Chapter Twenty-six
Dehydration. Exhaustion. And emotional stress.
That was it.
That was all the doctors could think of that would have caused Clay's sudden collapse mainly because they couldn't find anything else to explain it.
Clay's temperature was a little high, but not that much that it caused them to worry that his infection had returned. The base doctors had been updated on Clay's condition the moment Clay had left the hospital, well escaped the hospital. But as none one was about to order him back, the base doctors had been updated both by Trent and Naima on his condition from Jason's apartment. And had they had also informed the two of them that if they needed to get Clay medical attention quickly then to head to the base med bay as it was a lot closer to Jason's house than the normal hospital. Thankfully that was never needed until now.
Which his temperature only being a little high and the knowledge that Clay was still technically fighting an infection but still being on antibiotics, thanks mainly to Trent's careful eye, they weren't worried about it fully returning. However, the high temperature could be the case of his dehydration. As soon as they had rushed Clay into the med bay, they had immediately set him on some fluids and from what Eric could see at a very high drip-rate. Which told Eric that they were very worried about his hydration levels.
Eric had only just got back into the hallway to the room with one of the doctors that he had bumped into on the stairs when they had both heard Mason's shout. Eric still couldn't believe what he saw when they had raced into the room. Mason still had Clay in his arms, but thankfully the doctor that was with him was only concerned about the passed out Seal on the floor. Eric saw at that moment the fatherly figure that Mason was when he was with Clay. Eric knew that there was more to their story but as Mason outranked him he wasn't going to ask him. But also he had other things on his mind, like how he was going to explain all of this to Jason and the rest of Bravo.
Mason, as soon as the doctor was there for Clay he moved away allowed more space of the medical team to work on his godson but he also had clocked the look Blackburn had given him when he had walked in. As much as he wanted to be with Clay, to be by his side in the med-bay he knew that it wouldn't do the relationship between the team and Clay any good. They had kept their relationship a secret for a reason and he now didn't want to cause any problems between Clay and Bravo. He had gone with them as they quickly moved Clay to the med bay but then ordered Blackburn to keep him updated on Clay's condition and with one more look he left his godson in the hands of his new family.
After Mason had left Eric took his place right next to the door in Clay's room and watched as the medics moved around his Seal. The doctor in charge of Clay's treatment had ordered every test under the sun to make sure nothing was missed before. However, what he also said to Eric was that maybe they had rushed the debriefing. Clay hadn't healed enough to deal with all the emotional strain that debriefing had clearly caused him and was more likely the reason for the collapse but he couldn't be certain.
Eric was now more worried about what was going to happen when Bravo could out what had happened to Clay and not just the fact that he was now in a hospital bed in the med bay or the fact that during the debriefing the C.I.A had actually accused Clay of betraying his team. The last one, he just hoped the C.I.A agents had left the base because he had a feeling that Sonny would more likely go and hunt the man down and personally make him regret his comment. That, in turn, would cause him a real headache and a lot of paperwork, one of which he had already. And any more paperwork would cause him to wish he had another team.
Thinking about how Bravo would react to Clay's admission caused him to zone out a moment as he watched the doctors move around Clay. However, the unmistakable sound of Sonny's voice from the waiting room caused him to come back to reality. Bravo must have heard what had happened and by the sound of it, they weren't happy. Even the doctor who had been listening to Clay's heart rate looked up at him, whoever was out there was getting a real ear full from his men. He knew that by hiding in here meant he didn't have to deal with it but at the same time he felt sorry for the poor bloke that was out there dealing with a raging Sonny. After another minute of hearing Sonny's rant, Eric knew that he had to go out there before they stormed in here and upset the medical team. With a sigh and a glance back at Clay, he headed out to face the lions.
Jason and the rest of Bravo had just finished in the gym and were one their way back to their cages to wait for Clay to finish when they almost ran into Archie who had clearly been running. The only thing that stopped Archie from hitting the floor was Trent's quick reactions and grabbing hold of his arm.
"Woah, where's the fire?" Sonny laughed as the scene unfolded in front of him. He always gave their support team members a hard time but he did that with everyone. Even the members of Bravo. Sonny and Clay had a brotherly relationship which meant that they both hit off each other, some people would call their brotherly arguments a vicious fight that sometimes looked like it would easily get out of hand.
After Trent helped Archie keep his feet, he let the young man catch his breath. It clearly looked like the young man had been running for some time. Maybe the length of the base. Trent knew the look on the young man and knew that something had clearly happened that caused him to worry. He had trained Archie in the act of field medicine and knew that the man was as cool as a cucumber when it came down to action so to see the man so worried concerned him.
It only took a few minutes for Archie to catch his breath and nodded a thanks to Trent before looking up at the rest of the team. Now they all saw the worried look. Something was clearly wrong and it looked like Archie wanted to split it out at them but was stopping himself due to reactions unknown like he was ordered not too. But there was something within Bravo that made them a family, unlike other teams that family included their support team.
Ray knew straight away that whatever Archie was worried about was involving them. "Want to tell us what's going on?" Ray asked crossing his arms. He knew that he had added his 2IC tone to the question. He knew that the tone was known even to the support team and knew it was a little harsh to use on Archie but he wanted answers and sometimes his rank helped him.
Archie looked at him and with a sigh, he answered him. "I've just seen Clay be wheeled to medical."
And that was enough, he didn't need to say anything more and they didn't give him a chance too either. Without another word to Archie, they ran quickly past him and headed straight to the med bay. They needed to be there, for their brother. Fear now gripped all of them, they had all heard stories of septics setting in even when on medication. They were scared for their little brother. And they needed to be there by their brother's side. But also because they wanted to know why the hell Blackburn had allowed Clay to get so bad without ending the debriefing.
Trent's medical mind went to the worst-case scenario that could explain Clay's collapse. Had he missed something? Had he failed his brother again? He knew that Clay's injuries were serious but he was healing. He knew that Clay's arm needed to remain in the sling for a little longer but the bruisers had started to fade but the list of injuries Clay had suffered should mean that he was still in a hospital bed. Possibly still in the ICU. But that wasn't Clay, he was stubborn and tough.
As soon as they had gotten into the med bay, they were greeted by a young medical officer who did his best to stop them from entering the med bay. Sonny lost it at that point. Trent and Brock ended up holding their hot-headed Texan back as Ray and Jason tried to get someone out of the officer in front of them. Which wasn't much. All they could find out was that Clay had collapsed and was getting checked over.
A few minutes of trying to calm Sonny down Brock had lost his grip on his brother as Cerberus had started to growl at the young officer in front of them. Scared that his pup might attack the man he gripped hold of Cerberus' lead and dragged him back. Sadly Trent couldn't hold Sonny back alone and the man exploded for a second time. Ray had to quickly turn to grab hold of Sonny's arm before their brother punched the guy to get to Clay.
But before he could warn Sonny to back off did they finally see the man that they all really wanted to see. Blackburn. He walked out of the med bay and placed his hand on the shoulder of the young officer silently telling him to leave them. The young man looked more revealed and quickly headed through the door to which Blackburn had come from. Jason, however, was now even more pissed. He had left Clay in his hands believing that he would look after his man and here they were. He looked directly at him and tried his best not to straight punch the guy.
"What happened?" He growled knowing that if it was anyone else he would be facing a court marshall. But not with Eric and not because they were stood in the one place that he never wanted to be stood in again. Waiting for news on Clay, again.
"After the debrief, he went quiet, developed a fever. I went to get a medic to check him over when he collapsed." Eric started to explain, all of Bravo suddenly surrounded him and he knew that he had their full attention. He had flashbacks to Manila when Bravo had been waiting for an update on Clay after he had been blown up. He knew that he was missing out the part that Admiral Mason had been there but for good reason.
"The doctors can't find anything majorly wrong that could have caused the collapse, his infection hasn't returned. They did find was that he is dehydrated and physically exhausted." Eric reported placing his hands on his hips waiting for the comments and questions to start.
"Well, why didn't you stop it then?" Sonny snarled. They all knew what he meant as well. If Blackburn had seen that Clay was in trouble then why didn't he stop the meeting and end it before Clay got this bad? Why did it take Clay collapsing to stop it?
"We had already finished, he showed no signs throughout the debriefing. Only after." Eric explained before turning to face Jason who had looked down at the floor at the report. Eric at that moment knew that Jason knew more about what was happening with Clay than anyone. His 1IC had basically attached himself to the kid. Their relationship had grown even stronger over the last week and Eric knew that at the moment it was a good thing, however it worried him when Clay was cleared to return to active service. Would Jason be able to send Clay into danger when he now saw him as a son? It was something that they would need to address sooner rather than later.
Jason couldn't look at Eric and instead looked down and then back at the doorway to Clay. He knew Clay had been tired, the poor kid hadn't been sleeping well at all. His nightmares were slowly killing him. He knew that they all suffered from nightmares that kept them up at night but they could deal with them in their own way. But for Clay, everything was hitting him at once. The kid was barely able to get three hours of sleep every night. All Jason could see when Clay woke him up with another one of his nightmares wasn't his tough young Seal, all he saw a scared kid who had been betrayed. A kid. That was all he saw now. He knew that he needed to get his head on straight. He could see Clay as only just a kid or he would never be able to work with him again. How could he send the kid into danger when he saw the man like a son.
"How long has he not been sleeping?" Eric asked looking at Jason. He had heard from Ray that things weren't going that great at night with Clay. However, Ray hadn't given him too many details so now was the best chance to get the information that he needed.
Jason looked up at Eric to find looking right at him and he wasn't the only one. They all were. They all knew that Clay was having nightmares but it was only Ray and Jason that had dealt with Clay during his nightly terror.
"He's been getting a couple of hours a night thanks to the..." Jason started, trying to find the right words to tell them what was happening with Clay but didn't know how to tell them the truth. Clay was a real mess and he was only getting worse. Which was why he was glad that they had all agreed to talk to Clay as soon as possible to try to get the kid to heal. Even a little.
But before he could finish Ray told them whats some of them already knew. "...his nightmares are getting worse."
Jason turned to look at Ray with a scowl. He had wanted to explain everything first before going into the stuff that he was really worried about.
"They need to know," Ray added looking at Jason, he felt horrible keeping this from his brothers but at the same time knew that Clay had to be the one to explain everything as they knew only a little.
"How long?" Trent asked. He knew that Clay was having trouble sleeping, they all suffered nightmares but now the tired look that Clay was sporting for the last week made sense. The nightmares weren't getting any better, in fact they were getting worse. Over the last few night they hadn't heard Clay call out in his sleep so hey had hoped that he was getting better, that his nightmares were slowly getting a little less often. But he was wrong. They all had been wrong. He had truly failed his brother yet again.
"It's gotten worse the last few nights. He just wouldn't talk about it." Jason finally admitted, he hated himself for the tone he used but he couldn't help it. He was broken that he couldn't help Clay. The kid was reliving his captivity, again and again, every night without fail which was just another painful reminder that he had failed Clay. He had failed a man whom he needed to protect.
"We need to get him too," Eric stated. But then adding something that no one wanted to hear however was one of the few options they had. "otherwise we might have to consider admitting him back to the hospital."
Brock heard Sonny growl the exactly the same time as Cerberus who now stood like he was ready to stop anyone from taking his brother. His grip on his lead tightened and carefully he placed his other hand onto the part of the lead that was closest to Cerberus collar. If Cerberus did attack then at least he had a better chance of pulling his brother away from his target. Sonny moved at the exact same time as well, like he was backing Cerberus up.
"No one wants to do that Sonny," Ray said seeing his brother's movement. "But we can't sedate him every night."
Sonny knew that Ray was right and quietly backed down. They couldn't just sedate Clay every night just to make sure that he got his rest, that wasn't fair on Clay. Being trapped in his own head would be torture and to have his own brothers do that to him could cause their friendship to be forever destroyed. No, they couldn't do that to their brother. However, locking him away didn't sound like a good thing either. Clay wasn't dangerous. But in the back of his mind, Sonny knew what could happen if the wrong person was to wake Clay up from one of his nightmares. So far Ray and Jason had been the only ones dealing with Clay and only because they outranked him so if anything did go wrong then they could use their commanding tone to get him to come back to them.
"We aren't there yet," Jason argued. He wasn't going to give up on Clay. Never.
"But we are getting there Jason. Unless we can get him to rest properly and heal, he is a danger and not just to others but himself as well. We all know a lot of soldiers who couldn't deal with what happened to them..." Eric stated, trying his hardest to make Jason understand where he was going with this. He didn't want to think about it either but he knew that it was a possibility. They had lost a lot of brothers and sisters that way. Was Clay going to be the next one?
"No. Clay wouldn't do that." Jason snapped knowing exactly what Eric was getting at.
"He is not the same person you knew Jason. This has changed him, and until you all can see that, you are no help to him." Eric finished. Eric knew that this was going to be hard on all of them, but more so for Jason. The Clay they knew was already gone, he had been nearly completely destroyed by Zurkoff and Jones. Now they had to learn to deal with the new Clay. The man that they had saved. Because if they couldn't then Clay would have to be removed from Bravo for his own good. However, doing so meant splitting up a family, if that happened Eric hoped that he would be able to pull some strings that meant Clay would be with one of the other teams on base. He knew Alpha was looking for a new team member, and so was Delta.
But at the same time, Clay was Bravo's heart. The kid had changed them all, he had brought Brock out of his shell, challenged Trent, was a real brother to Sonny and at the same time a voice of reason. To Ray, he was a little brother who they needed to train to be the best but also another sniper who had his back when needed. And for Jason, he was someone who was so much like him it was scary. But at the same time, he was a challenge that he needed.
Bravo was a family and the threat been broken up always scared them. But something that they all fought against.
"Commander Blackburn." A voice from behind him cut any comment to what Eric had said and they turned to see Clay's doctor stood there.
All they could hope for was some good news. Even if it was only a little.
"How is he?" Jason asked. And the doctor just looked at him. Whatever news they got they would deal with together. As a family. They weren't going to abandon Clay, not again. Not ever.