Disclaimer: I own nothing, depressingly, absolutely nothing is mine but the plot, now that is ALL mine! ;)
A/N:Sorry for the no replies... been running around all day, then had work and literally exhausted... don't doubt that I love you guys for reviewing, you're all fantastic!
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Getting to the hospital the commotion increased and her nerve shattered again, but then Derek's voice would break the air and she'd calm, knowing that none of these people would hurt her, and she knew she was stuck with him for this entire time.
Derek listened to the doctor shout orders around, watched as blood's were taken, as Penelope was hooked up to a new heart monitor and the doctor finally got a proper look at the damage occurred to her body.
He heard words thrown around casually, the calmness overwhelming. Broken this, too deep that, damage here, alert OR, and all he could do was hold Penelope's hand in his. And as he looked down at it he realised the mass of bruising to it and released it a little, scared that he was hurting her. He became so cautious to Penelope, worried that just his touch was causing her to scream inside and him not be able to know.
"What's happening?" Derek asked as the action started to calm and dissipate from the room.
The doctor smiled at him, "We're going to give Penelope some more pain relief, we need some X-rays, then we can access the damage to her ankle and possibly get an MRI so we can see the position of the breathing tube, make sure it's not inappropriately positioned and causing further problems. As for the wound on her chest, I want to stitch it under anaesthetic so that Penelope doesn't go through anymore unnecessary stress and trauma. Same as the one on her thigh."
"Okay, so is that happening now?"
"No," The doctor started, "It's not a straight cut job, the blood work will tell us exactly what's in her system, but from the paralysis of her entire body and respiratory system I'm pretty sure she's heavily drugged. If that's the case, I want to make sure she's able to breathe on her own and have some motion of mobility before I even anticipate any form of surgery."
"Will she be in pain at all?" Derek fretted; his main concern was Penelope being as pain free as humanly possible.
"I plan to make her as comfortable as possible, but it's never easy to tell in these predicaments. Penelope will be the only one that can determine if she's had enough or not enough."
"And what about the surgery? I mean is it necessary?"
The doctor nodded, "I want her as unmarked from this as possible, and I have a good feeling I can reduce the amount of scarring that will occur." He told Derek professionally, "And just from inspection of the swelling, bruise pattern and the way it's sitting, I'd say her ankle is quite severely broken. Which, if going on what I saw back there, means it was left untreated and I'm pretty sure she received, if any, weak pain relief."
Derek sat back, a hand going over his head, "But she is going to be okay right?"
"The prognosis is really good." He said and looked at Penelope, "I know it might not feel like it Penelope, but you'll be okay at the need of this."
Penelope had listened to the conversation, not really realising it was really her they were discussing. Her mind wasn't with her, it was on the pain and the events and what was to come and she wasn't scared of anything in the future, just what was held in the days of her capture.
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For fear of overdosing her on medication, she was left to wait out the drugs that were in her system, the doctor was waiting for her to get feeling back, to be able to breathe again before he even thought about adding any form of anaesthesia or sedatives to her bloodstream.
All they could do was give her morphine, something that he knew her body was screaming for, make Penelope comfortable and get her settled until he was satisfied she was strong enough to last any surgical procedure safely.
She knew her ankle was severely broken, making that a problem to be solved in an operation and to be safe she knew her chest was going to be sorted properly to reduce the risk of mass scarring.
But for now she could just lay stuck in her body.
Left to allow her mind to overrule as she had no choice to distract herself.
Her brain wracked over the moment she felt the knife slowly slice her skin, how it dragged down, how it got deeper and deeper. How the first slice was more to create precision, creating the starting line before the real work began. She remembered Bennett's face, so poised and satisfied with his work that he was committing.
Then it hit her.
And her panic began to rise again.
She should be dead. Theoretically she should be heartless now, quite possibly a corpse like Sophie was. Davies should be done by now, but no, her team, the one she was told would never came, came in and saved her from the worst death possible.
In the moment her panic rose she felt her lungs grip more for air. That alone would've made her panic elevate but combined with her fear of her own imminent death just took control and she felt herself struggle.
It was as though, one moment her body wasn't responding to the antidote and then it was.
She could feel her fingers and slowly she started to claw at the bedding, trying to wake Derek or Hotch, try, even though she knew it was a fail, to get someone outside the room's attention. The tears came harder as she started to gag and her mind screamed at her to just lift her arm, and pull at the tube, but her wrist was barely moving, nowhere else had gained mobility back.
Then like her saviour again, Hotch jolted awake and saw her panic, he didn't say anything just threw himself from the chair and ran to the door, waking Derek in the process.
"Oh God," Derek mumbled as his entire body woke up the moment he saw the distress Penelope was in, "Pen, I know it's hard, but you need to calm down, just relax and the doctor will be here in a moment." He tried to soothe her but he could see it was hard for her to do as every second that passed she began to take control of her own breathing more and more. The narcotics obviously letting her diaphragm free of its paralysed stated, allowing her lungs to contract and relax, fighting against the artificial breaths.
"Shh, P, it's going to be fine, you're going to be okay." Derek told her and for the first time since being taken out of that house she firmly believed she would be.
As the doctor came into the room he acknowledged Derek's calming way with Penelope and advised the nurses to not move him. He went to Penelope's side, checking her vitals and he could see twinges occurring all over her body, her fingers moving more, her left knee bending a little.
"Right Penelope, we're going to get this tube out of you as quickly as possible, but I need you to be as calm as possible. We know there's evidence damage occurred so it will be painful when we do take it out, but you're in the best possible hands here."
He saw Penelope look at him, her eyes telling him she believed him and he set to work, and he tried his hardest to get the tube out of Penelope's throat as swiftly and as pain free as he could.
All Derek could do was listen to Penelope gag and cough as the tube was taken away and listen to her crackling breathing after, she finally took short and shallow breaths. He looked up at Hotch as he stood at the end of the bed, the same worry consuming him.
"We're going to keep you on oxygen until you're more able to breathe deeply and we're going to need to take a look and see how badly damaged your trachea is, but for now I just advise you to breathe like you normally would and rest your voice." The doctor advised her, "Get some sleep would be a good idea and I'll be back to schedule the surgery."
He then left, allowing the nurses to do what they doing, checking her vitals, clearing up, making sure everything was entirely okay before leaving Penelope alone completely.
"D-D..." She managed croakily before her voice cut out on her, her head moving ever so slightly at last.
"Shh, you just rest that pretty voice." He advised her soothingly.
Penelope closed her eyes, gathered in a calming breath before opening them, "D-Derek," she managed and slowly she felt her lips pull into a smile after just the mere thought of achievement.
"It's good to finally hear you, Gorgeous but really you need to rest that beautiful voice of yours."
"W-w-w-" She managed, the damage from earlier proving more and more evident, "W-water."
Grabbing the cup of water one of the nurses had placed nearby for when Penelope was ready he removed the oxygen mask before he helped her drink some and then watched her settle, placing the mask back on and the cup down he watched her fall asleep, just as Hotch took his seat again and he took her hand felt the smallest of grips possible.
"It's going to be okay," He said to Hotch, his eyes remaining on Penelope, "I know it is."
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