(Thank you to everyone for being patient on this chapter. It's the longest one yet (I think). My beta talked me into not doing flashbacks so I decided to write it all out...thus having to write a whole new chapter to keep everyone up to speed. For some reason I struggled a little with this one. *shrug* But here it is. Thank you to all the wonderful reviews/reviewers. You guys are awesome. Enjoy!)
Chapter 25
As Jesse stood there, frozen with the knowledge that a young woman was possibly dying on the floor right in front of him, he had to remind himself that there was nothing he could do. The Rangers had everything under control. He felt Cody tighten and tremble under his hand and he leaned forward and spoke in his son's ear. "Breathe Cody. They're doing everything they can to save her. You're not going to do her any good by passing out."
He felt his youngest exhale in a gust and the trembling under his hand increased as they continued to watch. Matt and Jimmy both paused and Clara's pulse was checked. "I got something…," Matt almost whispered.
Jimmy leaned down and listened to her nose and mouth. "She's breathing but it's shallow," he said as he moved to replace Matt's fingers on her neck so he could check her pulse.
Matt looked almost faint with relief for a moment and then exhaled sharply, pushing all emotion to the side again. Looking around, he spotted his dad and motioned to him. "Take over for Jimmy and keep her head tilted, keep checking her pulse…," he paused as he tilted his head, listening.
Jesse knew what Matt had just heard since he too caught the tell tale sounds of an approaching chopper. Before Jesse moved to assist, he gave Cody's shoulder a quick squeeze. "Go outside. Turn the headlights of the Bronco on to give Avila some light to guide him in." He knew giving Cody something to focus on at the moment would be better than having him look at the innate form of someone Cody thought of like a sister.
Cody stumbled as he turned and made a quick dash out the door, only too happy to be away from the disturbing scene he'd just witnessed. Jesse moved over to kneel next to Clara's head and put a hand under her neck to support it and while he moved his other to press his fingers into her carotid artery. The pulse was there but erratic.
Jimmy finished getting the IV hooked up and taped down while Matt moved to check her blood pressure as the sound of the chopper grew closer, only to set down moments later. The motor slowed but Avila obviously knew not to bother shutting things down since he would most likely be taking off within a few minutes.
As Matt checked her blood pressure reading, he heard Robin's voice outside say something to Cody and he looked up to see her come in, a look of relief washing over his face as she approached them. He knew that all the Rangers had advanced first aid training, but it was always better to have a fully trained paramedic on scene in a situation like this. As Robin set her gear down, Jesse moved away so Jimmy could switch places with him, giving her the space she needed to do her job.
Within moments, Robin had assessed Clara's situation and the team had gotten her strapped to the backboard, blankets and all. At the count of three, Robin and Jimmy lifted her up and were carrying Clara towards the door. Matt picked up Robin's kit and moved to follow but stopped to look at Jesse, "Dad…," he said in a desperate tone as if trying to communicate a thousand things in that one word.
Jesse stepped forward, "Go with her son. Cody and I will get down there when we can. You know you're Rangers can handle this. You've trained them well."
Matt pursed his lips and nodded, unable to find the words to say anything else. Jesse could tell he hated leaving things undone but he had little choice in the matter at the moment. Matt turned and headed outside as Jesse followed but remained on the porch, watching as they prepared to take off.
Matt ducked a little as he approached the chopper while Jimmy helped Robin finish getting Clara secured onboard. Matt tugged at Jimmy's sleeve and had to raise his voice to be heard over the increasing whine of the Jet Ranger's engine. "I need you to stay here. I'm going to send Avila back up for dad and Cody and have them dropped off at the station."
Jimmy nodded and gave him a thumbs' up as he stepped back, giving Matt the room to get into the chopper with Robin and Clara. Once they were situated, Jimmy moved forward to shut the door, securing the latch. He stepped towards the pilot's door and slapped it with his hand twice and gave a thumbs' up to Avila before turning and walking away, stooped over a little until he was clear of the blades.
As soon as Jimmy was clear, Avila lifted off and was swallowed up by the night sky, the sound of the engine and blades soon fading into the distance.
Jimmy made it to the porch to stand next to Jesse before he turned to watch the chopper take off with Matt and Robin monitoring Clara. He sent a silent prayer that she'd make it to the hospital and the doctors could take care of her from there. When the chopper was out of sight, he felt Jesse give his shoulder a pat and heard Jesse move back inside the cabin. Jimmy glanced over his shoulder to watch after him for a moment before he turned to move towards the Bronco to shut off the lights and close up the doors. That was when he saw Cody squatting down near a clump of sage brush and dead grass, using a stick to push the offending vegetation away.
"Whatcha got Cody?" he asked cautiously as he moved over towards the youngest Hawkes. He was just within the range of the headlights of the Bronco and as Jimmy approached, he caught a glimpse of light reflecting off of black and silver metal.
Cody looked up at Jimmy, "Why do I get the feeling this wasn't dropped here by accident?"
Jimmy squatted down and looked carefully at the gun. It was an old .45 that had seen long service but was still in good condition. There was a sinking feeling in his gut as he thought back to Clara's last frantic words as she tried to grab onto Matt's jacket.
"Yeah. Let me go get your dad," he said, rubbing his face in his hands and then stood up, walking carefully as if trying not to disturb too much of the crime scene. "And don't touch anything." That got him an exasperated look from Cody that said 'No duh!'.
Heading back into the cabin, he found Jesse looking around though not touching anything. "Jesse, I think you better bring your flashlight and come see this."
Jesse picked up the flashlight where he'd left it earlier and followed Jimmy outside to where Cody still hunkered down over the spot where Jimmy had left him. With a flick of a button, a beam of bright light flooded the area and Jesse pointed it down to where Jimmy pointed.
"Cody found that laying there." He didn't say anything further, wondering if Jesse would have any input on what he saw.
Silently Jesse looked over the gun and then looked up at Cody and then at Jimmy, "It's my old service revolver. I'd know it anywhere. It's got a gouge across the butt, just there…," he said, pointing to the cut in the bottom of the handle. "Used it to block someone trying to stab me once. Only damage it ever took. I gave it to Matt when I retired."
Jimmy swore something colorful and stood up, walking a few paces away. Turning back to face the two Hawkes men that were staring at him, he sighed, "Cody, leave it where it is. I'm not going to be able to touch anything on this crime scene."
Jesse slowly straightened as Cody stood up, both looking at Jimmy as if waiting for an explanation.
"Let's go inside while we wait for Avila so I can clean up my mess. I'll bring you up to speed on what happened a few days ago in town," was all Jimmy would say before he went over to the Bronco and slammed the doors shut in frustration. His gut told him there was only one way Matt's personal gun could be sitting in the weeds since he hardly took it out of his truck other than to clean and inspect it.
Avila flew his precious cargo down to Tahoe, calling in the emergency when they were half way there. He looked over his shoulder every so often to monitor the people in the back and saw the pale and pinched face of his Commander. He knew Matt was keeping it together because he had to but something was going on inside his mind that was making things difficult for him to handle all of this stress.
The lights of the city came into view as they came around the last ridge and he called out to Robin their ETA. Checking back with the tower control, he adjusted his flight path to compensate for an updraft before he moved back onto course. The winds were dying down after the storm system had moved on but it wasn't completely out of the area yet. Finally the rooftop lights of the hospital came into view and he could see the attendants waiting with a gurney inside the sliding glass doors, waiting for him to touch down before they moved to the chopper.
The landing was a little bumpy due to the winds but he got them down and Matt had the door opened immediately. Within moments, Clara had been offloaded to be wheeled away with Robin running along beside them, waiting until they got inside to give them full details and statistics. Matt climbed back inside for a minute and put the headset back on.
"Avila, I need you to go back up to the cabin, get dad and Cody and take them down to the station. Tell him I need him to call Lisa Elliot as soon as her office opens and let her know what's going on. Once he's done that, he can use one of the Broncos to get to the hospital. I've got to call Hart at the station about something and I'll tell him to come get Robin when you get back. I'm going to stay here for the time being. Jimmy is going to stay up at the cabin and keep things secure until an investigation can be instigated." His voice sounded strained, tired.
Avila nodded, "You gonna be ok Matt?"
Matt gave him a look and then shook his head a little, "I don't know. I need all of this to be kept quiet. Tell the others at the station no using the radio to communicate details on any of this. Only phones. If you use radios to communicate about anything in regards Clara, use code."
Now Avila was really worried and he frowned. "All right Matt but if you need anything, let me know right away."
Matt nodded but said nothing else as he took the headset off and shut the Jet Ranger doors, signaling for him to take off as he bent slightly at the waist, moving away and towards the roof entrance of the hospital, looking troubled.
The phone rang at the Ranger station and Hart jerked a little to become fully awake. It wasn't his night for phones but he was doing his best to stay awake. "High Mountain Rangers, Officer…"
"Tim, its Matt. We got Clara to the hospital but she flat lined on us up at the cabin. We got her going again. So far she's holding her own but that's as much as I know," came his Commanders voice, sounding exhausted and worried over the line.
"Jesus Matt. Do you know what happened yet?" he asked, grabbing a pen to write down some details.
"Not yet but I need you to do me a favor. I need you to get my keys and a flashlight, go out to my truck and check under the seat towards the middle. See if my personal firearm is still under the seat. Don't touch anything if you can avoid it, except the door handle. The truck may need to be processed as a crime scene if the gun is missing. I'll hold while you go check." The almost frantic sound in Matt's voice put the hair on the back of Tim's neck up and he swallowed.
"Alright. Hang on." With that, he put the line on hold and went into Matt's office, grabbed up the set of keys out of the top drawer, grabbed a flashlight off the radio desk and without bothering to grab his coat, rushed out the door to head to Matt's truck.
Unlocking the door, he turned on the flashlight and got down on the floorboards to stick his head down far enough to see up under the seat. There was nothing there except a candy wrapper and a screwdriver.
Swearing a little, Tim got himself out of the truck and headed into the station. He took two breaths before he picked up the line to tell Matt the bad news. "It's gone Matt."
There was a soft groan on the other end of the line and Tim was pretty sure that if Matt hadn't been standing somewhere in the hospital, he would have been swearing rather loudly. "Dammit," came the only mumbled curse. "Tim, I need to you get me Sheriff McBride's home number. I need you to also pull the file on my personal sidearm from my office cabinet to have the information he'll need on it. Avila is going to be bringing my dad and Cody down to the station in a bit…."
"Matt, what's this about?" asked Tim quickly before Matt could go on any longer.
There was silence for a moment, "I think…I think the night I was attacked at Papa Murphy's, whoever roughed me up got into my truck and stole my gun. It might have been used to shoot Clara."
Tim groaned a little, "Oh shit…," was his only response, the implications to what this might mean suddenly clicking through his head. "Look, I'll get you Mike's number but I'll take care of the rest. You worry about Clara."
There was an exhale on the other end of the line. "Thanks. I can't believe I was so stupid as to not check to make sure it was there after that night…," said Matt and Tim could hear the pain in his voice, the fear, guilt and almost self-loathing.
"Hey! We're only human. Have faith that it'll all work out in the end…," said Tim, trying to get Matt off that roller coaster of doubt as he searched through the rolodex for Mike's number. "I got that number for you."
"Yeah…gotta have faith that I won't lose my mind before this is all over," came the response as Matt began to write down the number that Tim rattled off to him.
Jesse sat at Matt's office desk and rubbed his eyes. It was after seven in the morning. Before Avila had returned to get him along with Cody, Jimmy had brought them up to speed on Matt's attack outside of Papa Murphy's. He'd also talked about how just that night it was Jimmy who'd figured out who and what Clara really was thanks to an MTV news brief.
That opened up a discussion between Jimmy and Cody in regards to Clara's comment about it being Randall who shot her. Cody had let Jimmy know why Clara had come to the mountains in the first place and why he'd gotten Lisa up here to help her. During the whole conversation between the two, Jesse had remained quiet as he listened to their speculations, questions and concerns.
Jimmy had gotten his gear cleaned up and put back in the Bronco and then had gone into the kitchen to make coffee after he was sure he wasn't disturbing anything that might be part of the crime scene. Since everything seemed to be on the other side of the house, the three of them had taken their discussion into the kitchen.
Avila had finally arrived and taken them down to the station. Once there and with no one to talk to, Cody had sunk into misery. It was obvious to Jesse that Cody was blaming himself for what had happened. Pulling him aside into Matt's room, he put both of his hands on Cody's shoulders and made Cody look him in the eyes.
"Want to tell me what's troubling you?" he'd asked.
Cody had looked up and then away, "It's my fault. If I'd just told Matt, none of this would have happened…," came the reply Jesse had expected from his youngest.
"Even if you had told Matt who Clara was and what was going on with Lisa, no one could have foreseen Randall doing something like this," had come Jesse's calm voice.
"I know but…," Cody had responded as if trying to reason something that there was no reasoning for.
"No but's. This is 'not' your fault Cody. Trust me on this. Alright?" said had Jesse, giving Cody's shoulders a little squeeze.
His youngest had nodded, still looking upset but right now, there wasn't much else he could say to him to convince him otherwise. This was something Cody would have to think through on his own. Jesse knew that Clara would, in no way, blame Cody, Matt or any of them for what had happened to her. There was only one person to blame and right now, they had a case to build against him so they could put him away for a long time.
After that, Jesse had insisted Cody take a hot shower and try to rest even though Cody had insisted he wasn't tired. He didn't think he could sleep with all of the stress of the night and thinking about Clara. When Jesse had gone to check on Cody half an hour ago, he was sound asleep, sprawled out on his brother's bed.
Jesse brought his thoughts back to the present and sighed. Picking up the phone, he dialed the number in the rolodex on Matt's desk. He let it ring and an answering service picked up. He hit the buttons for the prompts until he finally got to the right extension. He was expecting to get a voice mail recording but when a woman's voice answered the phone he faltered for a moment.
"This is Lisa," came the woman's voice.
Jesse hesitated and he heard, "Hello?" on the other end of the line before he jerked himself into motion.
"Lisa, this is Jesse Hawkes."
"Jesse?" came her voice over the line. He could hear the immediate caution in it. "What are you doing calling me at seven in the morning?"
"Clara was shot last night," he responded in his blunt way.
"What!" she nearly shouted in the phone, "Is she all right?" she asked quickly, sounding truly concerned.
Jesse paused for a moment as he collected his thoughts, "She was alive when she arrived at the hospital though she'd gone into cardiac arrest once before arriving there. Matt called an hour ago and said they had just taken her into surgery. They had to get her stabilized with a blood transfusion before they could even think to operate."
"Jesus Christ…," came her response as he heard her shuffle a bunch of papers on her desk, "Do you know who did this to her?"
"She said her manager, Randall did it." His words were exact and to the point.
There was dead silence on the phone for several seconds. Finally she spoke in a calm but cool tone that told Jesse she was anything but calm and doing everything to keep from coming unglued. "Are you sure about this? Who else knows?"
"Yes, I'm sure. She even told me 'he's sooo fired'. I didn't get much else out of her but we're working to keep things very quiet because we think he may have used Matt's gun to shoot her. He was roughed up a few nights ago and we found his personal sidearm up at the crime scene. The Sheriff knew about the attack from several nights ago and he's up to date on this most recent development. He has his people already processing the crime scene instead of the Rangers, just to be safe," said Jesse, laying it all out for Lisa.
He heard her exhale. "Dammit dammit dammit. This changes everything. Alright, do me a favor. Make sure that the Sheriff talks with the hospital staff about keeping it quiet as well. I'm going to do a little snooping on this end to see if Randall is hiding or walking around in broad daylight. If he's strutting around for all to see, then he may be thinking he succeeded in killing her. The longer he thinks he got away with it, the better our chances are he'll slip up or they'll get everything they need to slap him with an arrest warrant. I'll contact Sheriff McBride and the local DA to make sure all our T's are crossed and I's dotted on this one."
Jesse thought she was thinking some of this out loud for his benefit. He could almost picture her pacing in her office. "Call the Ranger Station if you need anything. They'll know how to get a hold of myself or Matt."
"Thanks Jesse. I'll be in touch as I know more. Let me know if there are any updates on her progress," she said in a little gust of air.
"I will," and with that, he hung up the phone. He thought about what she'd said and then got up to go get more coffee. As he opened Matt's office door, he found himself almost face to chest with Mike McBride.
"Hell of a night, huh Jesse," said the tall man who was showing more gray in his hair every time Jesse saw him…not that he could say much for his own looks.
"Yup. Want some coffee?" he said as he stepped past the man and walked towards the kitchen.
Mike sat down at the kitchen table at the Ranger Station, an expandable folder next to him as he sipped the coffee Jesse had offered earlier. "Got Matt's call and decided I needed to go up there myself to oversee things. Wanted to make sure nothing got mishandled in a situation like this."
Hart and Avila had just come into the kitchen followed by Robin, all looking a little tired from the odd hours. Izzy was sitting at the phones and Jimmy was still up at Clara's cabin until the crime scene had been fully processed.
Since the revelations the night before and the fact that their CO was possibly being framed for attempted murder, the Rangers were all a bit on edge and it was palpable in the kitchen.
"Got any news?" asked Hart as he poured himself a cup of coffee and sat down at the table next to Jesse.
"Just came by to show you something interesting…something that might put your minds at ease a little," said Mike, looking like the cat who had just eaten the cannery. Mike had obviously just come down from Clara's.
Jesse sipped his coffee, setting the mug down as he watched Mike, his face unreadable. "Obviously it's something good or you wouldn't look like you're going to bust your seams."
Mike chortled at that as he pulled out a plastic evidence bag from inside the expandable folder. Inside was a small, leather bound journal, bent open and marked by a pen stuck to the pages by the little clip near the top. The thing that caught the attention of everyone first was that the pages that were exposed were smeared in blood. The next thing that jumped out was a scrawled and scribbled hand writing that seemed to start out legible but got harder to read to the point that the writer had actually used shakily written large block letters to make sure that the words were legible by the end of the message.
"I believe this will clear your boss and damn hers," said Mike cryptically as he took a sip of his coffee as he slid the plastic bag to the center of the table for everyone to be able to lean in to see it without having to pick it up.
"Is that..?" asked Robin who leaned forward just a little.
"Yup. We confirmed it starts out as her hand writing by other things written in the book but by the latter part of the warning, she must have been in a lot of pain because she was struggling to write the rest of it." Mike reached inside his coat jacket pocket and pulled out a small pad of paper. He flipped it open and found the page he was looking for then began to read:
'kurt randall ...shot me ...matts gun ...for insurance ...he hired man ...attack matt'
There were parts where it was hard to read a few of the words since the blood had softened the paper before she'd written on it.
"Of course I'll have to make sure we take fingerprints of Clara since she was nice enough to leave us a several visible prints on the pages but I don't see where there is any doubt about what happened. Do you?" asked Mike.
There was a deathly silence over the kitchen at that as everyone seemed stunned and only able to look from one to the other and back to the journal again.
Jesse finally found voice enough to break the silence. "Where did you find it Mike?
Mike sipped his coffee. "Near where she was sitting was the stack of logs for the fireplace. We found it behind there. I think she set it on top of the pile and it slid down at some time or you guys would probably have found it right off when you'd arrived," he said with a shrug.
"The forensics team is almost done collecting what they need and then they'll come down and dust Matt's truck for prints though I get a feeling they won't find any. But it's better to be safe than sorry." He slid the plastic bag back over towards him and put it back in the folder for safe keeping.
"Well Jesse, I'll leave it to you to give Matt this bit of information. I've got a ton of paperwork to fill out on this and to keep things quiet for awhile as per the DA's request. I'm also going to have to talk to Clara when she wakes up, so could you tell Matt to call me when she does?" He stood up and nodded to the Rangers "Oh, and thanks for the coffee."
After the sheriff had left, Hart looked around the room and then at Jesse, "I'm going to fix breakfast. Why don't you and Cody stay till you can get something to eat and I can fix something for you to take to Matt. Then you had better get going to the hospital to tell Matt the good news, if you want to call it that."
Jesse grimaced and rose to his feet. "I'll go wake Cody. He won't forgive me if he missed out on one of your breakfasts," Jesse said with a slight smirk.
One hour stretched into two, then three and after the fourth hour, Matt stopped counting. He paced the waiting room in front of the windows that looked out towards the mountains, his stomach in knots. After the first hour, he'd gone looking for some answers. The answers he got were not what he'd expected. She was on her second pint of blood and they wanted to make sure her vital signs stabilized before they took her into surgery.
Finally by hour four they had decided they couldn't wait any longer and took her into surgery where she still was when his dad and brother walked through the doors shortly after 10 am. Cody looked slightly depressed and a bit withdrawn. His dad looked like he hadn't slept since the night before though he hid it better than most. Matt couldn't imagine what he looked like.
"Any news?" asked Jesse as he crossed the waiting room towards him.
Matt shook his head. "No," he looked at Cody who had shoved his hands in his jeans pockets and looked away from his brother as if ashamed about something. Matt didn't have a clue of what that was about but he would deal with it in a bit.
Jesse nodded, producing a bag that held breakfast for Matt and pushed a styrofoam cup of coffee towards him. "Compliments of Hart. One of his famous New York breakfast burritos," Jesse paused as he let Matt peek in the bag and then continued. "I called Lisa and she's aware of the situation. She's already begun doing some investigating from her end of things. She'll call back when she has some information."
Matt took the offered items and sat down with an exhale of air. Jesse sat across from him and put his elbows on his knees, leaning forward. "Mike came by the station about an hour ago. They found something Clara managed to write in a journal that basically told what happened to her. Mike was pretty impressed she managed to do that much being in the pain she had to have been in." As Matt began to eat, though a bit peckishly, Jesse told Matt what the journal had said and what Mike's plans were.
With a nod, Matt put the rest of his breakfast aside and slumped further down into his chair. He put his elbows on his knees, shoving his forehead into his hands, his fingers running roughshod through his blonde hair. He was quiet since there was little else he could say to his dad.
"Matt?" came Cody's quiet voice.
Matt took his head from his hands and looked up at Cody who was standing in front of him. "Yeah Coder?"
"Look…I'm sorry I didn't…that I didn't tell you, you know, about Clara," he said, looking ashamed and embarrassed.
Matt blinked and reached out, grabbing Cody's wrist then pulled him down to sit next to him. He wrapped a tired arm around Cody's shoulders and pulled him close. "It's all right Cody. I'm sorry I acted the way I did. She had every right to keep her secrets. I guess I'm just not comfortable having people around me that have big secrets like that and me not knowing. Granted, it was a harmless secret but …," Matt stopped talking, not sure he could find the right words to say.
He had no excuse for his lack of concentration and checking to make sure his weapon was secure after the attack. He still couldn't believe that he hadn't simply made the easy movement to reach under the seat to feel if it was there, tucked up under the center console cushion.
Matt brought his thoughts back to the present and looked at Cody, releasing him after giving him a hug. "I'm glad that you've been such a good friend to her. Someone that would keep that kind of secret is a rare kind of friend and she's lucky to have you. And I'm lucky to have you as my little brother. You were there for her when I wasn't. That means a lot."
Cody looked down at his feet and Matt could see the blush that rose up from his cheeks to his ears but before he could respond to Matt there was the clearing of someone's throat.
Matt looked up and saw a doctor standing in the doorway, dressed in surgical scrubs. "I'm looking for Matthew Hawkes?" he announced to the empty waiting room except for the three men.
Matt stood up quickly and moved towards him, all other things forgotten. He sensed Jesse and Cody following closely behind him. "I'm Matt Hawkes. How's Clara?" he asked.
The doctor nodded, "I'm Doctor Washington. I'm the attending surgeon on Ms Rogers case. Since I'm not needed at the moment I thought I would come out and give you an update," he offered.
Matt blinked and looked at his dad and then at Cody, "Go on."
"In some ways, she's a very lucky woman. The bullet had to go through several layers of blankets apparently before it hit her, slowing it down some. We know this because we've had to pull the pieces of the blankets out of the wound. It also went in at an angle. I'm only assuming she was moving away from her attacker when she was shot. He was probably standing. She was possibly laying flat on her stomach or trying to get out of the bed. I'm only speculating since I'm not a forensic scientist. Anyway, the bullet hit her scapula and shattered into two pieces. The largest piece got wedged between her scapula and a rib, breaking the rib in the process. The bone fragments of the scapula and the smaller bullet fragment are what we're worried about. They imbedded themselves in her lung tissue and caused a partial collapse of her left lung." The doctor paused for a moment there and Matt shifted uneasily.
"How do you consider that lucky?" asked Cody in a quiet voice.
The doctor looked over at the young man and frowned a little in sympathy. "Because if the bullet had been half an inch further up and to the left, it would have hit a major artery and she would have bled out in minutes. If it had been an inch to the right and three-quarters of an inch lower, it would have gone through her left atrium of her heart."
Matt saw Cody blanch at the thought of how close it had been for Clara and in that light, yes, she was a very lucky woman.
"So what does this all mean?" asked Matt finally, wanting to get the full picture of the extent of her injuries.
"Well, we had to call in a pulmonary specialist because if we leave even one small fragment of bone or fiber of a blanket in the lung tissue, it could cause infection or possible collapse of her lung later on. We've gone in and removed the largest piece of bullet and cleaned the hole in the scapula to remove any fragments or slivers that might occur later. That will heal calcify over and heal on its own. We've cleaned the blanket fibers out and she's being prepped now for the pulmonary surgery. Unfortunately this will be quite extensive and could take some time since the surgeon needs to be very through," replied the doctor. "When this is all over, Ms Rogers is going to be dealing with a lot of pain for some time due to the broken rib, the lung damage, the facial bruising and cracked right zygomatic process…her cheekbone," the doctor offered upon seeing the confusion on Cody's face at the strange word.
Matt nodded and sighed, "Thank you Doctor. Just let me know when she's out of surgery and how things went." There was little else he could say or do. This would take time and nothing he did could hurry things along. The last thing he would want right now would be for the doctors to hurry their work.
The doctor nodded and left, heading back the way he'd come. Silence filled the waiting room and it was Jesse that finally broke the silence. "Matt, since this is going to take awhile Cody and I will stay here. You go back to the station and get a shower then go see Mike for an update. We'll call if there are any changes or news. I'm sure you'll be back here before they are even finished."
Matt looked like he was about to protest but one look from his dad's face told him that he had little choice in the matter and putting up an argument right now would not be in his best interest.
Cody piped up as Matt slowly gathered up his coat and the remains of his belated breakfast, "Hey, on your way back, could you stop and get us some burgers? I'm starving."
Matt saw Jesse roll his eyes and he could feel a slight smile ghost his lips. Leave it to Cody to be hungry an hour after he'd just eaten, even in the face of all that had happened.
To be continued -