Thank you for all the reviews. It really helps to keep me motivated. I'm already working on chapter five :)
Street clung to her as if her life depended on it on the ride to the hospital. All the team could do was watch on at their unmoving friend in his lap. Each member of the team had the time to take in her appearance properly. Her boney frame, her unwashed T-shirt and lack of clothing, each of them horrified by what they saw. They had all thought she was dead. They were just looking for her body. What if they had known she was alive? They could have looked harder, they would have fought harder to find her. They could only imagine the hell she had been through the past five months by looking at the state she was in now.
Street spent the short ride with his nose buried in the top of Chris's hair. She didn't smell like Chris, but he took anything he could get. He had a lot of dreams about this moment, about finding her. He had never expected her to look so bad. Somehow he had romanticised the moment, it would play out like the end of a film.
The reality sucked. She'd repeatedly ran from him, shot at him rather than stop and face him, and she looked like she was on deaths door. It tore his heart apart. She's going to be ok now Street told himself and he held her tighter just to prove it to himself. The ride was over too quickly for Street, he knew once they arrived she would be whisked away by the doctors. He knew it was the right thing for Chris but he wasn't willing to let go of her so soon.
They pulled to a stop and everyone filtered out. Tan and Deac went racing ahead into the hospital. By the time the rest of the team caught up to them a bed was waiting with a doctor beside it. Placing her down on the empty gurney Street watched helplessly as she was wheeled away from him. His arms were empty and he didn't expect to feel like he had lost her all over again.
'What happened?' a doctor approached the large group taking up a lot of space in the corridor. Still in full tactical gear they were impossible to miss. Street didn't know where to start. He didn't really know what had happened to her so he went with the easiest answer.
'Some scaffolding collapsed on her,' the rest of the team were surprised to hear this and their reactions didn't go unnoticed by the doctor. 'On us really, but she was directly underneath it,' Street added.
'Is that what happened to you cheek?' the doctor eyed the swelling, the bruise was starting to come out. Street nodded.
'I'll get Sharon to check you over,'
'I'm fine. I need to see Chris,' his voice was desperate as he tried to edge around the doctor aiming for the direction Chris had been taken.
'Let us do our job and get you and your partner checked over,' the doctor stopped Street walking past him and instead called Sharon over to take charge of him. Sharon was a no messing kind of nurse and no matter how much Street wanted to brush her off and find Chris he just didn't have the courage to go up against this woman. He had no doubt in his mind that she would get her way. Whether it was the hard way or the easy way, he would be doing it her way. Luca stayed at his side as they went to a cubicle, and she made him sit on the bed in front of her.
'How did you do this then?' she was cheerful, yet detached.
'Falling scaffolding,' Street looked over her left shoulder as she prodded at his cheek. He winced slightly as she pressed her thumbs over the forming bruise.
'Sorry. I don't think it's broken but I will order an x-ray just incase.'
'I don't need an x-ray. It's fine.' Street brushed her off, 'Do you have any news on Chris?'
'Hey, we're all worried but you're going for that x-ray.' Luca placed his hand on Street's shoulder stopping him from getting up. Street winced at the contact and watched as Sharon eye him up.
'Where else are you hurt? Take your top off,' one look at Luca and Street knew he was beaten. Begrudgingly he started to remove his bullet proof vest. He hadn't felt the injuries at the time, but now the adrenaline was wearing off he was becoming aware of a couple of bruises forming on his back and legs. Sharon was happy enough by the look of them and informed him he could re-dress.
'I'm going to get the doctor to prescribe you some pain killers, wait here and I will go and get them for you,' Sharon disappeared behind the curtain and Luca and Street were left alone.
'I'm sorry I didn't believe you man,' Luca stood at the end of the bed watching Street securing his vest in place.
'Ok,' Street sighed.
'It's not ok. I should have listened to you. I should have trusted you more. We could have been out there looking for her,' Luca's guilt came pouring out.
'I thought I was crazy at first too. I thought I was just missing her so much that I wanted to see her,' Street hadn't looked up from his vest. He knew he could have pushed more for them to believe him, for them to look for her; but he simply hadn't been sure enough to voice his beliefs.
'Take these,' Sharon returned handing a little paper cup to Street with a couple of white pills in it. 'Then take this up to x-ray, they are expecting you. Your friends signed you in so you don't need to worry about that.' She placed a piece of paper in his hand and gave directions on how to get to x-ray. Street didn't listen to them, he held the piece of paper that was standing in the way of him seeing Chris.
Once they were walking through the corridors, Luca leading the way, Street relaxed a bit. He would be able to see Chris soon. Had she woken up yet?
'Lets see how Chris is first,' Street turned to Luca. He wanted to be there when she woke.
'This won't take long. The guys are with her,' Luca slung an arm over his shoulder and kept leading him in the direction of x-ray.
Luca was right the x-ray didn't take long and they were finally making their way back towards Chris. Street was striding down the hallway. He was relieved when they finally made it to her room. Hondo was stood outside waiting for them to join them.
'How is she?' Street started talking with three meters still between them.
'No news yet, we're in the waiting room.' He came face to face with hondo. 'The doctor is going to come and talk to us,' Street didn't like the sound of that one bit. Hondo lead them into the waiting room.
'Get the all clear?' Tan asked looking up at Street from his seat.
'Yeah,' Street took a seat on the other side of the small room. It was empty apart from the SWAT team.
'We're waiting for the x-rays to come back,' Luca corrected him also taking a seat. Silence fell over them, no-one broke it. As the minutes ticked by all their thoughts were on Chris. What was taking the doctors so long?
