Chapter 27 – Get to Alice

"Let me look you over."

"I need to get to another friend of mine, she's probably hurt too."

"We'll drop your girlfriend off at the hospital and follow you to pick your other friend up, if you let me take a look at you."

Kelly sighed and obeyed the paramedic. Her face was still burning and she felt like she was passing out, the world was spinning dangerously. She was sitting in the ambulance next to the stretcher where Aurore was still unconscious, both of them breathing into oxygen masks to get rid off the smoke from which Kelly was still coughing. Kelly had a blanket around her shoulders, she was shaking and trembling and felt very, very cold.

The paramedic checked her sore and dry eyes over, used baby shampoo on her skin to help with the pain, and then gave her some eye drops that would make her cry more, telling her that was the easiest way to get it out of her eyes. They cleaned the gash on her cheek and taped it, and just as they finished that they arrived to the hospital.

"Why don't you stay in here and we'll bring her in, and get back to you so we can pick your friend up?" One of the medics told Kelly, who nodded as she leaned back into the ambulance. "Good, we'll get Dr Sow too, you keep the mask on."

Kelly obeyed and watched them roll Aurore out of the ambulance, hurrying inside with her. Kelly closed her eyes for a minute as she breathed in the soft oxygen, a million thoughts rushing through her brain. She jumped slightly as she felt a hand on her shoulder, and she smiled tiredly as she saw Tara sitting next to her. The two medics were back too, one of them was already driving out from the bay and Kelly realized she must've dozed off.

"How is the hip Kelly?" Tara asked after Kelly had given them directions on where to go, and Kelly looked over at Tara weakly.

"It hurts like hell." Kelly said in a small voice, and Tara nodded as she pulled out a shot with morphine, injecting it into the bend of Kelly's arm without hearing any complaints. She then looked Kelly over, continuing where the paramedics took off, checking her blood pressure, pulse and other vital signs. She noticed Kelly was cold sweating, but her skin was on fire, and Tara raised an eyebrow as she put a thermometer under Kelly's armpit. The thermometer beeped 102 in the same time as they reached the location.

"Look for a well." Kelly said weakly as Tara and the medics nodded, getting out of the ambulance Kelly stayed seated.

Tara and the medics jumped outside, and it didn't take long before they saw a well standing not too far from where they had parked. Tara grabbed a flashlight and looked down into the well, calling out Kris' name without getting a response. But she could see blonde hair in the bottom of it, and they quickly called for back up via the radios.

A firetruck that Tara had called for drove up to the farm just a few minutes later and the rescue team quickly began making their way down into the well, sinking down a paramedic into a harness together with a backboard to get Kris onto it. They didn't know how injured she was from the fall. Kelly was sitting at the back of the ambulance, observing them as they tried to get Kris up.

Kelly put her hand towards her mouth when Kris came up with the backboard that she had been strapped onto by the paramedic with the help of the firemen. Kris was dead pale, her otherwise so pale skin had now taken a shade of light blue, her lips purple. Her face was bruised, and the second she was pulled up, the other paramedics and Tara went into action, covering her in blankets as they looked her body through. The firemen cut off the cuffs with bolt cutters, and the medical team immediately put needles into her hands and arms in the same time as they rolled her towards the ambulance. Kelly moved aside and got back inside the ambulance as they pushed Kris in.

"Will she be okay?" Kelly asked worried as she got looked over Kris, carefully brushing her damp blonde strings of hair away from Kris' face. Tara shined a penlight into Kris' eyes, without getting any type of reaction from the cold angel.

"Tara?"

"There's no way yet to tell if the cold has caused any brain damage or not, but her legs are definitely injured, she has bruising and wounds all over her body, she probably tried to get out or hurt herself falling down. Or both." Tara said as he checked her temperature. She looked at the thermometer and frowned in worry.

"Is it low?" Kelly asked, which immediately seemed like such a silly question.

Tara avoided her questions as she pulled up a stethoscope and listened to Kris' chest. She listened on her chest for what seemed forever according to Kelly. Kelly was getting nervous. She couldn't see Kris' chest moving. Was she even breathing?

Was she even alive?

The paramedic hooked her up to a portable ECG. She had a pulse. But it was so irregular and weak it made Kelly feel sick to her stomach. She stopped asking Tara questions and instead she leaned forward and closed her eyes. Kris had to be okay. She had gone to her second, if she had taken Kris first, maybe she wouldn't be this frozen down. The angst was screaming from the top of its lungs inside of Kelly and she felt like crying, but not due to the pepper spray, pain or smoke this time. She couldn't lose Kris. There was no way she would survive it.

She sat quiet the entire way to the hospital where Kris was unloaded and Tara rolled her into the hospital together with two nurses who met up with her outside. Kelly carefully limped into the waiting room slowly as she watched them roll Kris into a room. Tara had told Kelly to sit down and wait and they would come and get her to have a second look at her, to make sure she was okay, and Kelly carefully shuffled her body into the waiting room.

Kelly sighed and held onto the wall as she exhaled. Everyone was safe. Everyone was at the hospital recovering. Zeke was dead. Kelly felt like if for the first time in several days, she could exhale, she could relax. She hadn't slept more than an hour a day during 4 days since Aurore was kidnapped, and she could feel how exhausted she was. Not only was she tired, but she was hurt, she had been pepper sprayed and she had been so pumped up on adrenaline, her legs were shaking like leaves now. The black dots in front of her eyes were growing bigger, and she felt the cold sweat run down between her shoulder blades.

As she stood in the waiting room, she could see everyone else seeing her, rising to their feet they walked up to her. She had called Charlie from the ambulance and she wasn't surprised to see everyone else here. Bosley tucked an arm around her waist, but she couldn't get herself to move from her spot.

"How is Kris and Aurore?" Sabrina asked.

"I… I don't know." Kelly whispered in a weak voice. "I don't know."

"You've done a great job this week Kelly. You got everyone back safe, and saved lives of those you could've." Sandra said, putting a hand on Kelly's shoulder. "I'm proud and happy to have you as my mentor."

Kelly wasn't listening. She felt how the adrenaline that she'd been running on the last days was disappearing from her body, and she suddenly felt so very weak. Black dots were dancing in front of her eyes, colors were blurring together, the others voices were a low buzz in the background. The ground was coming closer to her face, and she felt the need to close her eyes for a second. Just for a second. What harm could that possibly bring?

Bosley held onto her as she shocked them all when her eyes rolled back and she fell to the floor. Sandra and Bosley knelt next to her as Sabrina quickly ran away to get help. Kelly was lying in Bosley's lap, pale and the sweat running down her cheeks. Bosley gently brushed her hair out of her face as he tried to get her to wake up.

"Kelly? Kelly sweetie?"

Two nurse came with a gurney and checked on her before lifting her up onto it, asking the others different questions as they took her to an exam room. The gang looked after them as they left.

What just happened?


As Kelly opened her eyes, she could see bright lights in her eyes and she tried to move away from it, turning her head to its side. She blinked a couple of times, her eyes being very, very dry and sore.

"Welcome back Miss Garrett, how are you feeling?"

Kelly shook her head slightly as she tried to comprehend who was talking to her and where she was. Focusing her eyes, she saw one of the doctors she had begun to come familiar with since she had pretty much spent half her days at the hospital the last week. The doctor leaning down over her smiled slightly as he shined the penlight into her eyes, before putting it away. Kelly's eyes darted around the room. Why was she on a gurney? How did she get here?

As if the doctor was able to read minds, he answered her questions.

"You passed out in the waiting room, probably from exhaustion from what your friends has told us. We heard you've had a rough week."

Kelly nodded slowly. Rough week? She felt like if Satan had chased her around in hell with a pitch fork towards her butt as she jumped around on rocks trying not to fall down into the bubbling lava. She had lived through better days so to speak.

"Can you follow my finger?"

Kelly followed his finger as it went to the sides, up and down. Her eyes were very sore and dry still and she had to fight to keep them focused.

"Well we've examined you and you seem okay, bruising and cuts all over, and you were covered in ash, but we've cleaned you off and taken care of everything. You've got some bruised ribs and you should not walk too much on that hip, I've been told you dislocated it earlier, so try to stay off it for a few days. You've got a nice black eye, but your eyes seem to be okay after that spray you got into them, they will be puffy, red and sore for a few days though. You've got a fever of 102 too but we've put you on ice to help you bring it down. We'll get you something to eat and drink and then you just need plenty of rest before we release you."

Kelly wasn't listening, she had two names running around in her head. "I need to be with my women."

"We're gonna move you upstairs in a few minutes and we have already made sure you'll share the room with Miss Dupont."

"How is she?"

"Drugged up, we're bringing her down but it will take a couple of more hours, she probably won't be awake until tomorrow afternoon I guess. There's really no way to tell yet, but all tests look stable, she's been underfeed and dehydrated so we're helping her with that, but we'll know more when she wakes up. She has some cracked ribs and burns on her hand and wrist, and a gash on the head that's been cleaned up, but no major injuries."

"How's Kris?"

"The woman from the well? They are working on getting her temperature up to normal, but her vitals are stabilizing. When they've stabilized her enough she will be taken into surgery due to her injured ankles, they need to be reset for her."

"But… she'll be okay?"

"She's go a long road a head, but with a lot of physical therapy she should be better." The doctor smiled.

Kelly leaned down into the pillow and closed her eyes. Everyone was safe. Everyone was safe.

Orderlies came in with a bed, and with some support Kelly managed to move over to it almost by herself. She noticed she was dressed in a hospital gown and she had an IV connected to her left hand. The orderlies rolled her up to another floor and into a room and Kelly's head immediately turned as she saw Aurore in the bed that was already in the room. She looked peaceful.

The orderlies stopped the bed and secured the wheel before leaving the room, and as soon as they were out, Kelly carefully moved out of the bed, grabbed the IV stand with her and used the IV stand as a crutch as she limped over to Aurore's bed, sitting down next to her hip, taking her hand that wasn't bandaged. Kelly sat still and just watched her, hoping that there was no brain damage from the drugs and that her Aurore would wake up soon and let her know that everything was okay.

A small knock on the door made Kelly turn her head and she smiled lightly as Sabrina, Bosley, Julie, Tiffany, Janet and Sandra walked inside.

Sandra was the first one to reach Kelly, she ran up to Kelly's side and hugged her closely. Kelly was first taken back by the sudden rush of endearment, but it didn't take long before she pulled her arms around Sandra, holding onto her close as Sandra cried in relief. Kelly held her for several minutes before everyone gathered up around her. Kelly looked over at Janet, and as she let go of Sandra, she put a hand onto Janet's shoulder.

"Are you okay Angel?"

"Yeah, I've been released. How are you doing? You look like shit."

"Tired, weak, sore. I'll be fine though."

"What happened over there Kelly?" Sabrina asked as she put her hand on Kelly's shoulder.

"I will tell you everything in the morning okay?" Kelly sighed. She was not in the mood of going through everything right now.

"Kelly, you look so tired. Why don't you lie down and get a couple of hours sleep?" Bosley suggested.

"I don't want to leave Aurore and I need to check on Kris." Kelly said determined.

"Kelly, we'll be here and with Kris all the time, checking on both of them. If anyone of them begins to wake up, we will get you immediately, okay?" Sabrina smiled, nudging Kelly's shoulder.

Kelly sighed and then nodded.

"Deal."

Bosley slipped an arm around Kelly and moved her back to her own bed, and helped her to get down in bed, pulling her cover over her body. She closed her eyes and she was more tired than she thought as sleep immediately swept over her.