Recovery

'Think of the irony,' Eric said.

Ryan gave him a bemused look. He was propped up in his hospital bed with a IV drip poking in his arm and was feeling awful. But conscious, which had to be an improvement to unconscious. 'What irony?'

'The case I got you working on. Talk about signs, right?'

'Whatever,' Ryan said with little humour.

'The question is,' Eric said. 'How many times can one man end up in hospital with life-threatening issues in one year?'

Ryan gave him a tired stare. 'I would laugh,' he said in a hoarse voice. 'Honestly, I would, but I really can't.' He closed his eyes.

'You look better than a couple of days ago,' Eric said. 'We're just relieved that you didn't die this time. You really need to stop getting yourself landed in hospital.'

'Thanks, I'll try,' Ryan said dryly. 'What happened?'

'No one's told you yet?'

'No.'

'You collapsed in the lab. Gave us all one hell of a scare, Wolfe. We honestly thought you were going to die this time.'

Ryan closed his eyes briefly. 'I feel terrible.'

'You look it,' Eric agreed.

'Thanks,' Ryan said dryly.

'You're welcome.' Eric sat back. 'This is getting to be a habit, isn't it? All of us standing a bedside vigil in case you snuff it in the middle of the night.'

Ryan blinked. 'It's the middle of the day.'

'Not the point. You could have kicked the bucket at any time.'

'Your concern is touching.' Ryan struggled to sit up properly and winced.

'You ever heard of the concept of taking it easy?' Eric asked.

'Never heard of it,' Ryan replied. He rubbed a hand over his stomach and grimaced in pain. 'What happened? Specifically? They open me up again?'

Eric looked around. 'Oh, is that the time?' he said hurriedly. 'I had better be going – I think Alexx is coming in – ' He scurried out of the door.

'Wimp,' Alexx told him as she passed him in the corridor.

'Why is he a wimp?' Ryan asked. His head hurt. He desperately needed a drink.

'Because he is,' she said, sitting down. She smiled. 'How are you feeling, sweetie?'

'Awful,' he replied. 'Alexx, what happened to me? Eric wasn't exactly – specific.'

'You've been feeling bad for a while, right?' she asked.

He nodded.

'You should have seen a doctor days ago,' she added. 'You collapsed in the DNA lab and got rushed into hospital. The doctors stabilised you, then ran some tests. You had contracted a serious infection, which was rooted in the wound from your surgery to remove those bullets. You went into exploratory surgery, they opened you up and found the cause of the infection.' She paused. 'A swab left over from the surgery.'

Ryan stared at her. 'I think I'm going to be sick.'

'You were,' Alexx said without any trace of irony. 'This is the first time you've regained consciousness. For the past week there's been someone here, your family or from the lab. We all thought you were going to die. Even the doctors predicted you were going to die.'

Ryan clamped a hand against his mouth. 'Alexx, I really am going to be sick.'

Deftly, she grabbed a bowl from the table and shoved it under his nose just as he vomited violently.

'Poor baby,' she said gently. 'It's okay now. You're okay now.' She saw his face go pale. 'Ryan, breath,' she said. 'Don't faint on me, please.'

He blinked. 'I'm – okay – sorry – ' He collapsed back onto the pillows.

'No need to be,' she said, stroking his hair. 'It's a shock, sweetie. Just keep breathing, okay?'

He nodded, trying to breath slowly and evenly. His vision kept blurring and there was a faint ringing in his ears. Now his stomach felt like it was on fire. 'Okay,' he said. 'Do we have grounds to sue the surgeon?'

'That's your first question?' she inquired.

'I wasn't sure if he was already going to be charged with negligence.' Ryan took the glass of water she passed him, took a mouthful and rinsed his mouth out, spitting it into the bowl. He drank the rest. 'I only ask because that's the first thing my family will do, if I know them. They'll sue him.'

'That's right,' she said wryly. 'Think positively.'

'Has my family been in?'

'Yes,' she said. 'Your parents came back off of holiday as soon as they could and your sister has been visiting. I sent her off home a couple of hours ago, though. And your Aunt came to see you.'

'May?' he said, smiling. 'Auntie May? Great, she's the other black sheep of the family. How is she?'

'She was fine,' Alexx said. 'Everyone else has been in to see you, and you got another get well card – getting quite a collection now, aren't you?'

'I'll frame them all,' Ryan replied, rather weakly.

There was knock at the door. Horatio looked in and smiled. 'Ah, you're awake,' he said pleasantly. 'Good. You're off work for the foreseeable future, Ryan.'

Ryan groaned.

'Serves you right,' Alexx told him. 'Next time you've had major surgery and are suffering from all the signs of serious infection, or you notice that a surgery scar is refusing to heal and getting incredibly painful – '

'Thank you for that lecture,' Ryan muttered.

She ignored this. ' – then maybe you will go and see your doctor.' She got up. 'And I am going to go and get a cup of coffee. Be back soon.' She exchanged a meaningful glance with Horatio as she left. Horatio smiled and sat down to have a chat with Ryan.

'Can I see Dr Fielding, or is he in surgery?' Alexx asked a harassed looking nurse who pointed her towards an office before hurrying back to work.

Alexx knocked on the door and went in without waiting for a reply.

The man sat inside looked up and gave her a nasty smile. 'Ah, Alexx Woods,' he said with a feigned smile. 'How may I help you?'

'Don't pretend to be nice to me,' she said shortly.

'What are you doing here?' he asked. 'Not merely for the pleasure of my company. I seem to remember you shooting some rather harsh words at me last time we met. I seem to also remember you calling me stupid and incompetent.'

'You're worse than that,' Alexx said coldly. 'You almost ended up with a charge of manslaughter.'

He raised his eyebrows. 'I'm sorry?' he said with a charming.

'Don't pretend you don't know,' she spat. 'Ryan Wolfe, one of your patients, who you operated on a few weeks ago, nearly died of an infection caused by you leaving a surgical swab inside him. If he had died then you would be looking at a charge of manslaughter.'

'You can't pin that on me,' he said, his smile being replaced by a smirk.

'No,' she agreed. 'He hasn't died and you're lucky he didn't. But you will be looking at a lawsuit from Wolfe's family.'

'I'm so scared,' he murmured.

'His family comprises of several lawyers,' she said and had the distinct pleasure of seeing the smirk slid off his face. 'The Wolfe family. I believe they have a family practise.'

'This is personal, isn't it, Alexx,' Fielding said.

'This is the second one of my friends you've nearly killed with your incompetence,' she said angrily.

'So, it is personal.' He smiled again. 'Who was it this time? A friend? Someone you work with?'

'CSI,' she said. 'One of Horatio Caine's CSIs.'

'And Lieutenant Caine doesn't like it when harm comes to any of his team. Alexx, I am very sorry about the CSI – '

'If you were sorry, then you wouldn't make stupid mistakes,' she said. 'You wouldn't put people's lives at risk through your own incompetence. Just thought I should let you know that I still think you shouldn't be practising medicine, let alone being a surgeon.' Before he could reply, she left, slamming the door behind her.

'You didn't get any coffee, then,' Ryan said when Alexx returned.

She blinked, then said quickly, 'It was mud. I'll get something when I go back to work. Speaking of which, you need to get some rest.'

'And we need to get back to work,' Horatio agreed. 'We'll come and see you again, Ryan.'

'Thanks for coming,' Ryan said as they left.

'Well?' Horatio said to Alexx.

'Well what?'

'Well, did you find Dr Fielding?'

She smiled. 'How did you know?'

'You had that look in your eye. Ever since you found out who the surgeon was. There's a history there, I suppose?'

'He's incompetent,' she said grimly. 'I'll just say this is the second time his incompetence has almost cost one of my friends their life. I think I left him in mortal fear of you and Ryan's family who probably will sue him.'

Horatio smiled. 'Good.'

'I thought so.'

They both smiled and left the hospital.

Finished! I'm currently working on a cross-over between Miami and Vegas CSI, but that's not finished yet, so I will be spending the next few weeks deprived of sleep, functioning solely on cups of tea and adrenaline. Wish me luck, all!

Note: The Dr Fielding vs. Alexx thing is something I might work into one of my next fics, which is why it's there. It's not an allusion to any of the episodes, in case anyone was wondering what on earth I was talking about. It just might turn up in another fic, or it might not. All depends!