Chapter 7: "To Help Him"

"Mark, look whose awake" Kerry said as she moved out of the way so Carter and Mark could both see the flickering of Luka's eyelid's before they opened fully.

Luka's eyes opened and he blinked then a few times, before he looked around the room, the faces of Kerry Weaver, Abby Lockhart, John Carter and Mark Greene all looking down at him. He had a confused look on his face, and was about to speak when Mark came to the top of the bed and placed a comforting hand on his shoulder.

"You can't talk right now, your on a ventilator, but I could take it out now for you now?" Greene said while smiling, happy that Luka was awake but knowing he was not out of the woods yet.

"Okay, you know the drill, I want you to take a deep breath and then blow out really hard, okay, 1…2…3, good" Luka started coughing and Kerry placed the oxygen mask over his mouth.

"Your throat will be sore for a day or so, so remember to try and not talk much" Kerry said as she removed the oxygen mask, as he had caught his breath, and placed a straw to his lips, "Take small sips…that's good" Kerry could not help but feel motherly towards him as he lay looking so vulnerable, so fragile, with various tubes attached to him.

By now Carter and Abby had sat back down, not wanting to crowd around him, when Benton entered the room. He walked over beside Kerry and squeezed Luka's shoulder as a sign of comfort and thanks.

"Hey man, how you feeling? You gave us quite a scare down there"

Luka just smiled slightly and his eyes closed half way, his body exhausted from the night's events, too tired and sore to speak.

"I can see your exhausted so, I'm just gonna check your bandage and then you can rest" Benton said, but Luka's eyelids had already slid closed and he had fallen asleep.

Greene motioned for the other's to come outside, not wanting to disturb Luka, even though it was obvious he would not wake up for a while yet.

"I think we should let Luka rest, he's had a hell of a day to put it lightly, and we can have a meeting tomorrow, see what's going to be done about this…"

"But, someone should stay tonight…" Abby started to protest when Kerry stopped her,

"I'll stay tonight, I have been on the least tonight, you go home and get rest, we can hardly help anyone if we aren't rested ourselves" Kerry said as Benton came out of Luka's room.

"Everything seems to be okay, but it should still be checked every hour, or two…now I should be getting back to Reece, I'll see you all tomorrow"

Everyone said goodbye and then Kerry went back inside Luka's room. She pulled the chair closer to Luka's bed and held his hand in both of hers, stroking his face and hair.

Please R&R

Because I think I have been very good with these speedy updates, LOL )