Ch. 4

The hospital waiting room was deserted, the lights dimmed in respect for those unfortunate few who found themselves unable and unwilling to leave the hospital that night. Courtney was one of those unlucky souls. She was curled across the chairs, her neck bent at an uncomfortable position as she drifted between the nightmares of reality and dream. She had refused to leave the hospital, and not even Sonny could muster enough strength to argue with her. Sonny had taken Carly home because he was worried what the stress would do to the baby. He promised his sister he would be back soon, hopefully before Jason emerged from surgery.

Courtney shivered in her sleep, her knees curling further into her chest as she tried to conserve all the heat she could in the dank coolness of General Hospital. A jumble of noise and the sounds of people and equipment moving through a doorway brought her out of her fitful rest. She sat upright, the sleep vanishing from her eyes as she scanned the hall, trying to see what the commotion was about. That's when she saw him. Her heart caught in her throat and her tears threatened to resume their path down her face.

Jason was lying in the midst of chaos, as far as Courtney was concerned. Tubes ran out from bandages and into an array of machines. Several bags of blood and saline slowly worked their way into his system from his IV. She gently rose to her feet, and the jacket that had been covering her fell forgotten to the floor. Her eyes never left Jason as she walked towards him.

The doctors were wheeling him through another set of doors marked 'Hospital Personnel Only', but Courtney didn't care. She followed the entourage slowly, waiting for a moment when she could catch one of the doctor's eyes and plead to know if Jason was going to be alright. They moved the bed into a private ICU room and began to hover over Jason's listless body as the nurses went to work. Courtney lingered in the hall, unwilling and unable to turn away. Finally one of the doctors noticed her and joined her in the recesses of the doorway. He could tell in an instant there was no use asking her to leave.

"Are you family, miss?" He asked, his voice low and cool among the shrill beeps of the machines. Courtney blinked and looked over at the surgeon. She hadn't even noticed him come up.

Her voice was hollow and confused as she answered him, "Family? I…. I… yes, I am family. He is my family." She whispered the last phrase, her eyes gently traveling back to Jason as she said it. "Is he going to be okay?"

The doctor hesitated, and Courtney could feel it. She turned towards him, her fear evident in her sparkling blue gaze, "Please tell me… I need to know."

The doctor nodded, meeting her tear filled eyes and answering in a voice that held medical fact and little emotion, "He was shot several times. A bullet punctured his lung, and another graze his liver… we had to remove a kidney."

Courtney's breath caught in her chest as her mind tried to make sense of the injuries, "But… he's going to be okay?" She repeated, needing this simple assurance.

"Mr. Morgan seems to be doing better than anyone has a right to expect, under the circumstances. But I can't give you any guarantees. It's a miracle he survived the surgery. It's going to be touch and go for awhile. Tonight is crucial… if he makes it through until morning, he will have a good shot at a recovery." With these words, and a last look at his patient, the doctor left.

A few minutes later the nurses had Jason settled in. As they were leaving one of them approached Courtney and laid a comforting had on her arm. Courtney's eyes left Jason and traveled to the short, portly woman beside her. She read compassion in her eyes, and heard pity in the older woman's voice. "Honey, you really aren't supposed to be in here." The woman paused, her eyes holding a small forbidden twinkle, "But since I got stuck with the graveyard shift tonight I wouldn't mind the company. You can go sit by him, if you'd like… just mind all the machines." With a reassuring squeeze on Courtney's arm she left.

Courtney's eyes scanned the room, her ears ringing with the steady beep of the heart monitor and the dull echo of the ventilator. She tentatively approached the bed, scooting a chair to Jason's side. She sat, too afraid to touch him, her eyes never leaving his face. She studied his pale features, his closed eyes… the ventilator taped to his mouth. She could see a trace of blood the nurses had missed. Courtney didn't even notice her tears as she silently wept, vowing she would be strong for Jason. She would get him through this. Inevitably, however, sleep claimed her mind and her head lulled to one side, her shuttered eyes still trained on Jason's sickly figure.

Sonny found her like this when he arrived. He knew she had pulled the chair as close as she dared to Jason's bedside and a small smile touched his lips. She was nearly three feet away from the bed. Only Courtney would go to these silly extremes to keep the people she loved safe. He glanced down at the coat he held in his hand. He had found it on the floor of the waiting room, and knew in an instant that Jason must have been out of surgery. He slowly approached his sleeping sister and gently brushed a strand of hair away from her eye. He sighed and looked down on Courtney with dark brown eyes full of sorrow and regret. He had caused this. Jason had risked his life for him, even after everything he had done. He softly laid the jacket over Courtney's sleeping form and brushed his fingers against her cheek, feeling the dampness of her tears that still fell in her sleep. His gaze then traveled to Jason, although he couldn't bear to look at the tubes and machines for long. He quickly turned and left the room, his mind bent on revenge.