Later Mel stood beside Red`s bed. Ann was with her. She had reduced the sedation on a minimum. The two women looked silently at him.
"Hematokrit has fallen a little bit." Mel nodded, still thinking about Zee, and what she might feel when she may lose Red here. They stood in silence again.
Ann and Mel understood each other very well. They needn´t talk much although they knew each other only for hours. They got friends anyway.
"Ma'am.." "Please, Ann. Call me Mel." "Mel, why did you get separated? Sorry for my indiscretion" Ann said low. "It´s ok. We decided after months of trying to call each other. He was in a mission, I never knew where. Sometimes I was, too. Sometimes we even talked for months. So we both decide to end our relationship. We didn't want us to torment any longer. But I still love him.", Mel explained low.
"I´m sure he does, too. I saw it in his eyes when you talked to him at the trauma bay. He was glad to hear your voice again. " "Don't say that, Ann! Don´t say that..please.." She felt a lump in the throat. Silence again.

"Think we can start a try." Mel separated the ventilator from the fixed tubus in Red`s mouth. She waits tense for a wheezing sound, a sign that he´s breathing alone without support. A second seemed to be an hour.
"Come on, Red. Breathe!" she whispered impatiently. In her minds she counted the seconds.."Come on!" this time louder almost shouting. And there it was. His chest was rising on its own. When exhaling the tube gave a sound.
Relieved she fell down on the chair. "I´ll wait a few minutes before I extubate him. Would you get me a strong coffee?" Ann nodded and short time later she came back with a cup. "Coffee is a life elixir! Thank you, Ann!" Mel took a big sip.
Then she started to remove the fixation for the tube. With a not too careful move, she pulled it out. She sat down again, drank her coffee and waits him to wake up. She had an eye on the drainages. The drains still were in his surgery wounds to led remaining blood off his body. They were normally filled.
"We`ll have a small breakfast soon" said Ann "would you join us? You should have a break and get a little bit sleep, too" In fact, Dr. Strauss didn´t drank or ate the whole time. She worked all night and was awake since almost 30 hours.
"If you like, take a rest on my rack." suggested Ann." We´ll take good care of him." "I know, but I can´t sleep now" Dr. Strauss rubbed her forehead. "But a donut would help a lot."
They left Red to have a break. A few people of the staff were already in the reception room. Those who didn´t met Dr. Strauss yet, looked surprised to see a woman in german uniform. Dr. Daily stood up and introduced her to the crew.
Mel sat down next to him. "How`s your patient doin´?" he started "Ann told me you know him.." "Yeah... I do." Mel answered low. Suddenly everone stopped talking. No one in the room said a word. They just stared at her. She tried to smile.
They do not have to know how sorrowful she was. "Surely he will make it soon" a medic said to her. Silently she nodded. To stop the embarrassing silence, Daily started a small talk to her about the differences between Germany and the US, her planned holiday and other stuff. "You really should sleep an hour or two." Daily advised her. "There`s nothing you can do now, except waiting." Mel knew, he was right and followed Ann, who showed Mel her rack. "It´s not like home, but it´s ok"
"I´ll will only stay an hour" Mel meant. She opened her loose hair knot and runs her fingers thru it. Once she had lain down, she fell in to a dreamless sleep.

She teared up her eyes. She had slept too long! A look on her watch; It´s 1 pm. One and a half hour – Must be enough. She yawned and stretched, took big sip water and threw in a chewing gum. Put her hair together again. As she went to the door, she passed a mirror. She looked busted: was pale, had deep circles under her eyes, a sunken face. Her hair looked undone. She took a deep breath and left the room.

Red was still unconscious. So she decided to make herself useful. So she spent the next two hours with controlling other patients on the ICU and visited Flea again.

Mel just finished changing some of Flea´s infusion solutions as half a dozen people, lead by a General came to the ward. They went to Red`s bay first. Mel was longing to know what´s up there. So she went over and stood unobtrusively beside Ann and gave her a questioning look. "He´s getting honored with the Purple Heart" Ann said quietly. Mel drew her eyebrows to signal Ann, that she understands. The general leans in and speaks softly into Red's ear.
"I don't know if you can hear me now," he says, "but I'm going to talk to you anyway, just in case." He tells Red that the Purple Heart was established by George Washington. He says he would have rather done this when Red was awake,
but give it to him here, before he's flown out of Afghanistan, seemed more important to him. Ann sniffed. Mel looked to her. "Usually, I don´t stay ." She wiped a tear away "It´s too emotionally to me."
Everybody stood to attention in the narrow bay when the general fixed the medal to Red´s bed sheet. Mel had a lump in her throat, too.
The General turned around to leave. Then his eyes met Mel in her German uniform. She saw his surprised expression. Reflexively she stood to attention and saluted. "Oberstabsärtzin Strauss, German Forces, Sir!" While Dr. Daily stood behind the general, whispering something to him. "At ease, Ma'am" he said friendly. "Dr. Daily told me about you. In the name of the staff and the US Forces, I'd like to thank you. I`ve heard you´ve done a good job. I`m also been informed about your relationship to the soldier. I think you would like to stay here with him. I´ll arrange that you can fly with him when he will be transferred to Europe. After all we`re to blame, that you delayed your vacation."
He was a tall man, maybe around 50, his hair was light grey. His brown eyes acted almost fatherly.
"Sir, thank you for your appreciation. And for your offer to stay." He laid a hand on her shoulder. "Wish you all good." With this farewell the group left. Except of Ann. She stayed and wiped again a tear away.

In the afternoon, Red wasn´t still awake, Dr. Strauss met other Doctors in the reception room for a briefing. They discussed the new patients of yesterday, their condition and therapy. Also where and when they`ll be flown out. Most of the patients only stayed 48 hours here. The hospital was not intended for long-staying patients. "Condition of your case, Dr. Strauss?" Dr. Waile wanted to know. He was Navy Captain and the director of surgery. "He makes quite good" Strauss answered. "Wounds are ok, he´s stabile, extubated, but still unconscious. Blood gas is ok, too. I feel a bit uncomfortable with his hemoglobin. It´s only 9. But I know we have to be economical with the stored blood."
Waile nodded. "I understand. There will be no margin if he starts bleeding again. But as you said; we can´t transfuse more to him if it`s not vital. By the way.. Who did the surgery?"
"Me" said Daily. "Ok, then we really a HAVE a risk!" Waile said. They started laughing. All knew he wanted not to run down Daily. He knew he´s a good surgeon, but wasn´t vascular specialized. The two vascular specialists they had, were already in an operation when Red arrived here. So Daily had to do the suture. He surely did it well.
"If his condition stays stabile," said Daily "he could go to Landstuhl tomorrow." His colleagues and Dr. Strauss nodded in agreement.

As Mel sat beside his bed again, she felt very tired again. She opened her hair to feel more comfortable. With entangled arms she laid her head on his mattress. She remembered of their last phone call.
It feels to her like her heart was bleeding. She had suppressed it for two years. And as she thought, she was over it, and didn´t had to think of him all the day, she holds his hand again.
Meanwhile she knew, she made a big, big mistake. she was the one who finished it at all. He was her opinion, too and agreed that it was better for both to end the relationship. She could hear his voice on the phone in her head. The connection was worse. After they talked of unimportant things, Mel asked him, if he still wants do hold their love . "Dunno," his answer was short, his voice uneasy. "Maybe it`s better this way. I´ve gotta go now. Lake´s callin... Bye!"
Stunned she looked at the phone receiver and hung it up. She stood with her back to the barrack`s floor wall, slipped down on the floor. She cried. After a few minutes her friend Katie came to her.
Katie sat beside her and offered her a cigarette. They talked in german: "I thought, you stopped smoking" Mel struggled to calm herself. "Yeah, Lake hates it when I do. But in case of emergency… I think this is one!" Katie meant.
„Red does too, but now it`s not his business anymore. " Katie laid an arm around her while Mel stared into the nothing and smoked her cigarette.
Lake and Katie were able to hold out, but Katie didn´t told her friend not to hurt her and made it easier for her to forget Red.

She felt a finger running thru her hair which hung over her eyes. Tenderly he rolled a strand. Gingerly she wanted to lift up her head. Softly the hand tried to hold her head down.
"Don´t move!" She heard his low and hoarse voice. Relieved she smiled under her long hair and shed a silent tear of joy. "Don´t move.." he repeated. "I´m scared that you´re not real."
And she did not. So much she wanted to see his warm eyes now. So much, that it burns in her heart, a feeling that was really physically painful.
"I´m fuckin' scared…You look like her. You can´t be real.. Let me my illusion." he whispered weak again. She stayed in her position. At least so he couldn´t see she´d cried. Minutes of silence. Only the monotone bleeping was hearable.
She reached for his hand. He recognizes the small scar on her forefinger, which caresses the back of his hand. "Wildfire?" he paused and took a few deep breaths. She answered not.
"Are you my banshee?" Now she looked up. "No. I´m not. You did it, Red."
"Don´t feel so." He tried to grin. "You shouldn´t have any pain."she wondered. His breathing got heavier. "Somethin's wrong with my stomach" he moaned. "You have been through a long operation" Mel explained.
"I´ll give you something against the pain. Then you´d feel better." Red nodded in agreement. After injecting him a painkiller and give to him some water, Mel checked again the other medication, his wound dressings and his drainages. Everything was ok. She didn´t knew what to say. Due to the fact, he doesn´t asks, she meant he was still too tired to talk much. His eyes followed every move she made.
"Missed ya." he breathed. Surprised Mel turned around. "I missed you like hell, too. I thought the worry about you will make me insane."

She gave him a kiss on the cheek. He grinned: "That´s your way to kiss me?" She blushed. She thought it would be little bit unprofessional to have a smooch session with him here.
He took her hand. His eyes looked pleading at her. She leant over him and kissed him. At first softly, then passionate. "Stop it!" she whispered to him. "Or I have to come into your bed!" He was grinning like the Cheshire Cat: "Is there a problem?"
"Damn,Red! I can´t believe it. Yesterday you wanted to die, now wanting to have sex." Mel laughed out. "At first, Babe, you have to get well again."
"Guess you´re right." he smirked. Mel held his hand all the time. She enjoyed to talk to him again, took a seat and began slowly to report him from Flea, Lake and the others. She just wanted to tell him from Zee, when she heard and felt something dropping on her surgery clogs. Horrified she looked down. It was liquid, light red and the drops got more.

Then things happened almost simultaneously: Red got dazed and pale again. Sweaty he rang for breath. His hands began to shake. The sound from the monitor changed from rhythmic into alert.
She shouted for help while she raised his legs and pressured his wound. Immediately some nurses appeared. One ran to search for Dr. Daily and to get an operation room prepared.
Mel switched again to the role as anesthetist and repressed her emotions. She called orders to the nurses while she aspirated a sedation drug, spoke soothingly to him. It was like a déjà vu. Red got unconnected again.
Dr. Strauss set her anesthesia. In the moment she pushed the tubus carefully in Red`s trachea, Daily appeared in the bay. He was a master of ironic slang.
"Strauss, what`s up? Are you bored or are you goin' to transfer your patient to ECU?" (ECU= Eternal Care Unit = heaven) "Naaa..." she concentrated, then she looked up to him. In addition she fixed the tubus.
"Was in fact bored and needed a little exercise. Wanna join in?" she smiled. Being ironic was surely not nice, but it helped her to handle the situation. If you don´t want to cry – make a joke.
Nasty slangs were used by almost every medics she knew. "No desire. But our two vascular specialist can´t wait to play with you in room one!"
"Ok, you`ll miss fun!" Strauss sang as she connected the ventilation bag to the tubus. "Ladies, ready for take-off ?" The nurses confirmed and they started their quick run to operation room.

"At three!" the surgeon called. He counted down and on his command Red was lifted on the operation table again. Quickly he was covered with sterile sheet; a nurse cleaned his bleeding wound with iodine.
gave him more medication to stabilize his circulation. The surgeon reopened the wound. A massive bleeding showed up. It flowed to the floor. "Aspirate!" he ordered. Dr. Strauss heavily worked to keep Red alive.
She ordered ten units of stored blood, gave him stabilizing drugs. All that she does not want was another cardiac arrest. After a few minutes the situation had calmed a bit. She sat on a stool beside his head, noticed vital signs and medication
in her protocol.

Suddenly a song came to her mind, almost like it was played in the room. The piano sound: ` The Fray - How to save a life´.
In her mind she sang the lyrics:" Where did I go wrong, I lost a friend . Somewhere along in the bitterness. And I would have stayed up with you all night. Had I known how to save a life…."
It fits to her situation somehow. She still sat on the stool. Now watching him.

Somehow she supposed he won´t make it today. She will lose him…