Comatose Cowboy
Chapter 1 - "A million lives, a million deaths"
Jet and Faye arrived at Red Dragon Headquarters too late. Dead bodies were strewn everywhere and the building lay in ruin. When they reached Spike, he was face down in a puddle of blood, with no pulse. Jet rolled Spike over and was sickened to catch a glimpse of his intestines visible through the gaping wound.
"Oh, no, Spike...You've done it this time," he said sadly.
Jet turned to Faye and said quickly before his voice could break, "He's dead. We'll take the body and see that he has a decent burial."
Faye helped Jet carry Spike's lifeless body out to the Bebop, where they laid him out on his bed for the journey to the cemetery. As Jet turned to walk away, he heard a slight moan. He shot a look at Faye as if to say "Did you just hear what I thought I heard?" They both rushed to Spike's side and Faye put her ear very close to Spike's mouth.
"He's breathing, but just barely. Head for the nearest hospital!"
"If we take him to a hospital, the last of the Dragons will kill him for sure. I'm going to call Dr. Lee, who fixed my leg. He's very discreet, if you can pay enough."
When Jet got off the phone, he looked miserable.
"The Doc says he'll bring the portable surgery so that he can operate here. If Spike lives long enough for them to arrive. And after I described his wounds, Doc didn't give me much hope that he'll even survive the surgery."
Faye held onto Spike's cold hand. She whispered into his ear, "Hold on Spike...help is coming, but you gotta hold on."
Faye Valentine was not one to indulge tears very often. She couldn't even remember the last time she had cried. It just seemed like a waste of time to her. It was better to channel that energy into toughness and anger.
"God Dammit, Spike - If you die before they get here, I'm going to personally cremate your remains and then scatter your ashes on Earth! How would you like that, huh?"
A short while later, the Doctor's ship signaled that they were ready to come aboard. The Doc took one look at Spike and threw up his hands.
"This guy's already a corpse! You should have called a coroner, not a doctor. What do you want me to do, raise him from the dead?"
Faye grabbed his arm beseechingly. "Please, Doc! If there's any chance you can save him, you gotta try. Besides, this guy has nine lives. He's been through worse than this before and lived. You came all this way, brought all that equipment and that nurse..."
"It would mean hours of surgery, months of recovery, even if he hasn't already sustained brain damage from lack of oxygen. I don't think I want this job, even for the money. You guys will just have to..." He stopped short, hearing the metallic click of Faye's Glock inside his ear. It wasn't the first time this 'discreet' physician had been threatened with his life, but never by someone who looked as though she was hanging by such a loose thread.
"Nurse, get the mobile operating theater set up, stat," he barked, then he turned to Jet. "I want double my fee if he lives."
Jet nodded to this thief of a doctor, wondering where he would get the money. His leg was all fucked up from his last outing with Spike. He had taken a bullet in the thigh and the leg was more damaged than he let on. There was no way he could go chasing after bounty in this condition, and Faye didn't look like she could work in the state she was presently in, let alone go out without backup from Spike or himself. No, Jet figured he would have to borrow the money from the Syndicate. How ironic, that he was in this position of having to hide Spike from the very people he would need to get the money from to fix him. Jet signed off on the deal, providing that if Spike died, Lee would get nothing. The Doc and his nurse went to work, spending fourteen hours sewing Spike back together, replacing precious blood back into his veins. The duel had cost him his spleen, his gall bladder and a goodly portion of his large intestine. His vitals fluctuated wildly the whole time and when they finished, Spike was in a deep coma, but officially alive. That broad wasn't kidding when she said that he had nine lives, the Doc thought. He probably went through three or four of them right there on that operating table! Now, only time would tell just how much of Spike was left in that brain of his. The doctor explained to Jet that often after a massive trauma such as the one Spike sustained, that the speech part of the brain was slowest to recover, if it ever did. Sometimes personalities changed dramatically. And depending on how long he stayed in the coma, he could have some pretty devastating muscle atrophy in his arms and legs from lack of use. Many coma victims took a year or more to regain their ability to walk. Some never did. It was all a crapshoot that Jet and Faye would have to deal with.
Dr. Lee spent the next hour showing Jet how to change IV's, work the ventilator, heart monitor, catheter, drainage tubes and how to turn Spike.
And now the 'good' doctor would just like to collect his earnings and go before Spike could take a turn for the worse. Jet explained to the doctor that he would need a few days to get the 1 million Woolongs to pay him. Dr. Lee gave Jet only 24 hours, explaining that while he considered Jet a principled man worthy of credit, the medical equipment keeping Spike alive could be shut down from controls on his own ship. If Jet didn't pay tomorrow, Lee could simply "pull the plug" on Spike, so to speak, remotely. Also, after working for 16 hours, Lee was looking forward to resting. He gave Jet the necessary information to electronically transfer the one million to his account.
Jet wondered if he was better off going to the White Tigers for the money. After the beating that Spike had given the Red Dragons, they might not be so happy to see Jet coming around, asking for a loan. The big problem, of course, was that Jet didn't know anyone personally in that organization that he could ask. He had made a lot of enemies in his ISSP days, and now he needed a friend on the inside.
Chapter 1 - "A million lives, a million deaths"
Jet and Faye arrived at Red Dragon Headquarters too late. Dead bodies were strewn everywhere and the building lay in ruin. When they reached Spike, he was face down in a puddle of blood, with no pulse. Jet rolled Spike over and was sickened to catch a glimpse of his intestines visible through the gaping wound.
"Oh, no, Spike...You've done it this time," he said sadly.
Jet turned to Faye and said quickly before his voice could break, "He's dead. We'll take the body and see that he has a decent burial."
Faye helped Jet carry Spike's lifeless body out to the Bebop, where they laid him out on his bed for the journey to the cemetery. As Jet turned to walk away, he heard a slight moan. He shot a look at Faye as if to say "Did you just hear what I thought I heard?" They both rushed to Spike's side and Faye put her ear very close to Spike's mouth.
"He's breathing, but just barely. Head for the nearest hospital!"
"If we take him to a hospital, the last of the Dragons will kill him for sure. I'm going to call Dr. Lee, who fixed my leg. He's very discreet, if you can pay enough."
When Jet got off the phone, he looked miserable.
"The Doc says he'll bring the portable surgery so that he can operate here. If Spike lives long enough for them to arrive. And after I described his wounds, Doc didn't give me much hope that he'll even survive the surgery."
Faye held onto Spike's cold hand. She whispered into his ear, "Hold on Spike...help is coming, but you gotta hold on."
Faye Valentine was not one to indulge tears very often. She couldn't even remember the last time she had cried. It just seemed like a waste of time to her. It was better to channel that energy into toughness and anger.
"God Dammit, Spike - If you die before they get here, I'm going to personally cremate your remains and then scatter your ashes on Earth! How would you like that, huh?"
A short while later, the Doctor's ship signaled that they were ready to come aboard. The Doc took one look at Spike and threw up his hands.
"This guy's already a corpse! You should have called a coroner, not a doctor. What do you want me to do, raise him from the dead?"
Faye grabbed his arm beseechingly. "Please, Doc! If there's any chance you can save him, you gotta try. Besides, this guy has nine lives. He's been through worse than this before and lived. You came all this way, brought all that equipment and that nurse..."
"It would mean hours of surgery, months of recovery, even if he hasn't already sustained brain damage from lack of oxygen. I don't think I want this job, even for the money. You guys will just have to..." He stopped short, hearing the metallic click of Faye's Glock inside his ear. It wasn't the first time this 'discreet' physician had been threatened with his life, but never by someone who looked as though she was hanging by such a loose thread.
"Nurse, get the mobile operating theater set up, stat," he barked, then he turned to Jet. "I want double my fee if he lives."
Jet nodded to this thief of a doctor, wondering where he would get the money. His leg was all fucked up from his last outing with Spike. He had taken a bullet in the thigh and the leg was more damaged than he let on. There was no way he could go chasing after bounty in this condition, and Faye didn't look like she could work in the state she was presently in, let alone go out without backup from Spike or himself. No, Jet figured he would have to borrow the money from the Syndicate. How ironic, that he was in this position of having to hide Spike from the very people he would need to get the money from to fix him. Jet signed off on the deal, providing that if Spike died, Lee would get nothing. The Doc and his nurse went to work, spending fourteen hours sewing Spike back together, replacing precious blood back into his veins. The duel had cost him his spleen, his gall bladder and a goodly portion of his large intestine. His vitals fluctuated wildly the whole time and when they finished, Spike was in a deep coma, but officially alive. That broad wasn't kidding when she said that he had nine lives, the Doc thought. He probably went through three or four of them right there on that operating table! Now, only time would tell just how much of Spike was left in that brain of his. The doctor explained to Jet that often after a massive trauma such as the one Spike sustained, that the speech part of the brain was slowest to recover, if it ever did. Sometimes personalities changed dramatically. And depending on how long he stayed in the coma, he could have some pretty devastating muscle atrophy in his arms and legs from lack of use. Many coma victims took a year or more to regain their ability to walk. Some never did. It was all a crapshoot that Jet and Faye would have to deal with.
Dr. Lee spent the next hour showing Jet how to change IV's, work the ventilator, heart monitor, catheter, drainage tubes and how to turn Spike.
And now the 'good' doctor would just like to collect his earnings and go before Spike could take a turn for the worse. Jet explained to the doctor that he would need a few days to get the 1 million Woolongs to pay him. Dr. Lee gave Jet only 24 hours, explaining that while he considered Jet a principled man worthy of credit, the medical equipment keeping Spike alive could be shut down from controls on his own ship. If Jet didn't pay tomorrow, Lee could simply "pull the plug" on Spike, so to speak, remotely. Also, after working for 16 hours, Lee was looking forward to resting. He gave Jet the necessary information to electronically transfer the one million to his account.
Jet wondered if he was better off going to the White Tigers for the money. After the beating that Spike had given the Red Dragons, they might not be so happy to see Jet coming around, asking for a loan. The big problem, of course, was that Jet didn't know anyone personally in that organization that he could ask. He had made a lot of enemies in his ISSP days, and now he needed a friend on the inside.