Chapter 24 Safety Net

They pulled up to the hospital's main entrance and it was all Tina could to restrain Rachel to keep her from lunging out the door.

"Wait, Rachel," she said. "Let Sam find out from Mike where she is. This place is a maze."

"You two can get out here," Sam told them, opening the door for them. "Mike is going to come find you. Wait for him. I'm going to find someplace to park and then I'll find you."

Tina stepped out on the sidewalk and helped Rachel down. She was visibly shivering. Sam took off his long-sleeve shirt and slipped it over her shoulders. She immediately turned and wrapped her arms around his waist. He hugged her close to him.

"It will be okay, Rachel." he told her rubbing her arms to warm her. God, she looked so lost and afraid he just wanted to pick her up and hold her. She reluctantly turned loose of him.

"Sam," Mike called as he came out through the main entrance.

Sam gave him a half smile and grabbed his hand and bumped shoulders with him.

"She's still in the ER trauma unit," he said. "I can get you back there."

He came around and stared down at Rachel.

"I don't know if they'll let you see her," he told her gently. "But you'll be close, okay."

She nodded.

He took her hand and held it tightly.

"We're good here, brah." he told Sam. "ER Trauma, follow the signs and you'll find us."

Sam nodded and made eye contact with Tina. She nodded. He looked at Rachel. She was clinging fiercely to Mike's hand. She smiled at him and gathered his shirt around her. He smiled back and climbed behind the wheel.

Mike lead through the main lobby and started weaving up and down the hallways. As they got closer to the ER, things became chaotic. He pulled Tina and Rachel to one side so several gurneys could get by.

"There was a bad MVA – car accident," he explained. "They have a lot of chaos tonight. Stick close, I won't lose you."

They came into the main ER and people were running everywhere. There was yelling and crying and blood everywhere.

Mike kept Rachel in front of him and Tina was behind him. She kept her hand on his back so he would know she was there. He guided them past the main ER trauma area and off down the corridor to the treatment rooms. It was less frantic back here.

They stopped alongside on of the large corner bays. Mike nodded to Tina. He turned and looked at Rachel.

"Don't be scared by what you see," he told her. "She's not awake. She's not in pain. She's pretty bruised up, too."

Rachel nodded. He walked her up to the doorway so she could see inside.

She could just barely see Charlie over all the people and machines. She was bruised and swollen, but it was Charlie and she could tell she was breathing. She could hear the steady blip from the heart monitor.

One of the nurses looked up and saw them standing in the doorway. Mike nodded at her and she walked out to him.

"Hey, Mike, " she said, with a smile. "Who's this pretty lady?"

"Terry, this is Rachel," he said.

"Hi Rachel, I'll bet you'd like to get a little bit closer. Am I right?" she asked.

Rachel looked up at her and nodded.

"I think we can manage that," she told her.

She put her hands on Rachel's shoulders and guided her inside. She walked her up right next to Charlie's bed. She had a splint on her wrist.

Terri moved up behind Rachel so she could hear her.

"Let me tell you what's happening, okay?"

Rachel nodded.

"While I'm doing that," she said. "Why don't you hold her hand.

Rachel swiveled around and looked at her.

"It's okay, go ahead," she reassured her. "You won't hurt her."

Rachel hesitantly reached out and touched Charlie's hand. She felt cold.

"She probably feels cool," Terri said. "That's okay. Her body's in shock, it's pulling in all the heat to the core."

She rubbed Rachel's shoulders.

Rachel closed her fingers around Charlie's.

"She's pretty banged up, Rachel, " Terri said. "She fell a long way."

Rachel now had both hands holding onto Charlie's.

"She broke her wrist. They're going to have to set it with a pin later today, that's why she's wearing that splint. She re-broke her nose. Several broken ribs. She had some bleeding inside, not bad, but enough to watch seriously. Her liver's bruised, one kidney's bruised, spleen is iffy and may need to go. There's a little bit of fluid around her heart – they're watching that very closely. Couple of other big, bad scary things and they're watching her. closely."

"Everything sounds so bad., "Rachel said, her fingers moving over Charlie's still ones.

"It's a lot of things, Rachel. Things that could go either way. We're kind of at a standstill, just watching and waiting to what happens."

"Why isn't she awake?" she asked.

Terry sighed.

"She's pretty heavily medicated," she told her. "They're not keeping her unconscious, but it's probably not the worst thing, all things considered. The next 24-36 hours are pretty crucial. "

"What if she doesn't wake up?" she asked.

"We're not going worry about that until we need to," she said. "So you shouldn't either."

Terry rubbed her shoulders.

"I'm going to find you a blanket," she told her. "And then I want you to promise me that you'll get some hot coffee."

"Can I stay here?" Rachel asked.

"For a minute or two, sure," she said. "Then we'll find you a place you can lay down."

"I don't want to lay down," she said shaking her head.

"You need to," she told her gently. "Because from the looks of it, you're about ready to fall down. You can't be there for her unless you take care of you first."

Terry could tell her words were falling on deaf ears.

"Stay here, I'm going to find a blanket and a waiting room," Terry told her. On impulse, she nudged Rachel closer to Charlie's bedside

"Talk to her, sweetie," she said gently. "She'll know your voice."

Rachel looked at her and Terry nodded.

"I'll be right back," she told her and she left Rachel alone with Charlie.

Rachel's breath hitched in her chest and she swallowed hard.

"You're supposed to say, 'It's okay, sweet girl,' and then tell me everything's going be okay," Rachel whispered.

"This doesn't feel like it's going to be okay, Charlie," she said, shaking her head. "This feels like everything crashing down all around. I'm just so scared.

"Here we go," Terry said, and Rachel jumped back. "Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you."

Terry draped the blanket around Rachel's shoulders. Rachel felt strong hands on her arms and turned to find Sam standing behind her.

"Hey," he said softly." Impulsively, he kissed her on the side of the head, something he'd seen Charlie dozens of times. Rachel closed her eyes and let herself lean into his touch.

"It's okay, Rachel," he reassured her. "We're in a good place. She's in good hands. They'll take good care of her."

She squeezed Charlie's fingers, silently begging her to squeeze back, but there was nothing.

"We need to go for a little bit and let them do their thing," he told her. "We can come back in little while."

"I don't want to let go of her," she said.

He hugged her.

"I know you don't, I know." he said, "It's just for a little while. I promise."

She looked at him and he smiled and nodded. Reluctantly, she slowly opened her hands and backed away. It had been easier than he thought. He imagined that as time went on, it wouldn't be so easy to get her to let go.

"Come on," he said, wrapping his arm around her. "We'll just be right out here."

Tina, Mike and Sam all tried to get Rachel to go into one of the family waiting areas, but she simply refused to let Charlie out of her sight. Even if the meant her sitting on the cold, hard floor in the hallway outside her treatment room.

Mike managed to talk an orderly into bringing them three folding chairs and he even commandeered a gurney. He had no illusions that they would be allowed to camp there for long, but for right now, no one objected.

Tina bullied and coaxed Rachel up on the gurney and she actually slept fitfully for a little more than an hour. When she woke, Tina got her to eat some crackers and drink a glass of sweet hot tea. To Tina's surprise, Rachel actually settled back down and closed her eyes again.

·:·:·:·:·:·:·:·:·:·

"Will you dance with me, Rachel?"

Rachel beamed at her, a dazzling smile, and took her outstretch hand. Charlie pulled her to her feet and wrapped her in her arms. On impulse, she tucked both her hands down the back of Rachel's jeans.

Rachel laughed.

I remember that, Charlie thought quietly to herself.

I remember dancing with her that night.

I remember sliding my hands down the back of her jeans.

"That's your smoothest move, Chuckles?" Quinn sneered. "Grabbing a handful of ass every time she sits down in baggy jeans?"

"It's a really, really great ass," Charlie thought with a smile.

Her eyes, Her smile. Those legs. That glorious ass. Oh, and her laugh. And the way she will look at me up through her lashes. Or the way she pouts. The tongue thing, don't forget that she is always, always with the lip-tongue thing. Fuck, I just fall on the floor every single time. Everything about her

And she sings.

Okay, Chas, enough. I get it. I mean, really, have some goddamn dignity. Show a little restraint. You've gone from a moderately well-tempered, potentially dangerous guard dog to one of those snivelin' things that begs and whines and waves with both front paws. It's pathetic, Chuckles.

At least I didn't try to...

Didn't what? Quinn glowered hot and stepped into her.

Really? You gonna slap the shit out of me and pull my hair?

Maybe.

You don't scare me, Quinn. I've bloodied your nose before.

And I've pushed you over the edge, Chuckles, more than once. I can do it again if I want to.

Am I dead? Charlie wondered.

You must be," Quinn said, with a haughty sniff and she backed away, smoothing her pony-tail. "It's all so cheesy and just so ugh.

But if I'm dead, aren't you dead, too?

Quinn fixed her with a hateful stare.

You managed to kill me off years ago. I just make guest appearances in your life these days. Lovely mess you've managed this time, Chuckles.

And for once I think it was purely happenstance.

Quinn gave a full-throated snide laugh. Even her laugh could be condescending and just plain mean.

You didn't jump and nobody pushed you. How refreshingly ironic.

To think fate just pitched the dice and you came up snake-eyes; well and truly totally fucked.

Frayed cord, bad pinon pin, weak stop knots and you're tumbling into a twisted broken lump.

You'll get a giant fucking giggle to know Hudson thinks it was his fault. Hell, he cried. He wants to apologize.

You never used to swear, Quinn.

I never used to do a lot of things, Chuckles.

Maybe if I had you wouldn't be here and that pretty little brunette crying over you would be loving me into the night instead.

You wouldn't have ever looked twice at Rachel. You would have sneered, sicc'd your flying monkeys on her and then laughed as she cried herself to sleep over it every night.

Maybe, Quinn said wistfully. Well, probably, she admitted because she had nothing to lose by doing so.

But who knows what someone like that could have done to change me, she said, nudging Charlie hard in the ribs.

Really hard.

It hurt.

"Damn, Q.,"she muttered.

No, it really hurt and then she couldn't breath.

She really honestly couldn't breath

Not again she thought, but now she was going to drown in her own blood.

Goddamn it, Quinn.

·:·:·:·:·:·:·:·:·:·

Rachel was standing quietly again, just holding Charlie's fingers.

She was just thinking how quiet and calm everything was when Charlie suddenly started gasping for air.

Alarms went off and people came running from everywhere.

Rachel was more or less manhandled out of the room and now stood with her hands pressed up against the glass, trying to make sense of the frantic chaos in front of them.

Sam walked up behind her and put his hands on her shoulders.

"She can't breathe, Rachel." he said low into her ear. It as the same soothing gentle tone he used with Charlie after she fell.

"Why," she asked anxiously, biting on her lips and raising up on her tiptoes to try and see better.

"My guess, broken rib punctured her lung." Sam explained. "Maybe a blood clot in her lung. Maybe internal bleed in the chest won't let the lung expand."

Rachel's delicate fingers curled into the glass, like she was trying to claw her way inside.

"Can they, what can they do?" she asked, her eyes wild.

"They can put in a tube and re-inflate the lung. Suction out the blood in her chest, put in a chest tube to keep it from refilling. They have things they can do, Rachel. This is why they've been watching her. They're ready for this. It'll be okay.

Suddenly, everything was moving, literally.

Terry came out immediately found Rachel and pulled her to the side.

"Sweetie, they're going to take her up to surgery," she told her. "Watch and wait isn't doing what they wanted, so they're going to go in and fix some of this."

"Why can't she breathe?" Rachel asked, trying to see Charlie.

"Something punctured her lung," Terry said. Probably a broken rib. They've got it re-inflated and she's breathing on her own again."

About that time, they were wheeling Charlie out and starting down the hall. Terry stopped them.

"Just for a minute, darling." Terry told her. "Not much longer."

Rachel touched her hand and then leaned in and kissed her on the cheek, nuzzling her face.

"Please," she said, her voice wavering.

Terry pulled her back and nodded and they rolled the bed down the hall into the waiting elevator.

"Come on, sweetheart," Terry said to Rachel, wrapping her arm around her shoulders. "Let me put you somewhere where I can find you if I need to."

She walked them down the hall and got them set up in a family waiting room. Mike immediately went to get them drinks. Sam went out the emergency bay doors to make a phone call and Tina sat and held Rachel's hand.

"She's going to be fine, Rachel," Tina told her, squeezing her fingers. "There's no way that she's not."

Rachel just barely heard her.

Her mind was going in so many different directions she couldn't focus on any of them.

All she knew was just getting through the next few hour and getting Charlie out of surgery and awake. That's all she could deal with at the moment.

It was six agonizing hours. Terry walked in and smiled and that told Rachel everything she needed to know.

"She's good. Everything is good," Terry said, smiling and rubbing Rachel on the back. "She's in recovery and she'll probably be there for a couple of hours. Then they'll move her to a private room. They may want her in CCU, but I'm not sure right now."

Tina hugged Rachel and then went to find Sam, who was wandering the halls trying to keep from going stir crazy.

Terry sat down next to Rachel.

"You can stay here until they assign her a room and then I'll come find you. You can probably stay in her room with her if you want to."

Rachel just nodded.

True to her word, Terry came and got Rachel and moved all of them up to the main floor as soon as they had a room ready for Charlie. In another hour, they brought Charlie in and proceeded to hook her up to monitors, oxygen and IVs.

"She doesn't look any better," Rachel said, her brow knitted.

"She doesn't look any worse, either, " Tina said.

"Okay, ladies and gentlemen," Terry said. "This is where I leave you."

Rachel walked up to her and took her hand.

"Thank you, " she said. "For everything."

Terry smiled and folded Rachel into a hug. "She's a fighter, Rachel." she told her. "She'll come back. Those kind always do. Especially since she clearly has someone waiting for her."

They all spent that first night in Charlie's room.

Rachel pulled a chair next to her bed and that's where she stayed.

~~oOo~~