I tried very hard, to be quiet as I pulled back the curtain leading into the room, but the metal hooks scrapped agaisnt the metal pole and by the time I walked in there was a body stirring on the soft brown couch by the huge window. I frowned watching Juliet stand, pushing a red blanket off and rush to Max's side. He was still sound asleep and when she realized that she looked at me with hooded eyes. I smiled small raising the two hot Starbucks cups and she smied back. "I didn't hear you leave."
"I had to eat something. And I knew you'd want coffee." She nodded waking aroudn the bed our son was hooked up too. I extended her cup to her and sipped the last of my black coffee walking back to my seat right next to his sleeping form. We hadn't been in this room with him for more than 5 hours and aready it felt like a lifetime. As I sat back in my seat I put both arms on the rests and let Juliet sit on my lap, not leaning all the way back, so she could see Max. I gently started to rub her back and looked anywhere but at the IV hooked to his arm. And i looked any where but at blood still pumping into his body, from the bag. The paramedic wasn't lying when he said Max lost a lot of blood.
"You look exhausted." A few fngertips grazed over my cheek and I half heartdly smiled up at my beautiful, stressed out looking wife. I simply shrugged making her sigh out and look back to Max, but kept her hand on my face. "Do you know how many people died?" I laid my head back and closed my eyes, resisting the urge to sleep.
"The last Carlos told me, was 22." She sighed again and I continued to rub her back. "If Max hadn't pushed Emily to the gorund..."
"23." I simply nodded and let her pull herself up further on my lap. "How were you able to stay so calm when you saw him Ken?" I raised my head and saw I was being watched. I again shrugged but opened my mouth.
"My only thought walking into that mall was find survivors and stop the shooter." I paused and looked to Max shaking my head. "I checked for his pulse and kenw he was alive so my next concern was Emily." I turned back to Juliet who was watching me intenty, hand now resting on my chest. "Do you know when Carlos and I walked in that store, she must have heard us and screamed, I don't want to die." She closed her eyes tight and fell on me, shivering at the thought, or the cold in the room. Probably both. "She jumped on me Jules. She sobbed and screamed at the sheer horror she just went through. And all I could do was hold her and let her cry on me. I..." I was stopped, hearing the curtain being pulled back and turned my head smiling at our guest.
James walked in, still wearing his blue cap over his head, and face mask hanging around his mask. His scrubs were clean so I had to assume he changed them after working on Max. "Hey guys. How we doing in here?" James wheeled a black leather stool over to us and sat in front of us, looking at the monitor beside Max.
"James..." Juliet jumped off me handing me her coffee, just to leap onto James. He huffed out and held around her, laughing quietly. "You saved our son." She breathed out hard and I smirked seeing him blush standing up.
"I was just doing my job. Besides...I heard he was a hero. It was an honor to save him." James opened his eyes and mine met his. I threw away my starbucks cup and set Juliets on the small table attached to Max's bed. "You look like hell." I chuckled putting my hands in my pockets looking at the TV on behind James.
"Back at you old man." James laughed but Juliet sighed pulling herself off him, wiping under her eyes. "So...when can we expect to break him out?" James quickly pulled off his face mask throwing it away and walked to the other side of Max quickly hitting some buttons on the machine.
"Well i can't make that call. When Logan gets here, he's going to be the floor's doctor. He'll be able to make a better judgement than me."
"Not the first or last time for that." We a turned to the door moving out of the way as Logan wheeled in a cart with his laptop and a handful of other useful looking things. "He had a heartrate spike. It dinged me to see what was going on."
"Yeah i saw that. He's been asleep the whole time." Logan smiled small at me grabbing Juliet's hand as he waked to Max's bed. I stood behind seeing James pulling back his blankets on him, moving his hospital gown around to look at his wound. "Damn i'm good." I rolled my eyes as Juliet laughed and quicky walked over to our son's hurt side. She knelt down and turned ghost white seeing what she was seeing. I simply stood next to Logan and watched as he fiddeled with the IV bag and checked the monitor. "Where's EM's?" James stood up straight and pushed the monitor closer to Logan to see, looking right at him.
"Picking Sam up from your mom's. He's begging to see us. Wants to make sure cool guy Max is alright, even though I told him you worked on him." James smiled and I did too knowing thier youngest child, an 8 year old boy, was over the moon about my son. He looked up to him and it made me proud.
"She was okay to drive?" Juliet carefully sat on the bed and brushed Max's shaggy brown hair out of his eyes. I quickly put my hand on the back of her neck and squeezed gently. Logan glanced to her laughing quietly at her question and raised his left leg putting his foot on a step on the bed. He turned back to the IV and sighed out.
"She got calmed down quiet a bit when i told her, as long as it was okay with you two, she could stay here tonight."
"Of course." They all looked to me and i shurgged yawning quietly. "She has gone through a lot. I know Max makes her feel safe." James quickly backed away from the bed and pulled out a sleak looking phone answering it quietly. "SO you got a time for me, when he can go home?"
"Well if he's anything like you Kendall, these pain meds are going to kick his ass. So as his doctor i need to make the decision to see if he can hande the pain and let me hlep him get back on his feet, or i drug him up, let his body heal itself over time." I hated the idea of the later and knew Juliet did as well as she looked back at me. "All I can say right now, until he wakes up, and tells me how he feels, i can't do much. Which means i need to maybe start waking him up. James?" We a turned to James who put his phone back in his pocket and nodded to Logan. "Can you call in Aaron? He is going to need to pull back on the morphine and be in here while Max wakes up." Juliet moved out of the way as James searched for the nurse call button and quickly leaned forward kissing Logan's cheek.
"I have to go. One of the victims is bleeding out again." With that James then kissed Juliet's head and patted my shoulder as he ran out of the room rather quickly. It made my stomach turn knowing there were peope in this hospital right now that could die because of what happened today, but I couldn't really care at the present time. Mostly because Max's head was starting to roll back and forth and there were soft groans coming from his open mouth. Juliet jumped off the bed and grabbed his hand bending down.
"Max, baby?" Logan pushed off the bed and pushed the curtain back looking out of the room calling for a nurse. I automatically took his spot by his head and set a hand on the top of it swallowing a dry lump in my throat. Max continued to groan and just as his eyes opened, i was gently pushed back by Logan while Juliet was also pushed back by the nurse who has been with us since we got in here. "Max?" I saw Max's eyes move over to his mom and he reached up quick trying to pull the tube out of his nose. The nurse gently held both his arms down as Logan hit some buttons on his machine and clipped a metal clip onto the IV going into his arm.
"Hey Max...it's Logan. I'm with your mom and dad. You're in the hospital. I am going to raise your bed up and maybe take that tube out of your nose, but for the time being i need you to keep your arms donw and not touch it, okay?" Max groaned out, closing his eyes again but nodded. I watched with pained eyes as the nurse and Logan let Max go and Logan turned back to his computer. I stepped out of the way and stood sort of at the edge of his bed watching him look around the room blinking the sleep from his eyes. When he stopped on me his brows furrowed and he nodded his head at me. I frowned and shook my head and a smile started to tug at his mouth. I smirked hearing Juiet cry quietly and watched as she walked to me. She cluthced onto my arm and i glanced down kissing her head. And then i spotted it. He was probably wondering about my uniform. Even thought my vest was off, i still had my S.W.A.T. shirt on. "Okay Max...let Aaron know if you start to feel any discomfort. Hit him, yell real loud...whatever." Aaron smiled and glanced to the monitor as he started to raise the bed so Max was sitting up. "Jules when was his last check up?" She pulled away from me and i quicky waked over to the nurse standing behind him smiling donw at my son.
"Hey buddy. How you feeling?" Max again smiled but it fell fast as he started to cough out. Because of the tube donw his nose, the coughing seemed a lot worse than it was and it scared me. However the nurse quickly turned a nozzel on an oxygen tank behind the bed and his coughing subsided.
"He had his physical before school for football." I looked over at Juliet who was sitting in my old seaat hoding Max's hand. "There were no outstanding problems."
"Good...alright..." Logan finsihed typing something up before pushing his computer to the side and walked around Juiet. "Okay Max, this is going to suck, i'm not goign to lie. This tube has been helping you breath since your surgery. The reason being was you started to strain yourself when you came out of anesethsia." Max looked up to Logan with wide, scared eyes making my heart break. "We put your bed up so you're sitting up, because i've had a few patients throw up as the tube comes out. Your gag reflexes might be hit and if they do well..." He stopped and looked to Aaron who bent donw quick. "Aim for the trash can." Aaron held the trash can next to him and i braced myself watching Logan take the tape off Max's face that had been holding the tube down. "Okay buddy. I'm going to count to three. On three i want you to take a deep deep breath and exhale as you start to feel the tube leave. Okay?" Max nodded and looked right at me. I nodded and reached out putting a hand on his leg. "Okay...one, two and three." I tensed up hearing Max take his deep breath and exhale as Logan started to pull the tube out. Max groaned quiet a bit but otherwise handeled it like a champ. And when it was completely out he laid back hard coughing loudly. At first i thought he was going to barf but when he stopped coughing, Logan and Aaron had the tube untangeled from his bed and detached from the tank. "Check you out Max. You handeled that like a champ. Just like your mom." I rolled my eyes feeling a litte more relaxed. "Okay...how you feeling Max?"
"Better since that things out." I fet a wave fo reliefe hearing my son's voice. "Sorry about all the boogers Doc." I coudn't help the laugh that eft my mouth making Juliet sigh but stand up and sit back on the bed with Max as Logan laughed with me and shook hsi head.
"Trust me...i've seen a hell of a lot worse." He turned to his computer and quicky started typing up. "It's good to hear you as yourself Max. How's the pain?"
"It's there but it's not terrible." He paused and he looked between me and his mom before stopping on the nurse who was looking at hsi wound dabbing at it with a steril pad. "What happened to me?" My eyes fell to the floor and my happy world came crashing down. How the fuck was i suppsoed to tell him he was shot?
"Well..." Logan was beside Juliet quick, one hand on her shoulder smiling small. "You were shot. You and Emily were at the Mall and someone started shooting a gun."
"Emily..." His voice was panicked and i looked up quick shaking my head. Aaron finsihed looking at the wound and moved awya, giving me the perfect opportunity to move in and stand closer to his face.
"Emily is perfectly fine. Minus being scared out of her mind. But you saved her Max. You shoved her to the ground and covered her with your body. She said you guys didn't hear the gun going off and you stood up to grab your phone you dropped. That's whem you were hit." Max laid his head back and sighed out raising a hand and pinched the bridge of his nose.
"And let me guess? You found me?" I assumed he was talking to me and i nodded smiling.
"How do you figure?" He turned to me slowly and grinned up at me.
"I remember hearing you. You were taking...your voice sounded so calm. I could easiy recognize it." I swallowed hard and nodded as he turned to Juliet knowing i didn't sound cam at all. "So do i have a cool scar?" I sighed out hard, walking away from his bed and laughed with Logan who went to his computer. I took a seat in the stool on wheels and wheeled behind Juliet kissing her shoulder.
"Actually because James works so clean it may not be all that cool." He snapped his fingers making his mother laugh as she bent donw kissing his forehead. "Dude...you are looking real good. I don't think your time in here is going to be that long. But we need to keep you around mostly for your humor. But also to check your stich job." I glanced over my shoulder to Logan who was furiously typing while looking at his laptop. "You hungry kid?"
"I could eat. But not this gross hospital food."
"Max..." Juliet turned so she was now facing me and i smirked up at her. "It's times like these were I remember he's your son." I tried my best to look offended but nothing worked. "James?" I stood and turned fast hearing him walk in. He didnt look so good. "Hun...what's wrong?" James forced a smile walking past the nurse and went right to Logan whsipering something in his ear. When he pulled away Logan looked right to me and shook his head clearing his throat softly.
"23."