A Piece Of My Life (Captain Swan)

Chapter 11

Two hours into the surgery, she went home and took a nap, but came back a few hours later. The whole thing emcompassed twelve hours, longer than they had expected. Dr. Whale came and found her around midnight that day.

"How'd it go?" She asked and then yawned.

"Well, we are being as aggressive as possible with this tumor because of the size. He lost some blood and we weren't able to get all of it out, and there was also an incident. Right now he's stable and we're going to go back to non invasive treatments like chemotherapy."

"Is he awake?" Her nerves were high.

Whale nodded, "He is, but he's also on painkillers so he's not fully awake. While we were operating, he quit breathing so we have him on the ventilator still until he's fully stable." He saw he look and patted her knee, "It's just precautionary right now, we're sure he's going to make a fully recovery."

"Can I see him?"

"Of course, just down the hall and in Room 643." She thanked him and stood up shakily.

The walk down the hall was slow and when the door was in front of her, she opened it.

The top of his head was covered in gauze and there was a tube down his throat, but also one in his nose. His eyes were closed, but when she walked closer his eyes came open to half slits.

"Hey," she whispered and put a hand on his arm, "I heard everything went well." Killian's hand rose just a few inches and tried to gesture to the tube in his mouth. "They're just trying to make sure you're stable, you can't breathe on your own right now."

He gestured again, this time to the NG tube. She knew she would have to deal with this when he woke up, yet tears still came to her eyes, so she sat down. "I'm sorry, I didn't know what to do. You're so thin.." A few spilled onto her cheeks.

She though he would point for her to get out, or at least close his eyes and pretend she wasn't there, but he didn't. Killian reached over and wiped the tears from her cheeks.

"I'm sorry.." She laid her head on the bed and he began running his fingers through her hair

He fell asleep a few minutes later and so did Emma. She didn't realize how long it'd been since she'd really slept until her head was on that bed and his hand was in her hair.

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Emma woke up around eight in the morning. Killian was still sleeping and his hand was resting on her arm. She yawned and moved his hand tithe bed before getting up and heading to the hospital cafeteria for coffee.

Her arm was tingling from sleeping on it as she got the coffee and sat down at a table for two. She could feel the caffeine coursing through her system with each sip. In twenty minutes she felt more awake.

After she finished, she put the cup in the trash and went to go back to the room.

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From a distance, she could see many people in the room she had just left. Se went running and opened the door, only to be pushed out by Monica.

"You can't go in there!" Monica instructed, trying to keep her from entering.

Emma eyes searched her face, "What happened?! He was sleeping!"

Monica shook her head, "He woke up and pulled both the ventilator and NG tube out. Doctor got the tube for breathing back in-in time before anything happened and now he's putting the NG tube back in. Emma," she tried to call her attention from the glass window behind her, "they got an order to have him restrained."

Her attention finally shifted, "What?"

"They got an order to have his arms restrained so he can't pull out the tubes again." Monica put a hand on Emma's arm, "Were hoping they won't be on long and that we can get the ventilator out soon."

Dr. Whale came out a few moments later with three other nurses, but they scattered along with Monica. "I'm very sorry, Emma, but he's stable now. I'm hopeful the ventilator will come out soon, but.."

"But until then he had to be treated like an animal," she finished for him bitterly.

"He took out the thing that's keeping him alive. We can't have people watching him at all times, I'm sorry, it needed to be done."

Emma nodded, "I know, it's just.."

"It's a lot, I understand," he patted her arm. "You can go in now." She nodded and turned to open the door.

He looked sick and crazy, that was her first impression after seeing the restraints on his wrist; for his arm with the hook they had to put three restrains on, one on his upper arm, one at his elbow, and one that wrapped around close the end of his wrist. Moving closer, she pushed that thought out of her mind and leaned in and kissed his forehead just below the gauze covering his head. His eyes opened just a bit and she was so focused on his face that she jumped a bit when she heard his wrist strain against the restrains. Hurriedly, she took his hand in hers and squeezed gently. "They'll be off soon," she whispered, "but you can't rip tubes out." Killian nodded just a tiny bit. "I'm serious. Don't give up, you're important." She sighed, "You're on a lot of meds, close your eyes and go to sleep." He looked at her for a long moment before closing his eyes.

It was still afternoon so she wasn't tired and instead picked up a book she had brought and began reading.

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Around ten, a nurse brought a cot for Emma to sleep on. She'd said she knew how uncomfortable the chairs were and knew Emma probably wouldn't go home. She thanked her and then laid down on it and thankfully fell into blissful darkness.

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Hook slept the whole next day and Emma again slept in the bed next to him, waking up every few hours. The nurses were in and out checking vitals and tubes to make sure things were working properly, at one point Monica made Emma leave to eat and promised to stay until she got back. She was thankful for the break away from beeping machines and a sick looking Hook.

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