Liselou asked: For Febwhump: DAY 27: Post Victory Collapse with Scott

Characters: Scott, John, Gordon, Jeff

Warnings: Heart Attack, CPR, Eye Injury, Hospital

They had done it.

THEY HAD DONE IT!

Scott sighed, a contented sigh.

They had done it. Done the impossible. Built and then flown an experimental engine, flew to the farthest reaches of the solar system and rescued a man proclaimed dead almost eight years ago and then made it home intact despite the Hood trying his best to prevent it.

Jeff had been installed in a special clinic in Tokyo dedicated to restoring Astronauts to health and had spent almost eight months getting back to being human again. He'd returned home triumphant but Jeff would never be the man he was – remarkably he seemed fine with that, being home with his boys was enough.

He gave another sigh. Dad had taken back a lot of TI work, shared more with his sons so that Scott himself was sharing the workload he had far more evenly.

Which brought him back to today. Dad had taken Virgil and Alan to TI for an R meeting. They had taken Brains with them and Grandma, dropping her off in New York to meet up with Penny and Kayo for an afternoon of shopping and gossip and possibly cocktails..

Scott couldn't remember the last time he'd been alone on the island, the only person…

He turned the chair around to face the window but pushed a little too hard and managed to get back to almost where he'd started. With a sudden grin Scott pushed hard and quickly pulled his feet up, giggling as the chair spun in place several times.

'Glad you're enjoying yourself, big brother.'

John's holo was smiling as broadly as Scott was as he came to a stop at the desk. The smile turned a little sheepish – although the pressure of being everything to everyone had lessened somewhat, letting little brothers catch him being childish wasn't exactly big brother material.

Stifling a sigh as he clearly saw Scott beginning to censure himself, John reached out and mimed cuffing his brother around the head.

'Stop that.'

'Yessir!'

'I mean it.'

He watched as Scott relaxed but then gave the briefest of grimaces.

'Are you alright, Scott?'

'I'm fine.'

'You are not fine. I saw that face. Do I need to come down and run a Medscanner over you?'

They stared at each other. Scott knew that John didn't have to come down to get his biostats as he could access them at any point from the tracker chips they all had, but they both also knew that John would only do that with permission or in an emergency, and this was neither.

With another grimace Scott came clean.

'Must have slept a little awkwardly. Feels like a possible pinched nerve in my shoulder.'

'Shoulder? That old injury?'

"That old injury" was a euphemism for the wounds Scott had suffered as a POW that even now they never openly talked about. One of the side effects of having his arms wrenched and tearing his rotor cuff was that occasionally, despite the constant exercise and physio, the nerves just hurt.

'Yeah. I'll head down to the gym in a bit. Just want to answer these couple emails first.'

'You want some company?'

'You know I'm always up for seeing you in the flesh, but there's no need if you don't want to. Seriously, I'm fine.'

'Well, if you're sure. There's an asteroid I want to take a closer look at.'

'Go stargaze, Starman.'

Chuckling as John threw him a crisp salute, Scott turned to the emails, rubbing his chest a little and rolling his shoulder to ease up the pain.

He'd only typed a couple of lines when suddenly he shivered. It felt like he'd been doused in cold water.

Scott's eyes widened as he began to realise something was very wrong, but before he could reach the emergency button his eyes rolled up and he slid off the chair, gasping for a breath he just couldn't take.

John had just positioned his telescope when EOS yelled, almost causing him to fumble.

'John!'

'EOS? What is it?'

'It's Scott. He's collapsed.'

'Prep the elevator. Give me biostats now.'

John barked out instructions as he made his way to the elevator and strapped in. He listened with increasing dread as EOS relayed Scott's stats.

'Blood pressure and O2 stats are dropping fast. Heart is in arrhythmia, approaching tachycardia.'

'Patch me through to everyone. Remove elevator safety protocol command code Jovian Hela Angel One.'

'Command code accepted. Elevator will arrive in eight minutes instead of fifteen. Comms active.'

'Eight minutes is not fast enough! Get me there in four!'

'John? What's going on?'

'Dad! Scott's having a heart attack and he's all alone!'

'I'm on my way back, John. You concentrate on Scott, I'll prep Two.'

'We'll meet you at the hospital.'

'John - I've already reprogrammed one of the bots to being the AED up to you. It should be waiting when you get there.'

'FAB.'

In the boardroom of TI John's sudden announcement cut dead the brewing R argument. Jeff felt like he aged twenty years over the course of that one-minute discussion, and, standing quickly, he addressed the meeting.

'As you can hear we have a medical emergency. This meeting is terminated and Rockston will get in touch with you all within a couple of days to reschedule. Boys, Brains, let's go.'

The room was silent as they left.

The hotel where Penny, Kayo and Sally had decided to have afternoon tea was humming with quietly murmured conversations when Penny's compact and Kayo's comm both lit up.

John's holo look a little wild but the subsequent conversation explained everything, and as Kayo spoke quietly to her team and Sally spoke to John on a private line Penny took charge of the room as they swept through it.

A discreet nod here and there, and they were suddenly outside, Parker and FAB1 already there and just before the door closed one of the hotel staff rushed down with some packets of food for everyone.

FAB1 was a Thunderbird in all but name, and she'd give most commercial and private jets a run for their money, but she still wouldn't he fast enough for this. That didn't mean Penny couldn't help, though. She set about making sure the hotel was booked.

Gordon had just decided to tack around the other side of Raoul Island, making his sailboat the farthest away from home he could possibly be on this jaunt.

Guilt clawed at his throat. He was so close and yet so far! Had he missed any signs before he'd set out earlier? Had Scott looked ill? No, he was certain his brother was fine - there's no way Gordon would have left otherwise, and he was pretty astute about knowing when his brothers were hiding injuries…

F*! He was too far away! Even with a great headwind it would take some time. There was only one thing for it…

'EOS?'

'Yes Gordon?'

'Can you launch and remote pilot Two out to me? She'll still be a darn sight quicker than my sailboat. Emergency launch Protocol Squid Neptune Four Delta.'

'Launch protocol accepted. Launching in 5…4…3…2…1'

Without needing to wait for a pilot, Two's launch was almost as quick as the countdown, and even from the other side of Raoul Gordon could hear his brother's ship.

Less than a minute later she was hovering above him and the rescue platform was descending. Gordon had already secured his boat and as soon as he was on EOS whisked Two away as the platform raised.

Gordon ran to the infirmary and checked everything was to hand - which it was of course - and then returned to the platform. It would be quicker and easier to get Scott onboard via the patio doors than anywhere else.

'EOS, place us in hover over the pool, lower the platform and open the patio doors please.'

'FAB Gordon.'

The platform hadn't quite touched the floor when Gordon leapt off it and hurried into the villa.

John stumbled from the elevator, almost braining himself on the walkways he tripped out of the pod. As it was he'd have an impressive couple of bruised and scuffed knees…

No time to dwell on that now, though, as he charged up through the villa and threw himself down beside his brother.

Scott was out cold on the floor. He'd collapsed onto his right side so John rolled him onto his back, tearing his shirt open and ignoring the flare of pain in his eye as the buttons assaulted him.

The infirmary Roomba was there as promised, the AED machine on its back, and John fitted the pads and got straight into CPR while the machine warmed up.

He was vaguely aware of Two launching, but John's concentration was focussed on counting, so he almost jumped out of his skin when Gordon slid next to him at the same time the AED warned them to keep clear.

Somehow John found his hand firmly grasped by his brother's as they waited, and it gave him comfort. He gave a squeeze and was immediately rewarded with one in return.

'Continue CPR.'

Gordon gently nudged John aside to take over the compressions so he had a moment to gather himself before delivering rescue breaths, and they worked side by side for the two minutes it took for the AED to reset.

'Analysing. Shock advised. Stand clear.'

They both leaned back slightly as Scott's body slightly convulsed as the shock hit, and then they all but collapsed in relief as the welcome sound of a weak but there heartbeat was heard from the machine.

That relief didn't stop them from carrying on. Immediately Scott was rolled onto a stretcher and moved to Two's infirmary, where Gordon replaced the AED with ECG pads and an oxygen mask while John got the stretcher locked in and began sending Scott's biostats to Auckland Hospital and to Grandma and Virgil while EOS flew them over.

Once Gordon was happy with everything he'd done he turned his attention to his other brother.

John was a mess. He was trembling slightly - no surprise really considering how quickly he'd descended coupled with the shock. Moving to grab an electrolyte sachet and a bottle of water, he passed them to John and covertly looked him over as he fought to drink like a normal person.

'You look like s, John. How quick was your descent?'

'Not quick enough.'

'Stop. You got there just in time.'

'He said he was fine. I should have known better. I should have come down immediately.'

'It's *Scott*…'

'Exactly! I - I should have been there.'

'Let me finish! It's Scott - he's been so much better since Dad's been back. There's no way we would have left him alone if there had been even an inkling of anything wrong. And heart attacks are sudden onset. Don't kid yourself, even if you'd been here we would likely be in this same situation…'

John frowned at Gordon's sudden pause. His brother was staring at him and he felt his ears beginning to burn.

'What? What is it?'

'I'm not sure what happened but you've got a beautiful black eye forming.'

Without thinking about it, John gingerly touched the eye that - now that he was conscious of it - was throbbing. He couldn't remember what had happened…Gordon suddenly frowned and looked closer, a hand stretching to almost touch his face before stopping.

'What the hell…'

'Gordon?'

'Sit.'

'What is it?'

'You have a foreign object in your eye socket.'

'I – what?'

'Sit! And close your eye.'

Sitting next to Scott, John closed that eye but watched as Gordon grabbed a pair of long tweezers and a pack of saline. He placed these on the small shelf that ran behind the stretcher docks and gently tilted John's head to the side, placing the closed eye on top.

'This might hurt, but I'll do my best.'

Not waiting for John to reply, Gordon carefully placed two fingertips on John's eyelid and gently pulled the eyelid taunt and he carefully pulled out the tiny button that had somehow become wedged between John's eyelid and frontal orbital bone. It clattered in the emesis bowl and was momentarily ignored while Gordon activated a cooling gel pack and placed it gently over his brother's eye, getting John to hold it in place.

They both looked at the button. Then at Scott. A smile played around Gordon's lips as he thought of what had obviously happened, but he didn't say anything.

'Opening doors.'

EOS made them both jump. They had been concentrating so hard that they hadn't noticed Two landing, and Gordon's smile widened.

'She's getting good at this. I barely felt it.'

'She is.'

'Thank you!'

There was a pleased tone to EOS' voice and John made a mental note to practice more in the sims, but the thought was pushed aside as medical staff swarmed the infirmary and whisked Scott away.

They jogged alongside the staff as EOS locked Two down, then once the team had disappeared into the ER John made to go to the waiting room only for Gordon to hold him back.

Gordon snagged a passing nurse who looked like they were about to complain until they noticed John's uniform.

'Nurse, can someone check on my brother's eye? I had to remove a foreign object from the socket.'

'I can do that now. Please come with me, sir.'

Before John could complain or "pull a Scott" and tell the nurse he was fine he found himself seated in a cubicle with a bright light hurting his eye. The nurse gently felt around the bone and he winced.

'I don't think anything is broken, but we'll send you off to be x-rayed to be sure. Once that's done please wait in the waiting room for someone to give you the results and any further treatment needed.'

He was handed a form and directed where to go, and Gordon helped him to not fall over anything as his legs suddenly decided that they didn't like this gravity thing…

They were fortunately that no one else was in the waiting room and they were seen straight away. John found the whole ordeal trying, mortified when the tech had to ask Gordon to come and help him off the bed and once again helping him to walk.

Once in the waiting room Gordon left John holed up in a corner, where he discarded the paperwork and began typing away, "borrowing" the hospital systems so that he could watch as they worked on Scott. Gordon left but returned quickly, nudging John's shoulder as he sat beside him, a juice box in his hands that he slurped noisily from as he watched John's pad.

Two things happened at once.

A nurse called John's name the same time Kayo slipped into the seat beside Gordon. To his credit Gordon didn't outwardly jump…well, he hid the jump in jumping up to help John up and with a smile they disappeared after the nurse, Gordon trying and failing to look over his shoulder for Penny.

By the time they returned everyone else had arrived and the whole family had been given their usual private waiting room. Gasps when up when they entered, Gordon trying hard not to make pirate jokes at the eye patch his brother now sported.

Grandma stood and gently looked John's face over and then turned to the rest of the family and glared. Smirks were wiped of faces as the message was received and understood, and Gordon deposited John between Virgil and Alan and promptly sat between Penny and Kayo.

They didn't have long to wait.

Jeff stood as a doctor entered the room. The smile on the woman's face relaxed everyone minutely and she beamed at everyone before talking.

'Scott's fine. We ran a battery of tests and found nothing was seriously wrong – no blood clot, no narrowed or blocked arteries – which means he doesn't need any surgery or stents.'

There were sighs of relief all round. No stents meant Scott could still fly. But Virgil frowned and voiced the question they were all thinking.

'If there was nothing wrong then why did he have a heart attack in the first place?'

'Has Scott been under a large amount of stress? His inflammatory markers are raised and that has led to some high blood pressure. In someone so young and fit it would be the most common reason for a heart attack outside of poor diet and lack of exercise which is clearly not Scott's problem.'

'He's been very stressed for a number of years but that stress has been lessened somewhat over the last year.'

'That could be the trigger actually. We see a lot of people who have retired from stressful jobs and relaxed and that's when the heart attack happens.'

'What can we do?'

'Scott's going to need to rest for a few weeks just to allow his heart to regain strength. He'll need to be monitored for at least three weeks initially to ensure there's no regression but if we can get him to relax and rest I can't see a problem in him making a full and speedy recovery. Now, we're just settling Scott into a room and once that's done a nurse will come and take you to him. Dr Tracy, Virgil, I can give you some more details as to the best way to care for Scott if you'll come with me.'

She beamed at them again and shook Jeff's hand before disappearing with Sally and Virgil.

Jeff stayed where he was, leaning on the cane he still used when tired. He didn't want to turn and face his boys, afraid that they would be angry with him over this, and he couldn't help his shoulders slumping.

This was his fault.

Again.

A hand fell on his shoulder. Another on his other shoulder and two on his forearm. They gave him strength to straighten up and turn and face them, only for them to fold him into a hug. Jeff melted into it, suddenly feeling much more at peace.

There was a discreet cough.

'Mr Tracy, if you and your family are ready I can take you to see Scott.'

Jeff looked at his boys, at his daughter and at his dear friends.

'Let's go see Scott and give him the good news.'