The two marshals were right next to Catherine, Sam holding her hand as he gently stroked the tiny bit of skin on her cheek that was not covered with tape and Noah with his hand resting beneath the fingers of the hand Sam was holding. Catherine was attached to so much that what they could actually touch was pretty limited.
"It's going to be alright now," Noah whispered as he gave her hand a slight squeeze before glancing over at Sam for a moment, a bit of humor in his eyes. "Sam managed to find his way to the hospital to collect us after all. You've got to get better now so we can all go home."
Just then, they heard footsteps coming down the hall and a moment later the door opened to admit an older doctor in a rumpled pair of scrubs and a lab coat[, carrying a folder. "I'm Dr. Austin, you're Ms. Walsh's family?"
"Yes," Noah said quickly. "Do you know how serious her condition is?"
"At the moment, it's very serious indeed," the doctor said as he moved over to Catherine's bedside, gently feeling her pulse and checking the readouts on the monitors as he continued to talk. "There was a perforation of the small bowel due to the blunt trauma, resulting in a significant blood loss as well as the release of the intestinal contents into the abdominal cavity." He opened the folder and pulled out x-rays. "Here's the location of the perforation." He held the chart up to the light, angled so the two men beside him could see. "I'm afraid it couldn't have been in a worse location. We were able to stabilize her and repair the damage to the bowel while cleaning out the intestinal contents, but with the nature of the injury, the odds of complications are high."
"Complications?" Sam gave the doctor a look usually reserved for fugitives. This man better not be giving up on Catherine so quickly. "What kind of...." Specialists, were there some kind of specialists that the marshals' service could call in?
"Infection. With the intestinal contents released into the abdominal cavity the way they were, infection is almost guaranteed. Her white cell count is elevated right now and she's running a slight fever so we have her on intravenous antibiotics that will hopefully stop any infection that might be present from spreading. There's also the risk that swelling of the abdominal organs could occur due to the trauma and the amount of fluids she's received so far. I won't lie to you. The situation right now is extremely critical." The doctor glanced down at Catherine, a sad expression on his face, before looking once more at the two men at her side, the younger with a worried expression but the older looking shell-shocked. "The next forty-eight to seventy-two hours are going to be what tells how well she's going to do. If the infection can be controlled and swelling doesn't develop, she has a chance."
"Chances. What are they?" Sam asked, pain in his voice as he looked over at the doctor before once more turning to Catherine. He should have been there, should have prevented this. She couldn't die.
"Right now, maybe thirty percent." The doctor paused before continuing. He hated having to give news like this to families. "I wish I had something more encouraging to tell you. You should prepare yourselves for the worst."