Otalia fic - Heroes & Friends, 12/?
Title: Heroes and Friends
Fandom: Otalia
Rating: Mostly PG-13, eventual NC-17 for sex and violence (Not between our girls though…the violence that is…promise. The other? Well…teehee).
Disclaimer: These wonderful ladies and the rest of the town belong to CBS, Telenext, and P&G. I’m just having some fun with them.
Spoilers: I don’t think so. This story picks up at the “no more waiting” gazebo scene and goes off canon.
Summary: Nat gets the shock of her life and it turns Liv’s world upside down.
Warning: Not beta’d so if it sucks, there’s only me to blame.
A/N: I get into some medical jargon here, but I’m not a medical person in any way, shape, or form. I couldn’t even pass college biology! What little knowledge it seems I may have here is owed to the wonder of Google. Any mistakes I made are clearly blamed on Google as well.
Links to previous chapters:
Chapter 1 - Chapter 2 - Chapter 3 - Chapter 4 - Chapter 5 - Chapter 6 - Chapter 7 - Chapter 8 - Chapter 9 - Chapter 10 - Chapter 11
Chapter 12
The stark white walls of the island hospital surrounded Olivia as she paced the small waiting room. She bit at a nail nervously and glanced through the glass door at Josh still hunched over by the bank of phones against the whitewashed wall of the hospital outside. Palms swayed gently in the breeze and white clouds lazily drifted by in the azure sky while Josh raised an arm in the air in obvious agitation at whoever was on the other end of the line. Olivia tapped her foot against the door as she waited then she glanced at the clock. Still no word on Natalia. Josh had tried to convince her to walk with him outside, but she refused to leave in case the doctor came looking for her.
It was a fairly primitive hospital. Josh had asked for a cell phone from several staff members, but they only shrugged and looked at him as if he spoke another language. Instead, they pointed him in the direction of the pay phones outside, and that’s where he had been for the last forty minutes. Finally, she saw the first smile to grace her ex-husband’s face since they had arrived. He nodded vigorously, forgetting that the listener couldn’t see him, and ran his fingers through his short sandy hair. When he hung up and headed back towards the doors, he was smiling proudly.
He came in, and she looked at him expectantly. “Rick’s on the next flight out. He said he’d talk another doctor and Lillian and another nurse into coming as well.”
Olivia slumped into the nearest chair, visibly relieved. “That’s great. Thank you.”
He sat next to her and smiled. “No problem. He knows all about her condition, and he’s also treated Rafe and Frank too. It’s perfect.”
She leaned her head over on his shoulder and wrapped a hand around his forearm. “Yeah. How long before they get here?”
“With layovers, probably about four hours.”
Josh leaned his head against hers. Her voice was soft and scared. “I hope he won’t be too late.”
“Hey.” He pulled away and looked down at her as he lifted her chin to look at him. “It won’t be. It may look kind of bleak here, but I’m sure the doctor knows exactly what he’s doing.”
She nodded but still looked skeptical. “I know. I just want to hear something already. It seems like it’s taking forever.”
“I know.” He pulled her into a gentle hug.
“Speaking of forever, what in the world took you so long on the phone?”
Josh chuckled. “Well, I never thought I had an accent, but apparently, the operator kept thinking when I asked for Frederick Bauer that I said ‘Free Dick Buyer’.”
The silence spanned for less than three seconds when Olivia doubled over in laughter. When she looked up at him, she had tears streaming down her face, and she was trying desperately to cover the noise of her laughter with her hand.
“I was hung up on three times before one of them finally asked me to speak slowly,” Josh deadpanned. His expression only made Olivia laugh harder.
A throat was cleared behind them, and Olivia jumped from her seat to turn and see the graying head of a doctor looking around the doorframe. The joking was forgotten with the serious look on the doctor’s face.
“Ms. Spencer? Mr. Lewis?” She looked at Josh with an uncertain expression so he answered for them.
“Yes.”
Olivia rubbed her suddenly sweaty hands on her pants. “Are you Natalia’s doctor?”
“Yes. I’m Dr. Nigel Ashby. Please,” he gestured back to the seats behind them, “have a seat.” His clipped British accent was surprisingly warm, and in spite of her desire to continue to stand and even pace the room again, Olivia found herself sitting back down.
“How is she?”
The older man sat down across from Olivia and Josh. Leaning forward, he put his elbows on his knees. “There’s a good chance that she’ll be fine.”
“What happened?”
“In medical terms, diabetic ketoacidosis.” When Olivia furrowed her brow in confusion, he continued, “In layman’s terms, she fell into a diabetic coma.”
“Oh, God.”
Tears immediately sprang to her eyes, and she thought she was going to faint. Josh reached for her to keep her focused as the doctor continued to speak and reassure her. “Ms. Spencer, it’s not as bad as it sounds. This can happen, though not terribly common, with Type 2 diabetes. Considering the stress she’s been under and the deplorable conditions she’s endured the last couple of days, I imagine this precipitated her body’s quick decline. The treatment is simple, but we will have to move slowly and monitor her closely.”
She finally looked at him suddenly with hope. “You mean, she could come out of the coma?”
“There are very good odds that she will. It will take a few days to stabilize her though. She has some other minor injuries, a very mild concussion and a couple of cracked ribs, but nothing that won’t heal with some rest.”
She dropped her head into her hands and started crying again. “Thank God.”
Josh rubbed calming circles on her back then looked at the doctor. “When can we see her?”
The doctor stood and smiled down at them. “Maybe another hour while we move her to another room. I’ll send a nurse down to get you when we have her ready for visitors.”
Olivia looked up again. “What about the other two that came in with her? Rafael Rivera and Frank Cooper.”
“There cases were more critical so we have other doctors working with them. I’ll see if I can find out anything.”
“Thank you.” Olivia looked at Josh when the doctor left the room. Her eyes red-rimmed and tired, but her sudden smile made it all disappear for a moment. “She’s going to be okay.”
“Yep, sure sounds like it.”
**************
Natalia watched from her car as Olivia moved around the gazebo helping Emma plant flowers. She waited until the kids had run off to the other end of the park before getting out of the car. Going around to the trunk, she pulled the basket out and made her way toward the beautiful woman in the gazebo. She momentarily forgot why she was there as she focused in on Olivia’s strong and muscular back in a fitted brown shirt. Her heart thudded in her chest the closer she got. She thought about the basket and the gift inside.
She couldn’t turn back now, and she didn’t want to. She had a new job, a new love, and a life she never imagined possible. She had no intention of letting Olivia Spencer go. All she needed now was to make it official, to leave Olivia with no doubt that this was everything she ever wanted.
When Olivia looked up at her, she gave a little wave and a smile. She adjusted the basket and took the three short steps up into the gazebo. Olivia’s eyes twinkled mischievously.
“So, what have you got there?” Olivia tried to peek into the basket but Natalia playfully swatted at her hand.
“No peeking. It’s a surprise.” Olivia smirked and stepped closer into Natalia’s space. A thrill ran down along Natalia’s spine, and her eyes instinctively drifted down to Olivia’s full mouth.
“I want to see now. I don’t want to wait.”
Natalia leaned her head to the side, smiling expectantly at her. “Are you sure?”
“No more waiting.”
“Okay.” Natalia bit her lip and raised the lid on the basket.
Natalia giggled at Olivia’s shocked expression when she saw the small velvet box sitting in a bed of white satin.
“I don’t want to wait either, Olivia. I want you to be my wife.”
The tears came almost as quickly as the kiss as Olivia wrapped her hands in Natalia’s long hair and pulled her close. When they pulled back, they were both crying and wiping tears from each other’s face.
“I take it, that’s a ‘yes’?”
“Yes,” Olivia nodded, “definitely, yes.”
Natalia looked at her shyly, “Want to try it on?”
Olivia nodded, unable to talk. Natalia took the little box out and set the basket down. When Natalia looked up, the gazebo was empty and the distant sky was darkening. She screamed for Olivia, but the sound reverberated off of sterile concrete walls that rose around her, higher and higher until she was enveloped in darkness.
************
Olivia jerked awake from the hard sleep she had fallen into in spite of the uncomfortable plastic chair she was curled up in. She felt the memory of a dream edging in at the corners of her mind, but she couldn’t get the images to coalesce into something that made sense. She shook her head and stood up.
A few seats over Josh was slumped in his chair with his mouth hanging open. She looked over her shoulder at the clock on the wall. They had only been asleep for a little over an hour yet it felt like it had been days. Endless days in these wretched torture devices called hospital chairs. She took the chance that she wouldn’t miss Dr. Ashby and went to the small stand by the nurse’s station for a cup of coffee. The thick liquid was perhaps the worst coffee she had ever had in her life. It tasted like it had been filtered through a dirty sock and it was barely what she’d call warm. But it was caffeine, and right now, she needed it.
She mixed up another cup for Josh and added a little extra sweetener to cover up the taste and headed back to the visitor lounge. When she got there, he was rubbing his eyes and looking up sheepishly. His stubble after a few days without a shave was becoming something close to a beard.
“Here you go, handsome.” She handed him a cup, which he gratefully took.
“Thanks.”
She shook her head. “Don’t think me yet. You haven’t tasted what died in it.”
“Nice visual.” Olivia’s comment didn’t stop him though, and he downed it all in several long gulps.
She set her cup down and rubbed at her own tired eyes. “I’d give anything for my soft bed at the Beacon right now, with the 500 thread count sheets. Oh, and a scalding hot bath. I can’t wait to get this dirty feeling off my body.”
“Maybe you could use your hotelier skills in procuring a room at the best dive in town?” The joking comment didn’t quite make it to Josh’s face. He was seriously wanting a nice hotel room to crash in.
“I tell you what, I’ll get you a room, and I’ll stay right here.”
Josh shook his head. “You’re doing exactly what I knew you’d do.”
Olivia stood and stalked to the other side of the small room. “Which is?”
“Torture yourself for Natalia being hurt. Making yourself suffer and hurt right along with her. Being the martyr. It’s what you do. You don’t allow yourself the right to rest and recover so you can be at your best for Natalia.”
“I need to be here for her.”
Josh stood and went to her, running a hand along her upper arm. “And how can you when you can’t even take care of yourself?”
Olivia turned away from him but he continued anyway, “Besides, we don’t know how Rafe and Frank are faring. God forbid, but what if something happens to Rafe and he gets worse? How are you going to be there for her to help her get through that if you’re worn out?”
Olivia ran her hands through her hair and scrubbed roughly at her face with her hands. “You’re right.”
“I am?”
“Yeah, you are.” Olivia turned back around to him. “But I can’t leave here until I at least see her and talk to her. She needs to know I’m here, and I need to tell her about Rafe and Frank. She doesn’t need to get that from someone she doesn’t even know.”
He nodded at her. “Okay, but once we know and once you talk to her, we’re going to find a place to get some rest. Okay?”
She threw up her hands. “Yeah, okay.”
**************
A few minutes later, a short, gray-haired nurse entered the room sporting a tray with two large cups of fresh hot coffee on it. She smiled gently and explained that she thought they could use a refreshment that hadn’t been refreshed so often. Olivia smiled at her humor and thanked her for her kindness. As the nurse exited, the gray head of Dr. Ashby came around the corner.
“Good morning. I have an update on your friends. Please, sit down.”
“Ms. Rivera’s been moved to a room, and you’ll be able to see her in a minute. Mr. Rivera was taken to surgery to repair the broken bone in his arm. Fortunately, we have an excellent orthopedic surgeon on staff, and she was able to use some rods and pins to hold it together. He’ll need some extensive physical therapy though.”
A worried look passed over Olivia’s face at the mention of therapy for Rafe. “He wants to go into the Army. Will this limit him or keep him from doing that?”
“Well, he’s young and already active, and in spite of his diabetes, he’s remarkably healthy. With good therapy, a good diet, and exercise, he shouldn’t have a problem performing his duties in the military.”
Olivia nodded her head, relieved. She made a mental note to find Rafe the best physical therapist she could to come to Springfield to help him.
The doctor continued while Olivia was lost in her thoughts. “With every piece of good news, there is usually some bad news. Your other friend, Mr. Cooper, doesn’t seem to be faring as well as the other two. In surgery, he had a very close call when he began hemorrhaging on the table. We managed to get the bleeding stopped, but the bullet is still lodged dangerously close to his spine. Also, all of the antibiotics were using seem to be helping little, if at all. If we can’t stop the infection spreading, he won’t make it. And even if he does, I have serious concerns that he may be permanently damaged from the loss of blood and damage of the bullet to the spinal cord.”
Olivia gasped. “Oh my God. Are you saying that he could be paralyzed or even brain damaged?”
“Or both. There’s a good possibility.”
Olivia dropped her head to her hands and buried it between her arms. “Oh my God.”
Josh quietly thanked the doctor who stood and left without further comment. He then wrapped an arm around Olivia’s shoulder. After a few moments, she stopped and looked up at him.
“How do you use those phones outside?” Her voice calm and determined.
“Why?”
She looked at him with a deep sadness. “I need to call Buzz.”