"We have a man down. Paramedic Ramirez took two shots."
"Ramirez, stay with me!"
"Keep those eyes open!"
"Call Nash NOW!"
"Twenty six year old female with no history of illness or known allergies. One shot to the chest and one to the abdomen. Coded twice on the way here."
"Dear God, you never said it was one of our own."
It was too bright. Did she fall asleep with the lights on again? Did she have a long shift or something? Mariana started to open her eyes to check her alarm clock when voices began to fill her room. What the hell? Her eyes felt so heavy that she could barely lift them open. Did she pull a double last night or something?
"Mariana. Mariana, open your eyes," Leslie's voice demanded. A low groan spilled past Mariana's lips as she slowly but surely fought against her desire to go back to sleep. She was used to waking up in the on call rooms so what was so hard this time?
"Do you remember what happened?" Leslie asked once she came into view. Mariana tried to shake her head but she felt too tired. Too weak.
"You were shot, okay? You were shot and you coded twice but we're going to help you. I need you to fight, Mariana. I need you to stay alive."
I'm tired. I'm tired of fighting. It hurts.
The weight of the darkness tugged against her and she let her eyes fall shut once more, drifting off into nothingness.
///
Five hours and thirteen minutes.
Bobby Nash sat in the OR waiting room for exactly five hours and thirteen minutes. He got the call at the end of a great date with Athena. The second the call came, however, they were out of the restaurant and on their way to the hospital.
They rushed in only to be met with a blood covered Anna DuBois. Tears shone in her eyes and she just shook her head before collapsing in a chair.
"They're taking her up to the OR now. Leslie refuses to leave her so they let her scrub in and sit with her. It's bad. It's really bad."
"How long do you think the surgery will take?" Athena asked. Always the strong one. Strong, steady Athena Grant. Yet even she looked shaken at the thought that was hanging over all of their heads.
"Seven, eight hours? Internal bleeding, perforated kidney, punctured lung. Missed the heart by two inches. She coded twice on the way here. I don't...she has to live. Right? It's Mariana. That girl has been through hell and high water. She has to."
Anna stared down at her bloody scrubs and then hung her head with a defeated sob. Bobby realized that she wasn't the only nurse affected. There were two nurses crying at the nurses station, one who was blankly staring at the chart in their hands, and another who looked ready to punch a wall. This was part of her life. Part of her family.
"I need to call the others," Bobby blurted out. "They would want to be here. She needs the support."
"Will you be alright if I left?" Athena asked, turning to check on him.
"Need to get home?" he asked.
"No. Need to go to the station and find out which son of a bitch did this to her."
He nodded, finding his hand sliding along her arm and grasping her smaller hand. "Please be safe."
Athena pushed herself up onto her toes and pressed a kiss to his cheek before she settled back down. "You make sure our girl comes home to us."
And so there he sat, five hours and thirteen minutes later. Chimney sat in the chair across from him, head tipped back against the wall as he slept. Bobby couldn't blame him. It was three in the morning after all and they had just gotten off shift a few hours before.
Hen was reading a magazine in the corner, her calm and cool exterior a simple front. By the way her knee was bouncing up and down and her thumb was flipping through the pages, she wasn't absorbing anything from the magazine. She was simply just trying to distract herself.
Buck was pacing. Around the room. Around the chairs. Bobby had sent him twice now to grab coffee from the cafeteria just to give him a chance to walk off some steam. His fingers constantly tapped along his knee and he kept pulling his phone out to Google things.
Five hours and fifteen minutes.
A few nurses from Mariana's shift joined them but they were wiped from their shift and Bobby had to practically force them to go home and sleep.
Five hours and sixteen minutes.
Footsteps filled the silent halls and he turned his head to see Leslie walking towards them, exhaustion clinging to her bones. The blonde still had a surgical cap on and a mask dangling around her neck, revealing that she came straight from the OR.
"She's stable for now. The surgeons were able to extract the bullets, which is rare, and they repaired the damage. That's the good news," she announced.
"W-what's the bad news?" Buck bit out.
"They had to put her in a medically induced coma and on a ventilator. The bullet ruptured her left lung."
"Can we see her?" Hen asked.
"Once they get her settled into the ICU, they'll come get you to see her. It'll probably be only for a few moments, but you can try and talk to her. I like to think she can hear us."
"Thank you. For everything," Bobby said. The nurse just sighed and shook her head.
"That's our girl in there. If it were us on that table, she'd be doing the same thing. Mariana's the best damn person alive considering everything she's been through. She has had every right to get mad and scream and cry and claim the world is unfair but everytime shit hits the fan, she takes it with such grace. She doesn't deserve this."
"Mari's the strongest person I know," Buck declared. "She's going to be fine."
That belief faltered once they saw her.
"Have you ever seen her so pale?" Hen whispered as they looked in from outside of the room.
Wires and machines filled the room and surrounded the bed in the middle of the sterile ICU room. In the middle of the bed was the pale, still form of Mariana Ramirez. Her dark hair still had some blood caked in it as did her shoulders and neck. A nurse quietly assured them that they would sponge off the blood once she was fully stable.
The dark russet stains just highlighted the pale, gaunt appearance of her face. A heavy ventilator was strapped across her face, obscuring her features from view. All they could see was machines and wires.
Bobby was going to be sick.
"You have five minutes with her and then I'm kicking you out. I'm sorry that's all I can allow. I know she's not just a member of our family, but yours too."
It felt eerily similar to when they visited Chimney. They filed in silently and took spots around the room, sitting and standing around the bed. Bobby gently took hold of Mariana's hand.
"Hey kiddo...we're all here. Athena's out hunting down the guy who did this or she would be here too. But your family is here. We need you, Mari. You have to fight and come back to us, okay? Because you're the soul of the team. You make sure we all fight to help others and so now we're putting that fight into you."
"We have a bet going, Mariana Ramirez, and I refuse to not let you pay up. So you have to get better," Chimney added.
"Mari...you heard the cap. We need you. I know that you don't see it, but you're the light on the team. You're a light in people's lives. You help out so many people and they're all telling you to fight right now. So fight, girl. Because you have so much more life to live," Hen spoke up.
They fell silent until Buck stepped up, his hand sliding into Mariana's other free hand. The youngest member of the team blinked back tears and swallowed past the growing lump in his throat. He bent down slightly and began to speak.
"I know we didn't get along at the beginning, but I can't ever imagine working without you. Mari, you're my best friend. I need you to fight, okay? Because I can't do this without you. I can't...I don't want to do life without you. I need to be able to hear your laugh again. Please, Mari. I'd give up this job in a heartbeat if it meant seeing you smile one more time."
As they filed out once the nurse told them their time was up, Bobby paused in front of her and looked back at the brunette lying in the bed.
"That's my daughter in there. I expect the best care possible."