Aisha had found herself in all kinds of sticky situations before and since she'd joined the Losers. She'd been chased by the police, kidnapped by thugs, and trapped in a bathtub by a roomful of angry men with guns. She'd never been in a situation like this though, her hands inside of a man she'd grown close to (despite her best efforts,) trying to keep him from bleeding to death in a cold clinic.

Holy shit.

They'd burst into the clinic through the back door, grateful that there had been an entrance that was relatively sheltered from view, following Diane's directions and gently laying Jensen's limp form on an operating table. Cougar and Pooch had been dispatched to get more blood from a refrigerator in a back room and Aisha stayed with Jensen while Clay and Diane went to find an ultrasound machine.

Comforting a man delirious with pain, in shock, and struggling for breath was not one of Aisha's strong points. Jensen had regained consciousness on the ride over, nearly hyperventilating in pain and confusion, and had started rambling weakly, somehow managing to speak as much as he normally did.

"It hurts," Jensen had gasped weakly, clutching feebly at Aisha's hand. "Haven't… hurt this much…ever, really…thought that getting…shot was bad, or…or the time Cougar…gave me a…con-concussion."

"Cougar gave you a concussion?" Aisha had asked, raising an eyebrow. She stroked lightly at Jensen's cool hand, hoping it would offer some sort of comfort.

"Didn't mean to," Jensen whispered. "I was new. Didn't know…he was so…twitchy." Jensen laughed painfully before barking up blood, gasping for air that wasn't coming.

"Calm down, Jensen, come on," Aisha soothed, before yelling abruptly for Clay and Diane.

They'd come hurrying back, wheeling the machine with them, and then things had moved rather quickly.

Diane had found the bleed, a big one in Jensen's liver, and gave Cougar a quick rundown on how to monitor anesthesia levels. Pooch was told to monitor vitals and make sure there was enough blood on hand for the surgery, and Clay, who had had the most experience with such things, would be assisting Diane. Aisha would be helping with the surgery itself as well, performing those tasks simple enough for her to do without any experiences.

Which led her to here, elbow deep in Jensen's insides, as Clay and Diane scrambled to repair the damage and Pooch worriedly told them about falling vital signs.

"Come on, come on," Diane muttered, gloved and bloodied hands working steadily, if slightly frantically. "I need more suction!"

Clay obliged quickly, suctioning out the blood that was pouring stubbornly into Jensen's abdominal cavity. Pooch was hanging another bag already, and Aisha could feel her hands starting to tremble. Jensen was dying. Why the hell did that bother her so much? It wasn't like she cared, right? It wasn't like-

"Aisha!" Diane barked suddenly, and Aisha realized she must have been yelling for quite a bit.

"Yeah, sorry," she said quickly, and Diane gave her a look half-frustration and half-pity. Aisha bristled.

"Hold this. Whatever you do, don't let go of it, you understand?"

Aisha nodded numbly, taking the clamp from Diane.

"What is this?" She asked quietly.

Clay answered without looking up from where he was working.

"That's a clamp that's holding the artery feeding blood to Jensen's liver," he said, his voice low and weary. "You're stopping him from bleeding out."

"That's good right?" Aisha said, trying to keep her hand from trembling.

"Except that if we don't get the artery fixed quickly enough, we kill his liver."

"Shit," Aisha muttered, taking a deep breath in an effort to ground herself.

"Yeah," Diane agreed.

"His blood pressure is dropping again," Pooch said worriedly, and Diane swore under her breath.

"Okay, do you know how to piggyback an IV line?" She asked.

"Yeah," Pooch answered. "It's been awhile though."

"Doesn't matter," Diane snapped. "You need to piggyback another bag of saline on his IV, and start another bag of blood on his other hand."

"Okay, can do," Pooch said, moving quickly to follow Diane's directives.

"Aisha," Diane said a few minutes, or hours, later. "I want you to remove the clamp now."

Aisha hesitated, her hands shaking lightly.

"Aisha," Clay said. She didn't look up at him, staring into the gaping hole in Jensen's body, at the blood and the organs and her gloved hand, covered in red smears…

"You said not to let go," she whispered. "You said no matter what, don't let go."

Clay's hand suddenly covered hers.

"I know, Aisha," he said, his voice calm and soothing. "I know. But you need to let go. It's fixed now, and then we're going to stitch him up, and then he's going to be fine. Okay? You need to let go."

Aisha hesitated a moment longer before slowly releasing the clamp. She moved her hands up slowly, holding the clamp in one bloody grip. The tension in the air was palpable, thick enough to make the room feel like it was slowly filling up with water, drowning everyone inside.

The artery held.

"Gracias a dios," Cougar muttered, and there seemed to be a collective sigh of relief.

"Okay, let's get this kid sewed up and into recovery," Diane said. Aisha murmured a prayer under her breath, stripping off her red-stained gloves and sliding to the floor in exhaustion and relief as Clay and Diane finished up. Jensen was going to be okay. He was going to be up and running in no time, shooting his mouth off and flirting awkwardly and hacking files and-

An alarm coupled with curses and muffled sounds of panic stopped her train of thought.

"What's going on?" Aisha gasped, pushing herself to her feet. Clay was performing chest compressions on Jensen's too-still chest and Cougar was pale and shaking and crying and Pooch was handing Diane fucking defibrillators and Jensen was dying, dead, gone-

"Aisha! I need you to get atropine, you hear me? There are pre-loaded syringes in the top drawer of the far left cabinet, and you need to get it right now. Now, Aisha!" Diane yelled, and Aisha scrambled to do as she was ordered, immensely grateful that she was occupied and unable to see what was going on, wishing she couldn't hear as there was a whine and a thud but no steadying beeps of a heartbeat.

"Jensen!" Clay roared. "Don't give up, damn it!"

He was still performing compressions, stubbornly pounding at Jensen's still heart. Pooch's head was in his hands, his shoulders shaking, and Cougar was wide-eyed and crying, staring brokenly at Jensen as he rhythmically squeezed at the bag covering Jensen's mouth and nose.

"Here," Aisha said, thrusting the syringe at Diane, biting her lip until it bled as she waited to see if Jensen would respond.

"Keep doing the CPR," Diane commanded as she pressed the contents of the syringe into Jensen's IV line. "Let this circulate and then we'll try the paddles again."

Clay continued, elbows locked, sweat dripping down his face, muttering curses and pleas simultaneously.

"Okay, I'm going to hit him again," Diane said.

A stillness settled over the room, more intense even then the first, the blaring alarm fading away and the voices stopping and everything was quiet, even the charging of the defibrillator-

And then a rhythmic beep, hesitant at first but growing steadier, shattered it.

"Holy shit!" Pooch crowed. Cougar dropped to his knees, his head falling forward onto his chest as his shoulders quaked.

"You ever do that to me again, kid, and I will kick your ass, you hear me?" Clay said, but it was quiet, subdued, exhausted.

Aisha sat on the floor, staring at a drop of blood on the floor, listening to the beeping and allowing it to lull her, to soothe her.

"Let's get him to recovery," Diane said finally, her voice hushed. She sounded hesitant for the first time since Aisha had met her, as if she didn't want to break the stillness. "We'll keep him on the ventilator and we'll have to monitor him closely. But if there aren't any complications, he should be back up in a month or two."

"He will be okay?" Cougar repeated breathlessly.

"He should be. I'm not making any promises, but if he's half as tenacious as the rest of you- then yeah, he'll be fine."

Aisha bowed her head and cried for the first time in a long time.

xxxx

A/N: Thanks for the great reviews- sorry if Aisha seemed a bit out of character in this chapter, but I think that as she grows more attached to the guys, reacting to such an intense situation with a bit of emotion would be certainly possible, and maybe even probable.