Hey guys! Thanks for all the follows and comments on the first chapter. I really appreciate them. Just a little note that I have absolutely zero medical background, but I did the best research I could. I'm sure from this point on there could be some medical inaccuracies, but just know I tried my best. I apologize in advance if anything is wrong. Also, no mentions of her in this chapter, but I know I mentioned Makayla in the last chapter. For the sake of this story, Makayla is already in the picture. Anyway, Hope you enjoy this chapter!
Waiting for an update felt like it was taking forever. Trudy arrived shortly after the rest of the team with a change of clothes for both Kim and Kevin so that they could change out of their blood-stained clothes. Kim had pretty much completely shut down since arriving at the hospital.
"Hey. I brought you some clean clothes. What do you say we go get you cleaned up?" Trudy squatted down in front of Kim.
Kim finally made eye contact with Trudy. "Why won't they tell us anything?"
"It's only been a half hour, Kim. I'm sure as soon as they have an update to give us, they will let us know." Trudy said.
"Maggie said Will was working on him. You know Will is going to do everything he can for Adam." Jay added.
Tears grew in Kim's eyes, "What if it's not enough? There was so much blood, Jay. So much blood!" At this point, Kim lost all control over her tears again.
Trudy pulled her in for a tight hug. She didn't see the scene but judging by the amount of blood on Kim and Kevin, she knew it wasn't good. She was scared and the only thing keeping her composed right now was trying to be strong for Kim. After a few minutes, she broke free from the hug and led Kim to a bathroom to get cleaned up and changed.
When they returned to the waiting room, Kim returned to her chair, with Trudy sitting to her right and Kevin, who had also changed and got cleaned up, on her left. The whole team sat there for hours, almost in pure silence. Maggie would periodically pop in and let them know Adam was still in surgery. She wished she could update more, but she hoped that at least letting them know the surgery was still going on would bring the officers a little bit of relief knowing Adam was at least still alive.
Finally, after over four hours, an exhausted looking Will entered the room. Everyone immediately stood up as the doctor approached them.
"How is he!?" Kim asked before Will could cross the room.
"He's alive. I'll start with that." Will stated. "But he's in bad shape."
"But he's going to be okay?" Kim asked cautiously.
"Right now, it's too soon to say, but he's fighting." Will said.
"What's the damage?" Hank asked, wanting to get straight to the details.
Will looked around at all the officers who he considered family. This was one of his least favorite parts of the job, delivering more bad news than good news, so he decided to just cut straight to the chase. "As you know, Adam was shot three times. The vest caught one of the shots, but still managed to break a few ribs on his left side. The other two bullets did a lot more damage. Neither one exited the body, which unfortunately caused a lot of havoc internally. We believe we managed to get the internal bleeding under control and remove the bullet lodged in his lung. As a result, the lung collapsed so we placed a chest tube in to help with that."
"What about the other bullet? You said neither one exited the body. Did you get that one too?" Hailey asked.
This was the part Will was really dreading. "The other ones a little more complicated. X-rays indicated that the second bullet lodged itself in Adam's spine. We called a spine surgeon to come in to take a look at it and he decided the best thing for now is to leave it."
"Why would you leave it? Why wouldn't you just take it out while you were in there?" Kim asked. Her worry had taken all control of her common sense. "He'll still be able to walk right? Return to the job?" Her mind was going a mile a minute and she couldn't seem to stop the questions. She was mad. She was scared, feeling a ton of different emotions at once. All she wanted was to see Adam, to hug him and tell him everything was going to be alright.
Normally Will wouldn't be so straight forward with information, but this was family, so he laid out the facts. "Adam's body is extremely weak right now. He lost a lot of blood. We focused on the most crucial injuries first, but we got to a point where his body could no longer handle the stress of the operation." He paused before continuing. "He coded a few times on the table, but we managed to get him back and stabilized. We decided we were at a safe point to close him up and to let his body rest for a bit. We are going to monitor him closely for the next 24 hours and then re-evaluate his care plan. For now, we have placed him in a medically induced coma and on a ventilator to really give his body a chance to rest."
"What about the bullet in his spine? Is it ok to leave it? Will he be paralyzed?" Kevin finally spoke up.
"Like I said, we are going to monitor him closely for the next 24 hours. If after that, things seem to be stable, we plan on removing the ventilator and beginning the process of waking him up." Will started.
"Why are you avoiding the question Will? If he's paralyzed just tell us." Jay was starting to get frustrated with his brother who seemed to be beating around the bush.
"I'm getting there, Jay, Relax." Will instantly regretted getting snippy with his brother. He knew they were just worried. Once he's awake and aware of what's going on, the spine surgeon, Dr. Janic, will run a few tests. The bullet is lodged in an area of the spine where there is a possibility he could be paralyzed from the waist down, or he can be completely fine. We won't know though until Adam is awake."
"Can I see him?" Kim asked quietly. She heard enough for right now. All she wanted to do was see Adam. She could get the rest of the details later.
"Of course. I'll have the nurse come out and get you as soon as he's settled in the room." Will then gave his best sympathetic smile and then turned to leave the room.
"Will." Hank called out, prompting Will to turn around. "Thank you."
"No need to thank me. He's family." He smiled again, making eye contact with Jay, before disappearing through the doors. The eye contact was just enough to unsettle Jay. He knew his brother better than anyone. He knew there was something Will was holding back, and he made a mental note to ask him about it the moment he had him alone. For now though, his full focus would be on giving Adam his full support and being there for Kim.