Thanks again for all the positive feedback, I'm glad you're enjoing the story. Here's another chapter for you:
"Well, are we all going to sit here staring at each other or is one of us going to go and see him?" Frank griped, tired of the tension in the room. The last few days had everyone on a knife edge.
"Eric" Calleigh looked at him from across the room. "You should go back in there, I'm sure he'd like to see a familiar face"
"Sure, if you guys don't mind?" he asked as he stood, the others nodded their approval. "I'll let H know you're all here" he smiled tightly as he turned and walked towards Horatio's room.
He entered the room, quietly shutting the door behind him. He looked over to the man in the bed, his eyes were closed and he appeared to be sleeping. Eric slowly sat down in the armchair and winced as it made a noise as he placed his weight on it. He heard a soft groan, "H?" he questioned gently placing a hand on his friend's arm. "H, are you awake?" He was rewarded with another groan as Horatio's eyes flickered open.
"Urgh…" the red head moaned as he tried to get his eyes to adjust to the light in the room, turning his head slightly he thought he saw a face he recognised. His vision was still blurry, it didn't seem to matter how many times he blinked or squinted his eyes he still couldn't get the image to sharpen. "Eric?" he asked shakily, "Is that you?" He reached out a trembling hand in the direction of the person in front of him.
"Yeah H, it's me" Eric smiled as he took hold of the other man's hand concerned at the tremors running through Horatio's body. "How are you felling?" he prompted, trying to put his fears to one side.
Lifting his other hand to the oxygen mask on his face to remove it Horatio spoke once more, slurring his words slightly. "Eric" he took a deep breath then continued, "What happened?"
Eric gently removed Horatio's hand from the oxygen mask and placed it back over his face for him, "You got hurt at the drug bust" he told him, holding back a large portion of the truth until he though his friend was strong enough to deal with it. "You need to keep the mask on, H" he said as he intercepted the shaky hand that was reaching for the mask again.
"Raid" Horatio slurred, his eyes starting to close.
"Yep, that's right H. Things went south" Eric closed his eyes as he tried to get the image of that fateful day out of his mind. "You're gonna be ok though, I promise" he told him, praying that was the truth.
He sat in the chair watching Horatio sleep; the short conversation seemed to have taken a great deal of energy from the other man. Although he was lying still Eric could not help but noticed the slight tremors coursing through his friend's body. Hearing a low groan he sat up and leaned forwards towards the bed. "H, you with me man?" he asked, shaking his shoulder slightly in an effort to rouse him.
"Eric?" Horatio asked softly, he still couldn't get his eyes to focus and everything still seemed fuzzy. He felt as though he were floating in a haze, nothing seemed to make sense and he had no idea where he was or how he had got there. "Eric" he tried again, hoping that he was actually talking and not imagining it, "What happened?"
Eric felt his heart thump in his chest; he had just had this same conversation with Horatio less than an hour ago. Trying to keep a lid on his emotions he took the other man's hand once more, making a mental note to ask the doctor if Horatio's behaviour was normal in these kinds of situations. "You're in the hospital, H. Things went south at the drugs bust" he told him once more.
Horatio turned his head towards the blurry figure, and groaned slightly at the pain that went through his head. "Raid" he repeated, slurring. "Raid"
"That's right, H. You're gonna be ok though" He gripped Horatio's hand tighter, willing it to be true. He watched his friends eyes close once more; he gently placed the trembling hand back down on the bed and leaned back in the chair trying to keep his fears at bay.
He must have sat there for an hour or more, watching the other man sleep and shift restlessly every so often. He had noticed that the tremors were becoming more frequent and a thin sheen of sweat was starting to appear on Horatio's face, the monitors beeping more frequently as his heart rate increased. Eric got up and pushed the alarm button above the bed, less than a minute later a young nurse knocked on the door and entered the room. "Is there something you need, sir?" she asked, glancing towards the man in the bed.
"I'm not sure if there's anything wrong but he's been shaking a lot since I've been sitting with him and it's getting worse" Eric told the nurse, standing and rubbing a hand over his head trying to relieve himself of some of the nervous tension that had been building steadily. "He's starting to sweat too, what's wrong with him?"
The nurse gave Eric a tight smile as she checked the other man's blood pressure and took a note of the readings on the monitor beside the bed. "I'm just going to page the doctor so he can come and check him out" Seeing the look of alarm on Eric's face she tried to reassure him, "We're doing everything we can for him, sir"
Eric left the room on instructions from the nurse; he sat back down in the waiting area avoiding the questioning looks from the others. He sat with his head in his hands and realised that he was hopelessly out of his depth in this situation.
"Eric" Natalia prodded gently, "What's going on in there?" she asked as she sat next to him and placed a reassuring hand on his knee.
He let out a deep breath, "He woke up and asked me what happened, I told him things went pear-shaped at the raid" he looked up at Ryan who quickly looked away. "He's been drifting in and out, just asking me the same questions over and over"
"It's probably just the drugs they're giving him making him a bit dopey" Natalia tried to reason.
"I called the nurse in, he was shaking pretty badly and burning up just before I left" he explained, five sets of eyes followed the doctor who entered Horatio's room as they all took their places to wait for news on their fallen friend.