Chapter 13
Amix of voices float down the hall as they approach Riley’s room. When they make it to the doorway, the doctor is there, checking Riley over once more. Not wanting to overcrowd the already full room, Liz and Mikey stay back in the hallway, hanging on every word the doctor says.
“He is doing exceptional given his circumstances. We will need to do a psych evaluation once he is awake, but from what I can see, most of his chest and abdominal wounds are superficial. His blood pressure and heart rate are low, but not enough to cause concern,” she states matter of factly.
“What do you mean most, Janine?” Alex asks, glaring at the chart in her hand.
Liz makes a mental note to ask about her when they are alone. Maybe one of them can tell her why she was so hostile.
“He has lost a lot of blood. His injuries look as if someone attempted to close them, but they did so too late. However, the medic you brought did an exceptional job closing them properly. He is also suffering from both dehydration and starvation, bad on their own, deadly when together.”
“So, what do we do?” Tyler asks.
“I will start a blood transfusion right away as well as start an IV to administer fluids, one in each arm. The transfusion will take approximately thirty minutes to an hour, and as soon as that is done, I will start TPN. That will get him the nutrients he needs. Think of it as a liquid multivitamin. I will re-evaluate when he is awake to determine if he is able to eat and drink on his own, and we will go from there. I will be right back to get those started,” Janine says, excusing herself from the room, and allowing Liz and Mikey to sneak back in, closing the door tightly behind them.
“If you two are good, we’re going to take off. We have a lot to deal with now that we are back,” Alex half asks.
“I’m so sorry. I hope you’re not in too much trouble because of me,” Liz says quietly, unable to meet his eyes.
“We all made our own decisions to go. I planned the whole thing and made it happen, don’t punish yourself for my actions,” he says, pulling the door back open.
“Make sure someone is with him at all times. Janine said he should wake up pretty quick after she starts the IVs. Let me know when he’s up. ”
Janine squeezes past as Alex and Tyler make their way out the door, pushing a squeaky cart topped with various bags of liquid.
Overwhelmed by the revolving door of people coming in and out, Liz pushes the chair against the wall and plops herself in it, trying to stay out of the way as much as she can, given the size of the room.
Everyone stays quiet, no sounds but the beeping of machines and faint muffles from people walking by outside.
Janine replaces Riley’s morphine with a blood bag, flushing it out beforehand.
When the fresh blood starts pumping into his veins, she moves to his other arm, placing an IV and starting him on a bag of saline to get him rehydrated.
“Press the call button when the pump goes off, it means one of his bags is empty, and I will be back in to start the next one,” she says, walking out the door, leaving no room for discussion.
“I’m fucking starving, so as long as pretty boy is still napping, I’m going to go grab some food. What do you want?” Mikey asks.
“I’m too nervous to eat anything, thanks though,” she says, watching him shrug his shoulders and walk out the door.
Liz loses track of how long she sits there, watching the bags attached to Riley’s arms slowly drain into his body. She looks around the room, not a single clock in sight, and her phone died hours ago. It couldn’t have been too long if Mikey still isn’t back, unless he decided to eat somewhere else.
With nothing else to do, Liz paces the room, looking at all the crudely printed signs hanging around.
So caught up with reading the random posters and loose papers taped to the wall, she doesn’t notice Riley opening his eyes, watching her as she moves around the room, before flopping herself back into the chair.
“You’re still here.” Hearing his raspy voice has Liz practically jumping from her chair, sitting up straighter to look at him, a sad smile on her face.
“I am, is that okay?” she asks, her anxiety running wild. He blinks a few times, the same way she did when she was coming out of it, trying to get the world to focus. Fighting past the urge to go to him, she fidgets with her hands to distract herself.
Riley doesn’t respond, does not speak, just looks at the various tubes in his arms, then around the room, stopping before he gets to where Liz sits.
Her heart drops, every crushing thought about what would happen to them coming true.
There is no denying the uncomfortable, awkward energy in the room.
“I can go as soon as Mikey gets back, but one of us is supposed to stay with you,” she says just loud enough for him to hear, trying to hide her heartbreak.
“It’s fine, you don’t have to leave,” he groans out. Of all the ways Liz saw this moment in her head, awkward was not one of them. They both look away, nothing more to say to each other. The tension in the air is palpable. Unable to stay in the excruciating silence any longer, she asks––
“Are you in pain? I can call the doctor for you.”
“Everything about this is painful,” he snaps harshly.
Liz recoils as if he had just slapped her.
She bites her cheek so hard she tastes blood, a stupid attempt at not snapping back.
If she was still wondering about his feelings, he just made them perfectly clear.
She wonders how things could change so fast when just hours ago he called her by pet name and asked her to stay.
A silent tear streams down her face, more following while she tries to pull herself together.
“That’s no––” Riley begins, his eyes softening when he looks at her, only to be cut off by the door flying open.
“Honey, I’m home!” Mikey says, striding into the room, carrying two cardboard containers of food.
“I brought your favor–– Are you crying?” His voice switches from playful to anger, laced with concern.
He follows her eyes to where Riley is lying, awake and watching the two of them.
When he looks back to her, she shakes her head just enough for him to understand not to push it.
“Happy tears, sweetie,” she says, smiling sweetly at him.
He looks down at her. He knows she is lying, she can see in his face that he doesn't believe her. The cough that comes out of Riley has Mikey whirling on his bed, turning into a child excited to see his best friend again.
“Hey buddy! Welcome back to the land of the living!” he barks, unable to stop the smile on his face. Mikey shoves Riley’s legs over, sitting on the bed next to him, not caring if he hurts him or not. He snatches the bed control from its pocket on the side, raising the bed so Riley can sit up.
“How ya feelin’?”
“Ohh, I know this one,” Liz shouts, raising her hand like she’s back in school, hurt getting the better of her. “Everything about this,” she spits, waving her hand in a circle around the room, “is painful.”
She glares at Riley. Cursing herself under her breath, Liz slumps back in her chair. So close. She was so damn close to keeping it together. Deep down she knows she has no reason to be angry with him. He has been through hell the last few weeks, of course he is going to be distant and angry.
“Okay, did I miss something? I thought the second you woke up you two would be ripping each other’s clothes off, not ripping each other’s throats out,” he asks, confused, looking back and forth between the two of them.
Her face grows hot. She drags her gaze over to Riley to catch him watching her with a heated stare that makes her toes curl, only adding to her confusion. The steady beeping in the room picks up, growing steadily faster as they lock eyes.
Hearing that makes Mikey start to worry, pressing the call button over and over again until the doctor comes rushing into the room, frantically looking over at Riley, propped up, doing just fine.
“Why did you call me?” she remarks, spotting the control in Mikey’s hand, thumb still on the button, ready to press it again if he needed to.
“He was beeping. Isn’t that bad?” he sheepishly asks.
“Not necessarily,” she says, checking each device he is hooked up to.
“His O2 is good, you got him sitting up, alert, all good signs. His heart rate seems to be steady, all the excitement from waking up must have come as a shock, that’s all.
I thought he was going to need at least two more treatments to get him to this point,” she says while disconnecting the now empty blood bag from his arm.
“Well, the field medics did a good job of taking care of him. They stitched him up and he got a couple bags of something from them in the air,” Mikey states.
“Oh, well, that explains the miraculous recovery. That would have been the type of thing to tell his doctor,” she sneers, turning to Liz. Her jaw falls open, watching the woman with sheer disgust.
“I did tell you. Maybe if you weren’t so busy treating me like shit, you would have remembered,” she grumbles.
Riley’s eyes snap to hers and she swears he is smiling under his makeshift mask. He needs to go home with them for no other reason than Liz wanting to confront him about the mixed signals.
“So, what does that mean? Does he need another round of the IVs?” Mikey interjects before the women come to blows.
Janine stops herself from saying what she was about to say and turns back to the men. “Not yet. If you are feeling up for it, you can start small with some crackers and water. We can see how you handle food and drink and go from there.” She steps closer to Riley.
“When can I leave?” he asks her, already trying to prop himself up further.
“Well, you will need a psych evaluation. You have been through so much, and I will need to continue monitoring you to make sure your body is recovering, but, as long as your vitals stay good and you can feed yourself, I would say you can leave in a few days.”
“Not good enough, doc. I’m alive. I’m awake. I’m going home,” His deep, raspy voice practically shouts.
Janine takes a step back, her hands tremble as she slings her stethoscope back around her neck. “I understand you don’t like hospitals, but––” she begins.
“But nothing. I’m leaving,” Riley argues, his voice getting deeper with each word. A loud, overly dramatic sigh fills the room, and Mikey hops down from the bed. His hand hovers next to the doctor’s shoulder as he guides her out the room, shutting the door behind them.
The moment they are gone, Riley reaches with his free arm and pulls the fabric covering his face away, then rips the oxygen mask off, tossing it behind him.
Liz peels her eyes away, unsure if she should see him like this or not.
Lips pursed, kicking her feet, Liz looks around the room, anywhere but at Riley.
If she does, she may just confront him right then and there, and that is the last thing he needs to deal with.
She has been working too hard to keep her anger in check to throw all her progress away now.
Stupidly, she lets her eyes wander back to the bed, dragging them up his body, to find him watching her every move.
“What?” she exclaims. Anger courses through her the moment he lets a strained laugh escape, flashing her his soul-crushing smile. If she didn’t know any better, she would think he is toying with her on purpose.
That’s all it takes. She climbs from the chair, boots stomping across the polished floor until she is standing in front of him.
“What the fuck––” A slow creak cuts her off, the door being pushed open again.
Sick of the near constant coming and going, she groans and goes back to her seat, facing away from Riley.
A soft crackling smack sounds from the other side of the room.
“Eat that, and drink this,” Mikey says entering the room with a cup of water. “Barely nine hours back on base and you’re already causing problems.”
Riley says nothing, simply shrugs his shoulders and downs the cup of water, handing it back when he is done.
Mikey refills it in the sink and places it on the table next to him.
Taking the chance to speak while Riley’s mouth is full, he starts scolding.
“I know you were gone and stuff, but you should be a little nicer to people.” The scoff Liz releases has both of the men turning their attention to her.
“You better tell me what the fuck happened with you two tonight,” Mikey snaps at Liz before turning his attention back to Riley and scolding him once more.
“I can’t believe I have to be the mature one right now.
They know your history, and I gently reminded Janine you will rip the tubes from your arms and get home before they even realize you are gone.
She is getting me some supplies now. You can’t go off base and you’re on bed rest, you need to come back in the morning to get checked and another IV.
Psyche will come to you in a couple of days, and you are under no circumstances to be left alone.
Someone will need to be in the apartment with you at all times, so, hooray for babysitting duty, but you’re free to come home.
And let me be clear, you should be staying, the one and only reason you’re not is because of what happened last time. ”