THE MIND THIEVES
Chapter
12
The Holiday
"He
who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a
monster." - Friedrich
Nietzsche
She
looked over to her patient when she heard a long ragged exhale. She
immediately saw that there was something wrong. His hands were
clenched into fists and his eyes were huge and terrified. She crossed
the room to him.
"Snr Hotchner?" she said, reaching for his wrist to take a radial pulse. He didn't respond to her. "Aaron, Look to me!"
Very slowly he turned his face to her, and looked deep into her eyes.
He tilted his head and whispered, "Burning...help me..." and his eyes rolled up and his fists relaxed.
His pulse stopped abruptly.
Oh no!
She punched an alarm on the wall and ran to the door. Grabbing the crash trolley from opposite Aaron's room, she unpacked it next to Hotch's bed, and waited for the doctor to arrive. Soon the little room was full, and the doctor pulled Hotch's pyjama jacket off his chest. The wound there was an angry red and infected. He made a mental note to prescribe antibiotics. It didn't enter his mind that the man may never need them.
He called for the paddles to be charged, and he held them onto either side of Aaron's chest.
Aaron arched his back and jumped on the table as the current passed through his heart. There was no response, so he called for a higher charge. This time his heart thrashed back reluctantly to life. He watched the tears run from the corners of his eyes onto the pillow. He thought the man was safe for now, but whatever psychological horror had hold of him was giving him a good fight. He returned the crash cart back to its designated place, but even as he did so he thought he would be using it again on this man. He ordered that Snr Hotchner be moved to intensive care. He thought this man had a fight on his hands.
As he sadly walked away, he could hear the phone ringing at the nurses station.
-0-0-0-
"No one is answering it." Emily said in frustration. She was calling from the wrecked remains of the crashed ambulance. Reid looked at the clotted pool of deep red on the 'floor'.
"That was Dave" she said. "He was rushed off. Was it you who called the Emergency Services?"
Reid nodded.
"You may have saved his life. He had bad injuries. But I don't know if he made it."
Reid changed the frequency on the channel selector, and called a taxi firm.
"They are sending a taxi straight out."
"I thought you couldn't speak Italian." She said in astonishment.
"I couldn't, but I had time to read the phrase book at the airport when you were all sick of rainfall statistics." He said wryly.
Emily smiled briefly. "Well, I'm glad you did. Can you get the frequency back, I need to call the hospital about Aaron, and check up on Dave. He readjusted the frequency dial and gave Emily the handset. This time the phone was picked up almost straight away. She passed the hand set to Spencer.
"Hello, My name is Doctor Reid. I am calling to inform you that Snr Hotchner is in danger and please watch him." Spencer said in his best phrase book Italian. What ever was said back was too fast for him to follow. He pressed the 'end call' button and dropped the hand set.
"I have no idea if he understood what I said, but now they know the danger Aaron is in.
"They won't be able to stop it will they?"
Reid shook his head. "But at least they will be prepared."
"The taxi will be here soon." Emily said.
They climbed out of the cab and waited in the road. Flickering from the burning could be seen through the trees. Every few minutes there was a roar as another plant went up in flames. The hiss of water on the fire and the smell of burnt wet vegetation were making Emily feel sick.
When the taxi arrived they both got into the back and didn't speak while they were driven to the hospital. Emily was desperate to see Aaron, she wanted to hold him and help him to see, as Spencer had done, that the flames were not real.
She was also scared for David. How awful that he had paid for this holiday for them, only to see his friends lives once again being in danger. And now, he was paying for his generosity with his own life. She couldn't bear the thought of him losing his life. When the taxi arrived at the hospital she paid the driver and the two of them ran through the doors.
-0-0-0-
The Intensive care unit was quiet except for some music playing at the nurses station. 'Dancing Queen' seemed inappropriate, but some how comforting to the two agents that walked the corridor to the main ward.
Aaron was conscious and staring at the ceiling. Tears were streaming silently from his eyes as a machine breathed for him. Electrodes on his chest measured his heart beat, and his wrists were strapped to boards where IV tubes fed him antibiotics, glucose and saline. He didn't move when they came close.
"Aaron, can you see me?" Spencer held his hand and with the other he gently turned his face towards him. Aaron slowly nodded his head.
"The things are gone now. They can't hurt you any more."
Aaron turned his head away. He was burned badly. He had felt his limbs burn, he has heard his flesh crackle and his blood hiss. He had smelled the unmistakable odour of burned flesh. He didn't want to live like this. He wanted to die.
Surely you can see why I want to be left to die...
He saw only a charred living corpse – he couldn't live like this. He couldn't be a father to Jacky. He could do nothing except be a burden, and it was a burden he would not allow anyone else to carry for him.
Tears flowed afresh when he remembered the car he had bought his little boy. Now he would never see him ride it. He would not see his little boy again. He wanted to cry with the grief he felt, but he couldn't make a sound.
He looked at Spencer again, and slowly blinked his eyes, and turned away. The blackened skin of his throat cracked painfully as he moved his head. He wanted to scream in agony and distress. Why didn't they give him pain killers? Most of his body didn't hurt, third degree burns destroyed the nerves that feel pain - but the parts that did feel ... all he could do was cry.
Emily took his other hand. Aaron flinched as she squeezed the blackened bones, but in her hand was the whole flesh of a healthy man.
"Aaron," she said softly, "You are not burnt. Your mind is telling you that you are, but I promise you aren't. The hand that I am holding is perfect." She lifted his hand to her face and tenderly kissed his fingertips. "Can you feel that?" She stroked her face with the back of his hand. "And that? Aaron, your skin is whole. It's a trick. You are not burnt. Open your eyes, Sweetheart, and see."
Wondering for the first time how he could move his eyelids and see when the rest of his face was a charred mess, he looked up to where Emily was fondly caressing his hand. He blinked, as if to wash away the lie that he was feeling, and looked again. She wouldn't lie to him, he knew.
"It's true, Aaron." Spencer said. "It happened to me too. You're ok."
Emily leaned down and kissed him. "Your skin is not burnt, Aaron."
Aaron held his hands in front of his eyes and stared in shock. Emily wouldn't lie to him...
A doctor approached and asked them to leave. Snr Hotchner needed to sleep.
"We have to go, Sweetheart." Emily kissed him on the cheek.
"We'll call tomorrow." Spencer added, and they turned back down the corridor.
"I need to see David Rossi." Emily said.
The doctor nodded, and pointed out the room he was in. Spencer translated the notice on the door.
"He's being barrier nursed because of the danger of infection." he said. They took overalls, gloves and shoe covers off the shelf by the door, and entered the room. Dave was hooked up to a heart monitor and respirator. His eyes were taped shut and his chest was uncovered. A gauze bandage covered the ragged wound in his chest, and his skin was deathly pale.
All he wanted was for his friends to have a break, see some beautiful things and laugh and heal. Now he was so seriously hurt, he was not expected to make it. It was nothing short of a miracle that he had made it this far, but it was only the first step on a long road.
"Dave, it's Emily ." she said, taking his hand. "We're here here for you. Keep fighting... don't give up."
-0-0-0-
Keep fighting, don't give up... I am so tired, and it hurts so much. Death is calling me, beckoning to me, glowing softly in a velvet blackness that wants to wrap around me. Death promises no pain, no fear... Emily is calling me one way to pain and fear, death calls me another way.
Then I think of the loved ones I will lose if I go towards death – loved ones who are greater than any pain or fear... I need to stay... I must fight on...
"Emily... Spencer... " he whispered. "Thank you..."
-0-0-0-
Before they left, they looked in on Aaron. He was asleep, his head on one side, eyes closed and breathing smoothly and deeply. Spencer heard Emily's shuddering sigh. He took her arm and led her to one side.
"Let's get a coffee, Emily. I need some caffeine and sugar."
As they turned to leave, the doctor stopped them. He spoke to Spencer, who in turn smiled broadly at him and said something back. The doctor touched his arm, and went into the office.
"What did he say?" Emily asked.
"He wanted to know what we had said to Snr Hotchner, because this is the first time he has slept since being here. I told him we had told him that he was ok and was going to get better.
Emily smiled happily, and they left the ward.
-0-0-0-
EPILOGUE
It was a month later that Dave was allowed to leave the hospital. The hotel had been able to extend their stay indefinitely. Aaron had come out two weeks before, once the shock had worn off, and the Valium reduced to a low dose. The three of them were sitting on the terrace drinking beer and coke when Dave came and sat with them.
"We didn't know you were coming home today!" Emily leaped up and hugged him.
He gripped Aaron's shoulder. "I managed to persuade the docs that I'm better." He grinned, putting his arm around Reid's shoulders. "Who wants a drink?"
"My round!" Aaron said and wheeled himself to the bar.
"I've seen the hotel manager, and I've booked us a two week extension." Dave said, sitting between Emily and Spencer. "If you want to stay, that is."
"That's great!" Reid said, unfolding a newspaper that he had on his lap. "I was just looking at this..."
A hand reached over his shoulder and snatched the paper from him, screwed it up dramatically into a little ball and threw it into the corner.
"Two weeks without any newspapers I think!" Aaron said as he put a tray of drinks on the table.
"Good idea!" Emily said, reaching for Aaron's hand. "Time to get you walking again." She smiled and kissed him softly.
END
