Chapter 6
The intense fear and panic ran through Jeff's body. He couldn't believe what he was seeing. He jumped up from his chair and slammed the emergency button on the wall which operated several alarms across the room. Mike and several nurses rushed in and surrounded John, one of which tried to remove Jeff out of sight of John.
"I'm staying here, I'm not leaving him!" Jeff rarely got annoyed but he couldn't leave him. He needed to protect his son.
"Let's take him straight to the CT scanner. We need the results ASAP!" Mike ordered, they rushed John out of the room with Jeff on their heels. Mike turned around and stopped Jeff in his tracks.
"Jeff, I know you're worried but he needs to have the head CT. I'm sorry you can't be in there." Jeff groaned in disgust.
"Please Mike, I'll wait outside, I can't leave him. I promised I wouldn't leave him again." Mike sighed in defeat, he understood where Jeff was coming from, he smiled warmly before taking Jeff to the scanner waiting area. Jeff sat down, more waiting he thought to himself.
John couldn't move. All he could see was the hood in his mind, smiling at him. He looked like he wanted to kill John, he didn't succeed before but he sure as hell wasn't going to succeed now. John tried to shake his head but again, he couldn't move. He could hear his father talking to a doctor. The doctor's voice sounded familiar but he couldn't remember where he had heard the voice. Then it hit him, it was Mike! Mike has come to save me! John thought to himself.
Goodbye John Tracy
His throat felt restricted, he couldn't take a deep breath in. This was it. He was suffocating.
Mike and the nurses rushed John out of the CT scanner, Jeff could hear the sudden commotion of alarms, beeping sounds and Mike giving orders. Jeff ran after his friend demanding to know what was happening.
"John has stopped breathing" Mike announced. Jeff felt himself stop breathing. Was this it for John? Soon enough, he was back in the side room watching Mike attempt to put a breathing tube into John. He felt helpless. But as quick as the rush happened, the alarms came to a stop and there was a rhythmic beeping coming from John's monitors. Jeff made a big sigh of relief as he knew that John was getting oxygen again.
Don't go to sleep, John! Look at me, keep your eyes open
Jeff remembered trying to save John on a broken Thunderbird 5 that day, looking around to see Scott, Virgil and Gordon floating around in sub zero gravity, lacking in oxygen.
"Jeff? Jeff!" Jeff was shocked back into reality by Mike, who was kneeling in front of him. I must've slid down the wall, he thought to himself.
"We've intubated him, he stopped breathing in the scanner so we had to get him out. We managed to do the scan. I'm going to review the results. You need to phone the boys. They need to be here." Jeff shook his head.
"Alan's not here, he's, you know" The realisation of where Alan was hit Mike in the face, Alan could never get off Thunderbird 5 now.
"Ok buddy, then you need to get Virgil here and one of the others. The other one needs to go and get Alan." Jeff nodded his head, Virgil needed checking over anyway, that left Scott and Gordon. Who would he want here first? Mike patted Jeff on the shoulder and ushered the nurses to leave with him.
"This is Jeff Tracy calling Tracy island. Come in please" It felt like hours for a response but it was only a matter of seconds.
"Tracy island receiving, what's up dad? How's John?" Virgil was the first to respond, which Jeff was very grateful for.
"Virgil, I need either Scott or Gordon to fetch Alan. Then you and whoever will come to the hospital and…"
"I'll come with Virgil, dad" Scott said which responded with Gordon hitting Scott around the head.
"No you can get Alan and I'll go with Virge. You're the commander"
"Yes exactly fish feet, I'm the commander so it's my decision!" Scott growled back at Gordon.
"BOYS! I'll make the decision. Gordon, you can collect Alan then I'll get Penny to collect you. Put Thunderbird 5 in automatic mode. Lets just pray there are no rescues for a while. Virgil and Scott, make your way in Tracy 2." The boys nodded in unison.
"FAB dad. On our way now." The boys cut the link and Virgil and Scott went to pack a few items before they flew over.
Jeff took up his seat next to John again. Grabbing his hand and holding it tight.
"I promise I won't leave you. You keep fighting Johnny, just like when you were a baby." Jeff could recall John's early days. He spent many weeks in an incubator with Jeff and Lucile holding his tiny hands, praying for the day that they could hold their son. He was a fighter, John fought a lot of illnesses throughout his childhood and Jeff was sure he would fight whatever this was that John was battling.
Mike strolled into John's room holding his datapad, looking puzzled.
"Mike, what's wrong?" Mike sighed and pulled up a chair next to Jeff.
"His CT scan is clear." Jeff didn't know whether to be pleased or upset at the news. Sure a clear CT scan was great news as there wasn't anything wrong with his head but why had John been collapsing? Why had John been fitting?
"What now, Mike?"
"We're going to keep him under sedation. I'm going to do an EEG on his brain to check for electrical activity and then wait for his body to heal. When Virgil arrives, I will check him over and get a scan done of him. Your boys will be ok Jeff, they always have been and always will. I will stay here with you and keep you company. We can have a good catch up, you never know Johnny might grace us with his presence when he starts to hear our awful stories." Mike and Jeff both laughed but Jeff sure hoped that Mike would be right.