As the medics rushed in they quickly replaced Jason and Sonny. The medic who was now at Clay's head, where Jason had been, was placing a cervical collar around Clay's neck. A second medic, who was now where Sonny had been, was putting pressure with large gauze pads on his abdomen to temporarily slow the bleeding while a third medic was using roller gauze to wrap around the knife that still remained in Clay's chest, to control bleeding and keep it from moving until a surgeon could remove it. Once the medic was done securing the knife, he moved down to where the second medic was applying pressure and applied more roller gauze to help keep pressure.
Clay was conscious. His eyes were open, although he felt like they would close at any second. He wasn't entirely aware of what was going on. Every now and then he would hear someone call his name. He would blink and look into that direction with his eyes but couldn't focus on anything.
As soon as the medics were able to get the bleeding under control, they carefully rolled him onto a backboard and rushed to the ambulance. They only allowed Stella to ride in the ambulance with him because they wanted her to get checked out as well and she refused to get in a separate ambulance. The rest of Bravo team followed closely behind on the way to the hospital.
Luckily the hospital was fairly close. As they pulled up there was a team of doctors already waiting to take Clay straight to the operating room. Once he was gone, another doctor came to check out Stella. She was diagnosed with a concussion and received 8 stiches on her cheek and forehead before releasing her. Once released she headed straight to the waiting room.
As soon as she entered the waiting room every single set of eyes from Bravo team looked up at her. She wasn't sure how to feel. In her mind it was entirely her fault that Clay was in this position and automatically assumed they blamed her as well. She scanned the room for empty seats and finally settled on one across the waiting room from Bravo team which would put her back to them.
Once she was seated she leaned her head on her hand and tried to control her emotions but she kept replaying the mental images and cries from Clay in her head. No matter how hard she tried she couldn't get them out of her head. She felt so guilty.
On the other side of the waiting room the guys from Bravo team recognized the guilty look on Stella's face. They knew she blamed herself, but not one of them blamed her for a thing. Jason stood up first, followed by the rest of the team and they all silently walked over to the area where Stella was sitting and sat down next to her.
She looked up in surprise, with a bit of fear on her face, unsure if they had only come over to confirm the blame she thought they had towards her.
Jason, who sat down to the right of her, placed his arm around her shoulder and pulled her in towards him. In that moment Stella instantly lost all control and started balling her eyes out, causing Jason to pull her in even closer and wrapped both arms around her.
"I'm… sorry." Stella sobbed into his shoulder.
Jason pulled back a bit, putting his hands on her shoulders so that they could make eye contact. "Look at me Stella. Nobody here blames you for a God damn thing. You hear me?"
Stella looked around at everyone's faces and they all shook their heads in agreement. She felt better knowing that they didn't blame her but that didn't stop her from blaming herself.
"That kid is head over heels for you," Sonny told her, hoping it would help. "You're all he talks about anymore. Stella this and Stella that. It was starting to make me sick!" He joked, getting her to crack a smile.
"We mean it Stella. Don't blame yourself. None of it's your fault, understand?" Jason asked. Stella shook her head yes and began feeling a bit better.
About an hour later Mandy and Lisa stood up. "It's gonna be a long night. We'll be back. We're heading to the cafeteria to get drinks and sandwiches for everyone. It's going to be a few hours at least before we hear anything."
They returned 45 minutes later with bags of sandwiches and bottles of water and handed them out to each person. While eating they all told funny stories about Clay as well as stories about him saving their asses on multiple occasions.
After about three hours they started becoming restless. At this point they knew no news was good news but they still wanted to know how he was doing. Every time the doors opened and a doctor entered the room they would look up hoping it would be an update on Clay. Every time they were disappointed.
Finally after a total of six and a half hours a doctor entered for them. Everybody stood up and crowded around the doctor to hear what he was saying.
"The good news is he made it through surgery. We managed to successfully remove the knife from his chest and luckily neither stab would had hit any of the major organs. On top of that he had multiple broken ribs, a punctured lung mild internal bleeding, two dislocated shoulders, a broken shoulder blade, a broken jaw and a broken ankle. He has a deep bone bruise on his back as well."
"Damn Doc… If that's the good news then how bad is the bad news?" Sonny asked.
"The bad news is the he did lose quite a bit of blood and required a transfusion. He coded twice while on the table and the surgeons struggled to get him back but they were able to get him back. His body suffered a good deal of trauma. Because of that we have decided that the best course of action at this moment would be to keep him in a medically induced coma and on a ventilator to ensure he gets rest to help his body heel." The doctor stated as everyone's hearts sank and causing Stella's guilt to build back up.
"When can we see him?" Jason asked.
"He has just come out of surgery and is getting settled into his room. You should be able to visit once he's settled in about a half hour. I'll come get you when it's time."
Once the doctor left everyone sat back down. They were relieved he made it through surgery but they all knew he wasn't out of the woods yet. They also knew they had more than just Clay to worry about as the guilt was written all over Stella's face once again.