Disclaimer: Characters from the books belong to JE, I just like playing with them.
A/N: I'm trying to revive my muse from stasis. I found this other bit on my hard drive and decided to share it, too.
Balancing Act: Hospital Bit
*This bit belongs between chapter 12 and 13 of Balancing Act
Bullets rained across the back of the ambulance, shattering glass from the windows and making craters in the metal. Stephanie took the impacts like blows from a baseball bat and fell toward Ranger even as the deeper report of a .45 silenced the Uzi. Ranger lunged to catch her, and Morelli was there only a heartbeat later to help ease her down.
Her shoulder was bleeding and so was her head, but she was breathing. Both men let out held breath. Bunchy and the paramedic untangled themselves from the ground and Morelli gave them a hand up. The medic, who was now bleeding from a full-face road rash but was otherwise unhurt, knelt beside Stephanie and began to check her. Bunchy was cradling his wounded arm, bruised now from his fall.
Morelli took a private inventory as he watched the medic work. A new burn across the back of one shoulder let him know he'd had a close call with one of the Uzi's bullets, and Ranger had fresh blood on his chest and neck. Still, he breathed a bit easier as the medic verbally assessed Stephanie's wounds – the freely bleeding furrow in her scalp was shallow; the wound on her shoulder was through-and-through. The medic looked at Ranger and nodded at the bloody hole in the shirt over his heart. "Lucky for you she slowed that bullet down."
Ranger looked down and cursed, short and pithy. Until that moment none of them had realized he'd been hit.
The paramedic pressed a pad against Stephanie's scalp wound and began to wrap gauze around her head to hold it as his partner came running back. "Help me get her loaded. All three of these people need to go now," he was telling his partner, but it was Ranger who lifted Stephanie from the ground, ignoring his wounds. He turned and handed her to Joe who had climbed into the ambulance, and now gently laid her on the gurney. Then Joe slid forward on the seat to make room for the bleeding paramedic, Ranger, and Bunchy. The other EMT slammed the doors and jumped into the cab.
Bunchy gripped the discarded vest in one big hand. It was now decorated with flattened bullets front and back. "I think this vest has had it," he said to no one in particular, then he looked at the other three men. "She just saved all four of us. Did you see that spray pattern? We'd all have been dead."
Joe was holding gauze pads on both sides of the shoulder wound while the medic was trying to start an IV, and he looked up to meet Ranger's eyes.
"That's our girl," Ranger said softly, and Joe nodded.
-o0o-
The bullet in Ranger's chest was shallow enough that he pulled it out with his fingers in the ambulance on the way to the ER. He stuck the slug in his pocket, fully intending to keep it. Stephanie had stepped in front of that bullet to save his life.
Morelli frowned but didn't say anything when Ranger quietly handled Stephanie's paperwork at the hospital. She was taken into surgery immediately, and the three men had followed to wait in the surgical waiting room. A half-hour later, Tank came in looking for Ranger. He reported that none of Ranger's men had any serious injuries, and that Max was the one that took out the shooter. Max was giving his statement to the officials now but there had been plenty of witnesses, most of whom were law enforcement, so there shouldn't be any problems.
Tank had brought in a small bag for Ranger with a change of clothes. As he held it out, though, Bunchy butted in.
"Don't you think you should get those other wounds checked first?"
Tank pulled the bag back out of reach and leveled a look at Ranger, unspeaking. Ranger frowned but Tank just waited until finally Ranger sighed and got up. Joe smirked silently.
"You should go, too, Morelli," Bunchy continued as he turned to Joe. "You're bleeding all over the back of that chair."
Joe scowled at the Fed and one corner of Ranger's mouth twitched. Tank kept his face blank but had to turn his eyes away slightly. Bunchy just stared back at Joe, waiting, until Joe got up grumbling under his breath and headed back to the ER. Ranger followed.
Bunchy sighed, got up, and started to follow but was stopped by Tank's deep rumble. "I'll take them from here. You wait for Steph. We'll be back."
Bunchy gave the big man a thumbs-up and sat back in his chair. The boys were in good hands. He put his head back and got comfortable, glad that the surgical waiting room had better chairs than the ER waiting area.
-o0o-
Ranger and Joe stepped out of their respective curtained cubicles at almost the same time and found Tank waiting in the hall. The big man eyed the bloody shirts of the two men, then turned and led the way a few yards down the corridor. He handed Ranger the bag and nodded at the door to the men's room. "You could both use a wash."
Ranger took the bag and looked at Joe, then headed through the door. Inside, they both used water, soap, and multiple paper towels to clean as much blood off as possible. Some of the blood was their own, but a lot of it was Stephanie's, a fact that kept both men silent. Ranger threw away his ruined shirt and pulled the clothes from the bag - cargos, t-shirt, and a thin black windbreaker. He dropped the cargos back in the bag, handed the shirt to Joe, and pulled the jacket on over his bare chest. Moments later they rejoined Tank in the hall, and they headed back to the surgical waiting room.
-o0o-
An hour later, the tension was growing heavy in the small room. Joe and Ranger were sitting on opposite sides of the room carefully not looking at each other. Bunchy paced uneasily between them, leaving Tank to watch stoically by the door. He was the one who caught sight of the paramedic peeking in from the hall.
Tank made a quick decision and stepped into the hall to intercept him, taking in his appearance. One entire side of the paramedic's face was raw but other than some sort of ointment it was uncovered. He obviously had something on his mind. Tank gave him a nod and quietly asked, "Coffee?"
The paramedic gestured down the hall towards an alcove and they walked together. "Who is that woman?" he asked hesitantly while Tank fed quarters into the machine. "I feel I should know her name since she saved my life today."
"Her name is Stephanie Plum."
"The bounty hunter that's always in the paper?"
"Yes."
"Is she always…like that?"
"All guts and luck? Yeah." While that soaked in, Tank looked back toward the waiting room and spoke again. "If you could get a status report on Stephanie it'd be helpful. Ranger and Morelli are worried, and if they don't hear something soon things could go to hell."
The paramedic hesitated, curiosity getting to him. "Morelli's a cop?" At Tank's nod he continued, "Is Ranger one, too?"
"No. Private security and high-bond skip tracing."
"What's the deal with them and the girl?"
Tank gave him a long look and then checked that no one was within hearing range before he answered. "They're both in love with her, and she loves both of them. It gets tense."
The paramedic looked thoughtfully at the door of the waiting room. "I'll see what I can find out," he said, and took off in the opposite direction down the hall.
Tank went back to the waiting room and stood in the doorway, keeping a watchful eye on the wound-up men inside. Thankfully, the paramedic came back quickly. Tank stepped aside and let the man give all of them the update at the same time.
"I checked on Ms. Plum," he began after stepping into the door to get their attention, "and I thought you'd like to know her surgery went well. They're moving her to recovery now and the surgeon will be out to talk to you in a few minutes. One bullet clipped her collarbone, and the other gave her a mild concussion, but she's going to be fine."
The tension in the room eased as all four men almost visibly relaxed. Bunchy slid into a chair with a sigh. "Thanks for the update."
The paramedic nodded and left.
Then it occurred to Tank that he hadn't gotten the EMT's name, and for a moment he worried about what he'd said to the man. He mentally shrugged it off and hoped the man would keep his mouth shut. Sooner or later Ranger and Morelli were going to have to figure out how to deal with it though.
He caught Ranger's eye, nodded, and took off. Now that he knew Stephanie was going to be okay he wanted to let the other men know, and there were others matters that needed attention if Ranger was tied up here.
Twenty minutes later a tired-looking woman wearing scrubs came to the door. She blinked in surprise when two bandaged but gorgeous men stood up.
"Ms. Plum is going to be fine," she started, unsure who she should be addressing. "The shoulder wound was a little complicated; the bullet hit the collarbone and chipped it, and it took a little while to make sure we got all the loose bone fragments. It also nicked the axillary artery which had to be sealed, but fortunately she didn't lose too much blood. The second bullet grazed her skull and gave her a mild concussion, nothing too serious but the bleeding made it look much worse than it was. She'll probably have headaches for a few days, as well as some soreness from the wounds and the impact bruises on her back, but she will make a full recovery and won't even have much scarring.
She's waking up, but will be in recovery a little longer before we move her to a room, and then once she's moved she can have visitors. We'll keep her a few days to watch for any sign of infection, and of course keep her as comfortable as possible. Right now you both-" then she noticed the shorter third man in the room and changed it to "you ALL should go get some rest yourselves." She seemed to hesitate for a moment and then added, "The EMT that came in with her – he's my little brother - he said she saved his life. So trust me, we'll take good care of her."
She gave them a tired smile, then left. Bunchy cleared his throat to get the others' attention.
"It might be a good idea for the three of us decide how to spin this officially…" he let his words trail away and just raised his eyebrows.
"Well, shit," Joe muttered. "Steph will not like being in the newspaper again."
"She should get credit for saving lives in the reports," pointed out Ranger, "whether or not we are able to keep her out of the news."
"How are we going to explain her even being there?" Bunchy asked.
"She's the one that spotted the initial connections, and she found the location-" Ranger began.
Bunchy finished the thought. "So technically she could be considered a confidential informant, and we could use that to keep her name out of the paper."
"Except that this is Trenton, and the local Trenton hospital, where half the staff and all the cops know her."
"Technically she's a Rangeman contract employee so you don't need to explain her presence."
"That would work," admitted Bunchy, although from the pinched look on his face Morelli wanted to object.
"Fine," Joe agreed, then sighed. "I'd better make sure someone talks to her folks before the rumors start flying. I want to wait until I can see Steph and then I'll go see if I can keep her mom calmed down."
"Good luck with that," Ranger said with a trace of humor.
"The Federal authorities put out a temporary gag order to try and keep everything under wraps until statements are taken, but I'm not sure how long it'll hold."
"I'm going to call in a verbal report and send a uniform to her parents' house."
Ranger nodded to both men. "Let me know if you need anything from Rangeman." And he left.
Morelli pulled out his phone and Bunchy hooked a thumb toward the door.
"Come on, I'll buy you coffee before you deal with her family."
"I'd rather have a drink," Joe muttered, but he followed the Fed out the door.
-o0o-
~~continue to chapter 13 of Balancing Act~~