Authors note: This is my first go at using flashbacks, so if they sound a bit dodgy, tell me and I'll poke you with a stick. Flashbacks in italics.
Noah eased his eyes open slowly, he felt like he'd been asleep for years, though he was still so tired. He wearily glanced across to find a sleeping Kit curled up on a chair beside him, with one hand outstretched and resting on top of his protectively. The warmth from her skin felt soothing, evaporating some of the dull throbs of pain he felt.Looking only at Kit, he gently moved his hand underneath hers, rousing her from her sleep. She looked across to him instinctively, presuming that something was wrong. But to her great relief, she saw that his eyes were finally open. A soft warm smile spread across her face, lighting up her pretty features and putting some colour back into her cheeks.
"Hey..." she squeezed his hand gently. It hurt to see him so weak, when she was used to seeing him so full of life.
"Wha… what hap… hap…" Noah whispered hoarsely, feeling his eyes begin to close again, but resisting it.
"Shhhhh…" Kit soothed, placing her other hand on his forehead and stroking his hair back tenderly, running her fingers delicately through his hair, trying to ease his distress "…its okay. Don't try and talk".
Noah looked at her, waiting for her to tell him what happened. Kit glanced back at him, wondering how much to say.
"There was a fire at the Drop in Centre, after the party, d'you remember?" Noah shook his head slightly as a signal for Kit to continue, still trying to win the battle to keep his eyes open.
"Max was trapped inside, you stupidly went back in for him." She chastised him playfully. "But something must have happened in there because the fire guys had to carry you out. You weren't breathing, we thought you weren't gunna make it," Kit explained quietly, stroking his hair all the while. If it had been Old Kit doing this, then she would have stopped and made some smart remark long before now, but coming so close to losing him made her realise that life was far too short to play games with your feelings.
"Jude's here… he's been here all the time, I sent him home to get some rest though – which was a task in itself I can tell you. He's staying at Sal and Flynn's." She paused, noticing Noah becoming very drowsy.
"I'm just gunna go get Flynn, ok, I'll be back in a minute, don't go anywhere hey". His eyes were already closing, and she watched as he slowly drifted back into a morphine induced sleep, remembering once more just how close she had come to never seeing his face again…
The fire crew had been inside the building for minutes already, Kit – along with the rest of Summer Bay – was beginning to believe they weren't going to find anyone. Flynn and Jesse had informed the head fireman that Noah and Max were in the boys bedroom, meaning Kane should have found his way there too.
As the four selected firefighters searched the Centre, equipped with protective clothing and searchlights on their helmets, they began to lose hope. The only room they hadn't searched was what they presumed to be an office. Three wooden beams were tightly blocking the door, which was locked – and opening it would release a torrent of flames into the office, which would further endanger the lives of anyone inside. So it was unreachable, from the front way at least. However, as this was their only remaining strand of hope, they decided to move out and around to the back of the Centre, to try and gain access through a window, or another door.
As the team came into view outside the centre, with no sign of Noah, Kane or Max, the people stood outside assumed the worst.
Dani flung herself into Scott's arms, and started to cry into his shoulder, as he draped himself around her quivering body. Dani was confused. Losing Max would be… impossible, and she was terrified of the prospect. But then another part of herself, deeper down, felt a tiny pang of glee that the same fate could await Kane. She might never have to see him again. He would be out of her and Kirsty's life forever, and that deep down part of her glowed with joy.
Kit sank to her knees, resting on her heels and wrapping her arms tightly around her body. She could vaguely hear Flynn asking the firemen what was going on, she could vaguely hear burning… burning timber, or… something else.
Flynn approached her, as the firemen started to run over towards the side of the Centre. "What's going on… what's happening… why're they not inside looking for Noah?" Kit questioned as Flynn came up to her and she got to her feet as Colleen, Jesse, Dani and Scott all huddled round to hear the answer.
"Are they stopping? They cant give up… they… they cant Flynn" cried Dani, between sobs into Scott's tee-shirt.
"Oh Dr. Saunders, just tell us, please" Colleen pleaded, she was blaming herself… if anything had happened to Maximus…
Flynn put his hands up to cease further questions and tried to explain the situation as calmly and clearly as his voice allowed him, "They've not given up, they're going round the back way. They've searched everywhere apart form the office and they've found nothing, so they reckon the boys must be in there. But the entrance is blocked so they're gong to go in through the window at the back."
"So they're definitely in there, in the office?"
"What if they're not?"
"How could…"
Flynn raised his hands again. "Look" he said "they don't know for definite, but… they think so," he continued quickly noticing the scared glances, "they know what they're doing, that's the situation, and that's what's going to happen."
Kit leant her head on Scott's other shoulder and tried to stop the tears from welling up in her eyes again.
"Do they know what caused it yet?" asked her brother.
"Yeah" replied Flynn, cautiously glancing at Jesse, "it… it was an electrical fire to start with, but the heat, it got to the helium canister, which caused the explosions" he finished, glancing at Jesse again. Jesse turned away from the group and sat on the grass, facing the blazing Drop in Centre, praying that everyone would get out alive, it was his fault that things had gotten so out of hand.
Inside the building the firemen made their way to the office window, and stumbled across Max. He shakily told them what had happened and one of the firefighters brought him round to the front of the building to be met with a very relieved looking and teary Colleen, a lot of fussing from Dani, and a slightly heartened look from Kit – at least now she had hope. Flynn started to treat Max, all the while keeping one eye out for the two still inside.
Kit turned her gaze to the direction Max had come from. 'Come on… come onnn… let him be ok… please let him be ok,' she muttered to herself, 'why is it taking so long?'
She didn't have to wait long for her answer. The firemen soon returned, carrying a very unconscious Noah and Kane between them. Kit gasped as they lay Noah on the hard ground and as Flynn and the team of paramedics rushed over to him. From where Kit was standing, he looked dead.
Kit came back into Noah's hospital room with Flynn in tow. "He woke up, but he's fallen back asleep again now" she explained to the doctor.
Flynn nodded "That's good, he'll probably drift in and out of consciousness for a while." He paused and looked at Kit's face, she was taking his words with a pinch of salt, convincing herself that Noah was going to be better almost straight away. This most certainly wasn't the case. "Look. Kit. He's not totally out of the woods yet, I'm still not happy with his breathing."
"But… you said that was a good sign, when you took him off the ventilator, you said it was a good sign."
"Kit. It is a good sign, but he's still very weak. What he needs now is sleep and rest". Kit nodded, defeated. "D'you know where Jude's got to?" Flynn asked her.
"Yeah," she replied, "I sent him home to get some sleep, and have a shower, and do other getting clean stuff. All he does when he's here is worry, so I told him he could do that just as well at home, and he might as well do something productive while he's doing it. He wasn't happy about it of course, he wanted to be here when Noah woke up, but I persuaded him round. He's so not used to me yet, I think he's quite scared of me actually, his face sometimes…" she chuckled slightly, remembering when she had told Jude rather abruptly and Kit-like, to 'shift himself' as she wanted to sit on his chair.
She continued. "Really though, who can blame the guy. He comes to see his brother in hospital and finds some girl he's never even met velcroed to his bedside 24 hours a day, its bound to be quite strange. And he's just had to take my word for it that I really am Noah's friend" Kit explained "I'll go ring him now, I promised I would if there was any change".
Kit ran over to the huddle of medical staff and tried to force her way to Noah. She pushed through and knelt at the side of his head, opposite Flynn. One woman tried to drag her back by the shoulder but she wouldn't move. "Please" begged Kit. Flynn gave the woman a 'let her stay' glance, it was easier that way, he hadn't time to mess about.
Noah was lay flat on his back with tubes being put into his arms and people touching, feeling and examining him all over. He wasn't moving and wasn't breathing. Flynn decided he would have to intubate him. "What are you doing?" Kit cried "don't hurt him!"
"We need to get some fluids into him Kit, and I need to put this tube into his throat to help him breathe."
Kit nodded her understanding, and grabbed hold of Noah's hand, squeezing it tightly and rubbing her thumb against his bleeding skin; making red swirls on the back of his hand, flecked with ash.
Flynn was having great difficulty trying to intubate Noah, his windpipe was too swollen for the tube to pass down smoothly and time was running out. Eventually he got it, placed the bag on top and started to squeeze.
"Flynn!"
With Noah's airway secured, he handed over the bag to one of the paramedics, telling another to monitor his pulse, and rushed over to where Kane was lay and Jesse had just shouted to him.
Kit watched Noah's chest rise and fall steadily and felt for a pulse in his wrist. In her experience it had always paid to do things herself. She felt that as long as she had hold of him and could feel his heart pumping, then he would be okay.
Flynn knelt down by Kane and listened to his rugged breathing. He was positioned on his front due to the burns on his back, and had a drip in his arm, being pushed through by a paramedic to get the fluids into him quicker. Flynn knew that dehydration would make things much worse if they didn't get on top of it immediately.
Kane's back was very severely burnt, so much so that the material from his tee-shirt had been welded to his skin, making it impossible to remove without peeling his skin off with it. The only thing Flynn could do was to try and keep him as stable as possible and get him to the burns unit at the hospital straight away.
Quickly and clearly Flynn gave instructions to the ambos and turned in the direction of Noah again. Hearing Kit shout "Nooooo!"
The female paramedic shouted that they'd 'lost his pulse'. Though he was scared for his friends life, Flynn was on autopilot, so calmly started chest compressions and shouted for the defibrillator as the female paramedic continued to breathe for Noah.
Kit was told to get back as Flynn roughly tore open Noah's shirt and placed two orange pads on his chest. Then shocked him. Kit looked on in horror as Noah's whole body almost came off the ground with the force of it… but then was just as still as it had been before. Flynn looked to the person feeling for a pulse, and when they shook their head, adjusted a switch on the machine and called "Charging to two hundred, stand clear!"
Still there was nothing, so Flynn went up a notch.. still nothing. Finally, knowing that this was Noah's last real chance, Flynn called "Charging again to three sixty! Clear!" and thumped the paddles into Noah's chest.
Silence. The paramedic checked for a pulse again, all eyes on her. Kit's face ready to crumble…
"I've got a pulse" she breathed, relieved. Flynn, let out a deep breath, and set about making Noah as stable as was possible for the journey to hospital.
"Don't do that to me again mate, yeah, hang in there for me" he muttered.
Kit placed both her hands on Noah's, squeezing it hard – desperately holding on to his perilously weak pulse. Tears trickled down her face for the second time that night, she had so very nearly lost him.
Noah was quickly carried into the ambulance, with Kit by his side and still gripping his hand tightly. She ignored the paramedic's protests of 'family only', no way was she letting go of him now. She sat back against the seat at the side.
One of the paramedics wrenched his hand from hers, insisting that she let them do their job, and that they needed space to do it in. Kit felt cold; cold without his touch. She folded her arms together and leant as close to Noah as the paramedic would allow.
Flynn was in the other ambulance with Kane, but assured Kit he'd be there as soon as they arrived at the hospital. It still wasn't real.
As the ambulance doors were swung open, Kits daze like state was broken, and she began running through the double doors of A&E just behind Noah and the crowd of people around him, keeping him alive. She tried to follow as they moved into a room, but was pulled back by a nurse – who made it clear there would be no arguments this time.
"I need to know what's going on, I need to know he's okay" Kit explained rather hysterically. The nurse made her sit down and said that she would tell her what was happening as soon as she knew herself.
Kit sat alone in that waiting room for what seemed like a year of her life, the worst year of her life, her mind running over and over the images from the previous hour. Only an hour, she thought, it felt like so much longer. She was numb, the past hour had seemed like a dream to her, but now that she was alone, reality was allowed to terrorise her mind.
Minutes passed before Flynn came out of the emergency room. Kit jumped up immediately and looked at Flynn, for any sign of hope on his face, or of despair…
She needed to ask what was happening but was too scared of the answer to form the words in her mouth. Flynn did it for her.
"He's in a bad way Kit. He's got severe smoke inhalation, which is the main concern at the moment. We've sent him for a chest x-ray and a scan, that should tell us how bad the damage is."
"But, he's gunna be ok… right." Kit tried to convince the doctor.
Flynn sighed, looking tired and older. "I'm not in a position to say at the moment Kit, its too early. I'm sorry if that sounds like a cop out, but right now you know as much as we do." He looked at Kit and continued "when we get his test results back I'll probably be able to tell you more."
Kit nodded. "Can I see him?" she asked, hopeful.
"Not yet I'm afraid."
Kit sank back down into her seat. She placed her head in her hands and cried softly, aware of nothing but her own grief.
"Next of kin?" a nurse asked Flynn "is there anyone we can call for him?"
"Only his brother," Flynn told her, "I'll call him now, he'll want to be here." He frowned as he walked towards the phone box, telling Jude wasn't going to be easy.
"You can see him now, if you want" Flynn said to the back of Kit's head, which she was cradling in her hands. She slowly raised herself to look at him, nodded, and stood up.
"Just one at a time though, yeah" he told an anxious looking Irene, who had stood up next to Kit and was about to move forward. Irene had arrived a short while after Kit, and had been with her the whole time, though they had hardly spoken. Kit was too consumed in her own grief and Irene was sick with worry, she had come to think of Noah as a son to her. His own mother had been little or no use, so Irene had kind of taken up the role when he moved to the bay, believing that every kid needs a mum, however old they thought they were.
Kit sat staring at Noah, lay on the hospital bed, motionless. He had tubes sticking out all over him, like he was tangled in some huge spiders web, with fluids being pumped into him through a drip in his arm. He also had a thick tube leading from his mouth to a machine – which Flynn had said was a ventilator. It rose and fell in a steady rhythm, making his chest move oppositely to it, breathing for him, as his body was no longer strong enough to do it on its own. Another machine was measuring his heart rate and Kit found the strong bleeping noise reassuring.
She stroked his shoulder softly, his smooth but clammy skin caressing her fingertips.
"Hey" she started, hoping that talking to him would help "…its me. Y'know, the sarcastic red-head who always gets on your nerves. Well, I cant help that can I, you're just too easy to wind up Mr Lawson." She paused, she was used to seeing Noah smirk or glare at her when she said something like that, but now he was just still.
Kit took a deep breath, unsure if this was the right thing to do, but decided that now would be the easiest time for her to do it. "I'm also the sarcastic red-head who… who… who loves you. So, you gotta wake up see, you have to, cause if you… please wake up… please," she cut off, gasping and trying to stop the tears from welling up again.
She leant forward and hesitantly planted a kiss on the top of his head. She pulled back, she had no right to do that, she felt like she had violated him in some way; he thought she was just a friend, it was only her that wanted more.
She sat back into her chair and contented herself with placing her hand on his shoulder. Only moving slightly to rub her lips, which were still tingling from the taste of his skin on them.
Watching as the clock ticked round, hour after hour, she felt her eyelids becoming heavy and found herself drifting off to sleep, the gentle bleeping noises and hush of the ventilator helping her along the way.
Jude arrived at the hospital to find a strange red haired, pale skinned girl sleeping next to his brother. He found his eyes lingering on her, the image of his little brother in so much pain too much.
He pulled up a chair on the opposite side of the bed and grabbed Noah's hand tightly. Flynn had warned him about all the equipment Noah was hooked up to, keeping him alive, but it was still a shock to see it with his own eyes. Noah was usually so full of life, even through all that had happened with Jill, he was happy again. The motionless figure on the bed simply did not do this justice.
"Come on bro… wake up, yeah… jokes over, its not funny anymore…" he said quietly but firmly.
"Wake up."
Noah opened his eyes again, this time to be greeted by Jude and Kit talking quietly. Jude looked at his bro and let out a relieved sigh, even though Kit had told him Noah'd woken up, it still felt good to see for himself.
"I'll leave you guys to it" said Kit, leaving the room and closing the door behind her, she felt that she was interrupting a brotherly moment.
Jude held onto his brothers hand tightly again, feeling the stitches covering it. Noah curved his fingers around Jude's using all the effort he could manage at the moment. He wouldn't have moved his hand away even if he had the strength to though, he was glad, he felt safe with his brother, always had done – Jude made him feel safe.
"Hey little brother" soothed Jude, seeing Noah's laboured breathing and drowsy expression. "So, you finally decided to join us huh, I mean I know I always used to say you were too lazy for your own good, but this is taking it a bit far surely." He half joked.
"I gotta live… up to my name then hey" murmured Noah, grinning slightly and sleepily.
"Yeah" chuckled Jude. His face turning serious "You gave me a bit of a scare there bro… I didn't think you were gunna pull through"
"Well, I'm ok now" stated his brother "…kinda ok anyway" he added, remembering the dull throbbing pain in his chest and finding breathing difficult.
Jude smiled, it was good to see his brother back to a bit of his old self. Even if that was partly due to the morphine blocking out the pain. He watched as his brothers eyes started to close, then be forced open again. Jude grinned, when they were kids Noah would never admit he was tired, he'd just sit on the couch, rubbing his eyes and yawning continuously, until he finally fell asleep and Jude had to carry him to his bed.
They sat there for a while, just glad to be with each other, and both alive. Noah started to feel his eyes closing again as his mind wandered back to the fire. The last thing he remembered was going back into the Drop in Centre and pulling Kane into the office…
"How's Kane?" Noah breathed, breaking the comfortable silence and making Jude sigh inwardly.
"Kane… Kane he's…" started Jude, unsure how much to tell his younger brother who had already been through so much.
"Kane's…
Agh. Sorry to leave you on yet another Kane cliffhanger, but this chapter was long enough already. Any constructive criticism would be very much appreciated, ie. do you think this chappy was too slow/long/bitty? And thanks for the review iluvtheo.c :)
