Chapter 32
(Madge POV)
"He's on his way back, they're taking him directly over to Medical. Should be there in the next 15 minutes or so." Sawyer tells me as soon as I open the door. He doesn't even bother with a greeting, already sure of how anxious I am to hear about Gale's return.
"Medical? What's wrong?"
"Come on, I'll explain on the way there." Sawyer explains and I follow behind him towards the elevators.
"Is he okay?" Rory asks as he comes along with us.
"This is Gale's brother, Rory." I explain hurriedly.
Sawyer nods to Rory as if to say hello and then begins to explain what knowledge he has of Gale's condition. "All I know is that he is alive. Been mostly unconscious since they found him. Fever, hardened abdomen. Complaints of stomach pains prior to losing consciousness according to Tull, the communicator that was on his original flight. They're prepping for possible emergency surgery now."
"Oh my God!" I utter in frightened whisper. I hear Rory suck in a breath next to me.
"Don't read too much into it yet. Wait and see what the actual doctors have to say once they've had a look at him. Could be nothing to worry about at all. Maybe dehydration or something simple like that." Sawyer says to us.
"Will they let me see him? Right away?"
"I'll see what I can do to make that happen." Sawyer tells me as we exit the elevator and make our way over to Medical.
As soon as we enter, I can tell he isn't here yet. It's too calm here. Too many people standing still. Not the frenzy one would expect if emergency surgery is occurring.
"Have the crew and passengers from the Defense flight crash arrived yet?" Sawyer asks the woman at the front desk, holding out his badge for her to examine.
"No, not yet. We expect them any moment though." She tells him.
"Thank you, we'll wait." He replies with kindness in his voice. We sit on a bench near the front desk.
"Thank you for coming to get me. I appreciate it." I tell him as I nervously wring my hands together in my lap.
"Of course. I knew you'd want to know the moment he was on his way back. You were quite helpful by the way. Knowing how to read Gale's proposal clue and knowing how to find the church."
"Lucky for us my memory came back just yesterday. Otherwise, I'd have been no help whatsoever."
"Glad to hear about your memory."
I'm about to thank him when the room becomes a flurry of commotion. Doors swing open and a bed gets pushed in, medics all around it. It's Gale. I'm on my feet and rushing behind them as they hurry down the hallway towards an Operating Room. I hear Sawyer and Rory call out after me but I don't turn back. I have to get to Gale, have to see him with my own eyes. Have to know what's wrong. When I catch up to them and feel a pair of arms grab hold of me, holding me back.
"You can't be in here, this is a sterile environment!" A woman tells me disdainfully. I look at her and then back at the bed where Gale is lying unconscious with a clear mask over his nose and mouth, tubes coming from his wrist. I shove away from her and lunge for the bed. I've barely managed to whisper that I love him when a second, stronger pair of arms pulls me back and out of the room.
"That's my husband!" I cry out through a fit of tears.
"Doesn't matter who he is, you can't be in there right now. Go wait in the waiting room and someone will come for you when the surgery's completed." A man orders me.
"Sorry, I'll take her to the waiting area." I hear and I spin around to see Sawyer standing there.
"Sawyer, I have to be in there! They haven't even told me what's wrong with him and they're about to operate!"
"Come on, I know how we can get some information." He says with a wink. I follow behind him as he leads us out of the Medical Center and back to Defense. I trust him enough to not ask questions yet. He explains anyway as we walk. "The crew that worked the Searcher flight should be back in Defense, completing their end of flight paperwork and reports before they head home. That includes the medics who worked the flight."
Once we're in Defense again, he takes us to a room where several men are doing paperwork at desks.
"Hey guys, this Madge, Gale's wife. Medical doesn't have time to talk to her right now and she really needs to know what's going on right now. Anybody got any info they can share with her?" Sawyer asks.
"Over here. Take a seat." One man towards the back of the room says. I head towards him and sit.
"I was one of the medic's on the flight. When we found your husband, he was unconscious, feverish and had a distended abdomen." He begins.
"I already know that part. I just need to know what it is that's wrong, how he's hurt." I interrupt impatiently.
"We suspect he has a ruptured spleen."
"Is that fixable? Is that something they can repair?"
"That's what the surgery is for I'm sure." He nods. "Losing a spleen isn't the end of the world if that helps at all."
"Thank you." I say as I get up and go back to the doorway where Sawyer and Rory are waiting for me.
"Possible ruptured spleen. He can live without it if they have to remove it." I explain. I'm relaxing only a little bit now that I have this new information. I won't be completely fine until the surgery is over and he's awake and can tell me in his own words just how fine he really is. Only then can I truly relax.
"We should tell Ma now that we know what's going on. She'd wanna know." Rory says.
"Yes, I think we should." I agree. We'd decided earlier that we didn't want to alert her to anything until we knew more about what the situation really involved.
"And I need to be heading on home myself." Sawyer says. He looks exhausted and I know he must be. He's been working nonstop all day long.
"I sincerely want to thank you for being so patient with me today and for all your help with everything. You were much kinder than necessary and it was truly appreciated." I tell him.
"Tell Gale I'll stop by and check on him tomorrow." He says with a nod of his head, shrugging off my thanks as if it wasn't needed.
Rory and I go off in search of Hazelle so we can break the news about Gale's crash and injury and surgery. We agree not to tell the kids yet because it may scare them too much. Thankfully, Rebekah's still there and she's able to distract them with a game so Rory and I can speak privately with Hazelle. She handles it with much more strength than I did. Concern is obvious on her face but not the panic I'd personally felt. I tell her I'll send someone up just as soon as he's awake from his surgery and then head back down alone to the Medical Center to wait.
(Gale POV)
I feel her hand in mine before I even open my eyes. I know it's hers. Can tell just by the feel of it. I must have been rescued, must be back in 13. I can tell I'm in Medical from the sounds around me and the feel of tubing against my skin.
"Hey beautiful." I croak out, my voice rougher than I expect it to be.
"Gale!" She cries out in relief. Her eyes are red and puffy and she looks as if she hasn't slept a wink in days.
"Been waiting for me?" I ask, trying to joke about it.
"I was so worried! They had to do surgery and I barely got a glimpse of you until after they were finished. I've been right here by your side waiting for you to wake up for the last hour. How do you feel?"
"Nauseous. Sore. Beyond glad to see you. Confused about what all happened."
"You were injured internally during your crash. They had to remove your spleen to save your life. The doctor said if it had been just a few more hours, you could have died."
"Well that explains all the pain I had in my stomach." I mumble, thinking back to the debilitating cramps that I'd felt as I laid on the floor of the church.
"Your surgery went just fine. No complications. They said that you can come home in a couple days."
"A couple days? It's that serious?"
"You could have died Gale so yes, it's that serious." She tells me and I can see in her expression just how worried she's been.
"Well I'm fine now so no need to worry any longer. Anybody tell my family bout all this?"
"Rory and your mother, not the kids. I promised to send someone for your mother the minute you woke up. Feel up for a visit?"
"Not really but I'd rather they know I'm okay than continue to worry. So go on and get em down here. Not Posy though. The tubes and stuff would just freak her out." I say as I rub my fingers over the tube I feel going into my nostril.
She stands and leans over to kiss me quickly. "I'll just send for your mother and Rory, and then be right back." She assures me as she heads for the door, bumping into a medic who was entering just as she tried to exit.
"How are we feeling Mr. Hawthorne?" The Medic asks as she begins checking all my tubing.
"Kinda yucky but glad to be here." I tell her. I feel really tired and the soreness I felt before is getting a little more noticeable by the minute. Nausea too.
"Any pain?" She asks as she pulls back my blankets and lifts my medical gown to inspect my incision.
"Some serious soreness." I say as I make the mistake of looking down at my incision. Red and puffy, stitched shut. The nausea I felt before makes me swallow hard as I fight the urge to vomit.
"And some nausea too I see." She comments as she places a small basin in my hand in case I throw up.
I nod and close my eyes. I do not want to puke right now. It passes after a minute and I open my eyes again.
"You'll be with us for at least a day or two before we can remove the tube in your nose and send you back home."
"And after that? How long a recovery are we talking about?"
"About a month or so until you're back to normal. This will help with the soreness." She says as she injects something into the tube on my arm. Almost instantly I feel sleep pulling me under. I try to fight it but it's no use. I'm too tired and the medicine's too strong for me to battle against.
When I wake up this time, Rory's here but no one else.
"Where's Madge?"
"Sent her home to get some sleep. She was dead on her feet."
"How long was I out?" I ask him as I rub my eyes.
"Bout 4 hours. Medic said she gave you some pain meds that knocked you right out. Ma and Madge were here until about an hour ago. Told em I'd stick around until you woke up again."
"Geez, I was awake for all of 4 minutes and out cold for 4 hours?"
"Pretty much, yeah. How ya feelin?" He asks, leaning back in his chair so that it's balancing on it's back two legs.
"Sore and a little out of energy. Nausea seems to be gone though."
"You scared the hell outta Madge, ya know. When you crashed."
"I know. I'm really lucky I made it out of there alive. The pilot didn't make it. I wasn't even strapped into my seat when we crashed. Got tossed all over the place."
"But you survived." He comments.
"Just barely, but yeah."
"You gonna keep doing missions after this? After you recover?"
"I dunno. Probably. Hadn't really had time to think about it yet. Why?"
"Just seems stupid is all. It's an awful lot of risk taking when you've got people here worrying about you. There's other stuff you could do here instead of always being the one out in the field you know."
"Rory, I know you guys were worried and I get it, but I'm fine now. Everything is fine. And just because there was one crash doesn't mean there will be another one."
He shrugs and stands to leave. "Your choice. Just thought I'd point out the stupidity of it is all."
"Rory, come on…" I begin but he cuts me off with a wave of his hand.
"I'll see ya tomorrow. Gonna go on home and get some sleep. You want me to stop by and wake up Madge, send her back down here?"
"No, let her sleep."
He leaves and I'm only alone for a moment before the medic comes in again. "Ah, you're awake again. How are we feeling now?"
"Nausea's gone. Still sore but not as much as earlier. Tired."
"You'll be pretty sore for a few days. Might feel pretty weak too. Want something else for the pain and soreness?" She asks holding up a syringe.
"Nah, I'll skip it. Think I'd like to be awake for a couple hours before I get knocked out again."
"Just hit that call button if you change your mind. I'll be back to check on you in a few hours."
"Thanks." I tell her as she leaves.
Now, alone with my thoughts, Rory's words run back through my mind again. Is he right? Is it stupid of me to want to still go out on missions? This was a fluke thing, the crash and all. It won't happen like this every time. It's like when I used to sneak into the woods and go hunting. It was dangerous but most all the time, everything was fine. Worst that ever happened was I got a few bruises or some skinned up knees and elbows. And I'm fine going out on missions too. What happened this time shouldn't keep me from going out again. But it's what he said about me leaving people behind to worry about me that keeps jabbing at my thoughts. If it was the other way around, if it was me staying behind worrying and Rory or Madge going out, would I feel the same way as they do? Would I worry nonstop until they came back? Yeah, I would. I'd probably even forbid them to go after something like what just happened to me.
I sigh out loud which leads me to find that taking deep breaths hurts like hell. I wince in pain and wait for it to pass. It does. Mostly anyway. Eventually I must drift off to sleep again because the next thing I'm aware of is someone's hand on my shoulder, shaking me lightly. I open my eyes and find Katniss.
"Hey, what are you doing here? I thought you were still laid up in your own hospital bed."
"They let me go home yesterday. Still in a cast but no more surgeries and no more traction. Got my own set of wheels to get around." She explains as she gestures to her wheelchair.
"Who told you I was here?"
"Haymitch. I went into work this morning. Wondered why you weren't part of the group preparing to rescue Madge's father. They gave me the whole story. So you crashed, huh?"
"Yeah. And I'm still part of the mission to save Madge's father. I'll be outta here in a day or so and I'll be right back at work."
"Nuh-uh. Medical has you written out of active duty for the next 4-6 weeks. Saw the paperwork myself on Haymitch's desk. That means no missions for you. And the research and planning is finishing up today."
"4-6 weeks? I'll miss the whole thing!"
"I know that. Looks like it's going to happen soon. Really soon. Probably best you're out of commission anyway. Every person in the Capitol knows who you are. You'd put the whole mission at risk just by being there."
"It's her father though, I have to be there."
"Have to nothing. It's already happening without you and that's just how it is. You can go ahead and let that go right now." She laughs.
"Did you come just to laugh at me and bring bad news?" I ask. My patience for her wearing thin.
"Just thought I'd say hi is all. I know how much fun it isn't to lay around in a hospital bed by yourself all day." She shrugs.
"Well maybe next time you bring some good news with you?"
"I'll see what I can do about that. For now though, I think I'll head off to lunch. I'll try and stop by tomorrow though, give you all the updates on the upcoming mission. Just because you won't be a part of it doesn't mean you can't know what's going on."
I watch as she wheels herself out the door leaving me once again alone in this room. I guess Rory will be getting what he wants this time with me not being part of the mission anymore. He won't have to worry about me. My mother and Madge won't have to worry either. I'll be right here, being basically no use at all to the most important mission to happen since we arrived in 13. And there's nothing I can do about it.