Chapter 35 - Casualties
Penny slowly started to try and open her eyes, she was completely disoriented and her mind was just trying to grasp where she was. She stayed confused, for several seconds, until she slowly started to remember, a small gasp coming from her. Her mind immediately tried the rationalize what was happening to her, she was waking up so she must have had a nightmare, a horrible nightmare. Her mind still couldn't accept the horror it was exposed to before, so she had thought of something safe, however as she became more aware of her surroundings, she started to realize she wasn't in her bed and that started to scare her.
Bernadette and Amy watched Penny's head move slightly and her eyes start to flutter, she had been out for a short time, from hyperventilation, but she seemed to coming back now. Amy had held Penny's head cradled in her lap, while Bernadette had talked to the chaplain, while they waited for Penny to wake up, finding out what the military men had come to say and finding out they were a casualty assistance team. They told her why they were there, when they found who she was, letting her know Howard was okay, but the news for Penny was bad, really bad. Bernadette watched Penny start to fully wake up, she was really becoming concerned about Penny's emotional state, Penny had shut down after she realized the casualty assistance team was there for her and Bernadette wasn't even sure now if she could take the bad news, they told Bernadette, once she woke up.
Penny was finally able to see some of the room she was in, it was obvious, she was now positive, she was not in bed and just knowing that terrified her, because knowing that did not support her rationalization that she just woke from a nightmare. She was starting to breath heavily again as the fear started to grow in her again, as her mind started to think about the other possibilities why she was there, when almost mercifully, Bernadette's face appeared in front of her. "Penny how are you feeling?"
Penny was about to ask Bernadette what was happening, when she saw the military man with the cross on his uniform standing next to her, even she knew the man was a chaplain. She now knew she had not dreamed this all up, it was real, and again her mind started to shut down from the shock, the pain becoming too unbearable for her to handle. All Penny could do was shake her head back and forth, "NO…NO…please NO." as it seemed her very soul was being torn from her body.
Bernadette saw Penny's eyes dart to the chaplain before she began to panic again, her heart was breaking for her friend, and she actually felt sorry for the poor chaplain, too, who was there to give the bad news to her. However, Bernadette had talked to him and he had agreed to let her tell Penny, it was better it came from a friend, that's what real friends were for. But Penny was now getting hysterical again so Bernadette knew she had to do something quick, she did not want to loose Penny again, so she took a quick breath to tell her the bad news.
But first Bernadette had to get her attention, "Penny, look at me!" Bernadette almost yelled at her, making Penny quickly turn to look at her, her eyes still wide in fear. Bernadette needed to tell her the least bad part of it to keep her from going completely hysterical.
"Leonard is not Dead!" Bernadette looked directly in Penny's eyes and waited for that to sink it.
"Leonard is okay?" Penny sounded like a little girl, desperation in her voice.
Bernadette took a breath, she hated this, she could see the hope that filled her eyes, but now came the hard part, the chaplain told Bernadette they didn't expect Leonard to survive. "Leonard is very seriously hurt, but Penny, he is not dead."
Tears were streaming from the corners of Penny's eyes. "My God. Bernadette, I need to go to him, I need to be with him." Penny tried to push off the floor, but immediately felt dizzy and fell back. More tears came from her eyes.
"Penny just rest a little, you just woke up and are probably little light headed, so just lay there for a few minutes."
"I need to be with him." Penny pleading with her now.
"I know." Bernadette looked and nodded at the two military men, "They came here to tell you Leonard was badly hurt and that the Air Force has a cargo plane here, and it is waiting to take off as soon as we are on board, they are waiting for us, do you understand."
Penny slightly nodded. "I need to be with him." she repeated.
"I know. They told me the plane is going to make a stop near where Leonard is and we will be picked up and taken to him, Penny. We'll get there faster this way, then if we used an airline, they want to get you to him as soon as they can, do you understand."
"Yes."
"Okay, Penny, I need to tell you more, okay. You need to know this because you are his wife and you might need to make some decisions for him when you get there, understand." Bernadette looked at the chaplain who gave her a sympathetic smile and nodded.
Penny was now scared again, all over. "Oh my God, how bad is he. Please tell me he is going to live, I can accept anything, but tell me he is going to live."
This was the part Bernadette dreaded, "Honey, they don't know. They came to the apartment to tell you, he is critical and…." Bernadette swallowed, Penny needed to know this, she was his wife, "Penny they don't know if he is going to survive." Bernadette watched Penny's eyes go wide again and heard her gasp. "I'm sorry Penny it is bad, that is why they want to get you there to him." Bernadette was afraid she was going to loose Penny again, the shocked look on her face seemed frozen there and Bernadette didn't know what to do. These men where here to tell her what happened and get her to the plane, they wanted to get her to him fast, so she could be with him when he died.
- TIN MAN - TIN MAN - TIN MAN - TIN MAN - TIN MAN - TIN MAN -
Amy and Bernadette got Penny moving, quickly packing both Penny and Bernadette up, then they were taken to the Air Base by the two military officers, where the plane was waiting for them. Amy just got to hug both of them before they left the apartment, telling Bernadette 'Good Luck' and just hugging Penny who was still acting a little like a zombie. Once at the base they were taken to meet Major Gray at the personnel office, where they were rushed to get dependent identification cards, since both their husbands were now Army officers. Then less that 30 minutes after they arrived, Major Gray took them out to the airplane, she was going to escort them there, per General Turner's orders, who got the plane to wait for them. The plane was in the air 15 minutes later.
- TIN MAN - TIN MAN - TIN MAN - TIN MAN - TIN MAN - TIN MAN -
Howard sat in the hospital hall, outside the intensive care center, he had just gotten there from a preliminary inquiry board on the accident and he would have been tired if he didn't feel so guilty. This was the worst day of his life, and he couldn't get, out of his mind, the picture of what everything looked like after they got out the control room. The sight of the test room with a twenty foot wide hole in the wall and realizing there was nothing of Leonard in the room. Howard remembered he almost threw up right there as the thought of what had probably happened to Leonard came to mind. He didn't even remember General Turner walking up behind him.
The nightmare replayed in his mind:
"Where's Dr Hofstadter?" Turner was looking around the room confused, but not because of shock, Turner seemed to have recovered quickly and was actually wondering where Leonard's remains were.
Howard thought for a moment and realized Turner was right, there should be something remaining of Leonard. "I don't know." Howard now looked around with Turner, seeing nothing of his friend, which confused him too.
As they slowly walked around, other people from the control room started milling around, checking each other out for injuries and asking what happened. Howard and Turner, however, kept slowly making their way around the room, until they got to the hole and what they saw made them both stop and just stare in shock. Less than 50 feet away from the hole, outside the building, was Tin Man and it was intact, except for the backpack, which the remains were still smoking. Howard didn't know he was even running till he found himself standing over the face down prone thing and was reaching down to turn it over, when someone grabbed his arm.
"Don't touch him." Turner had Howard's arm.
"We have to check on him. See if he is alive."
"He is either alive or dead, but if he is alive, he probably has a lot of injuries, you could kill him by not properly moving him. Believe me Howard, I have seen men blown up in the Middle East, you need to make sure you don't hurt them when you move them."
"We need to get him help then, fast."
Turner pointed to the fire vehicles and ambulance that were pulling up, "Help is here Howard."
They strapped Tin Man to boards and Howard took the helmet off, terrified at what he would find, there was blood coming out of Leonard's ears, nose, mouth and Howard thought he even saw blood coming out around his eyes. Leonard looked dead but the paramedic said he was alive, so Howard rode to the Hospital to help the doctors remove Leonard from the suit when they were in a place to treat him. It took eight men to move Leonard and the suit around until Howard got him out, then Howard was sent away.
So Howard now sat on a chair in hospital hall, his arm in a sling, at the time he hadn't even realized he was hurt until he was pushed out of the treatment room and the shock wore off. Even then, while they treated him, he kept asking about Leonard and they told him nothing, then they took him away, the Army wanted to know what happened. As he kept sitting there, Howard suddenly felt tired, thinking about the debriefings he had and how many times they asked him the same questions, he probably would still be there, if Turner didn't save him and told the debriefers they could talk to them later. However Howard couldn't rest, he couldn't go back to his room, Leonard was really bad off and he kept thinking how he was ever going to explain it to Penny, how he failed his friend.
Howard was so lost in his thoughts, that he didn't even notice Turner coming to sit next to him until he spoke. "How are you doing Howard?"
"Um….hello Sir….worried I guess. They won't tell me anything."
"The doctor, will be here in a couple minutes to give us an update, I promise."
Howard nodded, Turner being a General now, made people jump, so he had no doubt someone would be there to update them soon. "Thank you Sir."
"Howard, what happened?"
"We rushed everything and I needed more time, I should have known everything about the suit before we tested it. I screwed up Sir."
Turner shook his head, "Howard, I was at the debriefing, you didn't screw up, shit happens sometimes when you have a project that has to get done quickly, I understand, but you did nothing wrong, it was an accident." Turner sighed, "But that wasn't really my question. I was there, that explosion was huge and it blew Leonard out of the building, but that suit stayed together. Dr Hofstadter should have been small pieces from that large an explosion, not still alive in that suit. What happened?"
Howard looked at Turner, "Leonard was trying to figure it out, why the material was acting the way it was. He told me he should never have survived the 50 caliber heavy machine guns that were fired at him, but he did. He wanted to study the properties of the material more, because it was not acting like him and Dr Hogan expected. The perfect lattice structure the Kevlar particles where put in, by the lasers, Leonard knew would make the material denser but some how that made it even stronger than even he expected. He said he now thought that when something hit it hard the molecules somehow compressed and became more like a solid plate instead of a fabric. It was like the stronger the force against the material, the stronger the fabric got to resist that force. It is possible the extreme force of the blast hitting the suit, turned it into armor, harder than steel. We need to test in more to make sure, we can only guess now."
Turner shook his head, "Damm."
It was at that time the doctor walked up to them. "General, Sir, you wanted an update on Lieutenant Colonel Hofstadter?"
Turner nodded, "Yes, what is his condition?"
"Well Sir, it is still very bad and he is extremely critical. He is out of surgery now, his bones set and we fixed the bleeding from his liver, so that was at least good, since there doesn't seem to be anymore serious internal bleeding. To tell you the truth Sir, I never expected him to leave the operating room alive, he had temporary renal failure and his heart stopped once, so we had to restart it. I'm amazed he is still alive." he looked at Turner, who nodded for him to continue, "The big problem now however, is the brain swelling, we are watching him very closely because of that. We thought we would have to open his skull to relieve the pressure, but the swelling seems to have stopped, before it got that bad, so we are waiting and watching. I guess the best way to describe it right now is he is sort of in a stable condition, but we are really concerned if anything changes, especially the brain swelling."
Howard looked at the doctor, hope in his voice, "Stable is good right, he is going to get better?"
The doctor looked down, then at Turner again, "I served in the middle east, soldiers would get blown up and after a couple days they seemed to get better, only to die. Gentlemen he is really bad, I just don't know. His brain is swollen and it would only take a broken blood vessel in there to kill him, so we just have to wait and see."
Turner nodded, he had seem men blown up too, he knew what the doctor meant. "Thank you Doctor."
"Your welcome Sir." The doctor turned and left Howard and Turner alone.
Turner looked at Howard, "Howard the plane, your wife and Leonard's wife are on, lands in a half hour. My driver is outside to take you there to get them. You need to get going."
Howard looked at Turner to protest, he felt like a coward leaving the hospital and Leonard, "But…"
"That is an order Lieutenant Colonel Wolowitz. Now get the hell out of here and go to your wife."
Howard blinked a couple times, then stood up, "Yes Sir." then walked to the hospital exit.
Turner sat there and sighed, he had done this before, waiting in hospitals to see if his men would be okay, it seemed to never end, no matter how high a rank you were. He tried to get comfortable, he was going to be there a while, he wanted to be there when Leonard's wife showed up, it was the least he could do.