedative in Dr. Liotta's outstretched hand then backed away and joined the rest of the nurses.
Dr. Liotta slowly stepped forward, getting closer and closer to Sam.
Sam, seeing nothing but a man walking towards him with a needle, jumped up from his spot on the ground with lightning speed and moved further back into the corner. Unfortunately, his right side slammed into the wall as he did so. His arm immediately wrapped around his abdomen and a look of pain flashed on his ghostly pale face. Sam managed to release a pained grunt before becoming unconscious and collapsing to the ground.
Dr. Liotta immediately rushed towards Sam's crumpled and unconscious body. Laying him flat on the ground, Dr. Liotta moved his arm out of the way and was shocked to see Sam's abdomen distended and quickly turning a deep shade of purple. "Damn it, his liver lac must've gotten worse. He's bleeding into his abdomen."
Turning to look at the group of nurses behind him, Dr. Liotta yelled "Get a gurney in here and page the OR; let them know we're coming!"
Two nurses quickly left the room to fulfill the doctor's request. One of the remaining nurses Chris, his name badge said, brought the chest tray over and kept a careful eye of Sam's dropping blood pressure and racing pulse while Dr. Liotta quickly replaced the chest tube.
The moment the new tube was in, the gurney arrived in the room. Sam was carefully lifted onto it, secured down, then quickly rolled out of the room.
"Call the SRU and notify his team. Someone needs to be here for him!" Dr. Liotta called out as he ran alongside the gurney through the OR doors.
...
Two hours later, the exhausted members of Team One were scattered around the surgical floor waiting room. Several empty coffee cups littered the tables and each team member took their turn pacing throughout the room.
Greg had been the first person to arrive at the hospital; he was out of his apartment and on the way to the hospital before Holleran even finished telling him what was going on. When he arrived at the hospital and made it to the surgical floor, Greg was able to speak with a nurse who filled him in on everything that had happened since Sam woke up.
Spike and Jules arrived together next, having met each other in the parking lot. When they heard the full story from Greg their hearts sank, and the sorrow and worry they felt was evident on their faces.
Ed and Wordy arrived within a few minutes of Spike and Jules and their reactions were about the same. Wordy hung his head and said a silent prayer before moving over to the chairs to take a seat near Jules. Ed, however, reacted a little differently; he began angrily pacing the floor, muttering curses under his breath and kicking chairs, walls and trash cans every so often.
No one called him on it though, because they all felt similar anger at the situation Sam was in.
An hour later, an extremely haggard looking Colonel Jackson entered the waiting room. "What happened?" he asked, looking around at the despondent members of Team One.
"Sam woke up a couple of hours ago and something, they don't know what, set him off and he had a flashback." Greg answered, sadly. "He pulled his chest tube and his IVs out and reacted badly when any of the medical staff tried to get close to and help him. When he saw the syringe with the sedative, he panicked and backed into a corner. During this, his liver laceration worsened and he began bleeding internally. They rushed him into surgery after that and they've been there ever since."
Colonel Jackson sighed and collapsed down into a chair, rubbing a hand over his exhausted face. When he moved his hand away, he saw Jules standing in front of him with a cup of coffee. "Here, you look like you could use this."
"Thank you," Colonel Jackson said, taking the coffee and gratefully drinking it.
"You look like you could use some sleep." Wordy said, looking over at the obviously exhausted Colonel.
Colonel Jackson gave a quick snort and looked at Wordy with an exhausted but amused look. "I could. We had just made it back to base with Amir and Ari when I got your call. Since I value my career, and my life, I turned around and headed straight back down here."
"You value your life? Spike asked, eyebrows raised. "What exactly does that mean?"
"Have you ever met General Braddock?! They don't call him General Badass for nothing. He's as military as they come; a soldier through and through, like Sam. That's why they butt heads as much as they do—they're too much alike. The General's not the most…. affectionate person in the world, but at the end of the day he loves his family. If I got your call and didn't come back down here and the General found out? Let's just say things would've not ended well."
"Is the General or any member of Sam's family going to come down here?" Ed asked, a small edge to his voice.
Colonel Jackson sighed. "I wish I knew. Natalie's off in Europe somewhere, Mrs. Braddock is down in the states visiting her family and the General's supposed to be heading back to Kandahar later today."
Any further comment was cut off by the OR doors opening and a scrub-clad Dr. Liotta walking out. Everyone stood from their seats, anxious to hear what the doctor had to say.
"He's going to be OK." Dr. Liotta announced, smiling at the palpable change in the atmosphere and the look of relief that washed over everyone. "We stopped the bleeding and repaired the laceration to his liver. He's in recovery now and we'll be moving him back to his room soon."
"Can we see him?" Jules asked, desperate to see Sam after this last little incident.
"Once we get him back to his room and settled, I can allow each of you to see him for a little bit, but after that, I'm afraid you'll have to leave."
"What if he wakes up and has another flashback? If one of us is with him when it happens, maybe seeing a familiar face will help him come out of it faster." Spike asked, not liking the fact that his friend would be alone.
"We've already thought about that and will be keeping Sam sedated until noon, at the earliest. By that time, visiting hours would've started and I'm sure someone will be there for him when we decide to wake him up. Until then, rest is the best thing for him. If you want to head down to the Post-Op floor and wait, we'll be moving him down there shortly. I'll have a nurse come and get you when he's ready."
"Thank you Dr. Liotta" Greg said sincerely as he shook the man's head.
Dr. Liotta nodded and returned to the OR recovery area to check on Sam.
Greg followed the others to the elevator and rode down to the Post-Op floor where they would wait, for however long it took, to see their teammate and friend.
I'm not completely in love with how this chapter played out, but I hope you guys enjoy it all the same!
Hopefully I'll be able to get the next chapter up soon!