Flameout – Chapter 2
Stella showed up to the crash site as part of the local EMS response team. She panicked when she saw that the pilot that had crashed was Jane.
Stella, a very striking redhead, had gone out on several dates with Jane recently. She considered herself Jane's girlfriend. Jane had no such claim to Stella, she just went out with her occasionally when she was in town. If Stella had her way, she'd go out with Jane more often and make sure that Jane was her girlfriend.
The MEDEVAC helicopter was dispatched from the local trauma hospital. The pilot landed and observed the patient's condition and communicated her condition via radio with the assigned trauma doctor, Dr. Maura Isles. Dr. Isles had given clear instructions to all emergency personnel on the ground, "under no circumstances are you to remove the pilot's helmet. She might have a head injury that could be compromised by the removal of the helmet. Try not to move her if at all possible. Check over all of her injuries and get her on the helicopter as soon as possible. The medics on the helicopter will continue her treatment enroute to the hospital."
"Yes, doctor." Steve the senior EMS person on the ground replied. Dr. Isles was keeping track of everything that was being relayed to her about her patient. She knew she would have to examine her head to ensure that there was no head injury.
Steve had told her about Jane's leg injury and that Jane might have breaks to her ribs and shoulders because of the way the aircraft seat had landed. Maura knew that the force from the ejection seat pulled enough g's to break bones. She had seen pilots from several fighter jet crashes. Those pilots had not survived. She had seen them during her rotation in pathology as she was studying to become a medical examiner.
As soon as the MEDEVAC helicopter took off, Stella turned to her partner, Steve, and told him, "we have to leave, I have to get to the hospital." Steve drove the ambulance with sirens blaring to the hospital, even though they had no patient in their ambulance. He knew that Stella was in love with Jane. He also knew that Jane was not in love with Stella. They arrived 20 minutes after Jane.
Jane had been airlifted to Upstate Trauma Center. It was the nearest Level 1 Trauma Center in the area. Jane was still unconscious upon arrival. She was admitted and placed in Trauma Room One. Trauma Room One was the most up-to-date room at the hospital. It had almost every type of equipment a doctor could need to access the status of and treat a patient.
Doctor Maura Isles was the attending trauma doctor. She was worried about the head injury that Jane had suffered. Maura carefully removed Jane's helmet. An x-ray was immediately taken. After reviewing the x-ray, Jane was immediately prepped for surgery. They had to reduce the swelling on her brain. Once they inserted a stint to reduce the pressure, the trauma team continued to evaluate her body's other injuries.
Before Jane was moved to the operating room an x-ray technician using a portable machine was able to take x-rays of Jane's chest and leg, while Maura and her team prepped Jane for surgery.
While Jane was being airlifted to the hospital, Maura had called Dr. Nina Holiday who would be able to access the damage to the patient's leg. While Maura was operating on Jane, Nina reviewed the x-rays and determined that Jane's leg needed surgery.
Nina conferred with Maura in the operating room and showed Maura the breaks and informed her what surgery she would need to conduct to repair the damage to Jane's leg. She also realized that this pilot might not be flying for months. All the fighter pilots that Nina had met were adrenaline junkies and she knew this would affect the mental wellness of their patient.
While Jane's leg was still being evaluated, Maura noticed that Jane might have a small break to her right wrist. She quickly brought over the small portable x-ray machine and discovered she was correct in her observation.
Without making any cuts to Jane's wrist she was able to reset the bone. Because the area was swollen, she had to put on a soft cast. She would check the wrist in a few days and see how it was healing. If necessary, she would have to put on a hard cast when the swelling went down.
Jane had a few broken ribs from being thrashed around inside the cockpit as the aircraft spun around. Her seatbelt had held her in place, but her body had moved with such force that the friction against the seatbelt had broken her ribs. There wasn't anything Maura could do for her broken ribs except wrap them. She knew Jane would be in a hell of a lot of pain when she woke up after the surgery, but she was alive and from what she could tell, all of her injuries would heal fine. She would fly again someday.
While Jane went into surgery, Ace had arrived back at base and was now in a car with
Colonel Noble and Lt. Col Bridgers on their way to the hospital. During their ride to the hospital, they conducted a debrief of the mission. Their conversation was being recorded as it would be needed by the aircraft investigation board that reviewed all aircraft crashes. Jane's statement would be taken as soon as she was able to give one.
Ace was happy that Jane was alive. The ground wasn't as flat as they had planned and the extra bouncing of the aircraft had caused additional damage to Jane's body. The aircraft was a total loss but Jane survived and she prevented the aircraft from entering a populated area, thus saving further lives. Ace knew that even as injured as Jane probably was, she would still be pleased that her aircraft had not injured another soul.
Before Ace had arrived back at base, Colonel Noble had personally called Jane's mother, Angela and informed her of her daughter's plane crash.
"Mrs. Rizzoli, this is Colonel Noble, Jane's Wing Commander. Is one of your sons with you right now?"
Angela thought it was weird that the colonel was calling her. She had met him a few times when she attended some of Jane's military functions in the past. "Yes, sir, my son Tommy is here with me." Angela put the phone on speaker so that Tommy could listen as well.
"Good, I need to inform you that your daughter, Jane, has been involved in an accident with her aircraft and she is presently at the hospital." That was all that Col Noble could say before Angela dropped the phone and collapsed to the floor. Luckily, Tommy was able to pick up his mother and the phone. He talked with Colonel Noble while took care of his mother.
Tommy called Frankie as soon as he got off of the phone with Col Noble. Tommy was able to move his mother to the couch while talking with Frankie. When they hung up, Frankie called Frost who volunteered to go pick up Angela and Tommy and bring them to Syracuse. Frankie was already enroute to Syracuse in his undermarked cruiser. He didn't care, he had to get to his sister. His sister, Janie was his priority, he had to make sure his older sister was okay. He called his supervisor after he called Frost and started his 300 plus mile journey to Syracuse.
While Jane was being taken care of, a team of accident investigators were enroute to examine the aircraft and to try and determine what caused the engine to flame out. First, they had to find all of the pieces of the plane and search every piece of the plane for clues. It could take days or weeks to determine what happened to the aircraft.
The lead investigator secured a hanger nearby so that they could put all the pieces of the plane in close proximity to where they belonged on the aircraft. Each piece would have to be examined.
The accident was not that far from the populated area and within fifteen minutes of the crash, civilians had started to gather to see what was going on. The local police were asked by the lead investigator to mark off the accident site and not to let anyone in the controlled area. The accident investigators did not want the scene contaminated.
One of the investigators questioned people to see if any had taken video of the aircraft before or during the crash. Several people had taken video of the aircraft as it was flying so low, they thought something must be wrong.
Per their agreement with the military, the neighborhood was to be notified if any aircraft would be flying in close proximity to them. They had received no such notification so they assumed it must be an emergency situation and continued to film. The investigator gathered as much video of the aircraft as he could, notifying the people they would get their phones and camcorders back as soon as possible. He would have his tech people copy the videos so he could return the devices to their respective owners.
When inspecting aircraft crashes the investigators set out to first collect all of the data they can. Second, they analyzed all of the data and third they present their findings. They had to interview all assigned parties in an effort to put a timeline of events in place. Due to Jane's injuries, they would have to wait to interview her. They were pleased that she was alive and would gladly wait to interview her. Several of the investigators had witnessed crashes like this before where the pilot did not survive.
When Stella arrived at the hospital, she immediately checked on Jane's status and found out she was in surgery. She went to the surgical waiting room and saw the Air Force and Police officers gathered. She hung around waiting to find out what was going on with Jane. Being an EMT allowed her a little flexibility at the hospital. She stayed out of the way but was alert to what the officers were talking about.
Jane was still in surgery when Frankie arrived. Frankie drove as fast as he could and made it to Syracuse in just under four hours. He knew that his mother would be about two hours behind him. He had spoken with Frost several times during his trip.
Frankie was in a state of shock still when he arrived at the hospital and it took him a few minutes to ask about where he could sit and wait to find out news about his sister. Frankie was directed to the appropriate waiting room where he found Air Force and Police officers waiting for news of Jane.
Colonel Noble having spotted the resemblance between Jane and Frankie, walked up to Frankie and asked, "Are you Jane's brother?"
"Yes, sir. I am Francesco Rizzoli, Jr better known as Frankie."
"I am so sorry about your sister's accident. We are still awaiting word on her surgery. Dr. Isles is one of the best trauma surgeons and I know that your sister is in good hands."
"Thank you, Sir. My family will be here from Boston in about two hours. I was on the western side of Boston so I just left straight away."
"If there is anything we can do for you or your family while you are here, please don't hesitate to ask."
"Thank you, sir." After another ten minutes Frankie sat down and waited for the doctor to come out and inform them about Jane's status.
About an hour after Frankie's arrival, Dr. Nina Holiday came out to brief the family of Jane's status. "Family of Jane Rizzoli," Nina said as she walked into the waiting room. Frankie rose as did Colonel Noble and Lt Col Bridgers. Stella moved closer so that she could hear about Jane's status.
"I am her brother, Frankie." Frankie said as he approached Nina.
"As you know Jane was involved in a plane crash. We had to apply a stint in her brain to relieve some of the pressure. When the pressure went down enough, Dr. Isles was able to operate and remove some shrapnel from her head. I will let her explain exactly what she did. Dr. Isles is still observing her condition. She also needed to have surgery on her leg. I preformed that surgery as soon as Dr. Isles said that she was stable enough for the additional surgery. Jane was unconscious when she arrived, so we will have to wait for her to wake up to see the full extent of her injuries."
Nina paused letting Frankie take this all in. After a moment she continued, "We have a neurosurgeon enroute from New York City to check on her for us. She is the best in the country and she happened to be in New York for a conference. When Dr. Isles consulted with Dr. Sheppard about your sister and her accident, she insisted she would come tonight to check on her. We don't think your sister will need any further neurological treatment, we just want to be on the safe side as does Amelia, I mean Dr. Sheppard."
"Thank you, Doctor Holiday." Frankie stated with a slight smile. He thought Dr. Holiday was gorgeous.
"Please call me Nina." Nina smiled back at Frankie. She thought he was rather handsome even though he looked a little unkept at the moment.
"Well, thank you Nina. I just arrived from Boston about an hour ago and the rest of my family will be here in about another hour or so."
"I am going to go back in there, Dr. Isles will be out as soon." Nina explained as she turned and walked back to the OR.
Frankie and Nina said their goodbyes and then Frankie went to talk with the local police that had arrived to check on Jane's status as they needed to get her statement for their file. Frankie had a strange sense about Jane's plane crash. Jane had quite a few enemies and he wondered if the crash was truly an accident or might her plane have been tampered with. He asked that an officer be placed on Jane's door. The local police understood his concerned and arranged to have a police officer stationed at her door.
Frankie sat down after talking with Dr. Holiday. That was a lot of information for him to take in. Stella walked over and sat next to him. She calmly told him who she was. "Hello, Frankie. My name is Stella and I am Jane's girlfriend." Frankie was surprised. Jane had never mentioned anyone named Stella. Not that Jane told him of all of her women friends. However, if she was seriously seeing someone or had a girlfriend, she would have told him. It was a promise that Jane made with him in case anything happened to her. The last girlfriend he knew about was Nikki and they had broken up. He didn't think Jane would have a girlfriend in Syracuse, being as she lived in Boston.
"I'm sorry, I haven't heard of you. I would like to be left alone right now. I am trying to deal with my sister's accident." Frankie was trying to be nice but he didn't want any drama right now. He just wanted to see his sister. After Stella left his sight, he saw Nikki walk into the waiting area and immediately asked her, "What the hell are you doing here?"
Nikki, a beautiful shapely blonde woman, a few inches shorter than Jane, looked at him and said, "I saw about Jane's crash on the news so I came as fast as I could." Frankie wondered how Nikki was able to get to Syracuse so fast and then he remembered that Nikki's father was well off and she could have used one of his many planes to get to Syracuse. He was just surprised that Jane's accident was on the news in Boston.
Frankie looked at her surprised, "I thought the two of you broke up?"
"No, Frankie we're just on a break. Jane just needed a little bit of time." Nikki stated hoping to convince him.
"Well, that's not what she told me when she saw you with Mark at the club the other night, you were a little too comfortable with him. She told me you and Mark had gotten back together from the looks of it."
"I am seeing him but that doesn't mean I don't care about Jane. In my mind, Jane and I are just taking a break, we didn't break up."
"Well, if you're seeing Mark again, doesn't that kind of say that you broke up?" Frankie was pissed. He didn't want to be having this conversation with Jane's ex.
"No, not in my opinion now besides, that's between Jane and I." Nikki was adamant in her belief that she and Jane were just on a break and had not broken up. Frankie didn't want to deal with her right now.
"Nikki, I don't wanna deal with this drama right here right now. I'm worried about my sister I think you need to go back to Boston. You don't need to be hanging out here in Syracuse."
"I'll hang out here if I want to hang out here, Frankie, you are not the boss of me."
Stella stepped forward and asked Frankie, "Who is this bitch?" As she pointed to Nikki, who turned and gave her a dirty look.
"Stella, I thought you left you don't need to be here either." Frankie informed her.
Nikki eyed Stella and asked Frankie, "No wait, who is she? What is she doing here?"
"Ladies, both of you need to leave right now. Neither of you have any right to be here for Jane. If you don't leave, I'm gonna have the police forcibly remove you. Do you both understand me?" The police officers in the room were paying attention now and Frankie motioned for them not advance, at this point he still had control of the situation.
Stella and Nikki both look at Frankie and then each other, they gave a dirty look to each other. Stella then turned to Frankie and said, "this isn't over, I am going to see Jane."
"Stella, I don't know anything about you so I doubt you're seeing my sister, but it doesn't matter right now because this waiting room is for family only and neither one of you are family so, please leave." The police officers stepped over and politely asked both women to leave. They escorted them out the front door of the hospital.
Frankie sat down again and just caught his breath when Frost, Angela and Tommy arrived.