"All clear" came Wash's voice. He sounded tired. There had probably been quite a fight up there. Mal wasn't the type of captain to let his cargo go that easily. "Let's check out what they did." Kaylee crawled out from behind the engines. The invaders were gone. They hadn't come anywhere near the engine room. She wondered what they'd taken; probably the whole cargo. Damn, they'd needed the money from that job. Looking on the bright side she was glad at least everyone was OK. Of course she had no proof of that. Better find the others she reasoned, climbing the ladder up to another deck.
She passed the infirmary, noticing the mess through the windows. Poor Simon, he tried to keep that place so neat. She remembered when Jayne had trashed it looking for tape. Deciding to survey the damage, maybe help Simon out with the clean up, she entered the little room. Her initial reaction to what she saw was to throw her hands over her eyes. That could not have been what she saw. No way. She slowly moved her hands and looked down.
Simon's white shirt was barely recognizable as ever having been that color. It was morbidly drenched with his crimson blood. Kaylee rushed to Simon's side and knelt next to him. She could feel the disgusting wetness as the pooling blood soaked into the fabric of her coveralls. "Simon!" she gasped. She was a little surprised when his face turned to hers, his eyes pain filled but open and alert. He had managed to avoid going into shock.
"Kaylee" he huffed. His breathing was labored and one didn't need a medical degree like his to figure out why. He'd been shot at least twice with a large caliber gun. There was a gaping hole in his shoulder as well as blood pooling from a wound farther to the left that clearly was the reason he'd been left for dead.
Kaylee stood up and pounded on a comm. panel by the remains of the door.
"Can anyone hear me? We need help down here!" When she removed her hand there was static. Her heart fell fast. She couldn't do this alone. She pressed the button again, "Anybody?" This time the static was interrupted by Wash's strained voice.
"Kaylee? That you? Thank God. Thought you might nota made it. We've been callin' the engine room for the past 5 minutes."
"I'm in the infirmary. Simon's been shot, he's bleeding pretty bad. We need Zoe or Mal down here now"
"Damn bastards! No can do on Zoe OR Mal. Mal's out cold up here, got smacked with some deck plating. Zoe's pretty sure he'll be OK, just out of it for a little while. But I don't know where she went off to now. Maybe she's trying to find the others. We're going to set down on that planet. I'll radio ahead and try and get a doctor there waiting for us."
"Alright, hurry Wash"
"Will do little lady"
Kaylee knelt back down next to Simon. "What the hell did they use?" she marveled as one of her hands found his.
"Well, I'm not he weapons expert that Jayne is, but it looked like a big gun." Simon coughed and it was a horrible sound. A thin line of frothy, bright red blood dribbled from the corner of his mouth. Kaylee couldn't stop her hand from flying to her mouth. "Internal bleeding" explained the fallen doctor. Tears ran down the young mechanic's face.
"What do I do?" Kaylee pleaded. Simon squeezed his eyes shut against the pain for a moment before focusing on her again.
"There's gauze in that top drawer above your right shoulder. We need to stop the bleeding." The girl jumped up and retrieved the airy, white material. Then, despite the hiss of pain she pressed hard against the wound. "Good" managed the doctor. "Just tie some against the shoulder, it's not as bad. Bullet went clean through and into the wall. Lucky me" She nodded and did just that. Kaylee was about to remove the blood soaked gauze from the other wound when she felt Simon's hand on her own. "More on top of that, don't want to destroy any clotting that has occurred already." Kaylee nodded and applied fresh gauze. It was drenched quickly but she desperately applied all the pressure she could. She used one hand to grab more fabric and left the other applying force against the wound. Once the gauze had been procured and put in place she looked at Simon's face again.
He was incredibly pale and sweat beaded on his brow and rolled down his temples to mix with the blood collecting under him. "You're doing very well" he assured her. "The gauze is lasting longer isn't if" Kaylee nodded mutely. "See then, the bleeding's slowing down." He coughed again.
"Oh God, Simon"
"Kaylee" he squeezed her had to get her attention. "Just in case I don't…you know, you can't let them get River back. Someone's gotta look after her…the captain…" Simon was fading. The pain and blood loss were catching up with him.
She continued applying pressure until it appeared the bleeding had stopped. But she knew Simon was far from out of the woods. His pulse was fast, but weak. He'd said something about 'internal bleeding'. Kaylee didn't know too much but she knew that was bad. Simon started coughing again, chest heaving as it tried to displace some of that escaped blood. Kaylee scooted behind him and doing her best not to disturb his wounded shoulder pushed him up onto his good side. It was something she'd done before and seemed to help him breath a bit better. "That Ok Simon?"
He was fading, she could hear it in his voice, "Keeps me from chocking on the blood." Kaylee couldn't stop thinking that he was dying. "Should…raise…legs" he mumbled as his head dropped against Kaylee's arm.
She gently touched his forehead, it was burning with fever. His head fell limply to the side when she removed her hand. He was gone, completely unconscious; he would be offering no more guidance. Kaylee griped his hand but found the appendage freezing. Following his final instructions she leaned across his still body and used the hand wasn't in Simon's to drag one of the supply boxes the invader discarded under the doctor's legs. She was more scared then she ever remembered being. More scared than when the captain and Wash had been captured and she hadn't been able to shoot, more scared than when she saw River with that gun, even more scared than with Early. She was scared because Simon's life was in her hands and she had no idea what to do. She held his cold hand and they sat waiting for help.
The medical team had been waiting as promised. Zoe had led them to the infirmary and even the soldier was surprised by the sight. 'Bleeding pretty bad' really wasn't an accurate description of what was going on in the infirmary.
The smell of blood hit you before you even entered the room. The air in the hall was thick with that metallic smell. Zoe knew that smell and hated it. Inside, the room was a mess. It had been torn apart and clearly looted. Right in the middle of the mess was a blood stained unconscious Simon being supported by a blood stained wide eyed Kaylee. It was bad. Zoe had seen a lot of death in her life. She knew what it looked like, knew it intimately. She was a soldier, been in battle, and that meant she had seen her friends dying before. It wasn't something she would wish for anyone. Poor little Kaylee, this had to have been the worst 45 minutes of her life. Whatever was between them, Zoe wasn't blind, and she knew he was important to her. Hell, she couldn't stand seeing Simon like that herself. The whole crew had really warmed up to him while he was on Serenity. It was shocking to see him like that.
The team, 3 guys in matching yellow jumpsuits, worked fast. They produced a stretcher and gently nudged Kaylee out of the way to put the doctor on it. They felt for a pulse, feeling the young man's neck in several places.
"Is he, is he…" her voice cracked and the tears were visibly ready to spill.
"He's still alive" one of the yellow suited men assured the trembling girl. Then they lifted the stretcher and hurried off the ship with the crimson stained doctor. Their expressions were grim and only brought more worry to his on looking friends.
The wait was bad. The doctor had been advised of the situation and had Simon immediately taken to surgery. He'd lost a lot of blood. Kaylee had donated a pint of blood as soon as they'd announced that. They wouldn't let her give any more, no matter how much she pleaded. Book had led her back to the waiting room to wait for news. Mal had been taken to go get stitches in that gash on his head. At least he didn't have to sit here waiting. The rest of Serenity's crew was waiting on the ship for news. Kaylee refused to stay there; she needed to know what was happening with Simon. After hours the nurse had come out to the waiting room and said he'd pull through, that he was lucky because of the first aid.