Chapter 7

"Surgery," Dana answered between sobs.

FLASHBACK

Tom raced down the hall of the ICU and into Kyle's room to see Linda sitting in the chair by the empty bed.

"Where's Kyle?"


"Surgery," Linda said. "Dr. Mayhew said that there was some kind of fluid building up in his skull, they're trying to relieve the pressure."

"What do you mean 'trying'?"

"They said that draining the fluid might not be enough. That more might build up and if that happens then Kyle could suffer permanent brain damage within a week."

END FLASHBACK

"She started breathing irregularly this morning even with the respirator. The doctors took an x-ray and concluded that the stitches in her lung hadn't been sewn up properly. They took her in about thirty minutes ago. They haven't told me anything about her condition since."

"Hey, it's okay," Tom said as he pulled her into an embrace. "Diana is going to be okay."

"I am so scared!" Dana sobbed. "She's my sister, she's a good person, and she doesn't deserve all this."

"I know she doesn't," Tom said. "That's why we are looking for the gunmen and when we do Dana, I promise you…he will be arrested, put in prison, and will stay there for a very long time."

"Do…um…" Dana pulled away. "Do you know who did it?"

"I'm not supposed to talk about it," Tom said.

"Do you have any suspects? You can tell me? I won't tell anyone."

"We have one suspect. That's all I can say."

"Did Diana know him?"

"I think she did? In fact I think they despised each other.

"That's all I wanted to know," Dana said standing up. "I should go into the surgical waiting room. I want to be there when they finish operating on Diana."

"I'll come with you, just let me call my boss and let him know what's going on."

"Okay," Dana nodded.

Tom walked silently down the hall. He loved Diana, not just as a partner and friend but in other ways. Three was no way he could have made it work before with Linda at odds with him.

FLASHBACK

At Kyle's welcome home party Diana and Tom are hanging back in the kitchen as the other teenage party guests mingle around.

"Why did you bring me here?" Diana asked slightly uncomfortable in Tom's home.

"I thought that I would put a human face on the returnees for you. Remind you that they are people not viruses," Tom replied as he suppressed a look of scorn.

Linda entered the room and walked over to the pair. "Tom, are you going to introduce me to your new friend?"

"Ah…" Tom struggled for a minute. "Linda this is my partner…" Tom explained. "My work partner!" He corrected himself.

"We're separated," Linda said to Diana almost as if it were a synonym for 'Hey, whoever you are, he's still married to me, don't think of sleeping with him' before turning to Tom. "Call me, we need to talk."

"Well that was awkward," Diana stated.

"Really?"

"Yeah."

"I hadn't noticed."

END FLASHBACK

But now that they were officially divorced it meant that Tom could move on and hopefully start courting Diana. That would be…if she didn't sleep for the next three years as Kyle did, and if they found Maia.

It hurt him to see her and her family go threw this pain and uncertainty as he had. Dana appeared to be so shaken because of taking care of her father and now Diana; he could only imagine what was going on through Dana's mind.

Even though Tom didn't want to admit it, he was as scared as Dana was. Diana had gone through two surgeries in the course of two days, granted the second was due to a medical mistake, but still.

Sighing Tom remembered how he acted when his son was in a coma. He wouldn't leave his side. He'd spent days by Kyle's bed just making sure that nothing happened. But that was over now. Kyle was out of his coma now and he's been healthy since then.

Tom reached the phone and dialed his supervisor's number.

"Ryland," came the familiar voice.

"Dennis, it's Tom," Tom began.

"Tom, what's going on?"

"I'm at the hospital. Diana is in surgery again."

"Why? What happened?"

"Her lung wasn't stitched properly."

"Oh god! Have you heard anything since she was bought in?"

"No. That's why Dana is so upset." Tom said.

"Okay," Ryland said. "I'll be there in a few minutes."

Ryland hung up the phone and Tom walked down the hall back to Diana's room where Dana was waiting.

"You ready to go?"

"Yeah…"

A few hours later Dana, Tom, and Ryland were still waiting for news on Diana's condition. Tom had resorted to counting the number of tiles on the hospital floor one by one. Dana resorted to starting at the clock and then at the doors trying to will the doctors to come out and for time to pass by. Ryland had gotten up and started pacing before sitting down for a minute and then pacing again.

'76…77…78…79…' Tom counted silently as the elevator doors opened and out stepped a man who also had a resemblance to Diana.

"Dana?" the man asked.

"Darryl," Dana said as she rose from her seat to hug him. "I'm glad you're here."

"How is Madison?" Dana said.

"Madison's great," Darryl said. "But, I didn't come here to talk about Madison. How's Diana? All the front desk told me was that she was in surgery."

"We don't know," Tom interjected. "Nobody has told us anything."

"All we really know is that the stitches in her lung weren't done properly," Ryland said.

"Who are you two?" Darryl asked slightly confused.

"Special Agent Tom Baldwin, Diana's DHS partner, and Dennis Ryland, Diana's boss," Dana introduced the pair of strangers.

"Nice to meet all of you," Darryl said. "Where's dad?"

"There was a senior badminton tournament that he was invited to join and I told him to go have fun," Dana said. "He'll probably be back in about another hour or so."

"Oh, okay," Darryl said. "So, I lost you on the phone, why is our little sister is in the hospital?"

"She was shot during a home invasion, the eight-year-old that was with her was kidnapped," Ryland said. "Your sister was shot and ended up in a coma."

"And where's the bastard that shot her?"

"We're working on finding him," Tom said. "We have some evidence at the crime lab that will help us figure out what's going on."

"So in short, you're not making any progress," Darryl stated.

"We won't know until the crime lab calls us."

Suddenly the doors to surgery opened and out walked a doctor dressed in a fairly clean set of green scrubs. So she didn't lose much blood, and since she didn't lose much blood she probably wasn't dead.

"Miss Skouris?"

The group stood collectively as the doctors walked over to them. He had a spring in his walk. A spring which signified he had good news.

"Miss Skouris came through the surgery with very few complications," the doctor said. "It seems that the operation was done correctly this time and that Diana should have any more problems with her lung."

"Can we see her?" Darryl asked.

"Yes, she's actually being bought back to her room as we speak," the doctor said. "I highly recommend that you talk to her and try to get her to respond to your voices. She may come out of her coma faster that way."

"Okay doctor, thank you," Dana said as the group continued their walk down to the ICU.

The group filed into Diana's ICU room and saw her lifeless body in the large hospital bed. Her face seemed to have a little more color to it; I sign that the transfusions had worked these past few days. Unfortunately all the machines had stayed.

"So," Dana began. "Who wants to here some very funny anecdotes from Diana's childhood." Dana then turned to Diana. "If you don't wake up soon I will spread the most embarrassing stories that I know about you."

TBC