This is the last chapter. Long author's note at the bottom.
When he had first woken up, there wasn't much not to complain about. Everything hurt. Shifting his weight sent daggers through his whole body. There were wires and tubes where he really didn't want to think about. And he was by himself, totally isolated and panicking about everyone else. That had been when he first woke up.
Now was a different story. He was on his way out of ICU where he wasn't allowed visitors. He had been dosed up on the good stuff, and maybe half of the wiring was missing. The gurney he was in rolled out into the hallway, IV hanging above him and nurses saying comforting things around him. The "good stuff" made it so he didn't really pay attention, so that didn't really bother him. Still, the tone of voice they used, as with the meds, kept him calm as they pushed his bed into a different room and then transferred him to the new bed.
Sam promptly fell asleep at that point.
When he'd woken up the second time, he could hear more than one set of breathing. The first was his own, which he could feel with the intake of breath against his broken ribs. The second came from next to his ear. Rolling his head to the side, he came face to face with the beautiful- albeit sleeping- Jules. He allowed a lazy smile to cross his face. It turned into a frown when he saw how tired she looked, how wrinkles and stress lines had appeared from nowhere. Jules didn't look okay.
Shifting his weight still hurt, even if he was on enough pain killers to kill all sensible thought. When he attempted to move to get a better view of his teammate and sort-of-ex-girlfriend, he couldn't help the sound that fell from his lips.
Her head shot up, hand flying to the call button. He moved, faster than he could even thought he could, to stop her hand before it reached its destination.
"Hey," he smiled, looking at her brown eyes for the first time in a long while. It felt like forever ago they were talking around the table about the quiet day, contemplating patrol duty.
"Hey," she responded, and the look on her face could not be compared to same on Sam had ever seen. "How are you feeling?"
He opened his mouth, feeling how cottony his tongue was, in order to say that he wasn't sure when Jules interrupted him.
"Don't you dare say you're fine, either. Because I have evidence you're not this time," she dared him. Sam's smile grew.
"I love you," he sighed. The words startled her.
"Don't think I'm going to let you off easy because you said that. I was so worried."
"I'm sorry," Sam could feel the weight of the drugs calling him back under. "I'm gonna be okay."
Before Jules could even come up with a response to that, Sam's breathing evened out. She smiled a teary smile before grabbing hand with her own again and resting her chin next to his head.
. . .
Sergeant Greg Parker walked through the hospital corridor with his typical purposeful walk. It wasn't like he intending to send off that demeanor, it was just easier to portray than the horrible worry that gnawed at his stomach every time he walked through these halls.
It had been a good 24 hours since Spike and Sam were pulled from the rubble. That included ten hours of wandering the halls waiting for news, 15 minutes of visiting with them while they slept off the anesthetic, and the rest of the time waiting for visiting hours to come into effect and Sam to be moved out of ICU. It had been a long time since Greg had felt calm.
But right now, he was the picture of calm, an easy smile on his face and two sets of get well soon balloons. His first stop was to Spike. He walked into the same room from the night before to see Spike and Lou laughing at something like one of them was not in a hospital bed. Spike looked banged up. He had stiches in his head from the initial bombs, a pretty bad concussion too.
He escaped too much damage from the second round, fractured wrist and some bruised ribs. He was fine, more than fine for the situation that he had just lived through. His eyes lit up when they met Greg's.
"Hey Sarge, how's it going?" He smiled. There was one thing that Greg had to hand the guy, he always lit up the room with a smile. Their bomb technician's goofy jokes and affection for Babycakes livened their often gloomy work environment. He was essential to the team, just like each member.
"Lots of paperwork to get done. Feeling better I see?"
"Lou here was just telling me about the two minutes it took Ed to find and contain the suspect."
Greg assumed he had not been aware for that part, he certainly made no move to join in on the conversation at the time. He wanted to ask what Spike remembered, but there was a time and a place for that and this certainly was not it.
"That's why he's second in command."
"Boss would've gotten 'im in 60 seconds," Lou joked. Greg didn't mind it since Spike's smile only grew. He was still a subdued man from the one he saw at work every day, but Spike didn't look too bad. He rested back against the inclined bed, arm propped up on some pillows placed beside him.
After a moment, silence filled the room. Despite all of their pretenses, it had been a close call. Wordy and Lou escaped with minor concussions, some abrasions and contusions, but that was it. Spike was alright too. Still, their lives hadn't been so sure yesterday. Greg relished in the moment, of being here with his team, of not having to tell Spike's mother and father that he was gone.
"You see Sam yet?" Spike asked with a more serious inflection in his voice. Greg looked up from his hands.
"On my way there next. I saw him for a moment last night, but not today yet."
"I think Jules was with him earlier," Lou added. "But they might've kicked her out by now. You know how the nurses are here."
Greg got to intimately know all of the nurses here after Jules was shot, and they were particular. Sometimes they'd let you stay after visiting hours, but they didn't like people dwelling too long. From the way Lou phased his words, it sounded like Jules didn't stay gone for long when they departed for the night. Greg wouldn't be surprised if she hadn't left at all. He knew what was going on between the two. He also knew that they ended it. Sometimes that didn't mean the feelings were gone though.
He visited with Spike and Lou for the better part of an hour before Spike began to get drowsy either from the stress of yesterday or the drugs he was on. It could just be that he was tired from the disrupted night of sleep he had last night. Greg knew that patients with concussions didn't get to sleep through the night. He bid his goodbyes and left Lou and Spike to do the same before he headed down the hall for his second visit.
He was lucky there was somebody to visit at all. Sam had sheltered Spike for the second round of bombs. From what he heard, the rescue men found him bleeding out on top of his friend. He had done his job until he couldn't any longer, protecting Spike's life with his own.
Sam was lucky, but when Greg walked into his room he looked anything but. There was a nurse with him adjusting his IV. When she saw Greg walked in she gave a small nod before finishing her job and leaving silently.
Sam had his eyes closed. They stood out dark against the pallor of his cheeks. Sam wasn't asleep though, when Greg approached he opened his eyes and looked hazily at his boss.
"You did good out there, Sam, real good," he murmured, resting his hand lightly on the hand Sam didn't have an IV running out of.
"I lied about how I was," Sam surprised him by responding. Greg shook his head.
"We'll deal with that later. You just focus on getting better."
"What's wrong with me?" he labored out, clearly struggling to speak clearly. Greg didn't want him to ask that question. He didn't want to be the one to tell him that his ribs were broken, that he had lost a lot of blood. He didn't want to tell Sam that his leg was in a soft cast because they were going to have to do another surgery on it either today or tomorrow to insert a metal rod from hip to knee. They were waiting for a little of the swelling to go down. Greg did not want to tell Sam this. He was surprised his doctor, or one of the nurses hadn't explained this to him. That was their jobs, not his.
"Nothing's wrong with you, Sam. You're going to be okay."
There'd be people who would say it was cruel to not tell Sam the truth, that he might never return to his job. There'd be people on his own team that would disagree with what he did. At the moment though, looking at Sam worn out and beat over by that building, this wasn't the time to tell him that. He needed to stay optimistic.
"Why'd he do it?" Sam didn't argue with Greg's lack of information. He simply accepted it and surprised Greg once again. "Why'd the suspect do it?"
Same began to cough harshly after he spoke and Greg offered him some of the water of the table nearby for that purpose. It was a moment before he felt safe to respond.
"WhitCo made some choices a while back that Ben Murray didn't agree with. He wanted to get rid of the building, thought that would stop them from making the same choices next time."
There was a lot more to the story. Ben Murray had been in a car accident and there was a shady policy at the time. Nothing illegal, but Murray didn't agree. Greg didn't want to go into that now. Sam would get the full story later, when he felt up to it. Right now, he needed to think about getting better.
"I'm real proud of you, Sam. You're going to be just fine," Greg said to reassure not only his friend, but himself too. Sam didn't seem to notice Greg's words. He was staring ahead in the haze of drugs and mild sedatives. Greg had to believe that his words were true. He hoped that someday the team would look back at yesterday and not laugh, but not think of it as the last call Sam went on with them either.
Thanks so much for sticking with this story, reading it through. It was definitely an interesting write, and I'm thinking about trying to write some more Flashpoint, particularly because the reviews have been awesome (hint, hint). Anyway, it'd be amazing if you would take the time to review about the story as a whole. It'd make me happy/make me want to write more for this fandom =)
As for the ending, I know it is kind of left in the air. I've always been partial to those endings… Thanks for being amazing reviewers and I hope you keep it up!