Sorry in advance, but this chapter is totally KK, it needed to be. I'm unsure of it though, as I've never written KK before, and I've never read any KK before (except in Jess's fics). Hope it's ok...
Kirsty reeled in horror. She stood still. The whole of her insides dropped to the pit of her stomach, leaving an empty cavern of disbelief behind. She shook slightly, her hand going to her mouth, trembling against her lips. Her eyes were fixed on the figure being carried to the ambulance.
"KANE!"
She ran to her boyfriend's side. Pausing slightly at the sight before making a grab for him frantically, any part of him, something to hold onto.
"Kirsty, Kirsty…" Flynn grabbed her from behind. "Kirsty you need to give us some space to do our job."
"But wh… what happened… how…"
Flynn cut short Kirsty's hysterical mumblings, "Kane went in after Noah and Max."
"So wh… what… he's gunna be okay right!"
"He's got very severe 3rd and 2nd degree burns on his back and some carbon monoxide poisoning, we need to get him to hospital as soon as possible."
She watched Kane being loaded into the ambulance and followed behind him, noticing the moist white gauze type material lay over his back. Controlling her sobs for a moment, she turned and looked straight into the doctor's eyes, "You didn't answer my question."
Flynn just looked back sympathetically for a second and turned to one of the machines that Kane was being connected to.
"Kirst…"
She turned round to look at her boyfriend. His eyes were barely open, and creased with pain. She pulled herself as close to his head as Flynn would allow, and stroked down the side of his face with her palm. "Cant you give him anything?!" she begged Flynn.
"We've already given him some morphine, it should kick in soon."
"I…" Kane tried to speak, but only a weak whisper came out.
"Shhhhhh," Kirsty soothed, stroking his face, making small circles on his cheek with her thumb, careful to avoid touching his back with her arm.
"I love you babe," Kane finally managed.
Hisgirlfriend shook with suppressed sobs, not wanting him to see her cry. She had to be strong for him. He needed her, now more than ever.
"You too," she replied, with more sincerity than her voice had ever contained before. The edges of Kane's mouth smiled, but made his eyes close slightly with the effort.
Flynn adjusted more dials on machines and checked his patient out all over thoroughly, making sure there was no further damage. He lifted the sterile gauze from Kane's back as gently and as smoothly as possible, biting his bottom lip as he heard Kane groan in agony and Kirsty try to keep herself calm and comfort her boyfriend simultaneously.
Kirsty made the mistake of looking over at what Flynn was doing. As the white gauze pulled up, bits of discoloured skin clung to it and made the underside stained yellow. She put her hand to her mouth again. On his lower back sections of his skin had risen in moist white lumps in irregular patterns, reflecting the artificial shine of the strip lights in the ambulance, and in between these, angry red blisters had formed, his skin almost bubbling. Her hand clung to his face, stroking harder. Near his left shoulder, the material from his t-shirt had become welded to his skin. Flynn was cutting around the edges of the material, removing all that he could.
The charred leathery patch on Kane's left shoulder when Flynn had finished wasn't all material. His skin felt waxy under the doctors's brief and unintentional touch, Flynn knew these burns would not heal on their own. Kirsty couldn't help her eyes lingering on this, for once in her life she couldn't see the scars emblazoned on her boyfriends back, somehow it seemed almost soothing, as if this new pain erased the old emotional one.
She was soon brought back to reality by Kane's murmuring. "I know your shoulder hurts babe, but you're gunna be okay, I promise," she assured him.
"Its no… not my shoulder… m… my ba… back." Kirsty frowned, didn't he know?
Flynn noticed her confusion. "The nerve ending around his shoulder've been destroyed, he wont feel it." His voice was low, so as to stop Kane hearing.
"Why…" Kane's voice sounded uncharacteristically scared, "what else? …Kirst?"
"Nothing babe… nothing." Her voice was shakily steady, "You're gunna be fine."
Kane's eyes were closed. Having had his burns cleaned and debrided, undergone eight hours of surgery, had skin grafted from his thigh to his back, an IV drip put in his arm, and antibiotics pumped through him, he was now settled uncomfortably into an anaesthetic induced sleep. It would be a while before he woke up.
Kirsty stared numbly at her boyfriend lying on the hospital bed. She didn't know what to do; she needed him to be better. "Please wake up baby, I need you… I… I love you… you're… you're… please wake up."
Her words fell on deaf ears, on an unconscious body, completely unaware of the pain it was causing.
A tear lipped over her eyelid but was quickly brushed away. When she'd returned from the caravan park to the DIC after getting Beth, Kirsty could never have possibly imagined what she discovered when she got there. The images and sounds from the site outside the DIC and from the ambulance journey played over and over in her head, like scenes from a film of her broken life, as she absentmindedly traced her fingertips over her boyfriend's forehead – lay on his front with his head tilted to the side. Looking at him like that hurt. It really hurt.
Feeling the tears threatening to come she breathed in sharply, kissed his head and walked out of the room, pausing only to look at him once more and gather herself.
She made her way wearily to the coffee machine, waiting for someone to come out of surgery for eight hours can take it out of you. She grabbed a brown plastic cup from the side and pressed the 'espresso' button, feeling entranced by the flow of the liquid into the cup and the splashes hitting the sides – courtesy of the chipped nozzle. Turning around she leant against the machine and took a sip of the coffee. The label on her cup lied. It wasn't refreshing. It didn't make her feel better.
Her eyes skipped from person to person; the people grouped together waiting for news of loved ones, the doctors busily working from room to room, the receptionist flicking through papers and turning round to squeak another name on the board with her blue pen…
'Phillips, Kane'
Kirsty dropped her cup, the liquid splashing to the floor and the plastic making a shrill tapping sound as it struck the floor, a puddle of watery brown liquid forming at her feet. She let out a strangled cry and threw her hand over her face, her other going to her stomach as she helplessly slid down the side of the coffee machine to a crouched position. Tears burst from her eyes as she cried hysterically, clutching handfuls of her hair.
No one stopped to help her, the doctors too busy, and the visitors not wanting to interrupt the most private of situations, or too scared to pick her up off the floor. Instead they averted their eyes and tried to ignore the broken young girl that was shaking on the cold hospital tiles.
After a few minutes of trying to control her grief, Kirsty finally stood up. Wiping her eyes and face furiously, and smoothing down her clothes, she walked back into her boyfriend's room, not making eye contact with anyone, embarrassed by her show of emotions.
Kane was still unconscious. Kirsty sat with him silently for another two hours, until Flynn came in and told her that they would be moving him to a burns unit in the city, now was a good time to travel – he was stable. They were better equipped to deal with his injuries apparently, and he would need more surgery. Kirsty was allowed to go with him in the ambulance; Flynn told her that if she needed anything, perhaps she could get her dad or Beth to bring it up.
Kirsty looked on as hospital staff danced around Kane, preparing him form the journey. She knew it would be tough. Kane was going to need a lot of support to get through this, and right now, Kirsty doubted whether she alone had that much strength left in her.
Sorry it had to be all KK. There'll be more NK next time I promise, which shouldn't take quite as long as this chapter did (writers block etc...) . Also, thanks for all you very encouraging reviews - glad I made you smile iluvtheo.c, and Jess c'mon we both know you are the naturally gifted one :)
