Bring Him Back

Rest The Weary

Without saying anything else to Bruce, Leslie immediately hooks Dick up to blood bag while calling to J'onn to re-prep the operating room.

They didn't have much time. She didn't have much time.

Time was ticking away, and she has to find where the bleed is coming from and repair it. Or Dick doesn't stand a chance.

But she was exhausted, she was nearly about to topple over from fatigue.

She spared a quick glance at Bruce as he wordlessly left the room in a hurry as she herself quickly made to leave before getting scrubbed back up.

She could only imagine what he was thinking right now.

But there was no time to think about that right now.

Dick was under the operating lamp once again, his heart monitor weakly echoing every few seconds.

She breathed out a heavy sigh and began gently prodding his chest. Looking for any kind of sign to indicate where the bleeding was coming from. A bruise, anything...

Was it stupid to operate like this? When he's already so weak?

Yes.

But it was even worse to not even try, if they didn't do anything now, then he would die. 

"J'onn, do you know where it's coming from?!"

She looked up to see the martian's eyes were already glowing, indicating he is searching for the reason.

"There."

He points to an area just below where her hand currently is, below the sternum and near the top of where the right lung is. 

She nodded her head and picked up a scalpel once again.

"Please God, don't take him just yet."

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The waiting room was silent, from time to time a few glances were shared among the occupants but no one dared to speak too loudly. The silence seemed so fragile.

Kaldur was leaning against the wall, his face stricken with worry and he would frequently glance at the operating room doors before averting his gaze back to the floor. M'gann was to his right, sitting on a couch next to Connor. Connor was holding M'gann, whispering to her to try and ease her worry. Wally and Artemis were beside them on the floor.

Wally was bent slightly over, his face in his hands. Artemis wrapped an arm around him, trying to offer him some comfort.

Tim and Barbara were sitting next to each other on a couch facing the doors, while Bruce was in a chair next to them. Both Barbara and Tim were fidgeting in their seats, talking quietly among themselves and Bruce. Jason on the other hand, was in the chair opposite Bruce. 

His arms were crossed, a pensive look on his face. He stared past the other bats, seemingly lost in thought.

He never spoke a word.

It's been an hour now. Honestly a little longer than anyone was expecting it to go without any news.

Bruce was starting to get irritated again before Leslie finally emerged from the OR.

Everyone stood up, anxiously expecting the worst but hoping for a small miracle.

She looked exhausted and stressed beyond belief, but nothing in her body language gave the impression anything bad had happened.

At least again.

She looked up at them and gave a slight nod.

"He's okay."

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He was back in the recovery room again. His chest was rebandaged and this time, he had two IV stands. One for pain medication, and one for blood.

He was wearing an oxygen mask, but his chest was rising and falling gently and the heart monitor showed his heart steadily beeping.

"The bleeding was stabilized and repaired. Once the bleed was repaired and he was stable I took multiple images. To make sure there weren't anymore bleeds and there was no more damage. And there isn't."

With that last sentence she blew out a relived and equally tired sigh.

"He's stable and comfortable. And asleep for that matter. Going forward the two most important things for him will be to get as much rest as possible and manage the pain. His sedative will wear off soon but this time I expect him to remain asleep for a while. His body went through so much in a such a short period of time, and when it was already so weak too."

Bruce sat down in the chair closest to his eldest son and looked back at Leslie. His eyes were no longer full of anger and desperation.

"Thank you, Leslie. You saved his life. Again actually."

She gave a small, tired smirk at that.

True, she's ended up saving his life a lot before. But this time... this time she was honestly unsure if she would even be able to pull him back from the brink.

"It will take some time, and obviously quite a few tests, to see if the procedure worked. But in the meantime, I want to give him some to rest and recover."

She gestured over to a machine at Dick's side. It was hooked up to multiple monitors.

"It will alarm if anything changes. And I won't be far either."

With that, she mad sure her patient was well enough once again before going to the unoccupied room next door. As soon as her head met the pillow, she was immediately out like a light.
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Okay, I literally just pulled this whole chapter out of my butt, so it's probably not even medically accurate.

But I don't even care, cause I actually updated!!!