A/N: The readers have spoken! I confess, I was toying with the idea of killing her off because I can be evil like that sometimes...however I am not beyond redemption ~
It wasn't long before Sam, Greg, Spike, and Raf were able to leave the scene and head to the hospital, but Wordy still managed to beat them there and was waiting for them when they arrived. He'd heard about what happened and nothing except for maybe a ball and chain, and even that was a stretch, would have kept him at his desk. That his supervisor understood was only a convenience. He might not be a member of Team One anymore, but they were still family. That didn't change just because he was rolling with Guns and Gangs. Now he told his brothers grimly, "They took her straight into surgery. She lost a lot of blood. The bullet nicked the carotid and they were worried about the brain maybe having been deprived of blood."
Greg patted him on the shoulder unsmilingly before leading the men to a row of empty seats in the waiting room and dropping into a chair. One by one, his friends and colleagues did the same and they all waited for an update on Jules's condition.
The only thing that made the wait bearable for Sam was that nobody came out to tell him Jules was dead. As long as nobody said anything to them, she was alive.
After a couple of hours, a surgeon came out asking if the men were there for Juliana Callaghan. After they responded in the affirmative, he told them that the surgery went well and that Jules was being moved to post-op. They'd know more about her condition when she woke up, but he was optimistic. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief before marching off to see her for themselves. Just to make sure that the last time they'd seen her really hadn't been the last time they'd ever see her alive. The doctor warned them not to overwhelm her with visitors. He knew better than to try and deter the determined looking men from going to look and didn't have the heart to take any preventive measures against them considering the service they provided to society.
Sam didn't hesitate to enter the room and claim the chair beside her bed. "Hey, Beautiful. I am so sorry I wasn't there to protect you. Again." He took hold of one of her limp hands, raised it to his lips, and pressed a kiss to the back of it as he tried not to break down and cry. He hated seeing her lying in this bed again. It would be easier to take if she would open her eyes, if she could tell him she was going to be okay… if she could tell him that his most recent failure to keep her safe wasn't going to be the one that cost him her.
Spike felt his phone vibrate as he kept vigil outside of the room with Greg, Raf, and Wordy, and checked the caller id. It was Natalie. With a grimace, he took note of the time before answering. They were supposed to be at Jules's house right now. Natalie was understandably concerned as to why she was the only one who showed and wanted to know what was going on, so he told her. She declared she was coming without waiting for an invitation and Spike returned to his spot along the wall as Ed showed up. Since he'd had to go back to the station, he'd gone ahead and changed his clothes while he was at it.
"How is she?" Ed asked.
"Stable," Raf supplied, rolling his shoulders. "I'm going to go get us all some coffee."
"I'll help," Wordy offered, glad for something to do besides leaning against the wall waiting. He was willing to wait all night, but the other benefit of the brief respite was he got to do something for his haggard-looking ex-teammates. "Hey, Man," he greeted Ed as he passed him.
After a while, Spike's phone rang again and he went to the lobby to fetch Natalie, who'd shown up as she said she would. When she saw him, she threw herself into his arms. "God, Spike, are you okay?" she asked. She'd caught a report that she was pretty sure pertained to what had happened, despite the withholding of the involved officers' names, on the radio on her way to the hospital.
Spike shuddered slightly as he said, "Yeah, I'm fine. Jules is the one who…who got shot."
"That doesn't mean you're okay," the perceptive blonde countered, briefly tightening her arms around him before letting go. "How is she? Sam must be a mess," she speculated, threading the fingers of her left hand through the ones on Spike's right and heading back the way he'd come.
Spike explained all that he knew, including the possibility of brain damage, as they slowly traversed the halls. Talking to her, Spike felt a little steadier. Not necessarily less worried, but more grounded. When they reached Jules's room, she gave his hand a squeeze before releasing it and slipping into the room. He immediately missed the warmth of her touch.
She re-emerged a moment later having accomplished what it would have taken the Jaws of Life for anybody else to do at the present. She brought Sam out with her. "We're going to make a cafeteria run. We'll bring something back if I see anything that looks edible."
Spike smiled slightly at the joke and watched as Greg disappeared inside the room. Ed and Wordy were trading notes on raising girls, even though the only one Ed had wasn't even two yet. Wordy had plenty of cautionary tales for his friend that made Ed glad he'd shaved his head before the grays started popping up. Raf was quiet and Spike moved a little closer to him. "This doesn't happen often, you know. We're not the best for nothing."
"I know, man, I just…sometimes I forget she's a woman, you know? I don't mean like that. She's just…bigger than her height. Now she just looks small and fragile."
Spike nodded his understanding. It was easy to overlook her diminutive height when Jules was being Jules. Plus they all knew what she was capable of. Her personality and capabilities weren't in evidence when she was lying still and pale in a hospital bed. "Just don't let her hear you say that or she'll show you that you don't have to be a woman to be fragile." He was proud of himself for managing to utter a joke.
"I brought what you asked for," Natalie quietly informed her brother after she had him walking for a few minutes. It felt like was burning a hole in her pocket because she really wanted to see it in action.
"You told Spike about it," Sam accused just as quietly, recalling the distinctly different mood he'd been in when he'd called her that morning.
"I did no such thing…I sent him to get it for me and leave it on the nightstand before he left so I wouldn't forget. Not my fault if he peeked. Can I say it's beautiful, though?"
"Yeah," Sam responded wearily, holding out a hand. He didn't miss the fact that Spike hadn't mentioned how he'd managed to find the time to nose around in his business that morning. His sister relinquished the small box.
"She's going to be okay, Sam. And she she's going to love that."
Closing his fist over the box, Sam nodded, trying valiantly to hold back the tears that threatened. He wished he could be as optimistic, as sure as his sister was, but he'd seen too much in the world. Too many horrors. Too many deaths that shouldn't have happened.
Seeing her brother's struggle, Natalie hugged him. "It's okay," she tried to soothe him. "She's going to be okay." She fell silent when she felt wetness against the side of her neck and they stood there for a few minutes while she held him and he cried. When he was ready, they went the rest of the way to the cafeteria to determine whether they were bringing food back or not; with the unspoken agreement that what had just happened, never happened.
Greg stared down at Jules's still form and it was like having a bout of déjà vu. He wished it really were just a trick of his memory, but the sharp scent of disinfectant dispelled that hope. Surly the smell was unpleasant enough to wake him all on its own?
He asked himself why he hadn't sent backup with her to the Ames residence even though he already knew the answer. They'd needed bodies onsite and the task he'd sent her on had been low-risk. Nobody had expected the wife to get violent. She'd seemed remorseful, like she desperately wanted to make things right with her husband. She hadn't seemed to pose a danger to either herself or others. But maybe if they'd looked at the gun registry…seen the couple owned two and not one…but it hadn't pertained to the task at hand: Talking the husband off the roof and out of shooting the man who got his wife pregnant. Every rationalization in his head was intoned by Jules's voice.
He sighed heavily. Even lying there, bleeding to death, she had worried about him, about everybody else. Maybe because she figured we'd worry enough about her that she didn't need to bother worrying about herself? He didn't know. He knew he wished he was a praying man. That's what he did know.
After listening to the steady beeping of the monitors for a few minutes, he stepped out into the hall again. "You know if you guys have somewhere to be, you should get going. We can debrief tomorrow."
"In a little while, Boss," Ed said. "Soph's holding down the fort a home." Wordy echoed his faith in Shelley, and Raf and Spike simply dismissed the suggestion. "Wasn't Dean visiting today?" Ed asked
"Tomorrow," Greg asserted. Actually, calling it a visit was a bit of an understatement. He was coming up to look at schools with Clark.
Sam and Natalie returned with Natalie-approved fruit, crackers, and bottled water. Raf grimaced. "Where's the protein?"
Natalie wrinkled her nose as she moved to stand close enough to Spike that her arm brushed his. "It's cafeteria food," she remarked as though that should explain everything. All it did was spark a debate between the two over quality versus quantity.
Sam shook his head, knowing he'd warned her before they returned about the reception of her choices, and ducked back into Jules's room. After a while, Ed and Wordy had to go home to their families, Raf needed 'real' sustenance, and Greg needed to head back to the station to fill out some paperwork. Each one of them demanded an update when anything changed.
Around one in the morning, Spike entered the room and touched a dozing Sam's shoulder. He came awake instantly and looked around for whatever had interrupted his nap. "Hey, Spike, what time is it?"
"Late. I'm gonna take Nat home. You gonna be okay here?"
"Yeah." Sam nodded. "You guys shouldn't have stayed so late."
"She's my family too," Spike pointed out. "And you're Natalie's." And he was scared to leave, but he didn't add that part because it still held true. The only reason he was, was because Natalie refused to leave without him even though she was half-asleep herself.
Sam nodded his understanding as he let his gaze slide back down to Jules's face. He froze. "Did you see that?"
"What?" Spike said, moving to get a better look.
"I could have sworn she just…." Sam's sentence trailed off as he stared intently at her.
Spike stared as well, and was just starting to think Sam's tired brain was playing tricks on him when she opened her eyes. She opened her eyes. Spike's knees fairly buckled with relief.
"Jules? Babe, I'm right here," he told her, leaning down to kiss the side of her head.
"Sam," she croaked before clearing her throat.
"Jules," he said simply, running his fingers through her hair.
"I'll find a doctor," Spike offered, before turning on his heel and doing just that before heading to the waiting room where Natalie had drifted off into a light doze, waking her and telling her what happened. Together, they headed back to Jules's room, where Sam was hovering outside the door while a doctor examined Jules.
"She's responsive," Sam said, looking so happy he didn't know what to do with himself. "Groggy, but the doctor said that was normal."
"That's great, Sam," Natalie said, giving him a quick hug. "You should come with us, get some real sleep," she suggested.
When it looked like he was going to refuse, Spike interjected, "A few hours won't kill you and you could be back before she wakes up."
"We'll see what the doctor says," Sam hedged, unwilling to commit to leaving Jules. There was only one commitment he wanted to make right now and he wasn't even sure he'd be allowed to make it after this. Not because Jules might die, but because Jules wouldn't let him the same way she didn't want to let him love her the first time she'd been shot because the SRU was so important to her. Now she wouldn't have to dump him to stay on the team, but he had bigger plans than just hanging onto his girlfriend.
While they waited, Spike sent a text to the rest of the team to let them know Jules had woken up and seemed to be doing okay.
Finally, the doctor emerged and confirmed that claim, saying he didn't think she'd suffer any permanent brain damage and that she had been extremely lucky. He also stated emphatically that she needed to rest, a statement that led itself to Spike and Natalie's insistence that he leave with them.
"Alright, alright," he relented. "Just give me a minute, okay?" He went back into the room and sat down in what he had come to think of as his chair. "Jules?" She smiled slightly at him and opened her mouth to speak, but he held up a hand in a silent bid for silence. "Don't try to talk. I just wanted to say… I love you. You're perfect, at least to me, and if you'd died, I would have died, too. If that's not enough of a reason to want to marry someone, I have a whole lot more I could lay on you, but the doctor says I'm supposed to let you rest, so…" She watched him, wide-eyed, as he pulled out a small square box and opened it so she could see the diamond ring nestled inside, and then set it on the table beside her bed. "…so, I want you to think about whether you have enough reasons to marry me and have my children, and whether I should ask you. I was going to ask after dinner, but, well…plans change, right? Now you get to sleep on it, I guess. I'll be back in the morning, okay?"
She nodded, but didn't give anything away as far as her reaction to his words. He gave her a quick kiss, and then left before he could wring an immediate answer from her. He didn't want to overwhelm her, but he didn't want to wait to make his intentions known either. Not after today. And if she said no because she didn't want to push her luck with the captain…he didn't know how he'd respond to that.
A/N: Lots of Jules being talked/thought about and spoken to, but not a lot from Jules's perspective. Since she has an awful lot to consider, I figured I could save that for next time...