Sherlock watched as they pushed the gurney next to Johns operating table and the nursing staff began the process of transferring John from one bed to the other. Swiftly turning on his heels Sherlock moved to return to Johns room. As he opened the door and moved into the hallway of the hospital his pace faltered. He couldn't remember which way he had come from in the maze of hospital hallways. Since he was a teen the only time that Sherlock's subconcious had not constantly mapped his location in the world was during his period of heavy drug use.
Not acknowledging his brothers split second of hesitance Mycroft moved past his him heading towards John's room. He did not spare a glance back as he walked briskly past Sherlock. Within a moment Sherlock was less than a pace behind Mycroft. An outside observer would have been incapable of noticing that either of the parties involved were unsure of where they were going.
The two men stood in silence for a moment once they reached the room. The nursing staff had yet to return with John. As usual neither of their thoughts reached their faces. The buzzing of Mycroft's phone in his pocket broke the silence, he checked the message and quickly typed a short reply.
"Well I can no longer linger here," he informed his younger brother twirling his umbrella once.
Sherlock made no motion to acknowledge that he had heard his brother. With a short nod of his head Mycroft turned and left the room. The tapping of his umbrella on the linoleum floor could be heard fading away as he moved down the hall. Once the door shut again Sherlock deflated collapsing with a long suffering sigh onto the couch. He scrubbed his hands over his face as he tried to process the last five hours. It felt as though it had been both the longest and shortest five hours of his entire life. He was not given a long respite, however because within a minute the nursing staff was pushing Johns gurney into the room and bustling about as they set up his IV drip, heart rate and oxygen monitors. None of the nurses paid any mind to Sherlock who had stood awkwardly when they entered the room. Once everything was set up and in place all of the nurses except one left the room. The last nurse grabbed the clipboard at the foot of John's bed and made a couple of notes and then turned to address Sherlock.
"Dr. Watson is in stable condition now but should there be any sort of emergency there is a nurse call button here." She said pointing to the device. "Although all of the monitors are equipped with automatic alarms if certain key measurements drop below acceptable values. A nurse will be coming in every 10 minutes for the first hour to monitor if there is any change to his performance to ensure that there are no more signs of high intracranial pressure. The surgeon chose not to utilize an invasive ICP monitor since his bleed wasn't severe. Your brother has cleared you to be able to stay after visiting hours so you are fine to stay in here for the night." The woman continued in a reassuring voice with a kind smile. Sherlock simply nodded his head curtly in response.
"Alright well the nurses desk is right out the door and down the hallway to the left so if you need anything just let us know." The nurse replied while putting back the clipboard and leaving the room.
Sherlock was left to finally face the full extent of John's situation alone for the first time since this all began. He began to feel as though that wave of blood was bearing down on him again. His hands began to sweat and the sound of the monitors seemed to slowly increase in volume until it was a cacophony of mechanical whirs and electronic beeps assaulting his eardrums. In the back of his mind his ever-logical side listed his symptoms: intense feeling of dread, sweating, increased heart rate, difficulty breathing, nausea; you are having a panic attack. Solution: find something to anchor yourself and regulate breathing. Sherlock attempted to match his breathing to the slow steady beats of Johns heart rate monitor. However, he could not shake the sense of dread bearing down on him and his racing heart. John just looked so…not John, wrapped up in bandages with a tube sticking out of his mouth. Then Sherlock remembered the ride to the hospital when the EMT had asked him to hold Johns arms down. Hesitantly he moved towards the bed placing two fingers over John's radial pulse point. He again matched his breathing to John's heart rate but found that this time his heart followed John's lead and began to slow down to a much more appropriate level. With an audible sigh Sherlock pulled the chair closer to the bed and prepared to begin his long vigil. He kept his hand clasped around John's wrist, rested his check on his arm and watched Johns chest rise and fall.
He quietly whispered. "I am sorry John, please don't change."
347 beats of John's heart later and the nurse came in for the first check up on John. Sherlock sat up and discreetly moved his hand off of John's wrist. It was the same nurse who had given Sherlock an idea of what to expect for the next few hours. He noticed that her name tag stated Nurse Karen.
"Hey" She said with a caring smile as she pulled the pin light out of her pocket moving to the other side of John to check his pupil dilation.
"John can you hear me?" She asked in a regular tone, "If you can I need you to try and move." She paused for a second to watch his body. Next she pulled a pin from her pocket pricking one of his fingers. Lethargically John's hand moved away from the pain. Sherlock watched all of this with rapt attention.
"What does that mean, is he recovering, getting worse?" Sherlock asked managing to keep his voice level if not moderately paced.
"Honestly, there isn't much of a change yet and really he is still recovering from the anesthesia used during his surgery." She replied with a good-natured chuckle. "Based on your friends condition we can expect him to need minimal assistance from the intubation within the next half hour. He is receiving a sedative so the tube will cause him minimal irritation. I believe the surgeon wanted to leave him intubated until he was fully awake incase of any complications." She said checking herself with the clipboard. Sherlock nodded his head storing the information in the newly created 'Important Medical Information Regarding John' room within his mind palace.
Pausing at the door before leaving Nurse Karen turned back to Sherlock. "If he wakes up while a nurse isn't in here just let him know not to try and talk, and explain to him why he has a tube in his throat he may be confused."
Sherlock returned his hand to John's wrist again once the door clicked behind her. Another 10 minutes or 490 beats of John's heart, as Sherlock was beginning to measure the passing of time by this measurement now, passed quietly. This time a different nurse came in with a silent node and went about her duties without addressing Sherlock. I prefer this one; Nurse…Christine Sherlock thought reading the name off of her badge as he followed her movements around John. The cycle continued three more times with a different nurse each time until it was again Nurse Karen who came through the door.
"Still awake then I see," She said with a smile to Sherlock carrying in four new IV bags with her. "Don't worry after this one we will leave you alone for a bit," She chuckled. "Dr. Watson is quite the fighter," She said as she began to replace the old IV bags with the new ones and checking the main line to the cannula inserted in the back of John's right hand. "He is improving at a good pace. His reactions to stimuli are now an appropriate speed, he is displaying increased eye movement, and his breathing has normalized. All he needs to do now is open his eyes and we will be over the first hurdle." She said with genuine happiness in her voice. Alright maybe she isn't that bad Sherlock thought smiling back at her in response to her description of John as a fighter. That's John my Army Doctor Sherlock thought with pride. Then pausing for a second in realization at his use of the possessive. He placed that thought in the also newly created room 'Things to Analyze Once John is Better'.
"What are in those?" Sherlock asked pointing towards the four new bags hanging from John's IV pole.
"One is the sedative for the intubation, that I mentioned earlier, one is a medication to help reduce intracranial pressure, and one is pain medication. The last one is your typical nutrients and fluids IV." She said point to each one in turn. Sherlock nodded his head in appreciation for the information.
"Well make sure you actually get some rest." Nurse Karen reminded him as she updated John's clipboard and left the room.
After she left Sherlock resumed the position he had held for the better part of the last hour. After the first completely uninterrupted half hour passed Sherlock's leg began to bounce in anticipation. John should be waking up soon. Then I can apologize and we can go home and leave this hospital and everything will be back to normal. Sherlock thought then as an after thought, except I will label every experiment I ever do in the future and keep them only in my room.
After another hour Sherlock began to pace the room his eyes locked on John's face the entire time. He should have woken up by now! This is a bad sign. Something is going to be wrong. He is going to want to leave. He will hate me. What if I have made him less intelligent than he already was? He will be so boring I will have to leave! Sherlock shouted internally. After a few more minutes and rather a few laps around the room he thought. Although John was never really an idiot and never, never boring. Sherlock noted that his mouth had arranged itself into a half smile with the thought. As someone with little experience with emotion he imagined what he was feeling now was close to a since of endearment for the older man. Another addition to the 'Analyze Later' room, there seemed to be quite a few additions to that room tonight.
After another forty-five minutes of waiting Sherlock was practically in a low hover about the room. He would go from lying down on the couch in his thinking position, to pacing around the room, to back in the chair holding John's wrist leg bouncing wildly, to pacing again while pulling on his hair, then back to the couch again to simply glare at John as though he was taking so long to wake up for the pure amusement of tormenting Sherlock. Which to be honest if John did really have any control over it he would be highly tempted to do.
Sherlock was again pacing the room and pulling on his hair mumbling angrily at himself for being such an idiot and leaving the jar so close to edge of the sink he froze when he thought he heard a rustling sound coming from John's bed. Looking over he saw that John's hand was twitching like someone rousing from a dream. Sherlock practically leapt to the side of the bed staring into John's face willing him to open his eyes.
Slowly John opened his eyes. His eyes blinked slowly coming to focus and then making contact with Sherlock's eyes.
"JOHN!" Sherlock practically shouted. Then in a whisper after John flinched in response to his volume. "John, you have a tube in your throat to help with breathing don't try to talk I'll call the nurses." Sherlock pressed the call button as he said this. John simply continued to stare at him blinking occasionally.
"John I am so so sorry. This is all my fault you were right I shouldn't have been doing experiments in the kitchen. I am so glad that you are awake I feel as if it has taken you years to wake up. You haven't been in a comma for years of course its only been a couple of hours." Sherlock rambled. Then noticing that John hadn't really moved much since he started talking other than simply blinking and following Sherlocks face he paused. "John can you understand what I'm saying? Blink if you can understand me." Sherlock asked, panic beginning to settle in his stomach. However, before he could get a response the two nurse on call came though the door quickly moving to John to assess his condition. The man and woman moved quickly and efficiently around John performing the extubation. John coughed slightly as the female nurse suctioned fluids from his throat before attaching an oxygen mask over Johns nose and mouth.
"Dr. Watson how are you feeling?" The male nurses asked. "Can you blink a couple of times for me if you understand what I'm saying." The nurse said in a kind slow voice. At first John appeared to be responding but it was soon clear that his eyelids had simply grown heavy with exhaustion and he had fallen back asleep.
"John," Sherlock attempted "please blink if you can understand me." Sherlock pleaded with the other man. John slowly opened his eyes briefly looked around the room and fell back asleep.
"He is just exhausted right now," The man explained. "Let him get a little more rest and we will try again. Its normal for patients to be a bit disoriented when they first come out of coma." He explained gently updating Johns chart.
"Dr. Barlow will be coming in at 7:30. She is a great Doctor and she will be able to explain to you what to expect in the next couple of days." The female nurse said trying to reassure a loved one she could tell was extremely worried now. "Just let us know again if he wakes up." She said on her way out the door.
"You should try to get some rest as well." The male nurse said with a half smile as he left.
Sherlock remained were he was the entire time they were talking to him. His face was still starring at Johns in slight disbelief that his friend hadn't comprehended what he was being told. John always does what I ask of him if I actually say please. Does this mean that John has changed? What if he honestly couldn't understand what we were saying. Sherlock's mind kept circling around more and more negative thoughts. His photographic memory supplying him with stored images and videos of individuals suffering from mental impairment after serious trauma and the difficulties they could have with day to day tasks. I don't know if I could forgive myself if John were brain damaged because of my actions. He thought as he sat down to hold John's wrist again not even consciously thinking about the action anymore. He glanced at his watch it was nearly four in the morning. Ugh he thought its been over 8 1/2 hours since this all started. He rested his head on his other arm again so that he could watch John's chest rise and fall with each breath that he breathed on his own now. The combined sensation of feeling John's pulse and watching his breathes began to slowly ease the tension out of Sherlocks body and mind. Half asleep already he thought; I think if John is broken, I will take care of him. Sherlock Holmes was asleep a moment later. Had he still been conscious that thought alone would have taken up an entire section of the 'Analyze Later' room.
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Hey guys so thank you again to everyone who chose to follow this story or add it to their favorites. You guys are my motivation. I'm trying to get you longer chapters.
Also I am not in any way trained in most of this medical stuff. I do try to do research because I like stories to sound right but if anyone has experience with this stuff and realizes something is off with what I wrote please let me know for my own education and so I can update the story.
Critical reviews are much appreciated ^_^ or if there are any interested Beta readers that would be awesome too.