Chapter 17
Michaela didn't dare to move her head for even one inch. The man she had just saved from bleeding to death had ordered the kidnapper to release the safety of the gun so he would be able to shoot without delay. Just the slightest stumbling would be enough to kill her, and this knowledge made it difficult for her to still think clearly. The adrenalin rush she had experienced was already wearing off, and right now, she was glad that she had the wheelchair before her to steady herself.
With the increasing pressure against the nape of her neck, she slowly moved forward. To her astonishment, the usually crowded emergency room was bare of any people: neither patients nor doctors or nurses were to be seen but no cops either. Whilst Michaela understood that the civilians had been gotten out of danger, the absence of policemen puzzled her. Assuming that they would spring into action outside of the building, she regained some of her strength: maybe an idea about how to get away would come to her during this short reprieve.
They had made their way half through the emergency area, when suddenly, as if from nowhere, another wheelchair appeared some yards across from them, blocking their way, and Michaela gasped when she recognized Sully sitting in it. Automatically, she halted in her tracks, and apparently her kidnapper was too surprised to immediately react as well. So it came that for a tiny moment Michaela and Sully's eyes locked. He didn't need to say one word for her to understand that he would create a situation where she would need to act quickly.
Shifting his gaze to the man behind her, Sully said, "Feelin' strong threatenin' a woman with a gun?"
"Ignore him and move on," Huston instantly advised his brother, wishing it would be him holding the gun. He'd just shoot this idiot who dared to get into their way.
Yet Brent hesitated, if only for a split second, and Sully used this advantage and continued, "Nice way to say thanks for savin' his life, threatenin' to kill her."
For some reason, these words infuriated Brent. Everything had worked just fine, despite the fact that he hadn't had much time to make a plan. And now this gimp possibly ruined it. He wouldn't allow that to happen.
Sully had calculated right: Confronted by only one man, who was, as to top it, sitting in a wheelchair, Brent Currier would believe he had the situation under control, and aim at him.
The moment he did, all hell broke loose.
Michaela, focused only on the barrel of the gun held against her head, instantly reacted, her karate training paying off once again. The minute she felt the gun leaving her skin but turning to Sully instead, she lifted her hands from the back of Huston's wheelchair, clasped them together tightly, lifted her right foot and stomped it firmly onto the man's foot behind her whilst she simultaneously swung her arms and rammed her elbow into his stomach. During the three seconds she needed for this action, the room around them suddenly filled with cops, clad in black, who shouted commands, aiming their rifles at the Currier brothers. Whilst Huston slowly lifted his hands, folding them behind his head, Brent grunted because of the unexpected punch in his stomach. The pain in his foot heightened his shock, and thus he bent forward but was still alert enough to grasp Michaela's arm as she was moving away from him. Since she continued wriggling to get out of his grip, the younger Currier brother lost his balance. In falling, he dragged Michaela with him and half buried her under his massive body. The moment they hit the floor, a deafening shot was heard, silencing everyone in the room for the fraction of a second.
The cops, used to the sound, recovered quickly though. Roughly, they pulled the man off the woman but were distracted again, this time by a scream.
"Michaela!" The moment Sully saw her lying in a puddle of blood, something inside of him changed. He forgot that he couldn't walk; he simply functioned. There was no question, he instantly needed to get to her, and with so many people around them, the only way was to use his legs. With all his might, he pushed himself from the armrests of his wheelchair, getting into an almost upright position. Hearing on of the cops yelling "We need a doc here!" Sully even managed two steps before he fell down on his knees. Disregarding the sharp pain that shot through them, he went on all four until he reached the one person he knew he couldn't lose.
As he cradled her head in his lap he realized that she was knocked out but still breathing. Gently stroking her cheeks, he whispered, "It's gonna be alright. Everythin' is gonna be alright."
Continuing his soothing words, he barely registered that finally a doctor took care of Michaela's injury because he only concentrated on her face, hoping to see her eyelids flutter or at least some color returning to her cheeks. Only when he was addressed with his name, he looked up.
"Mr. Sully." Dr. Alvarez, who had crouched down to them, sympathetically touched Sully's shoulder, "We need to move her so we can properly examine her. Of course you can come with us."
Yet Sully needed an answer first. "Will she live?" he asked, his fear audible.
"The bullet hit her lower leg, but went through smoothly," replied Michaela's boss, knowing that the man who still sat on the floor deserved the truth. "We don't know yet about the severity of the blood loss, but her life is not in danger."
A small sigh of relief escaped Sully's mouth before he worriedly furrowed his brow. "She's pregnant," he informed the physician.
Whilst hearing the men talking, Michaela attempted to surface from the blackness she had fallen in. She was certain not to be awake yet for she could swear her head was lying in Sully's lap, and he held her. That was impossible though. For weeks he had only left his wheelchair either in the bathroom or when he went to bed. There was no way that his legs would carry him, not even to sit down on the floor. Maybe he had fallen…
This thought, however, instantly alerted her enough to force her eyelids open. When she was looking straight into Sully's eyes, the previous thought still held her captured, and so her first words were to ask him whether he was hurt.
"If I'm hurt?" Sully chuckled in disbelief that she still worried about him whilst she lay in his arms, suffering from a bullet wound in her leg. Before two nurses put her on a stretcher that they had placed next to her, Sully hugged her upper body to his chest. "I'm fine," he whispered in her ear. "And you will be, too," he added after softly kissing her temple.
Yet the steep wrinkle between her eyebrows indicated that she wasn't reassured. As she was lifted so as to be rolled away, her gaze remained on Sully, and when he didn't move to get up from the floor, she looked at her acquaintance at the foot of the stretcher. "Jenny, could someone please take care of Sully?" she requested in a weak voice.
"No need to worry, I'm already here," Daniel said, insecurely smiling at Michaela as he pushed the wheelchair towards his friend.
Like everyone else, Daniel had only heard gossip about a kidnapping and shooting in the ER, and since he wasn't able to find Sully, he'd assumed that he was somehow involved. Then he'd heard that Dr. Quinn had been shot, and now seeing Michaela being rolled away made him both, relieved and concerned.
"Hey, I'm down here," Sully attracted Daniel's attention to him again.
"Oh, right," Daniel shifted so he could help his friend in his wheelchair. "What was goin' on here?"
Sully told him what he knew but insisted that they follow Michaela. Daniel didn't object.
xxx
Thirty minutes later, her leg tightly wrapped in a bandage, Michaela already felt well enough for her to scowl at Dr. Alvarez who grinned in response. They were on their way to the obstetric department to make sure that the baby was fine.
"You know that it's useless to discuss. You'll spend the night here," Michaela's boss insisted, chuckling by the expression on her face. "But the good news is that you will spend it on our floor; this way you'll feel as if at home." Laughing openly now, he winked at the nurse who pushed the gurney with Michaela on it.
"Can I stay, too?" asked Sully from behind, unsettled by the prospect of having to leave her for several hours.
He sat in his wheelchair again, and although he wanted to see his physiotherapist as soon as possible to tell him about what had occurred to him, the urge to be with Michaela's was stronger.
"Sure, sure," Dr. Alvarez nodded, turning his head back so as to look at the two men who were following them. "That's no problem at all."
In fact, the doctor was thankful for Mr. Sully's request. He still waited for Dr. Quinn's shock to set in and didn't want her to be alone once it happened. Although a very dear colleague, she wasn't his only patient and very soon his break would be over, and having a nurse tend to only one patient was no option as well.
"Good," Sully smiled in relief.
"That's not necessary," Michaela instantly intervened, annoyed that they talked about her as if she wasn't present. "I will lay in bed and hopefully sleep anyway."
Yet with her boss, she'd found her match. "Doctor's order," he simply said and, wanting for her to be prepared, added, "We both know that there are still some symptoms you haven't shown yet."
He didn't have to explain more to Michaela, but Sully asked alarmed, "What symptoms? They dangerous?"
For the first time, Dr. Alvarez hesitated. After all, Mr. Sully had experienced a shock too, and his psychical condition wasn't stable either. Yet then, knowing the close relationship between the young man and his colleague, he hadn't heard about their trouble, he decided that the best medicine for the couple was to go through everything together.
"Not dangerous, as long as the pregnancy is still stable," he at last answered honestly. "It's about the post-traumatic stress. But we will know more soon," he added, knocking at the door they'd just reached, pushing it open without waiting for them to be beckoned in. "She will get room 417. I want you to take her there once she is done here." The last words were directed at the nurse who nodded her understanding whilst she pushed the gurney into the small room, responding, "I will."
Still holding the door open, Dr. Alvarez took Michaela's hand as she passed him. Squeezing it gently, he said, "Good luck, Dr. Quinn."
"Thank you," Michaela whispered when suddenly a woman in her thirties hurriedly approached them, catching everyone's attention.
"There you are," the obstetrician stated, quickly considering the men before her. She turned her eyes at Daniel after she had judged them, saying, "Sir, you sure will understand that only the father of the child is allowed to come in."
"'Course I do," Daniel immediately assured, "I'll wait here."
"Thank you," the young doctor said, taking over his position behind the wheelchair in order to take Sully with her.
Although insecure about Michaela's reaction to his presence, Sully let it happen.
Whilst the nurse stepped aside to make room for the newly arrived doctor, Michaela, laying on the examination table by now, had allowed her eyelids to droop. She hadn't listened to the conversation in the hallway; she was anxious, fearing the ultrasound would show that the hard fall onto the floor had harmed her baby.
"I'm Dr. Lindsay…" a warm voice said, and astonished Michaela opened her eyes. As she had her patient looking at her, the young woman added, "... Junior."
"Oh," Michaela smiled, "Sam's daughter?"
"That's right," Dr. Lindsay nodded, "but at the moment I'm your obstetrician." And without further ado she posed medical questions. "Did you experience any pain in your lower belly? Any bleeding?"
Whilst asking, she went to the sill, washing her hands.
"No," Michaela answered, "None of that."
Speaking, she turned her head so as to look at her physician, and only now did she notice Sully sitting next to the head of her bed.
Stunned, she was at a loss for words momentarily, but Sully didn't speak either; he simply held their eyes locked. His gaze was neither demanding, as if telling her that he had the right to be here, nor was it pleading for her permission to let him stay. It was the look of a man who didn't disguise his love and concern for her, and Michaela realized she wouldn't have the heart to send him out of the room. Blushing, she turned her head away, biting her lower lip nervously. The color on her cheeks even deepened because she felt somewhat exposed as Dr. Lindsay stripped her lower body so she could do the ultrasound scanning.
However, soon she was only concentrated on what she saw on the screen as the obstetrician slowly ran the ultrasound probe along her belly. As the doctor stopped, holding the probe in one position, Michaela saw it. Tears instantly filled her eyes, blurring her vision.
As far as Sully was concerned, he wasn't able to read the black and gray on the screen. "Somethin' wrong?" he asked anxiously as he saw Michaela silently crying.
Yet the doctor smiled at him, turning the screen so he could have a better look. Taking a pencil, she circled a spot, explaining, "Here you can see the fetus. It's of the size of one and a half inch right now. If you look very closely, you can even see the heart already beating." The tip of the pencil pointed at a spot, and although Sully didn't see the tiny movement, he swallowed hard. Only now did he fully realize that a child was growing inside of Michaela, and he was its father.
Automatically, he reached for Michaela's hand. After gently kissing it's back, he searched for her eyes, repeating the words he had said to her earlier in the emergency room, "It's gonna be alright. Everythin' is gonna be alright."
Whilst Michaela averted her eyes from him again, fully aware that nothing was solved between them, Dr. Lindsay nodded in agreement, not knowing about the couple's rift. "In fact," she told her patient, "there is no need to worry at all, although I will still check the results of your blood test. Just make sure that you get enough rest and nourishing food." Without making a pause she looked at the nurse, advising in a doctor's tone, "You can take Dr. Quinn to her room now."