Chapter 11: A/N: Sup dog! Ok, this chapter is going to be a little scattered. I've been working on some of my other books and it's hard to find time to do everything. If you know what I mean. Sorry these chapters have been taking me so long to finish. Life is busy and so is the world. Thanks for reading. Hope you like it and please review.
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Recap:
"Doc?" Greg asks hesitantly.
"I don't know what to say. I do not wish to bring you bad news but,"
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"I don't know what to say. I do not wish to bring you bad news but, his condition is very critical. His chances of survival are slim if he even has any chances. I'm sorry." The doctor says.
"What do you mean exactly?" Wordy asks.
"I mean that although he made it through surgery barely might I add, his condition will not improve. He's unconscious and on a ventilator. We have given him pain killers so he does not feel the pain. He's sleeping off the anesthetic but he probably will not wake. I heard his girlfriend is here also. May I speak with her?"
"No, I'm sorry. She is very rattled from losing their child. I would rather tell her myself." Greg says not liking the surgeon's bluntness.
"That's fine I suppose. But I will need to speak with her for the final arrangements."
"Now hold up a sec. Who said Sam was going to die?" Ed asks furious.
"Ha! Sir, I operated on him. I know his chances of survival. I didn't see you in the OR with me now did I? If you'd like to see him, there is a window but you are no permitted to enter."
"Doc are you sure that," Greg starts.
"Excuse me, I have other patients to see that actually are going to live. No need to bother with the dead." He says and walks away.
"What an"
"Eddie," Greg warns before his friend starts cussing out the surgeon. "It's five in the morning and he's been operating for four hours. I think he's a little irritable."
"Yeah, 'don't bother with the dead.' Excuse me, but last time I checked, Sam wasn't dead. Let's find his room." Ed rants.
"Go ahead. I'm going to tell Jules that he made it out of surgery." Greg says and walks towards her room.
"I'm going to tell Spike and text my wife. Did you ever tell Winnie?" Wordy asks.
"No, I'll call her this morning. She had night shift off last night. I didn't want to bother her. Do you know if Greg called Holleran?"
"No I don't sorry. You should call your wife. Crap! What about Sam's parents?!" Wordy exclaims.
"Yikes. I don't know. Greg probably forgot about that. It's not like they'd ever come to see him. Well, Natalie might."
"Yeah, you find his room; I'll tell Spike and meet you here ok?"
"Yeah, works for me." Ed says and walks off towards reception.
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Greg knocks softly on Jules' door.
"Hey Jules? Can I come in?" he asks.
"Sarge? Yeah." She answers sniffling.
He pushes the door open once he finishes talking with the nurse outside. "How are you doing?"
"I miss him." She says and starts cry.
"I know Jules. He made it through surgery. They don't think he's going to make it though. He's in bad shape Jules. I'm so sorry."
"Where is he?"
"I'm not sure. Eddie's going to find him though."
"Can I see him?"
"Jules, I don't think that's a good idea. If he gets any worse I'll see what I can do but right now you should stay here."
"But, but Sarge!"
"Jules, I'm sorry. You need to rest."
"No, please!"
"No Jules. You're staying here. I don't want you to get any more hurt than you already are. There is no way that you are seeing him now." Greg says harshly, surprised by his own words.
Jules lies back down and turns away from her Sargent. She knows it's a childish thing to do, but there's nothing else she can do.
"Jules," Greg says and tries to touch her arm.
She wriggles away from him though silently crying.
"I'll be back Jules. Get some sleep." Greg says and leaves the room.
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Spike isn't taking the news any better than Jules is. For one, he didn't know that Sam almost successfully committed suicide since he was out the whole time. So he thought that Sam was fine, windpipe a little sore, but then upon hearing that he might not live simply confused him to no end. Wordy can almost hear anger towards Jules in Spike's voice. Of course, he was sympathetic that she had a miscarriage but her words "made" Sam turn the gun on himself.
"Spike, look, the doctors are doing all they can right now. I can't believe that Sam would leave us without putting up a fight of some sort."
"He already tried to kill himself! Why would he fight now?"
"If he was actually aiming to kill himself, he would be dead now. He's a sniper Spike. He obviously wanted someone to talk him out of it. I guess he got startled when Ed slammed the door and his finger twitched. You and I both know he has better aim than that. Even if he was jumpy and nervous. Get some rest Spike. I'll keep you updated buddy." Wordy says and leaves.
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When they reconvene, Wordy asks Greg about calling Sam's parents and Commander Holleran.
"I will when it's a little later. It's only 5:30." He answers. "What room is he in Eddie?"
"The receptionist said he was being closely watched in room 292. It's a post op ICU room."
"Alright, 292 it is. Let's go." Greg says and all three trek down the never-ending hallway to room 292.
They finally found it and through the window, they saw their teammate.
"He looks horrible." Wordy whispers.
Sam lays utterly motionless, with tube down his throat to breathe for him and a montage of wires connect him to the machines. The heart monitor barely reads a pulse. Greg and Ed have seen their share of injured teammates lying in hospital beds, but none as bad as Sam.
"Kid messed himself up pretty bad." Ed says quietly.
"Can I help you?" a doctor asks as he steps out of Sam's room.
"We're Sam's team. Or, what's left of it." Ed states.
"I see, I'm so sorry you have to see him like this. I remember him being here a lot when his girlfriend, I think was shot. Is that correct?"
"Yes, he practically lived here."
"It's awful to see such innocent people be so injured isn't it?"
"Yes, it is." Greg answers.
"The guilty live while the innocent die, but one day the innocent will rise in glory and the guilty watch horror as they flounder in Hell."
"I suppose you're right. We all have our judgment day." Greg answers back.
"You may go in one at a time, if you want."
"Thank you. Greg, you can go." Ed says.
Once Greg has entered the room and closed the door Ed asks, "Doc, how long does he have?"
"Well, it depends. He hasn't gotten much better but certainly not any worse. I believe he has chance. We all fall down but it's what you do to stand back up that matters the most."
"So you think he has a chance?"
"Yes, he is a strong man. I don't think he'll give up so easy. Let's take it one hour at a time though."
"Thank you. His surgeon said he only had an hour or two left."
"That's strange. I would've never said that. This man has quite a spirit about him. An hour or two? Really?" the doctor says flabbergasted.
"Yes, that's what I thought too. Sam's tougher than he looks."
"That's for sure. I had to give him a heavy sedative to get him to settle down so I could put him on the ventilator. He's going to wake up soon and he's going to be in one heck of a pain cycle."
"Didn't you give him pain killers?" Wordy asks.
"Yes, but it'll take a lot more to quell pain that extensive down. The bullet clipped the top of his heart so he will be very sore. You always are after any work or strain on your myocardium. I think if he wants to pull through, he will."
Greg steps out of the room quickly brushing the tears out of his eyes. It's so hard to see anyone like that. Pale, not moving, not breathing on your own, just nothing. You can't do anything. He could've sworn that he had seen Sam move, but it was probably just his own self moving.
"Greg?" Ed asks when his Sargent walks out of the room.
"I'll-I'll be back Eddie." He says and walks out of sight.
"Okay." Ed says hesitantly.
"Go on in Ed, I'll wait."
"Thanks Kevin." Ed says and gently pushes the door open.
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He sits down next to his young teammate. "Samo, you really didn't have to shoot yourself buddy. You really, really didn't. We could've worked through it. I would've helped you all the way. Jules is so worried about you Sam. She wants to say that she is so, so, so sorry for all that stuff she said. She didn't mean any of it Sam. She wanted me to tell you that she will marry you and that she'll always be there for you because she knows you're always there for her; even when she rejected you, you were there for her buddy. She loves you so much Sam, you just can't leave her. You've got to help her through losing your child. You've still got another 70 years to live and quite a few more people need your help from stepping off that cliff. Don't they buddy? Yeah, we've got you on our hands for a while. If you wanted to switch jobs, you didn't have to try to kill yourself Sam. You just could've asked us. Now, whether we'd say yes or not is a different situation. But we're all backing you up buddy. We all care about you and we are all going to keep you from falling off that cliff again. First, you have to wake up though."
Sam's left hand twitches, then wiggles, then everything else does too. Then he starts choking and gasping. Ed yells for the doctor outside. The young doctor comes in, calms Sam down, and then removes the tube from his throat. When the nasal cannula is in place and he can breathe again, he moans at the light as he opens his eyes.
"Ughhh, why is the sun still out? I thought it set hours ago." He groans groggily.
"That's my Sam. Keep complaining about that sun buddy. I'm just glad you're with us."
"Where else would I be? At the bar downtown? Without Jules? No way."
"Good. You won't be going to any bars for a while though. With or without Jules."
"Why?" he whines.
"Look at yourself Sam."
"What did I do?!" he whispers in horror.
"You shot yourself buddy."
"No, no, quite messing with me Ed."
"Sam, you shot yourself. Jules started yelling at you when you asked her to marry you and she said that she wished you didn't exist and you picked the lock on Greg's truck got the Glock, and came back up here to the men's restroom when I stopped you in the hall. You locked yourself in the bathroom and when I body slammed the door, the gun went off. You were almost dead when I busted the door open and found you on the floor. You'll be ok now buddy."
"I can't believe that I'd do that. Are you sure Ed?"
"Yeah Sam. You scared the crap out of me buddy. I thought you were dead."
"Huh. I still don't know why I would've done that."
"We'll figure it out some day Sam. Remember this buddy?" Ed asks and pulls out the diamond ring.
"Where'd you get it? Why don't I have it?" Sam asks reaching for the ring and weakly holds it.
"It was lying in your hand when I got to you."
"Thanks for keeping it safe for me."
"Not a problem Sam."
"Can I see Jules?"
"I don't think so Sam. She can't come to you and you certainly aren't going to go to her right now at least. Maybe when you can be in just regular ICU you can be in the same room with her, but not now."
"When's that going to be?"
"I don't know Sam. I'm not a doctor." Ed says exasperated and annoyed.
"Sorry." Sam says quietly hearing the irritation in his TL's voice.
"No, I'm sorry buddy. I shouldn't have gotten so irritated."
"I'm acting like an idiot though. You don't the answers to my questions and I just keep babbling. When can I sleep?"
"You can go to sleep right now if you want. Are you tired?"
"I feel like I've been hit by a bus. How much drugs am I…." Sam slurs but then drops off to sleep.
"Oh Sam. Sleeping on the job are we?" Ed says smiling. He stands and leaves the ex-JTF2 so he can sleep.
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"How was he?" Wordy asks.
"He woke up and was talking a little bit."
"That's good. Did he go back to sleep?"
"Yeah; sorry I must've tired him out."
"No, he'll be like that for the next days. He's on an awful lot of medication." The doctor chimes in.
"Where'd Greg go?" Ed asks.
"I don't know. He said he had to call some people." Wordy answers.
"Ok, he'll probably be back soon." Ed responds. "Let's go down the café and get some breakfast. I'll call Greg and tell him where we are."
"Sounds good to me." Wordy says.
The two officers head downstairs for coffee happy that all of their teammates are alive and going to survive this horrifying day, well, rather yesterday. Maybe things will go well after all.
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A/N: Hope you liked this! See I don't kill Sam that easily. He's a fighter that's for sure! Thanks so much for reading! Please review. Chapter 12 is coming up and it'll be the last chapter. :( Oh, well. I've got a lot more Flashpoint stories coming!
