Title: The Forest

Chapter: 4

The OR waiting room was sterile. The eerie kind of sterile where everything seemed to glow with an immaculate aura. Scotty blinked several times trying to rid himself of the assailing aura. How he wished he could squash the lightning bug that forced the illumination into the room and allow the room to be used what it was really for; a place where families waiting in silence to see if the fates had snipped the thread of their loved one's life.

Illumination had no reason to be in an OR waiting room. It wasn't a place where little children frolicking in the daisy adorned fields with nets to catch butterflies. It was a place where sorrow loomed and the cloak of the Grimm Reaper stood over their shoulder waiting to remind them that Lilly was dying. That she could easily fall into his trap.

Scotty refused to accept it. Lilly wasn't going to die without a fight. She'd go down with blisters and bruises and her endurance tested before she allowed herself to surrender and welcome the darkness that beckoned at her door.

Scotty tried to blink back tears, but unwillingly let one fall. Jefferies noticed and turned to him. "What's on your mind Scotty?"

"I can't lose her," Scotty said. "Not her too."

Jefferies knew what he was referring to, his fiancé Elisa. It's been five months since her body washed up from the river. Scotty was having a hard time dealing with her death so he retreated into the warm and inviting arms of Lilly's sister Christina. "Scotty, there was nothing you could do to save Elisa."

"And there was nothing I could do to save Lilly either." Scotty got up and paced the length of the room. "I want her to be okay. I want her to live. I don't want her to die."

"She's going to be okay," Jefferies said. "Lilly's a fighter. She's going to be okay."

"You can't say that! You don't know that! Nobody knows if she is going to be okay!"

A silence hung in the air. The steps of feet soon came up the stairs as Vera entered the waiting room.

"I come bearing coffee," said Vera handing two cardboard cups to each of his colleagues. Jefferies accepted it and took a sip while Scotty sat down and nursed his cup. "Any news?

"No," Scotty said. "It's been a couple of hours already."

"You could use a good night's sleep," stated Stillman who entered just behind Vera. "Why don't you go home and we'll call you when we hear something."

"No!" Scotty protested. "I'm not leaving her alone!"

"Nothing's going to happen to her," said Stillman. "We'll make sure she's being taken care of."

"I don't care! I want to be here with her. She's dying because of a case we were working on…"

"No she's here because she refused to obey a direct order," said Stillman. "But she's not dying."

Scotty said nothing in return. He just looked down at the floor and took a sip of his coffee.

"If you won't go home. Just take a walk. You need to cool down," said Jefferies.

"No," said Scotty. "I'm sorry. I can't. I'm not leaving her."

Several hours later, the team sat in the same waiting room resorting to counting tiles and cracks in the ceiling in hopes of driving away the boredom. Occasionally, one would get up and pace back and forth to stretch their legs. It was boarding on six hours. Six hours with no news on Lilly.

Scotty was getting more impatient by the hour. He kept worrying about what was happening in the ER. His mind running through the possibilities. He reached back into his pocket and pulled out the lock of Lilly's hair. He stared at he blonde lock and yearned to run his finger through her hair again. He took a deep breath and let out a sigh.

The doors to the OR opened as if Scotty had just mutter 'open sesame,' and a doctor stepped out. "Lillian Rush?" he asked.

"Right here," Stillman answered.

"I'm Dr. Ryder, the neurosurgeon that operated on Ms. Rush."

"How is she?" Scotty asked.

"The bullet was in her frontal lobe. It was touch and go for a while but we managed to retrieve it. However the damage done by the bullet has caused her to slip into a coma. We're not sure if its reversible."

"Will she wake up?' Vera asked.

"We can't tell," Dr. Ryder said. "But it's unlikely at this point. We have her in the neuro-ICU. She's attached to several machines including a ventilator, EKG, and a heart monitor."

This was too much. Lilly couldn't exist like this. Not in a coma. Merely existing and not living.

"Can we see her?" Scotty asked.

"For a few minutes. But I must warn you, it doesn't look good."

"We don't care," Jefferies said. "We just want to see her."

They turned and walked down the hall. They entered the ICU and walked through the hallway. The doctor finally stopped in front of one room. He opened the door and looked at the detectives. "Please keep it brief."

The detectives walked into the room to see Lilly Rush lying on her back in the center of a huge bed. Her hair was gone and replaced by a white bandage that was wrapped neatly around her cranium. There were pads with wires attached to four places on her forehead and more wires that crawled under her hospital gown. The ventilator that obscured her mouth was hissing every few seconds, helping her keep a rhythmic breathing pattern. Tubes trailed from IV trees to Lilly's arms where the tubes attached to a needle on the back of each hand. She looked abandoned by time and space.

Scotty was the first to move foreward. He sat on the edge of her bed being careful not to jostle her. With a caring hand he reached out looked for any part of her petite body that wasn't being invaded by wires. He settled for her white shoulder.

She was real. She was alive. She was there in front of him. He could reach out and touch her. That was all he really wanted. He bent down and kissed her on the cheek. How he wished she would wake up and kiss him back. He loved her. He'd wanted to say it for sometime now but he always backed out. Maybe that was what attracted him to Christina. Her ability to love and be loved.

Scotty allowed his hand to travel to her arm where he gently rubbed his hand up and down. The friction caused her skin to warm and the hair on her arm to stand. "Come back to us Lil," he said. "We miss you."

His only response was the hissing of the ventilator as it vehemently pumped oxygen into her lungs. He momentarily pondered the option of begging her unconscious form to squeeze his hand and wake up. But decided against it.

Lil, if you're afraid of George don't be," Scotty whispered. "He's dead Lil. He can't hurt you anymore."

That's all for now! Next chapter I have a glimpse into Lilly's subconscious! Should I continue let me know?