Author's Note: I must reiterate that although I have done quite a lot of general research for this chapter, I am not any kind of medical professional, so I here wish to apologise to any reader who knows about the errors I may have inadvertently made here, and also about any deliberate twisting of reality I may have engaged in to suit myself.
Alan Tracy
I am scared.
No, retract that.
I am terrified!
I am so scared that we will lose John, I can't think straight. All I can think about is what will become of us if John dies?
John is the kindest and gentlest of people. John is the man I want to be when I am older. Minus the hair…I don't have nearly such gorgeous colour hair as Johnny does, I do envy him that beautiful hair. (Don't tell Gords that I said that. Gords is happy for the two of us to be the `blondies of the family' and that its right that the terrible two should be a match). Right. Whatever.
We're all at the GDF hospital located at the GDF world base in New Zealand. Once they had Johnny stable, they transferred him to their I.C unit, which is one patient, two nurses and one visitor only, and for no more than five minutes at a time.
International Rescue is offline.
Yeah, Langstrom Fischler, you succeeded in getting us out of the way for a time, laugh it up! When your new experiment blows up in your face, you can't cry out to us to save your sorry butt!
I think that in future we should make a ruling that whenever we have to rescue Fischler's employees from his stupid machines, we leave him behind! John would remind me at this point that Fischler is a person too, and that means that idiot or not, he deserves to be rescued.
I beg to differ.
Fischler is, or will be, world class, grade A, Fish bait if I ever get my hands on him! Yeah, I'll throw him to Gordon who is military trained, and more than capable of inflicting pain on that moron without even laying a finger on him. Gordon's pranking gene that he inherited from grandma (yeah, I know she denies it, but it happens to be true), would be the perfect punishment for Fischler. I can see the gleam in Gordon's eye right now. I know that look. He's planning something. I suspect all of us will want in on this one.
Someone has come out to talk to us about John. Scott and grandma get up, and the female doctor is talking quietly to them. I see Scott hang his head. For a minute he looks defeated, and pure terror washes through me. I get to my feet and take a step towards him, shaking my head already in denial. No, please, no!
I feel Gordon's arm creep around my shoulder from one side, and Kayo's from the other. We hug each other, dreading to hear bad news. As the doctor slips silently back into her sickbay, we wait for the news.
"Guys, That was John's doctor, Doctor Deacon. She says that John's shoulder wound has been cleaned, the bullet and all dead and infected tissue has been removed, and the wound is now considerably larger than it was, but it is clean. His right shoulder was shattered by the bullet, and will need to be fixed but right now he is too weak."
Scott looks at grandma, shakes his head and walks forward, where Virgil envelops him in a hug. Grandma sighs.
"Our Johnny has septic shock and is in a coma. His organs are starting to fail. His kidneys have failed, also his lungs. His heart is showing signs of stress, so they are watching him very carefully, in case they need to take over heart functions as well. They have him on vasopressors to raise his blood pressure, powerful antibiotics, kidney dialysis and a ventilator. They are also ready to take over his heart functions if they should fail. The doctor is emphasizing that John is holding his own for the time being. He is a strong, healthy young man and he is fighting this."
"The odds aren't good." Kayo says softly from my left side, It sounds part reality check, and part hope. I look at her. Her eyes are focused on Virgil, who loosens his hold on Scott and looks around. He exchanges looks with grandma, then turns to face Kayo, still with one arm firmly on Scott's left shoulder.
"Odds are never good with something like this." Virgil replies softly, "Officially his chances are reckoned as pretty low but not impossible. But there are more things to consider than just the numbers. The health of the person before sepsis, the location of the original infection and a dozen other things. If he had been shot in the stomach for example, the outlook would be a lot grimmer. He may have even died before this. But he's still with us, and this is our Johnny, guys. Do you really think John is the sort to listen to the odds? He's here, and he's receiving the treatment he needs. This is all the chance he will need."
I stare at him, hope gripping my throat for the first time in several hours.
"You mean it Virge? You think he's going to be okay?"
He smiles at me.
"C'mere Sprout." I run to him, and he wraps his arms around me. "There are always things that might go wrong, but yes, I believe in John. He won't give up without a fight."
The others come in to join the hug, and I feel the warmth all around me. John is a part of this family, this love that I can feel. He's gotta survive. He won't let Fischler's goons rip him away from all of this.
John will be fine.
I know it….I think….
Everyone knows how close John and I have always been. I have been told I get to go in and visit with Johnny first. Everyone else is able to watch through the large window.
Standing with my family outside the room, we can see John lying still and silent at the centre of what looks like a massive spider-web of machines and cables. The ventilator is about the most terrifying thing. I can feel my hands shaking a little as the doctor gently nods to me.
"You can go in."
"Will he hear me?"
She smiles at me.
"Well, there is evidence that sometimes comatose patients have some awareness of things happening around them. It depends on the depth of the coma. At this moment, John is extremely poorly, so I think it is unlikely, but please, talk to him if you want to. If he can hear you, he will be stimulated to keep on fighting to recover. There is only so much we can do with medicines. A lot of it is up to him."
She smiles again and softly closes the door after me as I creep into the room and cross to Johnny's side.
There are two nurses in attendance. I know they have to be there, so I give them a nod, then ignore them and focus on my big brother.
It is really scary to see John like this. He always tends to look pale, because of the amount of time he spends living in orbit, but he is positively white! I can barely see where John's face ends and his pillow begins. The whiteness of his face and the pillow make his red hair stand out all the more. Almost like flames.
He appears to have tubes and monitors attached to his hands, so I can't grab his hand as I'd like to. I rest mine gently over his and with the other I stroke his forehead, taking care not to touch anything else.
"Johnny, sorry it took us so long to find you. I love you, John. You have to come back to us. Please John, come back to us. You're my big brother, and I need you."
There is no sound or movement, not that I am really expecting there to be, but its just so foreign to our John. Memories from our younger years flood through my mind, times spent with my big brothers, the way John would take me to the balcony outside his bedroom and show me the stars through his telescope.
The stories he would tell me about where the constellations got their names.
He is a brilliant storyteller, our John. He has a way of being able to gather all the pertinent information together and impart it in such a way that you are impelled to listen. It's the perfect skill for the operator of Thunderbird Five. As a big brother, he was able to keep Gordon and I occupied for hours.
The number of times he earned favours from Scott, and pocket money from dad or grandma because he was so good and always willing to babysit for Gords and me when we were little.
Dad. Wherever he is now. What would he say now? He's not here. He vanished when that Zero-X crashed, no doubt blown into a zillion pieces. We lost mom. Then grandpa died too. and now Johnny?
No.
"I love you Johnny. We're all here for you."
The tears blur my vision, and I accept a tissue from the nurse before I quietly leave the room. I fall into Scott's arms as grandma goes in.
"We can't lose him, Scott. We just can't." I whisper to him.
Scott says nothing, but I can hear his slightly hitched breathing as he hugs me closer.