Minutes slowly turned into hours as they sat and waited. He silently prayed
in Spanish for her to be ok. He thought about Joey and Keira who were with
Kim's mom while he and the people at the station looked for her every day
before and after their shifts. He wondered where she had been when she was
found. Was it in a place they had been past while looking for her or
somewhere no where near the city? He knew he should call her mother and let
her know what had happened but wanted to know how she was doing that way
they could pass on any details to her.
A short time later Alex heard the sound of a door opening and saw a doctor heading in their direction. She put her hand on Bobby's shoulder and quietly said, "The doctor's coming."
He stood up and looked past the doctor that was moving towards them. Looking into the room he saw her motionless form surrounded by machines. The face of the doctor gave no immediate answers to his fears so the only thing he could do was either prepare for the worst and hope what he heard was the opposite. He turned back and looked at Alex, running his hands nervously through his hair when the doctor reached where they were and began to speak.
"Your wife is a very lucky woman. If the police hadn't found her when they did she probably wouldn't have lasted longer than six hours in her current condition." Doctor Troiano began to say.
"How is she?" Bobby asked nervously, wondering what the individuals who had taken her had done to her.
"She was so severely dehydrated when she came in she was starting to go into shock. She was drifting in and out of consciousness when she came in and is still unconscious as we speak right now. She was having difficulty breathing when she came in and from what we got from those who brought her in she'd started to go into respiratory arrest so we've got her hooked up to a ventilator to make it easier for her to breathe. Hypothermia is also a problem as well. Her temp when she came in was 81°F, so we're working to bring her temperature up by giving her warmed IV fluids as well as keeping warm blankets on her. She's also got a lot of bruising as well; not to mention a knife wound across her stomach, which doesn't look to be infected." Dr. Troiano said; "Was she the one missing in that fire almost a week ago?"
Bobby nodded his head yes in response, as everything the doctor had just told him sunk in.
"We'll go ahead and treat her for smoke inhalation as well just to make sure her lungs didn't sustain any damage." Dr. Troiano replied, making a mental note to add that to the chart.
"Can I go in and see her?" Bobby finally asked quietly before the doctor left.
"You can go in and see her. As soon as I get any lab results back I'll let you know where we stand from there." Dr. Troiano said before heading off towards another patient.
Alex looked over at Bobby and saw a look of relief cross his face that she was alive, but one of nervousness about how much she'd been through and what toll it had taken on her.
"Go be with her. I'll call her mom and everyone back at the station and let them know." Alex said softly before leaving to go outside to make the necessary calls.
Bobby slowly walked towards her room, looking at her motionless form. The first thing he noticed when he walked in was the large bruises on her face, how much it was contrasted against her extremely pale skin. He guessed she'd lost about 7% of her normal body weight from dehydration, and the signs of cyanosis were starting to go as the vent pumped air into her lungs. He looked at the heart monitor she was connected to since the dehydration had caused her heart to start to beat abnormally and watched it for a few minutes before sitting down. He pulled a chair up to the side of her bed and gently took her left hand into his. Her hand was literally like ice and he gently began to rub her hand in between his, hoping the heat caused from the friction would help slowly raise her temperature.
Alex called Kim's mother first and let the phone ring for a bit when no one answered. She next dialed the number to the station and didn't get an answer from them either. After waiting for several minutes she tried Kim's mother again and got an answer. She gently began to tell her that Kim had been found and was in the hospital.
"How is she?" Kim's mother asked, grabbing a tissue from the box sitting on the table.
"She's in rough shape. Right now she's unconscious and Bobby's in with her at the moment." Alex replied.
"I'll be there as soon as I can and bring the kids with me." She said softly.
"Ok, I'll let Bobby know." Alex replied as she hung up the phone.
Alex then tried the station again and didn't get an answer and decided to try Jimmy's cell phone. Jimmy and the guys were coming back from a call, talking in the back of the truck when his phone began to ring. He looked down at the number and saw it was Alex and motioned for the guys in the truck to quiet down. Alex heard him pick up and heard the quiet chatter of the guys on the squad and heard Jimmy's voice come over the phone.
"What is it Alex?" he asked.
"Jimmy, they found Kim." She replied, almost ready to cry as she thought of what the doctor had told Bobby.
"How is she?" Jimmy asked anxiously, noticing the firetruck had grown silent.
"She's unconscious. The doctor said she was so severely dehydrated that she was having trouble breathing so they had to put her on a vent to make it easier on her." Alex began to say.
A hurt look came across Jimmy's face as he listened to what Alex said and the guys instinctively knew it must be about Kim and it couldn't be good. Walsh was driving and D.K leaned over and whispered, "Let's swing by Mercy and check on Kim." Walsh nodded his head in response and headed towards the hospital to check on one of their own. Alex went back into the ER and sat down and waited on Bobby, not knowing that the rest of the crew from the 55 was on their way.
A short time later Bobby came out as they took her up to the ICU to let Alex know what was going on.
"Did you get a hold of her mom?" he asked softly, as he watched her being taken towards the elevators to go to the ICU.
"Yeah, she said she'd be here as soon as she could with the kids. I also got a hold of the guys at the house so they will probably swing by too. Go on up and be with her. If her mom or the guys show up I'll bring them up to where you all are." She replied quietly.
Bobby nodded his head in response and began to move towards the elevators. Alex went outside and leaned against the back doors of the ambulance as some tears slipped down her face. She wiped them away with the back of her hand when she heard several doors closing and peeked around the edge of the ambulance to see the guys from the 55 coming towards the hospital. They caught sight of her when she peaked around the side of the rig and headed towards her.
"What are you doing out here?" Jimmy asked quietly.
"Getting some air. I figured you all would be coming so I waited out here." Alex replied.
"How is she?" he asked.
"No real change as of yet. They just took her up to ICU." Alex replied.
The rest of the guys headed into the ER and towards the elevators to go to ICU and Jimmy hung back with Alex for a bit.
"You ok?" he asked, noticing tears forming in her eyes once more.
She managed a weak response as several tears slipped down her face and quickly wiped them away. Jimmy slipped a comforting arm around her shoulders and said softly, "Feel up to heading up to ICU?"
She nodded her head in response and she and Jimmy headed towards the intensive care unit that Kim was on.
Tears had begun to fall from Bobby's face now. Looking at her condition combined with the thoughts of what she'd gone through the past four days lingered on his mind. She was still deathly pale, but the blue tints from hypoxia were gradually going away as he watched her chest rise and fall with each breath the vent pumped into her lungs. He heard voices out in the hall and got up and stuck his head out the door and saw the group from the 55 gathered in the waiting room. He placed a gentle kiss on her forehead and whispered softly to her before he left the room.
"Estoy aquí Kimmy. Estaré aquí con usted cada paso del novio de la manera. Yo nunca lo saldré. Todos de la estación son fuera en la sala de espera. Seré espalda tan pronto como hablo a ellos." {I'm here Kimmy. I'll be here with you every step of the way sweetheart. I'll never leave you. Everyone from the station is out in the waiting room. I'll be back as soon as I talk to them.}
As he headed towards the group, he saw the worried expressions on everyone's face.
"How is she?" Alex asked quietly.
"Not good." He replied softly.
He glanced at his colleagues and said to Jimmy and Alex, "You two can go ahead and go see her for a bit."
They headed towards her room as Bobby took a seat with the remaining firefighters and sighed, thinking about how close he came to loosing her if she hadn't been found.
"She'll be fine. She's a fighter, we all know that. She's got too much to live for to do that." D.K said, noticing the worry etched in Bobby's features.
"I know," he replied quietly, thinking about how to prepare her mom for what she was going to see.
Alex and Jimmy walked down the corridor side by side and entered the room. Alex stopped in her tracks, unable to believe that she was looking at the motionless form of her best friend.
"How could we have let this happen to her?" Alex stammered as Jimmy turned her head away from the sight before them.
"She's a fighter, always has been Alex. She'll pull through this." He told her quietly, hugging her close.
"You didn't hear what the doctor told Bobby," Alex began to say softly, forcing herself to control her emotions.
"What did he say?" he asked, looking at the form of his ex-wife.
"If Faith had found her six hours later she probably wouldn't have been alive." She barely managed to get out; unable to hold back tears once again.
Several tears slipped down his face as well, thinking about how close he'd come to loosing the mother of his son. Alex left the room for a bit to try and pull herself together. D.K watched her leave and wondered how Jimmy was handling this. Jimmy took a seat beside her bed and began to pray, hoping he was right that she'd get through this. He never expected to come this close to loosing the mother of his son. Several minutes later he felt a presence behind him and turned to see D.K standing behind him.
"When I find whoever did this to her, they will pay for this." Jimmy whispered angrily, thinking back to four days ago when he'd last seen her. She'd been talking and laughing like there wasn't a care in the world.
"Calm down. Right now all we can do is be supportive and help her get through this. We've got to keep a positive attitude. You're right, whoever did this to her will pay, but we won't know who was involved till she wakes up." D.K said quietly, standing next to Jimmy.
As they left her room, Alex had headed to go pick up Kim's mom and the kids. Bobby had talked to her briefly and told her Alex would be stopping by to pick them up to bring them down. Ten minutes later they arrived in the ICU, and saw the sympathetic glances everyone was giving her mother. Bobby began to try and prepare her mother for what to expect as they slowly headed towards her room. Alex sat and held Keira while Jimmy talked with Joey. Before they entered her room, Bobby looked at her mother and said, "Are you sure you're ready?"
"A person can never be ready for something like this," she replied quietly, standing outside her daughters room.
Together they slowly entered her room. She froze when she saw the shape Kim was in. She couldn't believe that she was looking at her daughter surrounded by machines, lying motionless before them. Bobby had noticed a bit more color in her face and the tints from hypoxia were just about gone. After several minutes she was finally able to move and made her way towards her daughters bedside. Bobby backed out of the room to give her mother some time alone with her and stood just outside the door. As she stood beside the bed she took her daughters hand into hers, gasping at how cold she was.
"What did they do to you?" her mother whispered softly, as she sank into the chair at the bedside as tears of relief, worry and fear began to cascade down her face.
Spanish Translations:
Estoy aquí Kimmy. Estaré aquí con usted cada paso del novio de la manera. Yo nunca lo saldré. Todos de la estación son fuera en la sala de espera. Seré espalda tan pronto como hablo a ellos.
I'm here Kimmy. I'll be here with you every step of the way sweetheart. I'll never leave you. Everyone from the station is out in the waiting room. I'll be back as soon as I talk to them.
A short time later Alex heard the sound of a door opening and saw a doctor heading in their direction. She put her hand on Bobby's shoulder and quietly said, "The doctor's coming."
He stood up and looked past the doctor that was moving towards them. Looking into the room he saw her motionless form surrounded by machines. The face of the doctor gave no immediate answers to his fears so the only thing he could do was either prepare for the worst and hope what he heard was the opposite. He turned back and looked at Alex, running his hands nervously through his hair when the doctor reached where they were and began to speak.
"Your wife is a very lucky woman. If the police hadn't found her when they did she probably wouldn't have lasted longer than six hours in her current condition." Doctor Troiano began to say.
"How is she?" Bobby asked nervously, wondering what the individuals who had taken her had done to her.
"She was so severely dehydrated when she came in she was starting to go into shock. She was drifting in and out of consciousness when she came in and is still unconscious as we speak right now. She was having difficulty breathing when she came in and from what we got from those who brought her in she'd started to go into respiratory arrest so we've got her hooked up to a ventilator to make it easier for her to breathe. Hypothermia is also a problem as well. Her temp when she came in was 81°F, so we're working to bring her temperature up by giving her warmed IV fluids as well as keeping warm blankets on her. She's also got a lot of bruising as well; not to mention a knife wound across her stomach, which doesn't look to be infected." Dr. Troiano said; "Was she the one missing in that fire almost a week ago?"
Bobby nodded his head yes in response, as everything the doctor had just told him sunk in.
"We'll go ahead and treat her for smoke inhalation as well just to make sure her lungs didn't sustain any damage." Dr. Troiano replied, making a mental note to add that to the chart.
"Can I go in and see her?" Bobby finally asked quietly before the doctor left.
"You can go in and see her. As soon as I get any lab results back I'll let you know where we stand from there." Dr. Troiano said before heading off towards another patient.
Alex looked over at Bobby and saw a look of relief cross his face that she was alive, but one of nervousness about how much she'd been through and what toll it had taken on her.
"Go be with her. I'll call her mom and everyone back at the station and let them know." Alex said softly before leaving to go outside to make the necessary calls.
Bobby slowly walked towards her room, looking at her motionless form. The first thing he noticed when he walked in was the large bruises on her face, how much it was contrasted against her extremely pale skin. He guessed she'd lost about 7% of her normal body weight from dehydration, and the signs of cyanosis were starting to go as the vent pumped air into her lungs. He looked at the heart monitor she was connected to since the dehydration had caused her heart to start to beat abnormally and watched it for a few minutes before sitting down. He pulled a chair up to the side of her bed and gently took her left hand into his. Her hand was literally like ice and he gently began to rub her hand in between his, hoping the heat caused from the friction would help slowly raise her temperature.
Alex called Kim's mother first and let the phone ring for a bit when no one answered. She next dialed the number to the station and didn't get an answer from them either. After waiting for several minutes she tried Kim's mother again and got an answer. She gently began to tell her that Kim had been found and was in the hospital.
"How is she?" Kim's mother asked, grabbing a tissue from the box sitting on the table.
"She's in rough shape. Right now she's unconscious and Bobby's in with her at the moment." Alex replied.
"I'll be there as soon as I can and bring the kids with me." She said softly.
"Ok, I'll let Bobby know." Alex replied as she hung up the phone.
Alex then tried the station again and didn't get an answer and decided to try Jimmy's cell phone. Jimmy and the guys were coming back from a call, talking in the back of the truck when his phone began to ring. He looked down at the number and saw it was Alex and motioned for the guys in the truck to quiet down. Alex heard him pick up and heard the quiet chatter of the guys on the squad and heard Jimmy's voice come over the phone.
"What is it Alex?" he asked.
"Jimmy, they found Kim." She replied, almost ready to cry as she thought of what the doctor had told Bobby.
"How is she?" Jimmy asked anxiously, noticing the firetruck had grown silent.
"She's unconscious. The doctor said she was so severely dehydrated that she was having trouble breathing so they had to put her on a vent to make it easier on her." Alex began to say.
A hurt look came across Jimmy's face as he listened to what Alex said and the guys instinctively knew it must be about Kim and it couldn't be good. Walsh was driving and D.K leaned over and whispered, "Let's swing by Mercy and check on Kim." Walsh nodded his head in response and headed towards the hospital to check on one of their own. Alex went back into the ER and sat down and waited on Bobby, not knowing that the rest of the crew from the 55 was on their way.
A short time later Bobby came out as they took her up to the ICU to let Alex know what was going on.
"Did you get a hold of her mom?" he asked softly, as he watched her being taken towards the elevators to go to the ICU.
"Yeah, she said she'd be here as soon as she could with the kids. I also got a hold of the guys at the house so they will probably swing by too. Go on up and be with her. If her mom or the guys show up I'll bring them up to where you all are." She replied quietly.
Bobby nodded his head in response and began to move towards the elevators. Alex went outside and leaned against the back doors of the ambulance as some tears slipped down her face. She wiped them away with the back of her hand when she heard several doors closing and peeked around the edge of the ambulance to see the guys from the 55 coming towards the hospital. They caught sight of her when she peaked around the side of the rig and headed towards her.
"What are you doing out here?" Jimmy asked quietly.
"Getting some air. I figured you all would be coming so I waited out here." Alex replied.
"How is she?" he asked.
"No real change as of yet. They just took her up to ICU." Alex replied.
The rest of the guys headed into the ER and towards the elevators to go to ICU and Jimmy hung back with Alex for a bit.
"You ok?" he asked, noticing tears forming in her eyes once more.
She managed a weak response as several tears slipped down her face and quickly wiped them away. Jimmy slipped a comforting arm around her shoulders and said softly, "Feel up to heading up to ICU?"
She nodded her head in response and she and Jimmy headed towards the intensive care unit that Kim was on.
Tears had begun to fall from Bobby's face now. Looking at her condition combined with the thoughts of what she'd gone through the past four days lingered on his mind. She was still deathly pale, but the blue tints from hypoxia were gradually going away as he watched her chest rise and fall with each breath the vent pumped into her lungs. He heard voices out in the hall and got up and stuck his head out the door and saw the group from the 55 gathered in the waiting room. He placed a gentle kiss on her forehead and whispered softly to her before he left the room.
"Estoy aquí Kimmy. Estaré aquí con usted cada paso del novio de la manera. Yo nunca lo saldré. Todos de la estación son fuera en la sala de espera. Seré espalda tan pronto como hablo a ellos." {I'm here Kimmy. I'll be here with you every step of the way sweetheart. I'll never leave you. Everyone from the station is out in the waiting room. I'll be back as soon as I talk to them.}
As he headed towards the group, he saw the worried expressions on everyone's face.
"How is she?" Alex asked quietly.
"Not good." He replied softly.
He glanced at his colleagues and said to Jimmy and Alex, "You two can go ahead and go see her for a bit."
They headed towards her room as Bobby took a seat with the remaining firefighters and sighed, thinking about how close he came to loosing her if she hadn't been found.
"She'll be fine. She's a fighter, we all know that. She's got too much to live for to do that." D.K said, noticing the worry etched in Bobby's features.
"I know," he replied quietly, thinking about how to prepare her mom for what she was going to see.
Alex and Jimmy walked down the corridor side by side and entered the room. Alex stopped in her tracks, unable to believe that she was looking at the motionless form of her best friend.
"How could we have let this happen to her?" Alex stammered as Jimmy turned her head away from the sight before them.
"She's a fighter, always has been Alex. She'll pull through this." He told her quietly, hugging her close.
"You didn't hear what the doctor told Bobby," Alex began to say softly, forcing herself to control her emotions.
"What did he say?" he asked, looking at the form of his ex-wife.
"If Faith had found her six hours later she probably wouldn't have been alive." She barely managed to get out; unable to hold back tears once again.
Several tears slipped down his face as well, thinking about how close he'd come to loosing the mother of his son. Alex left the room for a bit to try and pull herself together. D.K watched her leave and wondered how Jimmy was handling this. Jimmy took a seat beside her bed and began to pray, hoping he was right that she'd get through this. He never expected to come this close to loosing the mother of his son. Several minutes later he felt a presence behind him and turned to see D.K standing behind him.
"When I find whoever did this to her, they will pay for this." Jimmy whispered angrily, thinking back to four days ago when he'd last seen her. She'd been talking and laughing like there wasn't a care in the world.
"Calm down. Right now all we can do is be supportive and help her get through this. We've got to keep a positive attitude. You're right, whoever did this to her will pay, but we won't know who was involved till she wakes up." D.K said quietly, standing next to Jimmy.
As they left her room, Alex had headed to go pick up Kim's mom and the kids. Bobby had talked to her briefly and told her Alex would be stopping by to pick them up to bring them down. Ten minutes later they arrived in the ICU, and saw the sympathetic glances everyone was giving her mother. Bobby began to try and prepare her mother for what to expect as they slowly headed towards her room. Alex sat and held Keira while Jimmy talked with Joey. Before they entered her room, Bobby looked at her mother and said, "Are you sure you're ready?"
"A person can never be ready for something like this," she replied quietly, standing outside her daughters room.
Together they slowly entered her room. She froze when she saw the shape Kim was in. She couldn't believe that she was looking at her daughter surrounded by machines, lying motionless before them. Bobby had noticed a bit more color in her face and the tints from hypoxia were just about gone. After several minutes she was finally able to move and made her way towards her daughters bedside. Bobby backed out of the room to give her mother some time alone with her and stood just outside the door. As she stood beside the bed she took her daughters hand into hers, gasping at how cold she was.
"What did they do to you?" her mother whispered softly, as she sank into the chair at the bedside as tears of relief, worry and fear began to cascade down her face.
Spanish Translations:
Estoy aquí Kimmy. Estaré aquí con usted cada paso del novio de la manera. Yo nunca lo saldré. Todos de la estación son fuera en la sala de espera. Seré espalda tan pronto como hablo a ellos.
I'm here Kimmy. I'll be here with you every step of the way sweetheart. I'll never leave you. Everyone from the station is out in the waiting room. I'll be back as soon as I talk to them.