Disclaimer: I don't own it, I don't pretend to own it, and I don't mean to offend anyone's sensibilities.
Thank You: Stelmarta for being there! Mom because I love her!
Spoilers: A Breed Apart
Five hours later, Liz emerged from her room. The makeshift surgical garments stained liberally in blood, "Anyone here A positive?"
"I am," said a now fully recovered Emma.
"Come here," she pulled a needle and bag from her pocket and swabbed Emma's arm, preparatory to inserting the needle. "Is there any more of that junk in ye're system, the sedative fluid?"
"No," said Adam, "I flushed it out myself."
"Then I'm to assume ye're a healthy soul." Liz addressed Emma again.
"Yeah, nothing but a cold in the past year"
"Alright, c'mon, she needs a transfusion and I've run out of blood in storage"
"Ok"
Another half-hour went by with nothing but muffled voices under the door. Liz came back out again, this time supporting a slightly woozy Emma. "She's good to go, get her some sugar and some liquids." Liz peeled off her mask and her bloodstained gloves.
"Is Shal Ok?" asked Brennan hoarsely
"Define 'Ok', lad" Liz scattered her gloves and began on the scrubs she'd hastily pulled on, "She's stable, for the moment. Lots of blood loss. I fished out th' bullets, patched up th' damage, but it remains to be seen if she'll make the rest of the day. If she does I'll give her a fifty-fifty of surviving. Jesse's in there you'd want to relieve him, we're falling asleep on our feet, though." She dropped the garments where she stood, and marched off.
"Hey Liz, where are you going?"
"Bed," she said shortly, and moments later Adam heard the door to his bedroom slam shut.
"That answers that question," he found a surgical garment and pulled it on. The rest of the day he spent watchfully at Shalimar's side. The heart monitor was slow but steady, but her respiration sagged a few times, nearly leading to coronary failure on his part, but everything evened out and by the end of the evening she was still breathing.
Liz was almost obsessive. For the next three days she wasn't more than five feet from Shalimar's side. Sometimes Jesse could persuade her to nap while he monitored the machines that were keeping Shal alive, but mostly she sat there and cursed at herself in as many languages as she could. Emma said it was guilt, partly survivor's guilt and partly guilt that she'd been responsible for the whole mess in the first place. Adam tried to talk her out of it, but she just shouted incomprehensibly in an incredibly thick accent and stalked off, saying that she was the only one who had the knowledge to care for Shalimar properly, a statement no one argued with.
Brennan took it upon himself to keep Liz fed and watered on a semi-regular basis, when he too wasn't blaming himself for the situation. Between the two of them Adam was actually surprised, they hadn't really gotten along that well but once they got over the stage of screaming at each other over the whole thing, they were quickly becoming, if not friends, then respectful colleagues.
Which is why, when Shalimar finally woke up from the drug induced daze, Brennan first kissed her senseless, and then went to head off Liz, who'd got the notion in her head that she was no longer needed and was now trying to leave.
"…and ye get ye're bloody mitts off a' me ye black hearted scoundrel or I'll knock ye so hard the ghost of Widow Clarence and her nine blind orphan children will look up and down the country an' still won't find all the pieces!" Adam was in the process of convincing Liz to stay, an unsuccessful attempt to say the least.
All Brennan said was "Shal's awake"
That was all he needed to say, it galvanized the entire team into action. The four of them somehow managed to squeeze themselves into Liz's old bedroom without jarring any of the equipment.
"Hey" she said softly, "how long was I out of it?"
"Four days lass, ye've lost a bit of blood" when Shal would have sat up, "no, no, no, lass, ye'll jar the stitches."
"Ugh, you get the number of the semi that ran me over?"
"Aye, his name was Mason Eckhart, an' he pumped four into ye afore we got out. Feral ye may be, bulletproof ye're not." When Shal chuckled appreciatively, Liz smiled back "Well looks like me job here is done…"
"Shal tell her that she needs to stay. That it's not her fault. That she doesn't need to leave the team."
"Leave!" Shal turned to Liz, "You're not going anywhere! Not if I have anything to say about it."
"I almost got ye killed!"
"You damn well saved my life!" Shal glared at her, with her best growl and glowing golden eyes "I know there's no one but you who can treat a gunshot trauma, I'm alive because of you! You aren't going anywhere!"
"She's right," Adam slid arms around Liz, a rarity, even now when everyone knew that Adam and Liz was a couple they rarely showed affection in public. "We need you to stay." She tried to pull out of his embrace, but he held her tightly "I need you to stay."
"Yeah, who else could have got me out of the pods?" Emma joined the opinion.
"Or trained me to handle a trauma case?" added Jesse.
"Hell," said Brennan gruffly, "I don't even mind if you hang around, we need a decent doctor," he shrugged apologetically "no offense Adam."
"Oh crap, ye've made me cry." She buried her face in Adam's shoulder, who winked at Brennan. "All right then, but on your head it be." She dried her tears on Adam's shirt. "Now all of ye scat. The patient needs peace an' quiet not a hullabaloo. Go on! Scat!"
They scatted, but with a smile. The team was back on track.
