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Pain.
It jerked her into reality.
Wherever she had been, it had been soft and quiet. And not as pain filled and dusty as wherever she was now. She couldn’t really tell. It was all spinning around her.
The dust filling her lungs immediately resulted in a bout of coughing, which just made her pain worse. She felt someone’s hand on her back, pulling her into a sitting position.
“What happened?” She choked out, feeling disoriented. What the hell had she done to herself this time? She couldn’t even remember.
“Thank God.” She heard someone say over the ringing of her ears.
“She’s alive.” Another voice said, closer to her.
Had she not been alive...?
Her eyes were stinging. She could barely see. So she moved her hands forwards, relying solely on feeling, having lost both vision and hearing.
She felt hands covering hers.
“It’s ok. Just breathe.”
Easier said than done, she thought. Her chest felt so tight. She was still wheezing, relying on someone holding her up.
She wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. Then she was able to see a bit better.
She saw a stairwell. Or, what was left of one. And a bright light, and a figure she couldn’t make out standing in front of it.
And OA’s hand holding hers. His other arm holding her up. His eyes were watering, too.
She leaned into him. The one thing that would never change. Her partner. And the way he was always there when she needed him. She just had to focus on him. She trusted him. Whatever had happened, whatever hell was coming next, he would be there.
-----
“Help is coming. You’ll be fine.” OA said softly. “Save your strength.”
“We have to move, OA. The building isn’t stable.” Scola warned.
OA had temporarily forgotten Scola was standing behind him.
“Where’s Ashley?”
“Dani got her out. I didn’t want her to see...” He left his sentence unfinished. They both knew that he’d been trying to shield Ashley from seeing Maggie dead, or seeing OA’s grief that Maggie was dead.
But she wasn’t.
She was alive.
He kept his grip around her hand, to prove himself of that.
“We have to go.” Scola repeated.
“I can walk.” Maggie coughed out.
“You will not be walking anywhere until a doctor has seen you.” OA said sternly. “Scola, you out first. I’ll pass Maggie out through the hole, you’ll take her, and carry her a safe distance away from the building. I’ll come out right after her. My comms are still down, so make sure Dani knows to flag down the helicopter as soon as it’s in sight.”
“Got it.”
The fact that Maggie had no further complaints about any of that was worrying him. He didn’t even know if her brain function was fully there. But he’d have to check that once they were out.
He gently scooped her up and carried her the few steps to the entrance Scola and Dani had dug out. It wasn’t big. OA wasn’t sure if he’d fit.
Scola was right there to take her through and outside. OA followed her as quickly as he could.
“Like I said. A war zone.” Scola muttered, seemingly to himself, as OA took in what was left of the building where they’d taken cover.
“The hell...” Maggie added, disoriented, Scola and Dani supporting most of her weight as they moved her further away from the crumbled building.
“I’ll get the first aid kit from our car. The sooner I clean out that cut on her head, the better.” Dani said. She was quick to take charge of the situation.
OA could tell, even though he was sure Scola would never admit it, but he hadn’t thought any of them were still alive in there. “Ashley, look for the helicopter, wave your hands when you see it!” Dani continued, as she and Scola laid Maggie down on her back near their SUV, which was working as a shield if the structure came down.
“Take her vest off. I need to check for broken ribs. The more the paramedics know when they get here, the quicker they can help her.” Dani said, after retrieving the first aid kit. “And OA, sit down or help Ashley guide the helicopter. We’ve got this handled.” She must’ve also noticed that he still felt detached from the entire thing.
That Maggie had been dead only minutes ago.
He hadn’t looked back to make sure she was with them. He’d only been focused on Ashley.
But, he did listen to Dani and sat down next to his partner, taking her hand as she winced when her vest was pulled off.
“Internal bleeding? Broken ribs? What?” OA asked desperately.
“I can’t focus on anything with you two breathing down my neck!” Dani snapped at them. Maggie still seemed conscious, but it was hard to tell. Her gaze was fixated on the sky. But, the rise and fall of her chest was steady and even.
“Point taken.” Scola said. “Let’s give them some space.”
“No. I have to...I have to stay with her.” OA murmured.
“You can’t help her until you pull yourself together. So get up and walk with me for a second.” Scola insisted.
He nodded, and got up, and followed him.
“Was it really that obvious?” He asked when they were out of earshot.
“Yeah. You don’t even look like you’re on this planet right now. So just take a minute, breathe, move around, calm yourself down, and then you can help.” Scola said, putting a hand on OA’s arm.
“I hear sirens!” Ashley yelled to them. “Looks like you got a whole cavalry coming!”
“We’re only ten feet away. You don’t need to scream it at us.” Scola said to her gently.
“Sorry. I can’t hear very well. That’ll get better, right?” She asked anxiously.
“Yes. But we’ll make sure a doctor checks it out too, just to be sure.” Scola reassured her.
“I have to go with her.” OA said. “When the helicopter arrives.”
“And you will. But first, humor me, by breathing a little. You’re in shock. Your partner almost died.” Scola’s gaze drifted downwards. “Trust me, I know that feeling. I just want to help you, so you don’t go to the same dark headspace that I did.”
OA had completely forgotten it. Which he was mentally kicking himself for. How could he have been so stupid? He hadn’t remembered Kristin being stabbed. And he had been standing right beside Scola, unable to do anything. But she wasn’t OA’s partner. It was easier for OA to step aside and let Maggie help Kristin because he didn’t feel responsible for her safety, the way Scola had. Especially since she’d been a new agent, who’d been scared out of the field entirely by the incident. OA had never stopped to think about whether Scola blamed himself for that. The way OA had blamed himself for Maggie being locked inside a lab with sarin gas.
They waited until the helicopter was landing to head back. Or, rather, Scola forced him to wait that long.
“You still feeling alright?” OA asked when he got back to her. And she was again wearing a shirt, with a bandaid over her forehead.
“I’m fine. I could get up if Dani let me.” Maggie replied.
“You’re not fine, I’m sure you broke at least one rib.” Dani said.
“I couldn’t hear it...” OA said quietly.
“You couldn’t hear anything. You got blown up.” Scola reminded him.
“What happened to the building?” Maggie asked.
“How much do you remember?” Scola countered.
“I remember finding...her.” She pointed to Ashley. “And then...nothing.” She rubbed her face, seeming frustrated by her failing memory.
“Well, you saved my life by finding me when you did. So, thank you. I’m eternally grateful.” Ashley replied, choosing her words carefully. It was important for Maggie to remember this on her own.
Dani was now directing the helicopter to a spot that wasn’t covered with debris.
“Get her ready, they’ll be able to take off as soon as you’re in!” Scola yelled at them.
Maggie winced as the helicopter got closer. The noise was painful.
“Wait, why a helicopter?” She protested as he picked her up again. “And I can walk!” That sounded more like her. It gave him a tiny bit of reassurance.
“I’ll tell you later.” Time was critical right now. She could still have a brain bleed.
Maggie seemed to get tired again on the flight. And the paramedics allowed OA to only hold her hand, and not touch her any further. Her pulse was still normal. Even though one of his fingers had slid to her wrist to make sure the monitor wasn’t wrong.
Doctors were already waiting for them when they hit the helipad. The paramedics jumped out, pushing Maggie on a stretcher, leaving OA to climb out last. Just in time to hear the last piece of information they were relaying.
“---was resuscitated in the field, but she’s still in critical condition.” One paramedic finished, before letting go.
“OA? What’s happening?” Maggie whimpered when they got in the elevator.
“Has she been this confused since you got her back?” One of the doctors asked.
“Yeah. She has short term memory loss, from what I could tell.” His voice trembled a little.
“Any history of concussions?”
“Yeah. Just the one.”
“Has this ever happened before? Has she ever lost a pulse?”
“Not that I know of.”
“You’re not her husband?”
“No. Just her partner.”
He was directed to the waiting room while they ran blood tests, took X rays, and ran brain scans on her. Scola and Dani arrived in that time. OA just stared at the wall, trying to comprehend what had just happened.
Finally, a doctor emerged. “We’re not done with the examination yet, but the only person down as next of kin, we can’t get ahold of. I was hoping one of you would know?” Dani and Scola had also stood up and approached, standing next to OA. He just hadn’t noticed until now.
“What’s the name of her next of kin?” OA had a bad feeling he knew exactly who it was.
“Jason Bell. Do you know him?”
His feeling was right. Scola and Dani exchanged confused glances.
“He’s been dead for several years.” OA replied quietly.
“Do you know any other family members we could contact?”
“No.” He replied. Scola and Dani also shook their heads.
“I hadn’t even heard of a person named Jason related to her until just now.” Dani replied.
“But out of everyone here, he knows her best.” Scola interrupted. “He’s as close to a family member you’ll find in this state.”
“Alright. I’m supposed to only allow family back while we run tests, but, she’s being a very cooperative patient, and she keeps asking for someone named OA.”
He nodded. “That’s me.”
“I assumed, based on you are the one who’s been answering the questions, and was with her in the helicopter. You can come back and sit with her while we finish blood tests.”
OA could barely believe it. Scola had to give him a small shove for him to follow.
“How is she?” He asked when they left the waiting room.
“Brain looks a little inflamed, but it is probably just a concussion. The confusion is normal, with what she went through. My best guess is that the explosion compressed her heart, which is why it stopped. She’ll have bruising from that. I was surprised she didn’t have an orbital fracture. And a couple broken ribs. But that should heal up fine.”
“So, she’ll be okay?” He dared to ask.
“Like I said, given what happened, her injuries are pretty minor.”
“But she still doesn’t remember anything?”
“It’s better for her to figure to it out for herself.”
“I know. I didn’t tell her anything.”
“Good. Just sit and hold her hand or whatever else will keep her still.” He was gestured into a smaller exam room.
“Any word on getting a room for her?” One of the nurses asked.
“So far, no.”
“She looks unresponsive. What happened?” OA asked.
“We had to sedate her to get a needle in. She’s fine. It’ll wear off in an hour or two. She’s still somewhat conscious. She might recognize your presence.” The nurse explained gently.
He carefully stepped closer. Her eyes were closed. The left side of her face already starting to swell. But she was alive. And there was nothing to worry about.
“So what, we keep her in the ER, either in the hallway or an exam room, for observation? We don’t really have space for that!” A nurse argued behind him.
“Or we send her home.”
“And risk her dying because we missed something on our scans? The legal stuff alone could shut us down.”
“They can threaten shutting us down, but they can’t actually go through with it unless a brand new fully staffed hospital popped up out of nowhere.”
“OA, any chance we could send her home with you to observe her?”
He’d been so focused on her, her swelling face, her pulse in her wrist, her warm hand...her eyes fluttering when he was next to her... that he’d barely heard any of what they’d said.
“Yeah, of course. Whatever she needs. I can do it.”
“Well, she shouldn’t need any other prescriptions besides a painkiller. But, given her concussion, it would be better if you managed the medication. So she doesn’t forget and overdose on it. She should be able to come off it after three days. If she’s still in a lot of pain after that, bring her back in.”
“I can do that.”
“One bag of IV fluids and then she goes home.” The nurse insisted.
“Fine. If we get another critical one in though, she goes early. We need to move faster. We have a lot of people still waiting to be seen.”
“How is cardiac arrest not critical?” OA demanded.
“You’d be surprised.” The nurse said, still focusing on getting the IV started. “I’ve seen far worse than her today alone. You are FBI right? You’ll handle the investigation part of this?”
“Already been handled. She was hit by an AI powered drone. We’ve had the person responsible for it for several hours. But we couldn’t convince them to call off the last drone. The strike from it is what caused the cardiac arrest.”
“Well, that’s one I haven’t heard before. AI powered drone hurting people. Well, there’s new ways to hurt people every day, it seems.”
“You’re telling me. I’m the person out there trying to stop all those people from ending up here. So far in this case, I’ve only saved one. And in the process, I almost lost her.”
“I’m sure she knew the risk.”
“She does.”
“I’m assuming the bureau is paying for this?”
“Well, it’s not like they pay us well enough to afford this.”
Maggie was barely conscious when the IV was done. Not enough to walk. Or even speak...in sentences that made sense.
They went to get her a wheelchair, and OA quickly called Scola in the waiting room, not wanting to leave Maggie’s side. And told him she’d be fine, he was taking her home.
“In that case, we’ll meet you there with dinner.” He said.
“You don’t have to. I’m fine.”
“None of us have had time to eat anything in several hours. Dani is still fighting the vending machine now. You need to take care of yourself. As well as her.”
“Fine. I’ll text you what places Maggie likes.”
She was still in and out of it the whole way home. Making him still feel like he couldn’t breathe. She wasn’t out of the woods yet.
She seemed to come to a bit more when she saw her house.
“How did I get here?” She mumbled.
“I drove you here. I’m staying with you.”
“I’m fine, really. Just sleepy.”
Now that sounded more like her. Arguing over whether she was fine or not.
“Well, you don’t have a choice this time.”
“What the hell did I get drugged with?”
“They didn’t tell me. They just said you wouldn’t let them draw blood.”
“I don’t like hospitals.” She said as a counter to that.
“I’m well aware.” He replied calmly, putting one of her arms around his neck to lift her from the car.
“Did everyone survive?”
“Survive what?” He asked, unsure.
“Whatever happened to me!”
“Just me and one other person were there when it happened. And yes, we’re all ok. We scared everyone, I think.”
“Why?”
“You’ll remember with time.”
“I want to know now!” She said as he got her through the door. He sat her down on the couch before replying.
He sat next to her. “Because, I can’t...I can’t relive what happened, more than once. If I tell you now, you’ll forget all about it in a few hours and I’ll have to tell you again. I will tell you everything, once I know that I don’t have to repeat it again.”
“Was it that bad?” Her voice was quiet now.
“Yeah. It was that bad.”
She inspected her clothing, still covered with dust and debris. She seemed to be understanding, possibly remembering something.
“I should change and shower.”
“Give it an hour. You’re sedated, and concussed. At least let the sedation wear off, first. If you fall down and hit your head, you could make your concussion worse.”
“I know how concussions work.”
“Then you won’t fight me on waiting an hour.”
“Fine.” She touched the side of her head. “Did I get anything for the pain?”
“Yeah.” He pulled out the prescription bottle.
“No. Not that.” She almost flinched away at the sight of it. “Anything but that.”
“Why not?” He prompted. He knew exactly why not, but he wanted to see if she remembered.
She had to close her eyes for a second. “Car crash.” She replied. “Not me in the car. Someone else.”
“Good enough for now.”
“Check the cabinet in the bathroom. I’m sure I picked up something over the counter for pain, somewhere in all the times I got hurt doing this.”
When he returned with over the counter painkillers, her gaze seemed clearer. But he still gave her the pills and a glass of water.
“My sister’s car crash. She got reliant on pills to keep her pain away. Even years after it happened.” She looked at her hands. “That’s right, isn’t it?” She added anxiously.
“Yeah. That’s correct. They’re highly addictive. That’s why I was asked to hold onto them on your behalf. So you couldn’t abuse them.”
“Well, I’ll just go without them. I can take the pain.” Her hand brushed her left shoulder, briefly. “When do you go home?”
“I’m staying here and monitoring you. I asked Gemma to bring things from my apartment, so I don’t have to leave you. It was advised on your discharge that you were monitored at all times. So, that’s what I’m doing. And also because your emergency contact was out of date...I kinda signed myself up to be your new one.”
That also took her a minute to think about. “My emergency contact...I didn’t change it...did I? From Jason?”
“No. You didn’t.”
“I’ll make sure to update that. To you. If...you don’t mind...”
“I’d be honored.”
“Thanks.”
She tried to stand, wobbled for a second, and he instinctively grabbed her arm. And then let go again because he didn’t want to come off as overbearing.
“I’m fine. I feel a bit better, now.”
“Aspirin is working.”
“I could feel I did something to my face in the hospital, but what happened to my ribs?”
“I broke a couple of them.” OA said, looking away from her.
“You broke my ribs?!” She paused. “That means you had to...”
He just nodded, not trusting himself to speak.
And then he felt her put her arms around his shoulders, in a stiff and awkward manner. “Thank you.” She whispered.
He broke down crying as soon as she left the room to shower, using his hand to muffle his sobs so she wouldn’t hear it.
------
“That aspirin was expired!”
“That did not mean you had to go down the street and buy every form of over the counter painkillers in existence.” Maggie retorted.
Scola and Dani had left. Long day. They were all tired. And she was only just now noticing that he’d gone out while Scola and Dani were still there, and bought more stuff to try and help her.
Maggie had only eaten half of her burger. She was pushing fries around on her plate now, but not eating any of it.
“Feeling nauseous?” He asked carefully.
“A little bit.” She mumbled.
“You should go to sleep.”
“I know.”
He offered her a hand getting up. She ignored it.
“I have to come and wake you up every hour.” He reminded her.
“I know. So set an alarm for an hour, and hopefully I’ll get some sleep somewhere in there.”