He carried her swiftly over to the clinic, praying that they would be able to help. The doctors in the clinic were busy tending to various casualties from the conflict. He stopped a young woman who seemed to be in charge of triaging the wounded and had her take a look at Doc.
She glanced up at him in irritation when he interrupted her, then did a double-take at Doc.
"Never thought I'd see her again. What happened?", she asked as she nodded at him to lay her down on a nearby gurney.
"Dunno, found her like this. She was supposed to capture Warren, but I think she got caught in a trap. Looks like he drugged her or somethin', taped her eyes shut for some reason." Francis gasped out, as he frowned down at her. "Looks like she's barely breathin'. She's gonna be ok, right?"
The woman took out a stethoscope and carefully listened, then rolled her on her side and listened at her back. She ripped the tape off her eyelids, flashing a pen light in her eyes. Francis looked on anxiously, the dull, blank stare from Doc's eyes was really disconcerting, she looked dead already. The woman grabbed a nearby orderly, instructing them to take her into the surgery.
"What's goin' on? What's wrong, is she gonna be ok?", he yelled as they grabbed the gurney and whisked her down the hall. The woman hurried after, ignoring Francis, who followed behind. She hurriedly gowned up and put gloves on, and went in. Francis followed, she stopped him, frowning, "If you're gonna be in here, put a mask on at least." She tossed one to him and he slid it on, finding that goatees and masks didn't really work all that well together.
"She's overdosed on something, not sure what. She's going to need a some transfusions, and she somehow got a collapsed lung out of the deal. She's having trouble getting enough oxygen right now and her heart beat is glacial, almost nonexistent. We're gonna have to intubate her, see if we can reinflate the lung, and drain the fluid around the lungs. The transfusion should help with the overdose, we'll just have to see. Don't worry, we'll do our best", she said as she saw his frantically worried expression. "You don't need to be here, unless you have the same bloodtype, O negative. We've got some, but we need more. Otherwise, get out of here and go have somebody take that bullet out of your shoulder."
Francis smiled grimly, "I'm O negative, too. So you can kill two birds with one stone, take the bullet out and do a transfusion at the same time."
The woman turned to a young assistant busy prepping Doc for the surgery, "Prep him and set him up for the transfusion, get somebody in here to grab that bullet out." She turned back to him, "It's going to hurt, I can't give you anything for it until the transfusion is done, since I don't know what they used on her. You can wait to have the bullet taken out, do it under anesthesia then. "
He shook his head, "I'm not doing anesthesia no matter what, so just take it out." He'd had enough with being drugged insensible lately, and there was no way he was going to do that when he needed to keep an eye on Doc.
She nodded and turned her attention back to Doc. He watched as they intubated her, a machine forcing air into her lungs, and started the transfusion with several units of blood, before switching over to using Francis as a live donor. They cut a small slit in the chest wall and inserted a tube, which erupted with a frightening amount of frothy blood. Francis couldn't watch any more, he turned away and shut his eyes, hoping when he next looked she would be doing a whole lot better.
Suddenly he heard a flurry of activity, he looked over to see that they had started CPR, one woman darted away and returned with a defibrillator. He looked on, his face turning white, as they shocked her repeatedly, finally getting a heart beat back. Shortly after that, they finished up with the transfusion just as they finished up pulling the bullet out of his shoulder. He barely even noticed, he was intent on watching Doc and making sure she was hanging in there. They took her off to a room and he got up and followed, in spite of the protests of the doctor who had just removed the bullet. He plunked himself down in a chair and watched over her, far beyond exhausted from the gunshot wound and the units of blood he gave. He had almost dozed off when somebody grabbed onto him, hugging him tightly. He opened his eyes to see Zoey hugging him and Louis standing behind her, grinning.
"Oh my god, Francis! I thought you might have been killed when I couldn't find you out there! Ellis said you were leading the work crew chain gang against the colonists! Finally somebody said they thought you were over here…" Zoey said as she stood back up. "Thanks for coming back for us, I was so scared…"
"Yeah, thanks man. I know you could have easily just left us behind, thanks for not forgetting us." Louis said as he put his hand on Francis' good shoulder and gave it a squeeze.
Zoey turned to look at Doc with concern, "What happened? Did she get shot?"
Francis shook his head, "No, it looks like they gave her some drug and overdosed her, accidentally or on purpose, I don't know. She ended up with a collapsed lung, too. Speaking of the asshats who were running this place, Louis, can you help with the organizing of the colonists for now? They all seem to think I'm in charge of this little revolt, but they really need somebody intelligent and fair-minded to help them reorganize, and you fit the bill perfectly. And Zoey, I could use a big favor. Could you please watch Doc for me for a while? I'm exhausted, but I want somebody to keep an eye on her."
Zoey and Louis readily agreed to help. He went out and introduced Louis to the men who had helped him take over the compound, they were more than willing to have his help with the aftermath of the take over. He returned to Doc's room and fell instantly asleep on a cot they brought in for him, while Zoey took over the chair. He woke much later, Zoey was still sitting in the chair, idly flipping through a magazine. She smiled at him when she saw he was awake.
"Hey, feeling better now?" she asked, as she stood and stretched.
"Yeah, a bit. Thanks for staying to watch, any changes?" he replied, getting up and stretching out, too.
"No, not really. I haven't seen her move at all yet", she said, shaking her head sadly. "The doctor and nurses have been by, they seem very nice and I think they're doing the best they can."
"Yeah, they seem like decent people", he said as he went over to Doc, lightly stroking her cheek and placing his big hand on her shoulder. Her skin felt a bit cool to him, so he grabbed another blanket and layered it on. "Look, I need to go do something, can you stay for a couple more hours?"
"Sure, I've got all the time in the world. I'm just thrilled to be out of the unlit cell they locked me in for days. Take as much time as you need", she answered, settling back down.
Francis went out to find Louis and collect a shotgun and a couple of men to go with him. They grabbed a truck and drove down to the work camp to pick up the camp guards and the men they had left with them, then swung by the old dilapidated house. Argos was waiting there, acting a bit put out that he'd been left behind, tied to the porch with some twine. Argos greeted him with a massive head butt to express his displeasure, nearly knocking Francis on his ass. He got Argos piled in the cab with him and they headed on back to the colony. He introduced Argos to Louis, asking him to feed and look after him for a little while, until he got Doc squared away.
He headed back to the clinic to stay with Doc. Zoey looked up in relief as he came in.
"Hey, glad you're back. There's been some excitement here", she said, nodding toward Doc. Francis looked over, he saw that they'd placed restraints on her.
"What the hell? She hates that stuff! Why'd they do that?" Francis asked with a frown.
"They had to, she started thrashing around and trying to pull the tubes out, nearly ripped herself out of everything. They think it's probably just an effect of the drug overdose. It was all they could do to keep her down though. Did you know she's pregnant? The doctors think the baby is still ok", she said.
Francis nodded, he'd been afraid to even ask them last night. "Well, at least that's some good news", he said with a frown. "Why don't you head off and get some sleep? I'll be right here if anybody needs me." He wearily sat himself down in the chair.
"OK, dude. I think you should go ahead and get some more sleep, though, you still look like hell", Zoey said as she patted him on the shoulder. "She's not going anywhere, so you might as well catch up on some sleep while you're waiting."
He shook his head, "No, if she does wake up, she's gonna go ballistic. I don't wanna miss that." He gave her a faint smile.
"All right. I'll be back in a bit to spell ya", she said as she headed out the door.
Not long after that, the doctor that did the surgery stopped by to check on her. "Hey, you're back. How's the shoulder feeling?" she asked him.
He shrugged, "It's fine, not bothering me much. What's going on with her and the thrashing? Shouldn't she be waking up soon?"
She shook her head, as she got out her stethoscope. "I wish I knew. It would be nice to know what the hell they injected her with. Some sort of heavy duty anesthetic, propofol or sodium thiopental maybe. It was probably an accidental overdose, she looks heavier in the loose clothes than she really is and she was in a pretty debilitated condition, too." She listened to the chest and rolled her slightly to listen at the back.
"What about the baby? This can't be good…" He cast a worried frown as he looked over Doc's still body.
She shrugged, "It's probably her liver and kidneys that took the biggest hit on that, I think the baby still seems fine on ultrasound. I think we've got the lung reinflated, I'm going to pull the tubes for the ventilator, see how she does on her own. You might want to take a break while I do this…", she gestured to the door.
He shook his head, "Nah, seen it before, go ahead." He just turned away as she did it, shuddering as he thought about the times that he'd experienced that. He looked back, it was finished, the doctor listened with the stethoscope for a while, gave him the thumbs up sign and headed off.
He leaned over and gave Doc a kiss on the forehead as he rubbed his hand across her head, then sank back down in the chair. After a while, he nodded off, slumping down in the chair. He woke to the sound of somebody swearing a blue streak, some of it in a foreign language, it took him a few seconds to realize it was Doc, her voice sounded really hoarse. He jumped up to see her struggling against the restraints, bicep muscles straining to the tearing point.
"Whoa, whoa…relax, already! You're ok, settle down!", he tried to soothe her, as he planted a hand on her chest to hold her down.
She looked up at him and fell back against the pillow, gasping, "Francis, thank god! I thought that creep Warren still had me. What the hell is with the restraints?! Is it too fucking much to ask not to be tied hand and foot whenever I regain consciousness?! Dammit!" She yanked hard at the restraints and practically bounced off the pillows in frustration.
"Well, they put them on because you were convulsing and thrashing and trying to tear the tubes out. I'll get them off, just give me a second", he replied as he worked on freeing her. The docs would probably be pissed at him, but they didn't know how crazy this would make her. He finished unbuckling her, "There ya go. How ya feelin' otherwise?" he asked her.
"Like I've been tased and then doped to the gills. Shit, I forgot how much tasing hurts! How long have I been lying here like this? My back hurts like hell." She shifted uncomfortably and rubbed her freed limbs.
"That piece of shit tased you?! I'll kill that bastard!" Francis' face flushed with anger. Warren was going to get a very unpleasant visit from him in the holding cells very soon. Bad enough they had almost killed her with a drug overdose, they tased her first? Jesus, what kind of man tases then drugs a pregnant woman?
"Yeah…get in line. I think I should have the first shot at him. So, I guess the plan kind of worked? Warren and company are out of business and there's a new regime in charge?" She tried to shift over to her side, but was too weak to manage it.
"Yep, worked like a charm. You diverted Warren long enough so that he didn't have a chance to organize any resistance. The majority of the colonists didn't want anything to do with his crap anyway, a lot of them had friends and relatives in his chain gangs. It hasn't taken much convincing to get them on our side. Louis is trying to get them reorganized and weed out any Warren followers. Zoey is fine, she was over here keeping you company for a while", he said as he leaned over her.
"Hmmm, well at least something went according to plan. When can I get out of here, anyway?" she asked as she inspected the chest drain with a frown. "I hate hospitals."
Francis grinned, he knew the feeling. "Probably pretty soon, now that you're finally awake. They'll need to take the drain out and close it, but that should be pretty straight forward."
She shifted around, grimacing in pain. "I've got to shift off my back, it's killing me. Can you give me a hand?" She held her hand out for him to grasp.
"Sure, here. Take it slow…" he clasped hands with her to help her over. She moved to her side, gritting her teeth at the pain.
"Well, this ain't much better. It feels like I fractured it again. This is really gonna be fun without pain meds." She sighed in frustration. She looked over at him, noticing for the first time that he had some dressings on his shoulder under the vest. "What happened to your shoulder? You OK?"
He glanced over at his shoulder, "Oh, that. It's nothing, just a little gunshot wound. All taken care of."
She reached out and laid her hand over his and smiled, "Well, join the shot in the shoulder club, glad you're ok. Why don't you lie down and get some sleep? You look pretty wiped out. I'm fine here, you don't have to hover over me like some giant, tattooed mother hen." She grinned at him and gave him a gentle thump on the chest.
He leaned over and gently hugged her to him and kissed her, then pressed his forehead against hers as he said, "You know, you scared me again. You gotta stop doing that, you're gonna give me a damn heart attack. I love you, you know."
She kissed him back, "I love you, too. Now get some rest before you keel over and crush some poor nurse or something. I'm gonna just chill here and try to nap, too. Just don't let them tie me up again and I promise to be relatively good."
He gave her another kiss and lay down on the cot, relieved that she seemed to be doing ok. He was snoring away in minutes.
She lay back, wincing, the pain was making her head spin. She didn't want Francis to know how much pain she was in, he would just worry and there was nothing anybody could do about it anyway. But she knew one thing for sure, she wouldn't be going anywhere for quite a while. She doubted that she would even be able to walk right now. That was definitely going to screw up the rest of their plan. Grimacing in pain and frustration, she stared at the walls until she finally fell back into a troubled sleep.
Francis awoke, feeling a bit better but starving. For a minute he wasn't even sure where he was, but then he spotted Zoey asleep in the chair next to Doc's bed and it all came back. He got up stretching, his fingers brushing the ceiling tiles. He went over to check on Doc, who was fast asleep. The doctor must have been in at some point, it looked like they had removed the drain and stitched it shut, there was a bandage there instead of the drain. He must have been sleeping hard to sleep through that whole thing.
He left to go find Louis and Argos and see how everything was going in the post-Warren colony and find something to eat. He found Louis at the command center he had established on the ground floor of Warren's old house. Argos was sleeping on a nearby couch, but he bounded up to greet Francis and bash him in the hip with his head. He gave Francis a big grin as he gave him another hearty head bash and wagged his tail, obviously happy to see him. Francis grinned and knelt down to rub and scratch him, there was something infectious about the big dog's happy and carefree attitude.
"Hey Louis, how's it goin'?" Francis asked as he straightened up. "Any problems?"
Louis smiled, "Nope, everything is going really smooth. Almost everyone here is thrilled to be out from under Warren and his goons. There was minimal damage from the fires, and now we're just organizing ourselves and figuring out who wants to do what and when. We've already converted the dining hall into a more cafeteria style place that's open all day and part of the night. Coach and Rochelle are heading that up. Everyone is moving around to find rooms that will accommodate families and couples. I was just going to go check up on you and see whether you would agree to take charge of the security for the colony. I think you would be best suited for that, you've already got a good following of loyal men from the work camp."
Francis gave him a lop-sided grin, "You mean you want me to be the head cop? Your kiddin' right?"
Louis grinned right back at him. "Nope, not kidding. You're perfect for the job. You understand how to set up security and let's face it, you're intimidating as hell. Nobody is going to want to mess with you, you won't have any trouble keeping people in line. So what do you say?"
Francis pondered it for a little while. "All right, but just for now. I don't really think I'm cut out for enforcing rules. I'm more into breakin' 'em than makin' 'em."
Louis just smiled and walked over, he shook Francis' hand as he said, "Welcome aboard, Chief." He clapped Francis on the shoulder, "Go get something to eat and when you're ready, just come back and we can start organizing the security force."
Francis had a quick meal at the dining hall, then grabbed some food to bring back with him to the clinic. He returned to the room to find Doc glowering in bed, casting frowns at Zoey, who stood blocking the door, arms crossed, frowning right back.
"You're just in time. Miss Stubborn here wants to leave, against the doctor's orders. Figured I should keep her here until you had a chance to discuss it. Good freakin' luck, dude, you're gonna need it!" Zoey said as she beat a hasty retreat from the room.
Francis set the food down and approached her. "So, are you hungry? I brought over some food, it's not bad. Not as good as what I can make, but not bad."
She frowned back at him, "No, not hungry. I just want to leave. I'm tired of being used as a combination pin cushion-guinea pig. If it's not Warren's goons pumping me full of dope, it's these guys. They knocked me out again, didn't even talk to me about it first. Woke up with a bunch of stitches and a massive headache. This is getting old fast. They could have just used a damned local instead."
"All right, let me see what I can do about busting you out of here. Will you please eat something, while I go work this out?" He asked as he leaned against the bed rail.
"Fine, just heave it over here. As long as you promise to get me the hell out of here", she said with resignation. He handed the food over to her and kissed her on the forehead.
"Don't worry, I'm on it. Just give me a few minutes to talk with them and I'll be right back" he replied.
He went out into the hall to see whether he could find her doctor and find out what was going on. He finally located her near a nurse's station and went over to talk with her.
"Hey, tattooed bullet-in-the-shoulder guy. How's it going?" she glanced up at him as she scribbled on a chart.
"Can't complain. I was wonderin' whether Doc is good to go, she wants to get out of here." He crossed his arms over his chest as he prepared himself for an argument.
"Yeah, I don't think so. She's in pretty bad shape. She needs IV antibiotics and I'm pretty sure she's fractured her back or slipped a disc, so she should be on pain meds but she's refusing them. If she continues to refuse to eat, we're going to need to tranquilize her and put in a gastric tube," She shook her head with a frown.
"Um, yeah...that would be a big mistake, you'll just make her rabidly uncooperative. I can get her to eat, and she doesn't have to be here for the IV, she can do that anywhere. If she's refusing pain meds, it's because of the pregnancy. That should be her choice, right? Look, why don't I get her out of here and we can just see how she does? She'll either be fine or wind up back here, and you do what you have to do." Francis tried to convince her.
She frowned at him and put the paperwork down, sighing. "All right, we can try it your way. But only because we have limited medical supplies and I don't want to have to use them unless absolutely necessary. You better make it clear to her that if she doesn't improve, she will end up back here tranquilized and with a gastric tube. We've got plenty of both and I'm not afraid to use them. Got it?"
"Yep, crystal. Thanks, doc!" Francis grinned at her and set off to free Doc.
He returned to the room with a big smile, "You're free, darlin'! Come on, let's get you out of here before they change their minds." He took the IV down and handed it to her, then gently scooped her out of the bed. She put her arm around his neck and let him carry her out. He took her over to the command center and told Louis they would take one of the bedrooms upstairs, that way they would be nearby if needed. That was fine with Louis, Zoey had already taken one of the other rooms upstairs and it was fine with him to have them all nearby.
Francis brought her upstairs and laid her down on a bed and hung the IV up for her. "So what's the deal with your back?" he asked her.
She grimaced as she shifted on the bed. "It's OK. I think it was already strained and the tasing just aggravated the old fracture. It was barely holding together as it was, the muscle contractions probably destabilized it. It should be ok in a while. I can tell you one thing, though. I'm not going to be able to go anywhere or do much of anything for weeks, maybe months. I think we're going to have to consider that we have to stay here at least until the baby is born. That's not what we planned, but I think there aren't any other options right now. Unless you feel like carrying me around the whole way."
Francis frowned in thought for a little while. "No thanks, I'll pass on that, as fun as it sounds. I think it'll be fine to stay here for a while. This place will need help getting back on its feet, it's got a decent clinic with real doctors and is the perfect place for you to be when you have the baby. I don't have a problem with staying here. There aren't very many zombies around here yet, maybe we can clear them out and keep them away somehow. This is the safest place we've come to, so far, anyway."
She nodded, "You know, I've been thinking about the virus, and I think there may be some work I could do here that might be helpful. Can you see if you can find my iPad? As long as I'm stuck here, I may as well have something to work on. Otherwise you probably will have to break out the tranquilizers, I'm a pretty lousy patient, I need something to do or I'll go nuts."
He grinned, "Well, I guess I've got my motivation to go find your iPad then. I'll see what I can do. Is there anything else you need right now?"
"Some undivided attention? I miss being with you, you know. It feels really wrong to be separated from you, since we've spent nearly every minute for weeks together."
He leaned close and kissed her. "I promise, I should be back in a couple of hours. I just need to do some stuff with Louis and see if I can find your iPad and maybe the rest of the gear they took from us. Then we'll have some time together. I'm gonna ask Zoey to check in with you to see if you need anything, ok?"
She nodded, pulling herself up against the headboard. "OK. What are you doing with Louis, anyway?"
He grinned back at her, "You're looking at the colony's new chief of security, can you believe it?"
She laughed, "Wow, he's put the fox in charge of the hen house, I think. Just kidding, you're perfect for it, nobody I can think of could do it better. I feel better knowing you're in charge of that, actually. Get out there and do your thing, just be careful, ok? Not everyone here might want to roll over for you guys, you know."
He kissed her again and smiled, "Don't worry, babe. After the undead, this is nothin'."