Poor Hook, he really can't catch a break can he?
Oh well, I know that's how you guys like it lol
Let's carry on shall we?
Whale moved quickly around the bed, he had injected something into Hook's arm and it seemed to be working as the Pirate finally relaxed back on his pillows. He had been in so much pain it had been really hard to watch and there was still a sheen of sweat across his face but that's not what was worrying Emma right now, she couldn't look away as Whale pulled the bandaging back from the side of Hook's head and gave a hiss of concern.
"What?" she asked urgently
"Looks like the wound is infected, that's what's causing his temperature. No wonder he was in pain. As I said before it's a balancing act of allowing the drain to do it's job and not letting an in infection, I'm going to need to flush this out and start him on a more aggressive antibiotic. I had hoped that the one that we had him on would have been enough but it seems not. Hang tight, I'll be right back, I'm going to need help"
He practically ran from the room and Emma's eyes fell back on Hook's face. His cheeks were flushed and his eyes moved frantically beneath their lids, he was obviously not as asleep as she had thought he was. He looked terrible, how had this happened so quickly? Her eyes wandered back to the side of his head and she got her answer, yeah he had a hole in his skull that's how.
Whale returned minutes later with a nurse in tow, Emma stepped back to give them room to work plus she really didn't want to look. She glanced up at the clock, it was not long after one am, her Mom and Dad had finally left at ten and she was glad. Not that they had left her but that her Dad was finally going to get some sleep, he looked so tired, he had insisted that he was fine but Emma wasn't having it.
The sound of a machine starting followed by the noise of fluid being suctioned made Emma feel slightly nauseous, God, they were sucking fluid from inside his Hook's head, could this get any worse?
After the longest ten minutes of Emma's life they finally finished up, she walked back across to the bedside and took up Hook's hand. She looked at Whale as he pulled his rubber gloves from his hands and tossed them in the trash.
"We'll need to keep a close eye on him Miss Swan, I am going to get a team in to help me move his position slightly so that the fluid in his head drains better, now as you know he also has a drain in his side but at the moment his head is taking priority."
Emma was shocked, they were having to chose between injuries and prioritize which one was more likely to kill him if not dealt with?!
She stood back again as more nurses arrived, they pulled the blankets back and Emma struggled to keep looking. Hook's chest was a mass of bruising and the long white dressing that ran straight up his front caused her own chest to hitch and a sob escape her mouth. She had only seen his face until now and that was bad enough but this, this was too much. She couldn't take it it. Whale took the Pirate's left arm down from the high sling and gently brought it across his front before they all grabbed a body part and lifted as one. They tipped him slightly, moving him more into his right with pillows jammed at his back to stop him tipping back. Whale moved back to Hook's head to check the wound, he had lain an absorbent pad on Hook's pillow and now that he was tilted Emma could see why as the Doctor removed the thicker padding from the Pirate's head and replaced it with a thinner one held simply with tape.
"This will help, I know it's not pleasant to look at but we need to stop this thing now before it takes hold" Whale met her eyes and gave her a smile.
She tried to smile back but it was too hard, this was all just too much and the worst thing was that she had nobody to vent her anger at, yes it was Ursula that had caused this but she was different now, she was no longer the horrible sea witch that she had been and that was down to Hook. If she hadn't changed Emma was sure she would have done a whole lot more than punch her in the face but she had and it left no one to blame.
Twenty minutes later Emma sat by herself again with her Pirate sleeping in front of her, she looked at the heart rate monitor to check Hook's temperature again and noted that it was sitting at 103.
She tried to get comfortable again, Whale had warned her that if she didn't get some sleep he would ban her from staying through the night but how was she supposed to sleep with all this going on? She pulled the chair closer to the bed and took up her previous position with her left arm tucked under her head facing away from Hook's still very flushed face and finally she let the tears fall. The bed juddered as she sobbed onto the blankets, she just wanted a hug right now and as if the Gods were smiling down on her Hook's hand came up over her shoulder and settled on the back of her neck. She stilled instantly as his thumb rubbed soothing circles at her hairline.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to wake you." she whispered "Go back to sleep"
He gave her neck another light squeeze before his hand stilled but he left it where it was, this was better than any hug she had hoped for, this was enough right now and Emma closed her eyes. She sighed deeply and snuggled herself down into his bedding, she just hoped that tomorrow brought better news.
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David walked back into the Pirate's room the next morning, he knew that it was way too early, he had woken just after five and couldn't get back to sleep so he had pulled himself from his bedding, left Mary-Margaret a note and headed here where he found Emma laying awkwardly on the edge of Hook's bed. David's eyes moved up to the Pirate himself and he was surprised to see that they had moved him. He noticed that they had also removed a lot of the bandaging from around his head and David could clearly see a bloody stain on the pad that was on the Pirate's pillow. What had happened? He wanted to ask Emma but didn't want to wake her so he crept over to the end of the bed and picked up Hook's chart to read for himself what was going on.
"The Patient took a turn for the worse at about one in the morning, he had developed a temperature of 103 and had shown signs of discomfort, upon investigation it was found that his head wound had become infected this was consequently suctioned and flushed."
That would explain the whole "bloody pillow", David continued to read.
"It was decided to lie the patient on his right hand side to allow better drainage, this will be looked at again in twelve hours as it may be detrimental to the chest drain."
They had switched his antibiotic to another unpronounceable one too which would be more aggressive towards the infection. Great, this was the last thing that they needed.
David slotted the chart back into it's holder and quietly walked around Emma up to the top of the bed, he noticed Hook's hand resting on Emma neck and he gave a smile, even when he must be feeling like hell he still tried to bring her comfort. His eyes moved to Hook's face and he wasn't surprised when he saw him looking very flushed and sweaty. David flicked his eyes up to the heart rate monitor and noted that Hook's temperature was still sat at 103, no wonder he was sweating.
He made a decision and quickly walked over to the small cabinet that he had got his bedding from the day before and pulled the door open. He grabbed two of the wash cloths that he had seen previously and headed into the bathroom. He rinsed them under the cold water for a few minutes, rung them out then headed back into the other room. He placed one on the side of Hook's neck and used the other one to slowly wipe his face first then down his front being careful of all the tubes, wires and wounds.
Hook gave a shiver at the motion and David looked at his face to see him blink his eyes open. He frowned slightly and his hand tried to come up to his mouth but David put a stop to that.
"Leave it alone, you have enough going on without pulling that thing out"
Hook's hand froze instantly, he furrowed his brow further, a look of total confusion across his features. David took Hook's hand in his and waited on him writing his obvious question but it seemed that he was just too out of it as his eyes slid shut again and he fell back into sleep.
David sighed, it was going to be a long day.
Whale came in about an hour later and gave a startled look at David.
"You're keen" he simply stated.
"Yeah well, I slept most of yesterday so guess who woke up at silly o'clock?" he gave a shrug and moved out of the way, he had grabbed another chair from the corridor and had been sitting by Emma's side.
"She doesn't look comfortable" Whale noted as he walked past Emma "I'll see if I can arrange for a better chair to be brought in, I'm just glad that's she's getting any sleep at all after the incident last night . I had to threaten her. I told her that I would ban her from this room after dark if she didn't get some sleep, seems like my threat worked."
Whale must have assumed that Emma had called him to fill him in about last night and he wasn't about to admit to reading the Pirate's chart so he just nodded.
"Me too, I'm still worried about her Doc"
"I can only imagine, well if I can help with the chair I will"
"Thanks"
"Now let's see how our patient is doing" Whale seemed to pause for a second as he took note of the now warming wash cloth.
"Sorry, that was me, I just thought that maybe I could, you know, cool him down a bit" David got quite flustered and didn't even know why.
"It's a good idea" Whale raised an eyebrow "He's lucky to have people that care"
Whale went back to checking the Pirate and David watched as he slowly moved Hook's head so that he could look at the drainage point.
"This looks much better, we'll get him moved onto his back again shortly" he mused before pulling back the blankets to check on his chest drain.
He seemed happy enough with that too then to David's horror he pulled back the dressing that covered most of the Pirate's front to reveal a huge ugly stitched wound that ran from just below his throat to his naval. David was glad that he hadn't eaten anything as a wave of nausea washed over him at the sight.
"Sorry, should maybe have warned you first" Whale cringed when he looked up to see David turning his back to him.
"Yeah, might have been nice" he grit back. "Was it really necessary to cut him open like that?"
"Unfortunately yes, a flail chest if untreated is VERY dangerous, we had to move quickly. Better to have a scar than be buried six feet under the ground, well that's my philosophy anyway."
Whale opened a drawer on the treatment trolley in the corner of the room and took out a fresh dressing before sticking it back to the pirate's front. He then took up Hook's left arm, he fished in his pocket and came out with a large set of scissors before glancing up at David again.
"This might be messy" he said with a shrug
"I'll be fine, after that last one nothing can be worse"
David was wrong, this was just as bad. Whale pulled back the thick bandaging to reveal Hook's very bruised and bloodied left arm but that wasn't the worst part. There was metalwork sticking straight through his skin, it was obviously constructed to hold the broken bones together but David had never seen anything like it in his life. There were nine metal rods all poking up in the air, a thick bar ran down the center connecting them all together and a scar ran the length of his arm with far too many sutures in it for David to count. The metal all came out the top side of the arm leaving the bottom bit free to rest on the bed and David watched as Whale carefully cleaned around all the little spikes that disappeared beneath Hook's skin.
"This is looking good" Whale mumbled then looked at David again "It'll be covered back up for a few more days until the wound has sealed then the dressing can come off. The metal will need to stay in for about six weeks then we'll remove the bits that are sticking up, they literally just unscrew from the plates that we have attached to the bones in his arm but he will need a local anesthetic, it can be quite uncomfortable."
David was exhausted and all he had done was stand and watch. Whale finished up and excused himself leaving David to contemplate waking his Daughter before she did permanent damage to her spine but he needn't have bothered as seconds later she gave a hiss of pain as she woke then slowly sat herself up rotating her left shoulder in it's socket a few times.
"Morning" David whispered not wanting to frighten her.
She gave a slight jump but answered anyway.
"Morning, what time is it?"
"8:20" was all he replied
"God Dad, what time did you get up"
"Don't ask" he replied then added "Whale came by a while ago"
"Yeah... and?" Emma looked hopefully at him, obviously wanting good news.
"He's happy with him, he said that his head is looking much better and that they'll move him on to his back soon. He checked his chest drain, the wound on his front and his arm and seemed to be happy with all of them"
Emma relaxed a bit on her chair "I was so worried Dad, he went downhill so quickly, I didn't know what to do"
"You should have called me, I would have been here"
"I know and that's why I didn't, you needed to sleep."
"Yeah well, what I needed and what I got were two different things" He gave her a wry smile
Emma pulled herself from her chair and groaned loudly as she stretched but the sling holding her broken hand seemed to hinder her. He gave a chuckle as she pulled it off and tossed it to the side.
"Just try and moan at me Whale and I'll show you how hard this cast is when I use it as a club against your head" she mumbled as she made her way to the bathroom.
David just watched as she disappeared from sight, she was her Mother's Daughter that was for sure. A tug on his shirt tail had him turning around to find Hook holding out his hand again. David stepped forward and took it, keen to see if he would try and talk to him and when his finger started to move across his palm he smiled widely until the words were done.
"Sick Pirate trying to sleep here, be quiet"
David watched as the Pirate raised an eyebrow at him then gave a tired lopsided smile.
"I'll leave you to tell Emma that, good luck with that one" he replied with a laugh
"HOOK" Emma's voice bellowed across the room making the Pirate jump slightly on the bed
David watched as Emma rushed over, she immediately started fussing over Hook's bedding and chattered away like there was no tomorrow. David hadn't noticed that Hook still had a hold of his hand but he had to hold back a burst of laughter when the Pirate's finger suddenly moved on his palm again.
"Save me"