Chapter 27

The MRI had shown a bleed and Nate had immediately been taken into theatre, and it was a full six hours before a nurse approached them, telling them the doctor would be able to see them shortly. Nate had been moved back into ICU and she would take them down where the doctor would talk to them. They followed her down to the ICU where Nate had been before. The blinds were closed in the little room he had been in before so they could not see him. The nurse told them to have a seat and that the doctor would be with them shortly. The tension hung in the air as they waited news on Nate, all of them wondering what was going to happen next, hoping that the outcome would be good, dreading that it was not going to be.

The doctor stepped out of the room a few minutes later and walked directly over to them. Sophie could immediately see they were not about to get good news, but she could also see it was not going to be the worst news either.

"Mrs Ford." The doctor said as he approached and nodded his greeting towards the other three standing with her. "Mr Ford did indeed have a serious bleed in his abdomen. I am not sure if it was post or pre-operation, however it did some serious damage. We were able to drain most of the blood, as well as seal the leak. We had to give him multiple transfusions and he did experience respiratory distress twice during the operation. He is now in critical condition."

"Can we see him, please?" Sophie asked the doctor. She needed to see him to reassure herself that he was still alive still fighting. The doctor said he was in critical condition but he was still alive and that is all that mattered.

"I will ask the nurse to open the blinds as soon as they have settled him in properly." The doctor said letting them know that being in the room with him was out of the question at the moment.

"Thank you doctor." Sophie said softly.

A few minutes later the blinds to the little room were lifted and once again they all stared at their Mastermind on a bed surrounded by banks of medical machines that monitored everythign to do with his health. The heart monitor beat a slow rythmical sound indicating that Nate was still very much alive.

Eliot noticed that the blood oxygen levels were very low and so was Nates blood pressure and he tensed up remembering that Nate had signed a DNR. If the Mastermind went into respiratory distress the doctor was obliged to honour that and not intubate him to help him breathe. If that happened Eliot thought looking at Sophie, Parker, and Hardison, all hell was going to break loose.

Hours later they were all still sitting in the waiting room with one of them watching over Nate through the window in turns, at all times. Suddently Parker turned to the group a look Eliot will never forget in her eyes.

"Something is happening and they are not helping him." Parker said to Eliot.

Immediately all four were at the window. Nate was in respiratory distress, the heart monitors were wailing out alarms and nurses gathered around the bed but did nothing except to lower the man onto the bare matress removing the pillows under his head as if they were ready to give CPR but did nothing further, they were all aware of the DNR and were waiting for the doctors arrival.

"Why aren't they doing anything?" Sophie almost shouted her hands pressed to the window.

A nurse came over and closed the blinds locking them out of what was happenign in the room behind the window as the doctor entered the room.

"He signed a DNR." Eliot said softly. "They are not allowed to do anything."

"WHAT?" Sophie said completely shocked by this revelation. "HE DID WHAT?" She shouted at Eliot. Then she headed for the door of the room only to be caught by Eliot before she could storm into the room.

"Sophie he signed a DNR."

"He didn't want them to save him, to help him?" Parker asked incredulously. But he had promised not to die? She could not understand what was happening.

"No Parker he didn't want to end up on machines, he didn't…"

"That bastard." Sophie almost spat out. Then she looked at Eliot with narrowed dangerous eyes. "Let go of me." Eliot released her as if she had burned him with a hot poker. She could still hear the wail of the machines which meant Nate was still fighting despite the doctors refusal to assist him.

Pushing past Eliot she stormed into the little room and stopped dead in her tracks at the sight of Nate. Then turned to the doctor.

"Help him now."

"Mrs Ford I understand how you feel however this is your husbands wish, he signed a DNR order."

"Doctor I don't care. Now understand me you will do whatever you need to do to keep him alive am I making myself clear." Sophie said with a deadly tone. The doctor looked from her to Eliot who had come in after her and saw the threat in her and his eyes.

Eliot had rushed into the room with Sophie. This was what Nate wanted, he had promised Nate, but he had to back Sophie to the end. Nate had made this decision but Sophie had to live with it. All of them turned to Nate as the heart machine started letting out a long forlorn wail indicating flat line and death.

"Doctor I swear you will regret letting him die without trying to help him." Sophie hissed at him pushing him towards Nate. Parker and Hardison came and stood behind her and he decided that he had no choice even it if was not what the patient wanted.

The doctor started barking out orders and the room sprung to life with medical personal doing what they could to save Nate and get him breathing and his heart beating again. The Leverage crew moved out of the way but did not leave the room. Sophie was not going to take the chance that the doctor did not do everything humanly possible to bring Nate back. Finally after five long minutes Nate's heart was beating again. He was intubated as he was not breathing on his own though. After one final look at his patient he turned to Sophie.

"It was your husbands wishes that this was not to be done Mrs Ford. I was obligated not to take any extraodrinatry measures and not to resusitate. He did not want to be on life support. He was without oxygen for a period now, even if he does recover there could be serious brain damage. There will be consequences." He said, then after barking out a few more orders to his nurses he left the room.

Sophie ignored the doctor. She was staring at Nate who now had a steady, albeit weak heartbeat and was still alive. In her heart she knew what she had done was wrong, but she could not just stand by and let them let him die, how could he not want to give himself a fighting chance? How could he do that to her after his revelations?. She just couldn't alow that and consequences be damned. She knew now that he was on life support they could not remove him from it. Vaguely she wondered who his medical proxy was, probably Eliot and he would not go against her in this. She tore her eyes from Nate to look at the Hitter and saw the sadness in his eyes. She realised this is not what Nate had wanted and what he had probably talked to Eliot about, that was how he knew about the DNR. Eliot though had gone against Nates instructions, his wishes, to back her decision. She knew it had probably killed him to do it but he had. The doctor was right there would be consequences to her actions, in more than one way. Turning her eyes back to Nate she said a silent sorry to him and to Eliot but she had no regrets, she had to try to save him, give him a fighting chance to come back to her, to them, he really should not have expected her to give up on him and let him go, she had done that once before, but this time there was no coming back and that was unacceptable to her.

"There will be somebody here with him every minute of every day from now on." She stated emphatically. Sophie said turning to the team. Hardison and Parker nodded in agreement. Eliot locked eyes with her telling her he did not agree with any of this, but nodded his head. This was as it was now and there was nothing to do but hope Nate recovered without any serious impariment.

Sophie went and stood by Nates bed placing her hand on his. His face was now obscured by the ventilator and he had more pipes and tubes running into and out of his body than she could count. But he was alive. He was alive and he had a fighting chance and when he came out of this he would understand what she had done.