Closing Time
Chapter 2
PG-13
Not mine! I'm just using them for a little while!!
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"Get me an ambulance NOW!" Eddie Winslow screamed into the microphone clipped to his lapel.
The uniforms ran after the man fleeing from the mob and quickly had him in custody.
Jordan cradled Max's head as he lay on the stairs, begging him to hold on, telling him things would be alright.
Renee stood, stunned. All the promises she'd made about keeping everyone safe… Up in smoke. She knelt beside Jordan and tried her best to comfort the younger woman.
The ambulance arrived and the EMTs readied Max for transport. He was holding his own, but it was obvious this was a grave injury. They didn't argue at all when Jordan climbed into the back of the ambulance.
Eddie offered to drive Renee, and she called Garret to notify the morgue staff as well. He dropped the phone, then said that he and Jordan's friends would meet them at Boston U Medical Center.
The news was not good. Jordan came out to the waiting area and was overwhelmed at the sight of not only Renee and Eddie but Lois Carve and a couple of other officers from the precinct, Garret, Nigel, Bug, Lily and Peter gathered in a tight circle. She filled them in with as much as she knew.
The bullet just barely missed his carotid artery and had lodged against his spine at the base of his brain stem. They were going to try and remove it, but no one could say for sure if Max would pull through. The group moved to the surgical waiting area.
Eighteen hours later, the surgeons came out and called Jordan over to speak with her. Everyone could tell from her body language that the news was not good. She turned back towards her friends, her eyes swimming in tears.
"They've done all they can do. The bullet's out. But he's in a coma. He. . .if he lives, they don't know if he'll walk again. And they don't know if he's suffered any brain damage."
"Oh, baby." Garret pulled Jordan into a tight hug.
"Will you come with me for a minute?" she looked up at him.
"Of course. Where are we going?"
"I have to sign something. I. . .I can't let them hook him up to a machine." Jordan swallowed hard. As hard as signing that DNR was going to be, it would be harder to watch him laying there indefinitely, machines breathing for him and tubes feeding him.
They moved towards the ICU, and Jordan left her friends in the waiting room to go and sit with Max. They stayed there for what seemed like hours. Garret, Renee and Lily took turns going to the chapel to pray. All of them hoping against hope that Max would come through this alright. And all of them asking themselves how Jordan was going to survive if he didn't.
. . .to be continued. . .
an ~ Ok, these seem to be short chapters. But it was that or a LONG story.