csi_sanders1129 | Fic: Before It's Too Late

Title: Before It’s Too Late
Chapters: 4/8
Author:

csi_sanders1129
Genre: Drama. Suspense. Angst. Hurt/Comfort.
Ratings: T
Word Count: ~1,600
Pairings/Characters: Jason Morgan/Damian Spinelli
Synopsis: PCPD Officers have just been called to Port Charles University. Sources have informed us that an armed man has barricaded himself inside a classroom. Attempts to contact the gunman for negotiations have thus far been unsuccessful. More at 9.
Comments: Rated for what could be considered triggering topics. Written on request from

suerum . Fic is… almost completed, but I thought I’d start posting it to motivate myself to keep working on it. OC’s are mine, whether or not I want them, GH characters are not. Reviews are awesome. Enjoy!

Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 |

Jason paced endlessly across the surgical waiting room to which he had rather hastily been confined. The ambulance ride over here had been hectic enough – with the medics obviously concerned over the amount of blood loss and the decreased lung function of their patient. It had seemed to have taken forever to arrive at the ER, and then, in seconds, the doctors and nurses who had been waiting for the incoming victims of the hostage situation had taken him away. Wheeled him into the depths of the hospital where Jason could not follow even though he so desperately wanted to.

At some point, someone had told him that Spinelli had been rushed through radiology and straight into surgery. That was all the information he'd gotten out of them. And somewhere in the chaos someone had offered him clean scrubs to replace the clothes covered in Spinelli's blood.

The other boy, the only other one who had been alive besides Spinelli, he had died en route to General Hospital. Bled out, bled into his brain or something, Jason didn't even know. He just knew that it made it seem like the chances were worse for Spinelli.

More and more pacing. Seconds and minutes and hours passed in what seemed like days and weeks and years and still no word came of Spinelli's condition. It was all too long without news.

Surely someone had to come and tell him something at some point in this chaos? They couldn't just leave him sitting here not knowing for much longer. Even if it was just to tell him that it would be a while until they had actual news – it would be something, it would mean that Spinelli was still fighting, still holding on. That's what he really wanted to know.

All in all, it was about five hours after arrival at General Hospital that Dr. Hunter stepped into the room. He look haggard and worn out, Jason knew the surgery must have been difficult, whatever they'd been doing.

Jason crossed the room and paused just in front of the doctor. "Is he okay?"

Matt sighed. "It was touch and go for a while. He crashed in triage and we had to establish an airway before we could do much else. The chest wound was a through and through, but it shattered a couple of ribs. The fragments from the broken ribs as well as the bullets path punctured his lung – so we had to insert a chest tube." He rubbed a hand over his face in futile attempts to regain some energy.

At this point, with such major developments having occurred even before they got Spinelli into surgery, Jason felt compelled to sit down before gravity and shock did it for him. Matt sat down beside him and continued on in his explanation. "Ugh, we got him into surgery just as soon as he was stable enough to go. It was exploratory, to check for bleeding and to do what we could for the lung."

This was sounding worse and worse by the moment. Jason closed his eyes. "What could you do?"

"We removed a lobe of his right lung. It's still functional, but he'll have decreased lung capacity if he makes it through the next few days."

That was most assuredly not what he had been hoping to hear. "What else? The… the bleeding?"

"The bleeding was manageable. But, one of the bone fragments did some damage to the pericardium, which surrounds the heart. Caused it to fill up with fluid and make it difficult for the heart to pump blood out." Matt explained, it was one of the more detailed processes involved with Spinelli's injuries. "Once we found it, we drained it and placed a second chest tube." Jason had had enough, he could tell, but he wasn't finished. "The wound to the arm wasn't a through and through, but we have gotten the bullet out. It shattered the humerus and that will need surgery to repair, once he's stable enough to be able to handle it. For now, we have his arm immobilized and we're giving him some pretty heavy duty pain medicine."

"When will he be stable enough?"

Dr. Hunter considered for a moment. "It's hard to say. It depends how he is when he wakes up. We don't know when that will be either." He added, seeing the next question coming. "He's in recovery now, and he should wake up soon. But if his injuries were worse than we perceived them to be… well, we just have to wait and see."

Jason sighed and dropped his head into his hands. "Can I see him?"

"We'll have him in a room shortly, someone will bring you down once he's settled."

"Alright."

It ended up being close to another hour before Robin showed up to take him to Spinelli.

"I heard what Spinelli did – Mac was by, earlier – It was really brave of him to try to talk the guy down." She said, trying to comfort him. It wasn't working. "Jase?"

"He shouldn't have needed to be brave, he should have been safe there." He paused in their journey toward the elevators. "Of all the things that could have possibly gone wrong in him living with me, being involved in my life, the thing that nearly takes him away from me isn't even remotely related to what I do? How am I supposed to protect him from things like what happened tonight?"

"You can't." She responded with a shrug. "What you do, you have at least some control over that. You can know who to watch and who to… do whatever it is you do… to. You can know who to trust and who you wouldn't touch with a ten foot pole. But you can't control the rest of the world. People are always doing crazy things. People are always committing crimes and being killed." He knew all of this already, of course, but it seemed to be helping. "You aren't the only person in Port Charles that the police have to deal with, you know."

They stepped into the elevator, which quietly whirred to life and started its descent to the lower floors of General Hospital. "I'm supposed to be able to keep him safe. All the people I've cared about and lost – I can't, won't lose Spinelli, too."

Silence fell between them after that and she led him wordlessly to the room Spinelli had been moved to. It was only when they were just outside that she addressed him again. "He's still asleep. If he wakes up, let someone know so we can evaluate him, and try to keep him calm and quiet."

He nodded in understanding and ducked into the room. But, he was not prepared for the sight that greeted him. He didn't think he would ever actually be prepared to see Spinelli hurt.

Jason crossed the room slowly, eyes moving over the unconscious form of his protégé. "What were you thinking?" He asked quietly. What he could see of Spinelli's chest, between blankets and the open hospital gown, was covered in stark white bandages. Tubes came from both of his sides and disappeared over one of the railings on the bed. Then there were the typical wires. IV's giving him fluids and blood and some hopefully very potent pain medications. Things monitoring his vitals – blood pressure, heart rate, temperature. So many wires all over him. His arm was braced and wrapped up, too, as Dr. Hunter had said it would be. "I don't think I'm ever letting you out of my sight again, you got that?"

Silence was the only reply to his inquiry, which was what he had expected, he supposed. All the same, he claimed the chair that sat beside Spinelli's bed – it would be his for as long as Spinelli was here, nothing would move him – and his hand sought out Spinelli's uninjured one amidst the tangle of wires and tubing keeping him stable.

Squeezing lightly on the boy's hand, he settled in for the wait. "You're just asleep. I'll be here when you wake up."

Only this was so much different that Spinelli simply sleeping. Jason had seen that himself enough times to know. He knew a lot actually, likely more than anyone else in town. He knew that Spinelli was going to hate all of this. The pain, for one thing, he'd hate that. He would pretend like it wasn't a big deal, that it didn't hurt, because he always tried to ensure that Jason never thought him weak – he was sorely misinformed on this point, as Jason thought of him as one of the strongest people he'd ever met. Spinelli would hate that he would be useless and dependent, unable to retreat into cyberspace due to the state of his arm. He would hate that – and Jason was one of only a few people who were aware of this one – he wouldn't be able to sleep on his stomach, as he always did, even if it meant sleeping half on Jason's chest, too. Most of all, he would hate himself. For not being able to save the professor and the three fallen classmates. For not talking the crazed madman down. For everything.

And Jason would tolerate hating the state of his medical condition and the effects it would have on Spinelli's life. Tolerate, but do his best to quell. What he would not tolerate was Spinelli being guilt ridden over the incident. He had saved eight of the others, he had saved himself. That was what was important. Especially when it could have been so, so much worse.

"You'll be okay."