Sam had been sitting in the waiting room of the ER with about thirty other officers for an hour or so. When one of their own was injured, every officer in Toronto that wasn't on a call came to the ER to sit and wait with the family. Andy's father wasn't there yet, Sam had called him, but he was away somewhere.
1 hour earlier
Sam heard the gun shot and went mad. It took both Nick and Spike to hold him back in the truck, he just wanted to get to Andy. He heard everything that was going on since the headsets still were on speaker.
At first, everybody was screaming. Then everything went quiet. This was the worst part. Sam didn't have any idea what was going on in the house.
"Leah. Do you have the shot?" He then heard Jules' calm voice say. Her calmness helped him a bit, if she was calm, it couldn't be that bad.
"Yeah." Another calm, female voice answered. There was a pause and Sam was holding his breath while he was waiting for something, for someone to tell him that Andy was okay.
"Sam, Joey, take care of them." Jules said and then everything was quiet again. It seemed like eternity to Sam before anybody spoke again.
Laughter. That's what he heard next. Laughter. Someone, it seemed like Jules, was laughing. Nick frowned beside him.
"Everything okay, boss? How is McNally?" He asked.
"She was wearing a vest. Of course she was. She is on patrol, officers always wear a vest on patrol." She answered. Sam felt that he could breathe easier again. But then the laughter stopped.
"Come on, Andy, don't give up on me now!" Sam heard Jules say. He held his breath again and felt Nick do the same. "Where are those medics?" Jules asked.
"They're on their way." Spike answered as Sam saw a pair of medics move into the house.
"Good. The slug hit the vest, Swarek. It didn't go through. My concern right now is that she isn't breathing. The force must have broken a rib that then punctured her lung." She said and then abruptly stopped and started talking to the medics.
The ride in the ambulance had been hectic, the medics, Sarah and Jolie, had tried to get Andy to breathe again. They had failed. The entire ride to the hospital, they had had to help her breathe with an ambu bag. And now nobody was telling Swarek anything. Jules and her team were sitting in the ER with him as well, they all wanted to know if Andy would pull through.
The blonde guy on her team had wrapped his arm around Jules who seemed to have fallen asleep with her head on his shoulder. That was everything Sam wanted right now. To be able to wrap his arms around Andy and kiss her. To even touch her. A doctor came into the room. He was haggard and had lines of worry on his forehead.
"Family of Andy McNally?" He said and all the cops stood up. Oliver, who had been sitting beside him since he arrived at the hospital, pushed him towards the doctor.
"Sam Swarek?" He asked. All Sam could do was nod.
"I see that you're listed as Andy's emergency contact." He said. Sam nodded again.
"Is she... Is she alive?" He managed to ask. The doctor nodded grimly.
"She is in the ICU for now. But you can go see her if you want. I have to warn you though, it looks worse than it is."
"How bad is it?" Sam whispered.
"She broke three ribs from the force of the bullet. One of them punctured her right lung, that is why she wasn't breathing. We have her on a ventilator right now, but that is only for a day or so. The chest tube that we put in to relieve the pressure should be removed then as well. Her knee is pretty bad as well, she had torn some ligaments. It seems as though it was dislocated but relocated itself. She has two broken fingers on her right hand, the pinky and the ring finger." The doctor answered.
"Will she be okay?" Sam asked weakly, overwhelmed by the doctor's report.
"Yes. I believe she will recover fully. Now, do you want to go see her?" Sam nodded. He followed the doctor, almost in a trance, into a big room with lots of beds. There were patients in almost every single one, most of the had a lot of equipment around them. Some beds were made a bit more private with some sort of curtains.
"Here we are." The doctor said. Sam let himself fall into the chair that was standing by Andy's bed. He took her hand and then really looked at her.
She looked awful. There were all sorts of machines attached to her, all sorts of tubes running under her blanket. Sam was glad he couldn't see where they were going. She was pale and had dark rings under her eyes. He softly kissed her on her forehead.
"I love you, Andy. I love you." He whispered. She squeezed his hand.
"You're awake?" He asked. She didn't react.
There was a knock on Gail's door and both she and Holly murmured something incomprehensibly. Traci carefully opened the door and came in.
"Hey. Sorry to disturb you." She said, almost walking out the door again.
"No, no. Come on in." Gail said and waved at her.
"How are you doing?" Nash asked.
"I'm going to be okay. Don't worry about me. How is McNally doing?" She said. Holly started playing with her hair. It was nice.
"She's not doing so well right now. She's in the ICU, on a ventilator. She's got a punctured lung." Traci said sadly. Gail grew pale.
"What happened?" She asked.
"The bastard shot her. Thank god for Kevlar." Gail grew even paler.
"Have you seen her?" she asked and continued as Traci nodded. "How does she look?"
"Not so good. There are so many machines surrounding her. Hell, there is a machine breathing for her. She hasn't even woken up yet. She squeezed Sam's hand once, but that's the only reaction that we've got so far." She answered. Gail felt the trickle of a tear down her cheek. Holly immediately kissed it away. Gail knew that this also was out of character for her, but she still was on some pretty heavy pain meds and in combination with her PMS, she grew quite emotional.
"She wouldn't shut up about him this morning. She wouldn't shut up about anything. I wish I would have let her talk, I would give so much just to let her talk now." Gail said as more tears ran down her face.
"It's okay, Gail. The doctors say that she's going to be okay. Go back to sleep. When you wake up, she's going to be better." Traci promised, hoping that Andy would keep that promise for her. Gail did as Traci suggested and closed her eyes.
