Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU all so much for the wonderful reviews!! I am so happy everyone likes this story so much! There's still about 2 chapters left, (after this one) it's almost done!                 

The next day, the team was assembled in Frank's room, still waiting for him to awaken. The doctor had been in a few minutes prior, and told them that Frank was doing as well as expected, and not to worry; he should wake up soon. Nonetheless they were all startled when one of the machines started beeping.

Alex jumped up and hit the button on the wall, and the doctor ran in with a nurse behind him. He figured out the problem, and hit a button on the ventilator.

As the beeping stopped, they all looked at the doctor anxiously. "What happened?"

The doctor smiled. "He's waking up."

Just then Frank opened his eyes slightly, looking alarmed. The ventilator squawked again.

"Take it easy, Mr. Donovan, don't try to breathe, let the machine do it for you."

Machine? Frank thought, groggily. He tried to obey the doctor, as the squawking was hurting his ears. It was the weirdest sensation he ever felt, an artificial source causing his lungs to inflate, and deflate.

When the ventilator stayed quiet, the doctor smiled. "There now, that's better. Would you like me to remove that for you?"

Frank nodded, weakly, blinking his eyes tiredly.

The doctor turned to the rest of the team, who were staring at Frank, in sympathy. "Could you all step out for a minute?"

Reluctant at first, they all nodded and filed out the door. A few minutes later the doctor opened it again, and let them back in.

"He's not fully coherent," the doc told them. "If you talk to him, try to keep it short. I'll be right back."

They all went back to the bed, grateful that the doc had left, so they could be alone with Frank.

His eyes were closed, but when they approached, he opened them.

"Hey, Frank," Alex said. "How you feeling?"

Frank just blinked at them for a minute, before saying, "All right." His voice sounded scratchy, no doubt from the presence of the ventilator.

"Sure you are," Cody said, not believing him.

Jake sat in the chair nearest Frank. "Do you remember what happened?"

Again, Frank just lay there blinking, his eyes closing more and more.

Jake looked to the others and sighed. They all shook their heads or shrugged at him.

"The bank, Frank. You were a hostage, remember? We got you out."

"Bank?" Frank whispered, sounding confused.

Jake nodded, smiling. "Yeah."

"Other…hostages?" Frank asked.

Jake nodded. "We got them all out safely. No one else got hurt."

Frank smiled slightly. "Good…job…" he said, and fell asleep.

********************

Frank slept the rest of the day, and awoke more coherent the next morning. This time the team's clue that he was awake was when he tried to move, and winced.

Monica was the first one to see. "Frank! Stay still!" she said, grabbing his arm.

They all crowded around the bed, reaching out to hold him down and prevent him from hurting himself.

Frank winced again, trying to stifle a groan.

They all waited for him to open his eyes again before they spoke, knowing anything they said would probably go over his head.

When he finally looked at them, he spoke before anyone else got the chance. "The bank…what happened?"

"You mean the outcome?" Jake asked.

Frank nodded, not remembering what was said the previous day.

"We got all the hostages out safely, and took out Artie," Jake said, opting to save the details for later, when Frank could process them a little better.

Frank sighed with relief. Then his eyebrows went up.

"What?" Jake asked.

"Didn't think…I'd make it."

The team smiled at him.

"Looks like the ol' Donovan Luck is still going strong," said Cody.

Everyone shared a smile over that one.

"What did the doc say?" Frank asked slowly, trying to stay awake.

Jake hesitated for a second, not sure how Frank would react. "Uh, well…luckily the knife just missed your intestines and such, but…"

Frank frowned at him, waking up a little more at the implications of Jake's hesitation.

"They had to remove your spleen, it was too damaged to fix."

Frank's eyes opened wider. He was surprised, for sure.

They all waited for him to say something, but he didn't…or couldn't.

"Oh," he finally said. "Just a spleen." He said it nonchalantly, a mask of unconcern wiping away his shocked expression.

"Well, it could've been worse," said Cody. "You could've lost your wonderful sense of humor."

Not expecting that, they all started laughing, including Frank who gasped and stopped quickly.

"Sorry," Cody said, making a face as if to say 'oops'.

Frank sighed, allowing his eyes to slip shut.  He hoped they'd take the hint and leave him alone for a while so he could digest the news. 

"Frank?" Monica said, quietly. "You okay?"

Frank knew it was hopeless, getting them to leave him alone, so he opened his eyes and nodded. "Tired," he said, knowing they'd shut up once they'd heard that. It wasn't a lie, either.

They all looked at him sympathetically. "Get some sleep, Frank," Alex said. "We'll be here."

So much for being left alone, Frank thought. He gave her a weak smile, nonetheless appreciating their concern.

********************

Frank jumped, hearing whispered voices in the room. A hand suddenly touched his arm, and he opened his eyes and blinked, disorientated.

"Frank?"

He looked up to see Jake there, and Chief Morgan, of the Chicago PD.

They both looked at him worriedly when he just blinked at them for a minute.

"Frank? It's Steve Morgan," the chief said, afraid that he didn't recognize him.

Frank nodded. "Steve."

Morgan smiled. "Whoa, Frank, you scared me for a minute there! How you feeling?"

Frank smiled. "Could be worse," he said. Could be better, he left out.

"Glad to hear it! I hate to do this to you, but I need to know what Jay's role was in the robbery, he's saying he helped you get out, and Jake agrees, but we don't know what went on before Jake went in the bank."

Remember to ask Jake why he went in there in the first place! Frank tried to think. "I don't know…" he shook his head. "I was stabbed…right after…it started."

Morgan nodded, somberly. "That's what we figured. We'll have to rely on the witnesses only, then."

"Maybe he'll remember more after he's out of here," Jake said. "And not on so much pain medicine!"

Morgan shrugged. "Good point. Now, you're sure it was Capone who stabbed you, not Jay?"

Frank frowned. "Capone?"

"Artie Capone," Jake said. "That's the jerk's name."

Frank nodded. "Yeah…he was in front of me…in the bank line…"

Their eyebrows went up. "All right, then, this is good enough for now. I'll leave you to your rest, Frank. Take it easy, huh?"

Frank nodded. "Thanks, Steve," he said, knowing the Chief had had a hand in his rescue.

Morgan nodded. "Anytime."

As Morgan left, Frank looked at Jake, trying to remember what he wanted to ask him.

Jake could see the question on his face. "What?"

Frank sighed, having forgotten. Stupid painkillers! "Forgot," he admitted.

Jake sat in the chair next to the bed. "Was it about the case?"

Frank nodded.

"You wanna know how we took Artie out?"

Frank felt like that wasn't it, but he wanted to know that too, so he nodded.

"Well, after I got in the bank—"

"That!" Frank said, to tired to say much. "How'd you…get inside…"

"Oh," Jake said, sheepishly. "Well, I, uh, offered to trade myself for you—"

"Jake…"

"And he agreed, but when I went in, he wouldn't let you out, so we were both stuck there."

"Jake…"

"So then the chopper came, but Artie didn't intend to use it, it was a trick to get out of the bank while the police were on the roof waiting for us to go up there…"

"Jake…"

"So he forced us into a car, and Artie made Jay drive. Jay purposely flipped the car, and we got out. Artie was the only one not wearing a seatbelt, and got knocked out."

Flipped the car?

"Well?" Jake said, breaking the silence a minute later.

"Well what?"

"What were you gonna say?"

Frank sighed, in frustration. "Don't trade…yourself…for me."

Jake frowned. "You expected us to just let you die in there?"

Frank sighed again, realizing that he would've done the same for the members of his team.

"Thanks," he said. "But don't ever do it again."

Jake smiled. "Anything you say, boss."