Chapter Seven
Connor was beyond tired. It had been the longest shift of his life with many ups and downs, however the lowest point was standing over his friend knowing that there was nothing else he could do. Being on call, sadly, meant that he couldn't keep a close eye on Will. He knew that many of the other staff had called to see Will for themselves when the news hit the hospital about the attack.
Connor also had to deal with all heads of departments in the hospital questioning his method of surgery, choices he had made and every moment that he had been in charge of the case. He had to attend meetings with every department and update the bosses of the hospital.
Will was one of their own, and that meant only the best treatment was offered. Connor knew that many of the departments had mixed feelings about Will staying on at the hospital but they couldn't argue that he was a great doctor.
Connor had finally found some peace in the doctor's lounge. Closing the door, he dropped himself onto the couch and closed his eyes. Today had been a bad day.
After the surgery and the two emergency calls he had been allow time to take a quick shower, throwing his second pair of scrubs in his bag. In the hot water, he could still feel his friend's blood on his skin.
He had been able to change into his surgical scrubs but the blood seem to have stuck to his body. He hated having a patient's blood on him and more so when it was a friends. He had to clean it off.
He was now in scrub number three. Luckily he always left a few spare pair of scrubs at the hospital just in case he needed to change. Before and after his shower, he had checked on Will a couple of times to see on how he was faring and checked on his vital signs.
At the same time he had checked on Will's younger brother Jay. It seem to him that the younger Halstead brother was still in a state of shock. He wouldn't react to anything said to him. However he had learned after speaking to the Doris that whenever someone touched Will, they saw Jay shift in his seat and watch them closely. If he was getting ready to protect his brother from any other threat.
But Connor couldn't blame him, they had almost lost Will tonight.
Will had been too close to death than he would like. However he couldn't make himself tell his friends and Will's brother the whole truth.
Will was physically drowning in his own blood. He had lost so much blood that it had started to pour from the wound as soon as a few of the bandages. It was a fight in itself to keep Will's heart beating. The Anaesthetics Registrar had been right, Will's heart was suffering and that became apparent when he crashed.
Overall, throughout the whole operation Will had crashed twice. Even now he could still hear the sound of the machines as it screamed with the information that his friend's heart had stopped.
He had just about to close the small hole in his friend's heart when Will's heart stop for the second time. He had only just pushed the needle through Will's heart to close the wound when it happened.
As he enjoyed the silence, he couldn't stop his mind ran over the whole operation in slow motion. Counting each step he had done to find out if he had missed a step or could have done something different. However deep down he knew that he couldn't lessen the damage already done by the knife. And he had done the right thing.
But from his experience as a doctor if Will survived his injuries he was going to have a long and painful recovery before he could even leave the ICU. And an even longer on to leave the hospital. He didn't want to try to work out how long it would take Will to get into recovery before he could think about returning to work. But only if he wanted too.
Something like this could make Will not want to come back. To run away from the pain that he was clearly in. He had always admired the fact that Will really cared about what he did. He had found of that Will had been a talented surgeon when he had took that role. It was a shock that Will had taken the role of an trauma doctor over a surgeon.
Will was a good doctor, a great doctor. He also liked the fact that Will didn't cared about breaking the rules in order to save someone's life. He also took any punishment giving to him afterwards.
However with every failure he took personal. Each time Will had done something right to save someone; something else would come along and throw it back in his face.
The man cared too greatly sometimes, if there were such a thing. He had seen Will beat himself up again and again for things that were beyond his control. That was Will's weakness, and he knew that one day it would destroy him.
Opening his eyes he turned his head to look out on the busy ER. When he had returned to the floor he noticed that people avoid a spot of floor in front of the desk. Where not that long ago Will had laid on the floor bleeding.
Will's blood had been long ago cleaned up but it seem to have strained the floor with the horrible mark that had affected them all. Will had been here longer than him and he could see that the young doctor had made some good friends here and sadly with that fact they had all been marked by seeing their friend hurt.
However even with all his friends he had noticed something about Will that confused him. Over time he noticed that Will would never talk about anything personal with anyone. Not even if he trusted them with everything else.
Natalie and Maggie were the two people that Will trusted the most but his personal life was a private subject and he hated talking about it. Even with Ethan, Will would never talk about his private life, instead he would talk about anything else as soon as the topic was brought up.
However that didn't stop him from muttering little comments when he thought no one was listening. However he wasn't one to talk since his private life was also private. His family was a no go area with him as well. He hated talking about his life with anyone but at least Will had a brother to help him out.
Picking up his cup of coffee that he had gotten on the way back from one of his trips up to see Will, only to find the liquidstone cold. It felt like he had only just sat down in his chair but looking up at the clock on the wall he saw that he had been sat there for over an hour since he had first placed himself in the chair.
His legs were asleep. Slowly he started to move them trying to get them to wake up. He knew that he really should think about going home and catching up on some sleep however he couldn't get himself to do it.
He was running on caffeine and a lot of it. He knew every well that if Doctor Charles spotted him, he would be advised to go home and to get some sleep. But more worrying for him was the knowledge of it Mrs Goodwin saw him sitting here he would be sent home with an order not to return until his next shift.
But as must as his body wanted and needed sleep, he knew that even at home he wouldn't find it. He couldn't switch off his mind. He then found himself looking at Will's locker that stood next to his.
He didn;t know if he could handle watching as someone else cleaned out Will's locker. And he couldn't just leave, not with the knowledge that his friend could die any minute without him being there trying to save him.
It was silly and he knew it. He knew that Will's life was out of his hands and it was up to Will to fight.
As this thought entered his mind he heard the door to the room open and softly close. Sadly someone had found him. He looked up in surprise to see Sam in her her own clothes with her coat wrapped around her tightly.
"Thought I would find you here. Forgot we had plans for dinner again?" She asked with a smile, remembering the last time he forgot they had plans and they had ended up back at his place and ordering take out.
However to be truthful Connor had forgot, with everything that had happened he had forgotten he had plans. He also knew that he should have clocked off two hours ago. He knew that she wasn't going to be happy, but he couldn't leave. With a sigh, he sat up in his chair and looked at her but not in the eye.
"Think I am going to stay around here for a while. Will was suppose to be working tonight and they need someone to cover for him." He started and then looked back to the ER. Will has supposed to be out there with the others and not lying in a hospital bed.
"Also I need to check on him to see if he starts to improve. I know he wouldn't wake up tonight and maybe not even tomorrow but I will be more happy when I see him improving even a little." It was strange speaking about someone he worked with like one of his patients.
But he was his patient, there was no other way to put it. He was. And he wasn't going to hand his friend over to another doctor when he had worked so hard already. Even if he trusted the doctor with his friend's life because if anything happened he wouldn't forgive himself.
"Come on Rhodes, he isn't going to improve tonight. Hell; he has the whole hospital looking after him. He can survive one night with you not being there…" Sam started to say but stopped.
Sometimes she didn't understand him, he was a brilliant doctor but he got too personal with some cases. And this was one of them.
She sighed and knew that he wasn't going to leave with her. So she just turned and walked out. Leaving him alone again with his thoughts.