3- Intensive Care

A/N: Please forgive my ignorance of certain hospital procedures, just trying to get the flavor of it to move the story along.Thank you all for the reviews, encouragement and ideas. Hope you enjoy this next installment.

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In the lobby of Smallville Hospital, Clark stopped in his tracks as he spotted his friend standing at the receptionist's desk.

"Hey Lex!  What brings you here?  You OK?"  Clark asked incredulously, eyeing the spattering of blood on his friend's shirt.  Lex Luthor ran a hand over his bald head and raised an eyebrow at the sight of the blood drenched on the sleeves and front of Clark's flannel shirt.

"Hey yourself.  Are YOU ok?"  Lex replied, walking quickly toward his friend with a concerned look on his face. 

"Oh, it's not me," Clark answered.

"Sir, you should get out of that shirt," a nurse told Clark.  Clark looked around the empty lobby then obediently unbuttoned and removed his soggy shirt.  "Biohazard precautions," she said, looking up at his muscular form with a tiny smile.  The nurse put on some latex gloves and placed Clark's shirt in a plastic bag and handed it back to him.  She handed him some blue hospital scrubs to put on.  The nurse then turned to Lex.  "You too, sir.  You have a stranger's blood soaking through your shirt and should remove it.  Biohazard precautions."

Lex looked at the nurse, then at Clark with a pained expression.  "You got a bathroom or a changing room around here?"  He asked.

"You'll need to clean up as well.  The men's room has a supply of antimicrobial soap that you may want to apply to yourselves then rinse well," the nurse told Lex and Clark as they headed toward the men's room.

"Well?"  Clark asked, as he dried himself with a wad of paper towels, "since when did you get so shy around women?"  He teased,  "and why are you spattered with blood?"

Lex grinned back and adjusted the blue scrubs, trying to make it pass for a shirt.  "Since my dear fiancé happens to work here."

"That never stopped you before," Clark laughed.

"Did you see the way that nurse was eyeing you?"  Lex remarked.

"Aw, she's not my type," Clark replied as they headed back to the lobby.

 Getting serious, Lex said, "Helen and I picked up a hitchhiker.  She seemed pretty battered, didn't say anything, just passed out in the car after we loaded her in.  Helen got snagged to do an emergency procedure as soon as we got here."  He shook his head ruefully.  "She does have a knack for timing her visits here.  What brings you here at suppertime soaked in blood?"

"Hospital food," Clark replied with a mischievious twinkle.  His face sobered quickly.  "Actually we brought in the emergency."  He nodded at Pete who having been briefed minutes ago by Jonathan over the phone, had just arrived and was standing a few feet away in the near-empty waiting room looking extremely bored. 

************** break ****************

Meanwhile, in the emergency room, Brennan lay still and deathly pale on the hospital cot.  Blood slowly pooled into the ragged hole in his upper torso.  Dr. Bryce drained and examined a massive puncture wound on the front and had the attendants roll him enough to view the point of entry in back.  She shook her head as she gazed at the scratches and welts on his well muscled body and prepped him for surgery.    

"Pressure's dropping, doctor."  A nurse reported.  "80 over 45"

"Got him typed yet?" she asked aloud.  "He's gone into shock from blood loss."

"John Doe 423 is A-positive," another nurse answered, reading a lab report.

"Great," Dr. Morris whispered sarcastically.  "An uncommon blood type."  Aloud, he said after checking the ID bracelet on Brennan's wrist, "ID confirmed, he needs at least 2 units to stabilize him but will need four." 

"There's none in inventory, and we checked for O-negative there are only 2 units left since that tractor accident earlier today."

Dr. Helen Bryce exchanged worried glances with Dr. Morris and cursed softly to herself. Taking a deep breath, she reminded herself, there was no need to vent her frustration, they were all doing the best they could. 

"Then hook up one unit and increase the saline output," Dr. Morris replied. "And get 2 cc epinephrine ready, just in case," he added. 

"Still dropping, doctor- he's 75 over 43…"  the nurse reported, then suddenly the EKG lines on the monitor started to randomly scribble up and down.  Brennan's eyes opened, their brown color changing to blue.  He convulsed and emitted a low groan.

The monitor alarms went off as his heartbeat could no longer be found.  The Code Blue alarm went up. 

*********  break  ***************

"Hey um, we'd appreciate it if you wouldn't mention seeing me phase that metal post out of Brennan,"  Jesse mentioned to Jonathan as they neared the hospital.

"Hm."  Jonathan mused thoughtfully.  "And Ms. Shalimar has eyes that glow in the dark and tracking abilities of a bloodhound." (Shalimar bristled at the description, but kept quiet.)  "I suspect that your friend Brennan has some special abilities as well?"  Jonathan asked.

Jesse nodded.  Martha Kent looked at her husband carefully.  He seemed to be in an unusually talkative mood this evening.

"Well, you know," Kent replied, "something weird happens in Smallville Hospital almost every week, in fact just a couple months ago Martha here died and a spaceship came and brought her back to life and saved the baby.  Nobody seemed to think much of it."  He lapsed back into a thoughtful silence as he sped the truck into a parking spot near the hospital entrance.  Jesse and Shalimar exchanged mystified looks.

Clark, Lex and Pete looked up as Shalimar, Jesse, Jonathan and Martha Kent burst into the hospital lobby. 

"How is he?"  Shalimar gasped at Clark.  Lex raised an approving eyebrow at the sight of the blonde Feral and looked questioningly at Clark.

"He's in the Emergency Room."  Clark answered, ignoring the question in his friend's expression.

"CODE BLUE, E-W.  CODE BLUE, E-W."  A voice quietly paged from the PA system.  Jesse and Shalimar's eyes widened in horror.  Jonathan, Martha, Clark and Pete looked down.

Shalimar broke away and followed her instincts to the shuttered room where the emergency team was working on Brennan.  Jesse, Clark and Pete followed.  Shalimar leaned across the shaded window, straining to get closer.  Through the closed blinds she could see bits of movement.  Her superior hearing  informed her that the worst had happened.  She stretched her hand longingly across the window.  Pete approached her and placed a sympathetic hand on the intent Feral's arm.  Startled, Shalimar reflexively swung her arm, hurling Pete senseless against a bank of lockers that stood opposite the window of the Emergency Ward.

************** break ***********

Emma awakened in her hospital room. The light had been dimmed for her, a monitor for her pulse was wired to her arm.  She lay there for a couple moments trying to sort out her thoughts and an influx of strange, alien thoughts that chattered through her mind.  There was an emergency, she could sense the concern and fear, just like…. it was coming back to her now:  the mission, the crash, and now she was here.  Emma sat up, testing her sore muscles.  Her head still ached dully and inside it was a cacophony of voices.  Shalimar, Jesse.  They were here, but she couldn't pick up Brennan.  And they were gravely concerned about him and…about her?  They didn't know where she was. 

Emma pulled the wires off her arm and jumped out of bed.  The monitor beeped incessantly so she turned it off.  A nurse approached her as she wandered the hall toward the waiting room.  Emma smiled charmingly and telempathically altered the woman's perception of her.  The nurse smiled back and told her, "The waiting room is down the hall, take a left turn at the end."

Emma thanked her.  As she entered the waiting room, she noticed a middle aged couple speaking with the young, bald man who she had met before she passed out.  Shalimar, Jesse and Clark were being escorted back into the waiting room by an orderly. 

"We'll let you know, M'am."  He said.  Shalimar wept softly while Jesse put an arm around her shoulders and tried to comfort her.  Clark rejoined his parents and Lex Luthor. 

"Shal?  Jesse?"  Emma said softly.  The two sprung around and clasped Emma in their arms. 

"Emma!  You're all right!"  Shalimar had tears in her eyes. 

"Thank God you're ok!"  Jesse exclaimed.

"Where's Brennan?"  Emma asked.  Her friends filled her in on the details.

 "Looks like our hitchhiker is feeling better," Lex commented.

"Looks like they all know each other."  Clark added.  Clark and Lex walked over to join the trio.  Shalimar, arm around Emma, smiled wanly at them. 

"Clark, this is Emma, who we were looking for earlier tonight."  Emma studied Clark then Lex.  A look of recognition passed across her face and she looked at Shalimar and Jesse.  They nodded.

Clark sheepishly grinned and said, "I'm sorry, this is my friend, Lex."

Lex smiled in a charming, self-depreciating manner and added, "Helen and I brought you here.  I'm glad to see that you're feeling better."  Emma stared at him for another moment, her expression was far away.  Lex returned the gaze with an inquisitive one of his own.  Emma caught herself.

"Oh, I'm sorry to space out like that," she stammered, "you reminded me of someone.…"  Jesse put a friendly hand on her shoulder. 

"Nasty scratch?" he asked, indicating the bandage on the right side of her forehead. 

"Yeah, I seemed to have bumped my head."  Emma replied.  Looking back at Lex, she said, "thanks for the lift, Mr. Luthor."  Lex responded with a troubled expression but replied pleasantly enough, "No trouble at all, although the Luthor family may be public figures, I'm always somewhat startled that perfect strangers know me."

Jesse pulled a newpaper clipping from his wallet.  "Public figure."  He replied, handing the article to Lex.  Lex raised his eyebrows at the picture.  He was looking at a wedding picture of himself and Desiree, the woman he had temporarily married while under the influence of her enhanced pheromones.

"That's Lorna Templeton," Jesse said.

*************** break **************

In the Emergency Room, orderly havoc broke out.

"Epinephrine not working.  Paddles, STAT!"  Helen barked.  She applied the paddles to Brennan's still body.  Applying voltage, his body convulsed and leaped from the cot, but there was no heartbeat.  Dr. Morris applied CPR, alternately watching the monitor and Brennan's chest for the wound to reopen.

"Ramp it up two-fold,"  Dr. Bryce told the attendant.  She applied the paddles again.  "C'mon, John Doe, live!"  She told her patient intensely.  Brennan's body arched then collapsed again.  Helen glanced at the monitor which was still giving a shrill unbroken monotone.  "Damn.  Six-fold increase!"  she shouted.

"But that's lethal,"  the assistant started to say.

"-He's lost vital signs 30 seconds now.  Do it."  She breathed fiercely.  She applied the paddles.  Brennan convulsed and arched.  He drew in a ragged breath, holding it, remaining tense, stiffly arched on the cot.  Suddenly all the lights dimmed.

"Emergency lights," Dr. Morris said warningly.  Someone hit the backup switch, not wanting to wait for the system to do it automatically.  Brennan relaxed and slumped back in the cot.  He was breathing shallowly now, the heart monitor was showing a restored heartbeat.

"Blood pressure is 110 over 60," the assistant said.  Dr. Bryce stood over Brennan's unconscious form, holding his wrist to measure his pulse. 

"That was a close one," Helen said softly.  For a moment, she thought she saw a ghost of a smile flicker across her patient's face. 

************ break *****************

In the waiting room, Dr. Bryce met with the group waiting there.  She met Emma's gaze.  A thoughtful expression crossed her face and Emma with a slight nod of her head altered her perceptions.

"So I see they released you early, Miss ah…"

"Emma.  Emma Wise."  Emma said, adhering to the original plan that had been set up for their mission.  "Thank you very much," she smiled at Dr. Bryce and at Lex Luthor "for rescuing me."

"That's what we do," Helen replied gently.  Turning to Clark she said, "Your friend has had a severe loss of blood.  We've averted a major crisis just now and he seems stable, but he needs a transfusion.  Ideally, we'd like to get him A-Positive blood, which is somewhat rare, but a donation of O-negative in the next few hours would be extremely helpful."  Helen wanted to ask them what caused their injuries but Shalimar interrupted.

"I'm B-Positive.  Can I help Brennan?" 

Jesse looked up from his conversation with Jonathan Kent and said, "I'm afraid that we're all incompatible with Brennan."  Dr. Bryce looked at him questioningly.  Jesse added, "we work together and had been tested before."

Jonathan Kent was saying,  "You're all invited to the house for a good meal and you're welcome to stay overnight.  I know it's been a rough time for you."

Emma and Shalimar looked at him gratefully.  "Thank you, sir."  Shalimar said.

"Hmm.  My father has A-Positive blood," Lex told Helen almost absently, "but I doubt you would get him to part with any of it."

"You've got to at least try.  He's at the mansion isn't he?" Clark asked.  Lex pulled out his cell phone and ducked outside of the hospital.  He came back in a moment later looking angry and puzzled.

"Lex?"  Martha questioned.  "Wasn't Lionel there?"

"No, m'am."  Lex answered.  "We usually keep the answering machine on with a backup, but both seem to be offline.  The phone just kept ringing and ringing.  Something isn't right."

Clark took advantage of the moment.  "Let's head over there.  Maybe we can talk him into helping out our friends here."  Lex rolled his eyes but nodded.  He was uneasy.  Something definitely felt wrong.

"Clark and I'm heading up to the mansion," Lex told Helen, kissing her.  "We'll be back soon.