That afternoon things were rather busy at work. Alex had told the guys that Kim was coming out of sedation between 4 and 5 that evening. But with things being as busy as they were they really hadn't had time to sit down and talk about it or call to see how she'd come out of it so far. Finally on a lull in between calls they were able to sit around and talk.
"I wonder if they brought Kim out of sedation yet." D.K questioned as they sat around the kitchen table of the firehouse.
Alex looked at her watch and noticed it was about 7:15 and replied, "She was supposed to come out of it around 4 or 5. So I imagine she's probably waiting to be taken off the vent."
"I wonder how she came out of it." Lombardo asked.
"Hopefully ok. Her and Bobby have been through enough without all this happening." Jimmy replied.
Everyone nodded their heads in agreement and continued talking as they waited for another call to come through.
Around 7:40 that evening, Dr. Coniam came back in to take her off the vent since she'd showed no signs of hypoxia after coming out of sedation. She saw out of the corner of her eye the doctor coming through the door and knew she was coming off the vent. She dreaded the feeling and coughing the removal of the tube caused but she wanted to breathe on her own and talk and would tolerate it.
"Do you remember how this was done before?" the doctor asked before beginning the extubation of the vent tube.
Kim wrote the word 'yes' on the board and got ready to have the tube removed from her windpipe. She heard Dr. Coniam giving her instructions and felt him begin to remove the tube once she was ready. As soon as the tube was out of her windpipe she began to cough rather hard for a few minutes and it felt as if her throat was rather sore and a bit raw after having been on the vent again. After she'd eased up on the coughing she took a few small sips of water to try and make her throat feel a bit better.
"Are you feeling ok?" Dr. Coniam asked after the procedure was complete.
"Yeah, I'll be fine." She replied in a hoarse whisper.
After he'd left she continued to take in fluids to rehydrate her parched mouth after having the vent tube removed. Five minutes later she was able to speak a bit stronger but her voice was still a bit raspy after just having had the tube removed from her windpipe. Once her voice was a bit stronger after having taken in some fluids her voice was almost back to normal.
"What happened yesterday when I left?" Bobby asked.
"After you'd gone I'd laid down for a short nap. About fifteen minutes later, next thing I know there are two people holding my wrists down and one person is holding something over my eyes so I can't see and a massive hand being clamped over my mouth, preventing me from calling for help." She began to say.
Bobby sat and listened as he heard what had taken place yesterday while he'd been gone, nervousness creeping into him at wondering if the two who'd done this yesterday might be coming back.
"As soon as I felt the pressure on my wrists, I knew something wasn't right and began to panic because I kept having flashbacks to the past four days. One of them said something but my head was starting to swim and I couldn't focus entirely on what was being said. Next thing I know I felt a rag over my face which knocked me out because of the stuff that was on it." She concluded, seeing the traces of nervousness showing on his features.
"I'm going to call your mom and let her know you're awake. Do you want to talk to her and Joey?" he asked.
"Sure, I imagine Joey's worried sick after everything that's happened." She replied.
Joey sat in his bedroom at his grandmothers worrying about how his mother was doing. His grandmother had left to check on Keira and he lay there wondering if things would be ok. Kim's mother had picked up her granddaughter and carried her into the kitchen to get a bottle for her when the phone rang and upon answering it she found Bobby on the other end.
"How's everything going?" she asked nervously, hoping nothing else had happened.
"Pretty good. They just took Kim off the vent about 15 minutes ago." He replied, hearing Keira babbling in the background.
"How's she doing after everything she's been through?" she questioned.
"Hold on and I'll let you talk to her." He said, passing the phone over to her.
When she heard her daughter's voice she was beyond relieved that she was going to be fine and knew Joey would probably want to talk to her.
"Hey mom," Kim said into the phone, hearing her daughter's voice in the background.
"How are you feeling?" her mother asked, sitting down in the living room with the bottle for Keira.
"Pretty good at the moment after having that tube removed from my throat." She replied.
"It's good to hear your voice again. Everything that's happened has really given everyone a scare." Her mother said in response.
The two talked for about five minutes when Bobby wrote on the dry erase board he was going to go get a bottle of water out of one of the machines down the hall and asked did she want one. She nodded her head yes while she spoke with her mother and watched him leave momentarily.
"Want me to go get Joey so you can talk to him for a bit? He's been worried ever since he heard what happened." Her mother said quietly.
"Sure that would be fine." She replied smiling, anxious to talk to her son.
She put the phone down on the couch and walked to her grandson's room and said, "Joey honey could you come out here for a minute?" and returned to the living room.
Joey heard what she said and came out and found her in the living room with his sister.
"I've got someone who wants to talk to you." she said with a smile, passing him the phone.
As soon as Joey heard his mom's voice on the other end he was ecstatic that she was going to be fine and that he could finally talk to her.
"Mom!" he said somewhat surprised; "Are you feeling ok?"
"I'm fine baby, how are you doing?" she asked.
"Better, now that I know you'll be ok." He replied, feeling a sense of relief that his mother was doing better.
"How's Keira doing?" she questioned, wondering how things were going with her.
"She has her moments when she's uncooperative or temperamental where she's about ready to cut teeth but other than that she's been fine." Joey said in reponse.
Bobby came back in with two bottles of water and passed her one and figured she was talking to Joey. He knew that once Joey talked with her he probably wouldn't worry as much as he had when he'd found out she'd taken the turn for the worse. He could tell her voice was starting to get a bit weak and wondered if Joey had noticed.
She took a quick drink of water while her son was talking to her, hoping to keep her voice from fading on her. The two talked for about five more minutes when Joey said, "I'd better let you go, it sound's like your voice is starting to get a bit weak."
"Ok sweetheart. If your grandmother brings you and Keira down tomorrow I'll see you then." She replied.
"Alright. I'll hopefully see you tomorrow then." Joey said, hoping his grandmother took them to see her tomorrow; "I love you."
"I love you too baby. Behave for your grandmother and I'll see you soon." She replied before hanging up the phone.
After she'd hung up the phone he asked, "How's Joey doing?"
"He sounded immensely relieved and kinda shocked when he heard my voice, but I he sounded thrilled to death." She replied taking another drink of water.
"I imagine he is relieved, after all look what all has happened in a time frame of twenty-four hours." Bobby said in response.
"I know. Let's hope this is the end of it. Because I honestly don't know how much more of this I can take." Kim replied quietly, hating to think what else Craig could pull.
"Do you remember much about what happened the four days you were gone?" he asked gently.
"I never saw much of anything because the whole time they had me blindfolded. But I do know that there are three people involved. I recognized two of the three voices I heard but I can only put a face to one of the voices, the other voice I recognized I know I've heard somewhere but I can't place where I've met the person." She replied.
"Was one of the voices Craig's?" he asked.
"Yeah." She said in response; "I remember hearing the three of them talking like one or all of them had done something like this before and making it sound as if it were a joke."
"Hopefully this will be the end of it and everything can go back to normal." Bobby commented.
"I doubt it because one of the last things Craig asked after he'd punched me in the stomach leads me to believe that this isn't over yet." She began to say.
"What did he say?" he asked, nervousness building up in him.
"He asked if I'd give my live to save you and I told him I would. Then he said 'We just might test that theory later. See if you're willing to back that statement up.'" Kim replied; "We've got to stop him before something else happens."
Her voice was starting to get weak and Bobby immediately noticed the change and said, "Your voice is starting getting raspier and weaker each time you talk. Why don't you rest your voice for a bit? I'm not going anywhere so nothing else will happen."
She nodded her head in response and eventually drifted off to sleep, hoping she wouldn't have any flashbacks to the four days she spent in hell when Craig kidnapped her. She glanced at the clock and noticed it was almost 10. She thought of the excitement that tomorrow would bring when she'd get to see her son and daughter for the first time since she'd been in the hospital.
As her shift winded down at work, Alex had planned to stop by and check on Kim to see how she was doing. Jimmy and the guys had planned on going down to Haggerty's and invited her to come but she declined, she really didn't feel in the mood for alcohol so the boys went and spent the evening having man to man discussions over beer. Alex headed down the hall of the ICU unit and quietly knocked on the door, seeing Kim asleep and Bobby watching over her.
"How's she doing?" Alex asked, stepping into the room.
"Much better. She was telling me what all happened to lead up to all this happening, then her voice started to get weak." He replied, looking over at Alex as she came in.
"What caused all of this to happen?" Alex asked curiously, pulling up a chair beside him.
"Two out of the three people involved in her disappearance showed up here yesterday. I imagine she got herself too worked up and eventually bottomed out from it." He replied.
She noticed he looked kind of tired and said, "You look horrible. Why don't you go home and get some rest and I'll stay with her."
Bobby shook his head no and said, "I'm not leaving after what happened yesterday. I blame myself for leaving her yesterday and going to get something to eat, but I never imagined whoever was behind this would come here."
"At least go get something to eat. I'm guessing you haven't eaten anything all day am I right?" she asked.
He nodded his head yes and said, "You're right."
"Let me go get a bottle of soda and I'll stay here with her till you get back." Alex replied before heading to get a bottle of soda out of one of the machines near her room.
She quickly grabbed a Mountain Dew from the machine and headed back and sat down with her. Before Bobby left she said, "And no wolfing down your food in five seconds to get back up here either. I'm not going anywhere."
Bobby laughed and said, "Yes ma'am." and left the room to get something to eat from the cafeteria in the basement.