A/N Peeks out from under table… ok, ok I know I'm hopeless. But unfortunately I have taken to reading fanfiction instead of writing it lately. That and marathoning supernatural in my spare time leaves little time for me to get writing. Owel, I finally got another chapter done anyway.
Its kinda short and there's no Jane or Lisbon (conscious) in this chapter but I hope you like it anyway. I must say I felt like I was more writing something for grey's anatomy then the mentalist but I had fun.
Isn't this season awesome? I'm loving it so far! Glad we are finally moving along in the plot! Tyger tyger people!
Anyway enough rambling… =D
Rigsby arrived a couple of hours later, nursing two cups of coffee. Wordlessly he handed one to Grace, then sat down in the chair beside her. Grace had called Rigsby as soon as the nurse had given her the news of both their friends being in surgery.
"I got here as fast as I could." He said not quite able to look her in the eye for some reason.
"I know Wayne." She replied in a small voice.
They sat there in awkward silence for a few minutes before Rigsby cleared his throat.
"So we got Mrs Cortez booked."
"Oh yeah?" Grace replied looking at him for the first time since he entered the room.
"Yeah. We can charge her on tampering with evidence, as well as holding up a police officer with an armed weapon – that she doesn't have a permit for I might add. Cho is questioning her now." Rigsby looked down at the Styrofoam cup in his hands. "He said he'll get here as soon as he can… said that you would benefit having me here more than you would if he was…" he was rambling and he knew it, but the silence was killing him and he just didn't know what to do.
"Have you heard anything yet?" he asked in another attempt to get her to talk to him.
Grace sighed. She knew what he was doing. He was trying to distract her from the fact that this was a risky surgery for both patients, and they could very well loose both of them. She could also tell how worried he was.. if the constant rambling had anything to do with it.
"A nurse came in earlier, said both patients were fully prepped for the transplant and they had just removed Lisbon's left kidney. They said they were preparing to open Jane up and another team was readying Lisbon for the donor kidney." Grace directed her gaze to the floor. "That was over an hour ago though."
Rigsby nodded, shifting slightly in his seat, before he finally took a deep breath and reached out and grabbed Grace's hand.
"They'll be ok Grace." Rigsby murmured. "They always pull through. This won't beat them. They'll be ok… they have to be." In the end Rigsby wasn't entirely sure if he was trying to comfort Grace or himself.
OOOOOoooooOOOOO
"Now that's what I like to see." Doctor Howard said, indicating at Lisbon's new kidney. "Nice and pink."
All in all it had been a rather successful operation for both patients. Another team was currently closing Patrick, and Teresa's system seemed to be taking to the kidney. It would be a couple of days before they could measure how well the kidney was actually functioning, but if the blood flow was any indication, so far he couldn't be happier.
"Closing her up now." he said to his team. "Sutures."
He had barely made one stitch before a nurse came flying through the door.
"Doctor Howard! He's crashing!"
Howard spun around to face the nurse who was leaning against the door of the adjoining Operating Rooms.
"What?" he said a little more forcefully than necessary.
The nurse wasn't fazed though.
"His BP went through the roof, we're having trouble controlling the bleeding. He's tanking."
"Dammit!" he swore under his breath. "Jared!" he ordered addressing his resident. "You think you can handle closing her up?"
The young man nodded eagerly.
"Yes sir!" he said taking control of the sutures.
Howard shed his surgical overcoat and gloves and raced through to the next OR. A new coat and gloves were thrown on him upon entry.
"We can't find where he's bleeding from." The surgeon said. She was almost elbow deep in Jane, trying to control the source. She looked at him with desperate eyes and he remembered she was still very young and had lost one too many patients lately. She had originally specialised in oncology, and while that had been rewarding, she had trouble handling the deaths. Howard remembered because he was the one that found her in a storage cupboard crying. She moved to general soon after that.
The surgical teams movements were erratic and frantic. There was no flow. They were all yelling at each other. If he didn't calm things down they were going to lose this man.
Walking up to the operating table he put his hands in the air.
"Ok everyone just stop!" he yelled in the most authoritive voice he could muster.
The team all stopped what they were doing and stared at the doctor.
"Hands."
The young girl took her hands out of the patient and Howard replaced them with his own.
He prodded around for a couple of moments, taking a second the admire the clean removal of the kidney, when he found it.
"Put your hand in here. Feel it?" he asked indicating where the bleed was. One of the arteries hadn't been sectioned off properly. Usually it wouldn't have mattered as much but that as well as the patients high BP and heart rate, he was bound to bleed more.
He nodded at the young girl and removed his hands. She looked a little shaky at first before taking control again, and fixing the bleed.
"Get a transfusion into him." Howard said to one of the nurses before turning back to his patient.
Howard stayed until he knew the bleed had been fixed and she had started to close, before he made his way back to his other patient.
Jared had closed her up cleanly and without a hitch, and they were beginning to prepare her for her trip to recovery.
"Good job, son." He said patting the younger man on the back. He looked over at the nurse. "Get her on warm fluids and up the dosage of her antibiotic. Keep her sedated for now. I want her body's only task to be fighting off this infection." The nurse nodded and they began to wheel her out of the room.
Howard sighed and went to scrub out. The adjoining door opened minutes later and the young doctor walked through.
"We're all closed up in there." She said with a quiet voice.
Howard nodded in approval.
"You did good in there Sally."
She hung her head.
"I just about killed him." she whispered.
"No. You saved his life. Don't forget that."
"I couldn't find the bleed though."
"Sally." He said turning the tap off and grabbing a hand towel. "When you have been doing this job as long as I have, you will be able to find bleeds a lot easier too." He smiled kindly at her. "But until then, it is ok to ask for help."
She nodded slowly.
"Thanks Doctor Howard."
He finished the conversation with a single nod and then walked off to inform Teresa and Patrick's friends on their conditions.
OOOOOoooooOOOOO
The next few hours crawled along slowly for the two agents. Finally, around 1am, Doctor Howard came in clad in surgical scrubs.
"How are they?" Grace asked leaning forward in her seat.
Howard sat down beside the agents, feeling the exhaustion beginning to creep into his bones.
"Teresa's surgery was a success. The damaged kidney was successfully removed and the donor kidney seems to be taking. The blood flow was excellent. We have her on a high dosage of antibiotics and we're keeping her sedated for now. I'm hoping in the next twenty-four hours we will start to see big improvement."
"Oh that's wonderful!" Grace said with a genuine smile. It was the first time Rigsby had seen her happy in days.
"And Jane?" Grace asked.
Howards face dropped a bit, as did Grace's smile.
Well that was short lived. Rigsby thought as the serious mask was flung back in place.
"Jane's BP was through the roof when he was first admitted. We managed to lower it somewhat before he was taken into surgery, but the stress his body was under on the operating table, caused his BP to spike again. There was a bleed, and he lost a lot of blood. We did manage to stabilise the bleed and he is currently having a blood transfusion."
Grace looked slightly heartbroken. Howard knew how much she cared for her team. They were a tight-knit group. Like family.
"Due to the blood loss, on top of his already exhausted state, we expect him to be unconscious for the better part of a few days. His body needs time to heal. We will keep him under a light sedation for the next twelve hours, and then we'll leave it up to Mr Jane on when he wakes up."
The agents nodded their reply.
"Go home. Get some rest. Your friends will be out to it for at least the rest of the night." Howard got up and made his way to the door. "I'll call if there's any change." He said before giving the agents a small smile and leaving the waiting area.
Grace sat back in her chair.
Ok so they were alive. They were both alive and so far they were both going to be fine.
She took a deep breath trying to calm her already frazzled nerves. She didn't realise her hands were shaking until she felt Rigsby wrap one of his giant hands back around hers.
"Come on Grace, I'll take you home." He said gathering their coats, helping her put hers on, before shrugging into his own.
They were half way out the door when Grace turned around, facing Rigsby directly for the first time that evening.
"Wayne…" she asked uncertainly.
"Yes?"
"I…" she sighed. "I guess you'd better call Cho. Let him know we're going home and we can meet him here tomorrow."
"Right! Yeah… I―I'll do that."
She saw the disappointment in his eyes and immediately hated herself.
He turned and continued down the corridor a few steps ahead of her.
"Oh and Wayne?"
He stopped and turned into her.
"Yes?" he asked again.
"Thanks… for everything." She gave him a small smile and reached up on tip-toes to kiss him sweetly on the cheek.
Rigsby felt himself go red, and couldn't keep the stupid grin off his face.
"Anytime." He breathed quietly.
"Let's go home." She said taking his hand and Rigsby took that as a silent invitation that maybe they were all going to be ok.
Sorry again that it's been so long and sorry it's so short. I will try my best to get the next chapter up a lot faster!