Tangled Web 16 – Trauma
Cheyenne, Mountain Complex, General Jack O'Neill's office -"What?" "When did this happen?" There was a pause as Colonel Baker listened to the person speaking on the other end of the line. "All right. I'll send someone immediately. Thank you for calling, Officer."
Baker was standing behind Jack's desk and for a few moments he was absolutely still, then he picked up the phone and started dialing. "Dr. Summers? This is Colonel Baker."
"Yes, Sir?"
"General O'Neill and Colonel Carter have been shot and are on route to the hospital in town. Get yourself together and get over there! I need to know what the hell is going on!"
"What? What happened?"
"I don't have all the facts. I just got a call from a police detective – some sort of break-in at the General's house from what little information he gave me."
"What's their condition, Sir?"
"I don't know that either, Doctor, you can tell me when you get there! I'll have an ambulance and a security detail waiting topside. Get going, Doctor."
"Yes, Sir, on my way!"
Mercy Hospital, Colorado Springs -
Dr. Summers stepped hurriedly through the emergency room doors followed closely by Dr. Cain and three fully armed SF's. She moved with determination towards the admitting desk while the hospital security guards attempted to prevent the SF's from entering with their weapons.
"I'm Dr. Summers, US Air Force. I need to see whoever's in charge of this ER! Two of my patients were brought here by ambulance and I need to see them now!"
"Certainly, Doctor," the clerk behind the desk was a bit shaken by the suddenly military presence but managed to speak almost normally, "if you'll just have a seat. We've had several trauma cases and it's a bit busy back there!"
The doctor stared for amoment and then took another step forward. "Miss, I don't think you understood me. Let me see if I can explain, either you press that little button and allow me entrance to the ER right now or these nice Airmen will open it for me!
"But, ma'am…"
"Airmen!" She shouted and without hesitation the SF's moved forward, weapons pointed directly at the doors.
"Ok, ok! Geez! Take it easy!"
"Just open the damn door!" The doors swung open and Dr. Summers ran into the ER with her security escort right behind her. Her eyes searched the unfamiliar hallways for any sign of her patients and spotting a sign that read 'TRAUMA' she ran in that direction.
The room was barely controlled chaos. Karen Summer's trained eyes moved quickly along the line of beds. Jack was sprawled, arms dangling over the side, in the one directly in front of her. He was unconscious and extremely pale, a small dark spot on the sheet and his blood-encrusted hair told her he had a head injury, but she could only guess at its severity. Her gaze continued downward and she noted that the once white sheet beneath his torso was now stained an ugly red and the floor beneath him was littered with soaked, discarded gauze. An oxygen mask covered his face and blood dripped slowly through the IV attached to his left arm attempting to replace the steady flow from his chest. His shirt had been cut away and still lay beneath him, stained in the same ugly red as the sheets, exposing the leads that had been hastily attached to cleansed spots on his chest and in sharp contrast to his blood-smeared skin. One of the nurses removed the saturated pressure bandage from his chest and Summers watched the dark hole, as it filled with blood and overflowed onto his skin. The nurse quickly placed a fresh pad of bandage over the open wound and pressed down with her hands attempting to stop the flow. In the background she could hear the reassuring sound of the heart monitor that told her his heart was still beating, definitely stressed, but beating and the soft squish, squish of the arm cuff as it read his pressure.
"Blood pressure?" The doctor attending him yelled out the question and the nurse responded loudly in order to be heard above the noise in the room.
"Still dropping, Doctor, 87 over 58. Surgery's ready and waiting. We need to go!"
"All right! Let's get him there! We're running out of time!"
Dr. Summers stepped to the side as the team swiftly moved O'Neill out of the room and down the corridor into what she hoped were the hands of expert surgeons, one of the SF's fell in behind them, running to keep up.
It seemed she'd been standing there for a very long time but it had, in fact, been only seconds. Her eyes traveled quickly across the empty space and came to rest on Colonel Carter who was lying very still in the next bed. Her body appeared much the same as O'Neill's, but the bandage on her chest was quite a bit higher, almost at shoulder level. The new, angry bruises on her face and neck mixed with those she had first seen a week ago and her pillow contained an almost identical stain to Jack's. She only had to observe the manner of the personnel attending her to know that she was in better shape than General O'Neill. She stepped forward a bit more, so that she would be in sight of the doctor and spoke quietly.
"How is she?"
Cool brown eyes met hers, followed quickly by an almost angry scowl. "Who the hell are you? What are you doing in here?"
"I'm Karen Summers, her doctor." She pointed at Sam as she spoke. "Is she stable?"
"Yeah, better off than the other two, I'd say, but she's still going to need surgery to remove that bullet. We're taking her down now." He looked up to see the SF positioned just inside the door and nodded his head towards him in a silent question.
"Security escort." And then pointing to Sam, "They're here to protect Carter and O'Neill." Seeing his confusion she pointed to the now empty spot in the room and said, "the patient you just sent to surgery is CO of the Cheyenne Mountain facility. This is Colonel Samantha Carter and until we know exactly what happened, I'm afraid you're stuck with them."
"We can't allow that…"
"Outside the door will be fine, Doctor, but they're staying."
"All right, whatever." He looked up to the waiting nurses, "get going." Two of them pushed Sam out of the room and the others started to put the room back in order. A lone SF followed close behind Colonel Carter as another took up his position at the door.
"What about the General?"
"General, huh, well, he's not so good, Doctor, depending on exactly where that bullet is." He looked up at her as he started to list Jack's injuries. "Gunshot wound to the chest…looks like point blank range; his heart stopped twice before we sent him down. Add to that a collapsed lung; possibly broken ribs, internal bleeding; possible internal injuries; blood lose and a minor head laceration…concussion, maybe. We'll know more when he comes out of surgery. We were just trying to stabilize him enough to get him there."
Movement in the bed behind them caught Dr. Summer's attention and she stepped to the side so that she could see the patient. "Teal'c!"
"Dr. Summers."
"Are you all right, Teal'c? Are you injured?"
"I will be fine, Doctor. This man will not allow me out of this room."
"He's just trying to take care of you, Teal'c. Take it easy." She searched his body for signs of injury as she spoke, noting a large bandage around his thigh and one on his upper arm. There was also a nasty cut and bruise on his temple. She turned back to face the ER doctor. "Doctor?"
"He seems ok for the moment. He was unconscious when they brought him in, probably from the combination of that head wound and a taser to the chest. He has two other bullet wounds beneath those bandages and the one in his leg needs further treatment, but I think the bullets went straight through. We revived him and stopped the bleeding, but he refused further treatment."
"Dr. Summers, I must remain with Colonel Carter. She may still be in danger."
"What? From who?"
"Pete Shanahan."
Detective Raynard had just entered the room and heard the last bits of their conversation. "Don't worry, Doctor, Colonel Carter is safe. Detective Shanahan won't be hurting anyone else." She was holding her badge up for the doctor to examine.
"You're sure of that?" Dr. Summers asked the Detective.
"Positive. What about the other man, Doctor, can you tell us who he is?"
"Other man?" Dr. Summers looked at Teal'c with questioning eyes.
"Daniel Jackson."
"I should have known." She suddenly remembered the doctor had said 'the other two' and turned back to the detective. "Dr. Jackson also works for the Air Force, civilian contractor. He's part of General O'Neill's team. Where is he?"
"They took him straight to surgery. Still there as far as I know."
"Damn!" Karen spat the word out angrily realizing that Daniel must have been more seriously injured than the General. "I'm going to check on him. Stay here, Teal'c, Dr. Cain will take care of you, and don't talk to anyone else till I get back." Teal'c gave his customary nod of understanding.
Karen stopped momentarily to speak with the SF still standing by the door. "Stay with Teal'c. Medical staff only, understand? I need to contact the base and then I'm going to surgery."
"Yes, Ma'am!" And he moved quickly to Teal'c side.
Dr. Summers headed toward the ambulance bays seeking a quick exit from the ER. Seeing the access door, she stepped through. Outside, a few SF's were standing watch and she moved a few feet away from the hospital and pressed the radio in her breast pocket.
"Colonel Baker?"
"Dr.! What's the situation?"
"You need to get in touch with General Hammond. Tell him SG1 is here, all of them, including General O'Neill."
"Ma'am?"
"They're all here, Colonel. They're all in surgery, except for Teal'c. I left Dr. Cain and one of the SF's with him and I'm going to check on Dr. Jackson now. They're alive but the General and Dr. Jackson are seriously injured."
"What happened?"
"I haven't had a chance to ask many questions yet, but Pete Shanahan was also involved. I have to go, just pass the info on to the General and I'll contact you when I know more."
"I will Doctor, he should be landing at Peterson in a few minutes. Keep me advised."
Dr. Bennett walked out of the trauma room and back towards the admitting desk. With Dr. Cain attending to Teal'c he had just cleared the last of his trauma patients and was about to take a much needed break when he heard noises behind him and turned to see more SF's climbing in through the ambulance bays and entering through the ER doors. In a matter of moments the entire ER wing was overrun with soldiers. He watched, a bit hesitant as one of them approached him.
"Lt. Anderson, Sir, US Air Force. We have orders to secure all the patients brought in by ambulance from the shooting a short time ago."
"The General, right?"
"Yes, Sir, and anyone that came in with him!"
"Who the hell is this guy?"
"If you could just take us to them, Sir?"
"All right, this way! But…there's no danger. Can you put your weapons away?"
"Yes, Sir, as soon as the situation is secure." There was no expression to be read on the soldier's face as the doctor studied it for any clue as to what was going on. "The General, Sir?"
"Yeah…follow me. Just try not to scare anyone, ok?"
"Yes, Sir." The doctor gave him a look of exasperation as he turned to see the line of soldiers waiting to follow him.
TBC