Chapter 34
Leverage is NOT mine…"sigh".
Six hours later Eliot jumped up when a doctor walked out of the operating room and came toward him.
He woke everyone up except for Cam who was sleeping on the couch.
"Are you here for Sarah Spencer?" the doctor asked.
Nate answered. "We're her family."
"I'm Doctor Henricks. I performed the surgery."
"How is she?" Eliot asked.
"She lost a lot of blood due to the gun shot, so we gave her a transfusion and closed up the wound. She has three cracked ribs on her right side, but with proper care, they will heal." He paused for a moment. "The gunshot however, lacerated the outer wall of the pleural cavity which surrounds the lungs."
Reactions ranged from shocked to scared at the news. Eliot felt like he had been punched.
"Will she be okay?" Eliot asked hoarsely.
"We stitched up the laceration and inserted a oxygen tube until her oxygen levels are a little higher, but she is stable and breathing on her own," he replied with a small smile. "She will have to stay here for at least a week to make sure she doesn't contract an infection, but she should make a full recovery."
Everyone let out breaths they didn't know they had been holding.
"Can I see her?" Eliot asked.
"Of course, she's in room 24. She's sleeping right now due to the anesthesia, but you can all sit with her. Visiting hours end in a couple of hours so…."
Eliot's face became angry. "If you think I'm gonna leave…." he started to say with a step forward.
A fearful look appeared on the doctor's face as he took a step back. Nate placed a hand on Eliot's shoulder. "I apologize doctor. It's been a very emotional day."
"I understand," Dr. Henricks replied, giving Eliot one last wary look before turning and walking away quickly.
Eliot looked over at Cam for a moment and Hardison caught it. "Go on man. We've got the little guy," he assured him.
Eliot nodded and quickly made his way to Sarah's room. When he reached it, he entered silently and stood there for a moment taking a good look at his girl. Her skin was still pale, but looked much healthier. An IV of antibiotics ran into her arm and an oxygen tube was in her nose. A monitor showed her heart rate, blood pressure and O2 levels.
He made his way to her bedside, sat down and took her hand in his, wishing more than anything that Rafael was still alive so he could beat him again.
"Hey beautiful," he whispered softly. "I know you're sleepin', but I wanted you to know I was here," he said kissing her hand gently.
The door to her room opened quietly as the others filed in, taking up positions around the bed. Cam stood close to Eliot with tears in his eyes.
"Is she gonna be all right daddy?" he asked in a quiet voice.
"She'll be fine," he assured the little boy. "The doctor fixed her up and now all she needs is rest," he concluded pulling the little boy into a hug.
"It's nice that she has a private room," Sophie remarked.
"I woulda made sure she did if she didn't," Eliot replied seriously.
When the nurse came in to inform them that visiting hours were over, Eliot's anger returned.
"I already said I'm not leavin'."
"Sir, I apologize but…."
Eliot gave her a look that could melt steel.
"Not…gonna…happen," he stated in a low voice.
Nate went to step in, but Sophie beat him to it. "I'll take care of it," she whispered, leaning in to kiss him on the cheek.
In true Sophie fashion, with a smile and gentle words to the administrator in charge, along with a generous donation to the hospital, Eliot was allowed to stay overnight as long as Sarah's condition remained stable.
Cam made it clear very quickly that he did not want to leave.
"But what if she wakes up and I'm not here?"
"Then we'll bring you right back," Sophie told him.
"You promise you'll call if mama wakes up?" he asked Eliot.
"Promise," Eliot responded seriously.
The little boy finally calmed down, and with some help from Eliot, leaned over to kiss Sarah on the cheek. "Love you mama."
Sophie leaned over to kiss her on the forehead. "We'll be back tomorrow darling."
Hardison reached out to take her hand in his and kissed it. "I'll kill a couple of alliance for you. See you tomorrow."
Parker walked up to her looking confused. "What do I say?" she asked Hardison.
"Anything you want, she'll hear you," Hardison told her.
She took Sarah's hand awkwardly. "Get better okay? Besides Alec, you're the only one who gets me I think."
Hardison smiled at her proudly and led her out of the room.
Nate was the only one left. "I'm sorry. Maybe if we had gone in sooner…"
"Don't," Eliot told him.
Nate nodded and looked down at Sarah. He reached out to run his hand over her hair. "Please get better, you belong in this dysfunctional family of ours."
He leaned over and kissed her on the forehead and with a nod to Eliot, he left.
Over the next few hours Eliot only left Sarah's side to go to the restroom. The nurse came in a couple of times to check her stats, and assured him each time that she was doing well. When he started to doze off, he took her hand in his and laid his head on her mattress falling asleep.
XxxxxxxxxX
Eliot woke up feeling someone's hand running through his hair. He looked up and saw Sarah smiling at him. "Hey handsome," she murmured.
He smiled and raised her hand to his lips for a kiss. "Hey yourself, beautiful."
She let out a weak chuckle. "I doubt I look good at the moment."
"You could wear a potato sack and still look beautiful," he responded with a grin.
"What time is it?" she asked.
He looked at his watch. "It's three am now, you were out of surgery around six. The others were here until visiting hours were over at eight."
"How are you still here then?" she asked curiously.
"You mean besides the fact that I told them I wasn't leavin'? That would be Sophie's charm and a sizable donation I believe."
She weakly raised her hand to his cheek and he leaned into it. "I'm glad you're here," she admitted. She looked at the monitors to see what her stats were. "How bad was I?" she asked in a serious tone.
Eliot relayed everything the emts had done and what the doctor had told them.
"Woulda been a lot worse if you hadn't knocked the gun off aim," she concluded.
"It was still too close," Eliot replied gruffly.
"I'll be fine. I told you it would take more than this to get rid of me and I meant it."
"Good, I plan to keep you around for a long time," he admitted with a wink.
"Sounds good to me," she answered with a yawn.
"Go back to sleep sweetheart, you need your rest. I'll be here when you wake up."
"Okay. Try and get some sleep yourself please," she requested sleepily.
"I promise, now sleep. Love you."
"Love you too," she answered as she drifted off to sleep.
XxxxxxxxxX
Sarah woke up to the sound of voices speaking quietly. She opened her eyes slowly to see her family standing or sitting in various places around the room. But the sight of her little boy sitting on Eliot's lap brought a smile to her face.
"Mornin' my little dragon."
All eyes turned towards her as Cam's voice rang out. "Mama!"
He tried to climb on the bed, but was nervous about all the wires. With a look from Sarah, Eliot helped him carefully on the bed and he curled into her side hugging her gently.
"They wouldn't let me stay here with you mama," he complained. "I was scared," he admitted.
She kissed him on the head and pulled him as close as her ribs would allow. "Well as you can see, I'm just fine," she answered with a smile. "I see you're all cleaned up," she said taking in the fresh set of clothes he was wearing.
"Aunt Sophie packed some of our things when they came to rescue us," he replied happily, snuggling against her.
The room fell into comfortable conversation for the next hour. Around ten am a nurse entered the room. "Good morning Mrs. Spencer." At that Sarah looked over at Eliot and he shrugged. "My name is Krista. You seem to be doing much better today," she acknowledged with a smile.
"Yeah, it's amazing what a good night's sleep can do," Sarah replied with a smile.
"Very true," Krista responded with a smile. "I hate to break up the visit, but I need everyone to leave temporarily while I check your injuries."
"Can my husband stay?" Sarah asked, stressing the word husband with a grin at Eliot.
"Of course."
After everyone left, she set to work on checking Sarah over. She removed the bandages across her ribs gently to get to the gauze over her gunshot wound. She cleaned it gently and applied fresh gauze, and then re wrapped her ribs tightly. She took Sarah's temperature then turned to get the readout from the monitors.
Krista turned back to them with a smile. "Okay, I'm done for now. You're attending will be in shortly to talk to you. I'll be back later this afternoon to apply fresh gauze."
Eliot settled back into the chair next to her and took her hand as the others filtered back in. Five minutes later a woman in her forties, wearing a doctor's coat walked in.
"Good morning Mrs. Spencer, I'm Dr. Laurie. I would like to check your breathing."
She walked over to Sarah's bedside and leaned over removing the oxygen tube from her nose. She removed the stethoscope from around her neck and placed it on Sarah's chest. "I need you to breathe as deep as you can very slowly."
Sarah did so while the doctor listened to different spots. Eliot knew how much it hurt to be breathing so deeply, so he squeezed her hand. When the doctor was finished she stepped back and wrote on her clipboard.
"Your oxygen level and blood pressure are normal. The wound shows no signs of infection and your lungs sound clear. We'll schedule you for x-rays tomorrow to make sure there's no further concerns. But I think you're going to be just fine."
Everyone smiled in relief at the news.
Okay so my birthday was yesterday and I think it would be an awesome present from all my readers to get lots of reviews!
=)