Recovering & Declaring Love [Ira/open]

[rosie]

20th December 2008 - following on from Hostage Drama

It was a few hours since the hostage drama at the bank in Queens, New York. The temporary ice plug Ira had used on Rosie's wound had definitely saved her life, however the drama wasn't quite over yet. Even though the bullet had missed vital organs, the bullet had still penetrated her chest, and when the robber had thrown Rosie to the floor, the force had made a rib crack which punctured her lung. This was the reason for Rosie having trouble talking, not just the fact she was in severe pain from the gun shot wound.

The minute Rosie had arrived at the hospital she had to undergo emergency surgery to mend the puncture in her lung and strap up her ribs so they would heal. Of course they removed the offending bullet from her chest, and sealed the wound properly and so now battered and bruised they were finally wheeling Rosie out of the operation theater and into a room of her own. Like an Intensive Care room.

Rosie was still asleep from the anesthetic she was given, and the operation would have taken a lot out of her. As she began to waken, she felt quite a bit of pain. She had drips in her arms which were giving her fluids and morphine to ease the pain. She slowly looked around with her eyes, taking everything in as her eyes focused on her surroundings. It didn't take long for her to realise where she was.

When Rosie saw Ira and began to speak to him she took another massive pain in her chest and rib area and her heart monitor flat lined. Alarm bells rang out as nurses and doctors flew into the room, they started massaging Rosie's heart, and still the machine showed the flat line.

They then brought out the electrical paddles, "1, 2, 3, go" the doctor shouted and still nothing. "Again, 1, 2, 3, go" they shouted again and still nothing. "One more time, 1, 2, 3, go" the doctor said and still nothing.

"Time of..." the doctor began and then heard a bleeping sound, as he quickly turned round and saw the heart monitor bleeping again. "Oh, thank god, we have her back" the doctor shouted, "Quick, she needs to get to x-ray to find out if there's anything we have missed" the doctor shouted as they quickly began to wheel Rosie back down to the x-ray department.

As the nurses wheeled Rosie to the x-ray department, the consultant stood outside the room beckoning on Ira to follow him, so he could speak to him. "I need to update you on your wife's condition Mr Osborne" the consultant said, not even realising that he wasn't Rosie's husband.

[Ira Grey]

Upon arriving at the hospital, Rosie had been whisked away to surgery, and Ira had waited in the waiting room for several hours, pacing back and forth, too antsy to sit down. After what felt like forever, one of the doctors came out, telling him that Rosie was out of surgery.

Now he sat in a chair next to Rosie's bed, leaning forward on his arms resting on his legs, studying her face, deathly pale with tubes every which way. It seemed like a lifetime before her eyes finally fluttered open, and Ira felt himself smile slightly. "Hey," he whispered. But then the monitors went wild and doctors came rushing in, and Ira jumped to his feet, stumbling back, trying to just stay out of the way and let them do what they had to do.

Everything passed in a jumble...Ira wasn't even sure what all was happening. Then they were wheeling Rosie's bed out of the room, and another doctor was at Ira's side, saying he needed to update him on his wife's condition. "Huh?" Ira jumped, glancing over at the doctor. "Oh, um, she's not my, um, we're not married." He blushed. "I'm just..." he trailed off, following behind the doctor.

[rosie]

As Rosie was wheeled off down to the x-ray department, the doctor who had said he would speak to her husband was embarrassed when he realised he wasn't her husband.

"Oh, I do apologise, it's just you seemed so, well close, you'd be lucky to have her...actually it's none of my business" the doctor said as he looked down at his feet and shifted a little uncomfortably.

He cleared his throat, "Anyway Miss Osborne actually flat lined in there I'm not sure if you were aware of that or not, we managed to get her back, but right now we aren't sure what caused that to happen, so we're just going to do an x-ray to see if there is anything we have missed" the doctor explained slowly. "If you would like to follow me Sir" he continued as he made his way to the x-ray department.

It wouldn't take them long to get there. It wasn't too far away. He continued to talk to the man who was obviously a close friend of the woman. "Carrying out this x-ray will determine hopefully what is going on with Miss Osborne so we can fix the problem" he said.

They were now outside the x-ray department, "You can come inside, I'm sure your friend will not mind you being here for this" he said as he went over to the x-ray machine and pulled it across Rosie's upper half of her body and switched it on. After a couple of minutes he was certain he had what he needed to determine what was going on.

He put them up to the x-ray box and looked, "Ah, I see exactly what the problem is" he said, looking over at Ira he pointed to the dark mass just to the outer edge of Rosie's heart. "See that? that is a clot, that's what caused the earlier problem, we almost lost her, but now we know the problem we can get that sorted" he said.

Looking at the nurses he nodded his head, "Please take Miss Osborne to the operation theater, I'll be there in a few minutes" he instructed to the nurses. Turning back to Ira he said, "Now Mr? I'm sorry I don't believe I know your name, but I can't allow you into the operating theater I'm afraid, but you're welcome to sit and wait outside while we do what we need to do" the doctor said as he smiled and made his way into the operating theater which was just across the hall from the x-ray room.

The doctor then went into the theater room and began to scrub up before he began to operate on Rosie. Within two hours he had managed to locate the clot and successfully remove it, and closed her back up again. He removed his surgical gloves, washed his hands, and then went outside to speak to Ira again to inform him that the operation had gone well.

"Just wanted you to know the operation was a success, and your wif...sorry your woman friend should make a full recovery now" he began giving Ira a soft smile, "You can follow the nurses as they take Miss Osborne back to her room" he said as he bowed slightly and left as the nurses came out of the room wheeling Rosie back to her own Intensive Care Room.

[Ira Grey]

The next several hours passed in kind of a haze for Ira, who just kept nodding as doctors told him what was going on, pacing around as he waited for Rosie to get out of surgery again. Now she was back in a room, and Ira sat in a chair by her bed, again, just waiting for her to wake up. The doctors had said it would most likely be another few hours at least until she woke up, but that didn't stop Ira from staying there.

He leaned back in the chair, one long leg folded across the other. It was kind of funny, he reflected, how many times in the past several hours that people had thought he was Rosie's husband. Do we really look like a married couple? he wondered absently. It wasn't that he really minded the fact that they appeared like a married couple, although so far, every time someone had asked if he was Rosie's husband, he had blushed furiously when he corrected them--but hey, what else was new.

Even though it had been only several hours since the situation in the bank, it felt like forever ago and Ira hadn't realized until now that he was starving--after all, they never had gotten around to getting lunch. However, he didn't really want to leave and go get food because he wanted to be sure that he would be there when Rosie woke up. He knew from experience that waking up in the hospital after a traumatic event could be scary as hell, even more so if no one was there. I'll stay. He leaned back in the chair again, still waiting, and then he felt himself drifting off to sleep, still sitting up, his head slumping over to the side.

[rosie]

Rosie had been sleeping after the operation she had gone through for several hours now. In fact she had actually gone a little unconscious again. Of course Rosie had no idea how long she had been out for, why would she? But she had actually been asleep for several hours now. The monitors were constantly beeping, heart rate was showing strong, blood pressure was fine, breathing was perfect and she was breathing on her own, all very good signs.

Rosie began dreaming, she was dreaming of walking down the aisle. She looked around her, she was walking down a red carpet and the church was full of people, which was surprising since she hadn't known too many. Claire was there of course, and her dad Noah, she knew Claire through Noah, who was close to Tony her older brother who was now dead. When she looked to her left she saw them there, both Jake and Tony and they were grinning at her.

"You look beautiful Rosangela" Tony said as he winked at her, and then she looked at Jake. "He's right Rosie, you do" and then she continued to walk down the aisle she saw him. He was standing there in his black suit just waiting for her with a smile on his face and he was as usual blushing. She grinned at him as she walked up to him, and he also said she looked beautiful. Her dress was a very pale pink, not white or ivory, but a pale pink, a shell pink, and it had sequins over. It had a very long train at the back and sleeves which came down over her shoulders. She had a pretty veil with a tiara with pink diamonds encrusted into it. She really did look stunning.

Just as the preacher was about to begin the ceremony however, Rosie felt a sharp pain and that's when her eyes began to flutter open and she looked from left to right slowly with her eyes, still too sore to actually move or pull herself up. She still had the drips in her arms and up her nose. She turned her head very slowly around and that's when she saw him. Ira. Sleeping on a chair, his head slumped to the side.

Rosie couldn't help but think how sweet it was. She tried to call out to him but her throat was dry, so her voice wouldn't come out right. Just then the nurse who was tending to Rosie constantly saw her struggling, and went over to her and gave her some water in a glass. "Sip on it slowly" she said. Rosie did so and then she tried to speak again but it barely came out as a whisper.

"Ira" she said, but even the nurse standing next to her could hardly hear her, but she smiled. "Hold on" she said and the nurse went over to where Ira was sleeping and touched his arm slightly. "Your friend is awake" she said and then went back over to Rosie and tried to help make her more comfortable and pushed the hair back out of Rosie's eyes.

[Ira Grey]

Ira was dreaming, too. He hadn't had time to really think about it while he was awake, but the hostage situation at the bank had brought memories flooding back, flashbacks from two years ago...from that day...that day that he had tried so hard to forget.

It was just a normal day at the New York FBI office. Ira was heading back to his desk after a brief meeting with a few of the field agents, head slightly down as usual, lost in thought. He was jerked out of his thoughts by gunshots, yells, glass breaking. His head shot up, his notebook falling to the floor as he tried to stumble for cover. Too late. Ira felt a white-hot pain slice through his ribs as a bullet hit him in the ribcage and he fell to the ground, feeling blood seeping through his shirt. Everything was in a slight haze, and then Ira was aware of his friend Don, one of the field agents, sliding across the floor to him. "Ira!" Steady hands pressing down on the wound, a jacket tucked underneath his head, a hand brushing the sweaty hair away from his face as his breath came rapid and shallow, Don's voice, tinged with worry, repeating over and over again. "Come on, Ira, hang in there, buddy, just hang on, okay? It's gonna be okay..."

A gentle hand on Ira's arm woke him up and he jerked backwards, flinching away from the touch, breathing hard, his hand automatically going to the right side of his ribs where he had been shot. Just a dream, he realized, relaxing slightly. Just a dream... He glanced up, and a nurse spoke to him softly, telling him that Rosie was awake. He looked over at Rosie, finally getting himself calmed down, and smiled slightly. "Hey," he said softly, not realizing he was still unconsciously rubbing his ribcage.

[rosie]

Rosie was still in a lot of pain and discomfort from everything she had been through she could hardly move, but the nurse had done her best to make Rosie feel as comfortable as possible and managed to get her into a better position and then she raised the back of the bed so she was semi sitting. She still couldn't move much, but with the water the nurse had given her moments before she was able to speak at least. She even managed a weak smile when she heard Ira say 'hey', although she wasn't so out of it she didn't notice him rubbing his ribcage, she had seen it, but she didn't have the energy to ask him about that right at that moment.

"Hey" she said softly, as she held her hand out loosely, well as much as she could given that she had drips everywhere which were restricting her movements. She just wanted to feel his hand, touch his skin, she wanted him close to her, even though she knew he was still quite awkward around her, he had been a lot better over the month they had seen each other a few times.

She did feel guilty though, even though she couldn't really remember what happened. She knew she was supposed to have met Ira for lunch, and that it obviously didn't happen because the last thing she remembered was being in the bank and then waking up in hospital in immense pain.

Of course Rosie being Rosie, never even thought of thinking about herself for one moment, with drips everywhere and in immense pain, all she could think of was Ira, so of course the first thing she thought of when she was going to speak was to ask him how he was doing.

"How are you Ira?" my beautiful Ira she said to herself, she would have said it to his face but she knew he got embarrassed enough easily without her saying that out loud in the hospital room full of nurses and doctors. Then she coughed and felt the pain in her side like a razor was cutting through her.

"Ow" she sort of shouted in pain as she tried to clutch her side, and that's when she realised she wasn't totally sure what had happened.

"What happened?" she asked, as she finally took everything in, the drip in her arm, the tubes up her nose which she wanted to pull at and take out, the machines all around her making their bleeping noises, it was actually quite scary as she took in the scene.

[eevee]

“I don’t fucking care if I’m not allowed in!” Came an overly loud voice. Eevee was getting mad at the darned clerk. She wanted to kill someone right now. All she wanted to do, well, besides killing someone, was to see if that woman was alive! If the woman was alive, then she could go home.

“Ma’am, cussing is not allowed here.” The nurse said patiently, “And right now she is in intensive care, so if you are a family member, you may go in. However, you have already stated that you are not a family member, so you may not—“

The nurse was cut off, which she expected she would have been anyway. “Look, lay-dee.” Eevee said, “If you haven’t noticed, I’m with the Las Vegas SWAT. I have a right to go in and interview the woman if I want to.” Inside her mind, Eevee was spouting multiple cuss words at the woman who had been, so far, just doing her job. Eevee glared at the woman, and puffed out her chest. On that chest she sported numerous badges and the like, all crap that she had to wear for her uniform. The lady knew she wasn’t going to give in that easily.

“Fine, ma’am, go on into the room. But if you cuss one more time—“ Again she was cut off. “No need, lady. You shall hear no more cussing from me.”

Eevee, now that she was getting her way, calmed down. A couple of the patients stared at her as she walked purposefully away from the desk and to the room where the woman was. That woman, Eevee now learned her name was Rosie, looked like a whole lot of crap. And the man was no better. Of course, Eevee probably looked like crap, too; she hadn’t slept for nearly 36 hours.

“Oh, hello.” She said, all cuss words gone out the window. “You must be Rosie.” Of course, who else would it be? She ignored the dude. He hadn’t helped much, except maybe to heal the woman’s wound temporarily. Damn powers all going and messing everything up. At least the woman was okay. But just to make sure. “You okay, miss?”

[Ira Grey]

Ira responded to Rosie's "hey" with a smile, straightening up in the chair, rolling his head to work out the crick in his neck from sleeping in the chair, then leaning forward to take her hand as she extended it towards him. He definitely didn't expect what she said next--this time, she was the one who had just been shot, but here she was, asking how he was. He nodded slowly. "I'm okay." He was still shaken up from the hostage situation, mostly because of the memories it had brought crashing back, but he was finally relaxing.

Ira thought back to that day again. It had been almost ten minutes before they were able to take down the gunman, and another ten minutes before the ambulance got there, and by that point, Ira was struggling to stay conscious... He shook his head, shaking it off.

He squeezed Rosie's hand as she winced in pain, and then she asked what had happened. Ira knew what she was getting at...it had taken him almost a month to remember what had happened when he had gotten shot. He was about to answer when there came an overly loud voice swearing from outside the room, and then a moment later, the SWAT woman--the leader?--came into the room, ignoring Ira and speaking to Rosie. Ira apparently wasn't a part of this conversation so he sat back again, still holding Rosie's hand.

[rosie]

Rosie was still in a lot of pain, naturally she would be, and probably would be for some time yet. At least a few weeks while everything healed and the bruising went down. She continued to smile softly at Ira through her pain when he said hello to her and reached to take her hand. Of course he said he was okay, she figured it was typical of Ira to say that even if he wasn't but she didn't go into it anymore. She didn't have the energy and she didn't want to put any pressure on him.

"That's good" she said softly and continued to smile at him.

When the cough had caused her to wince in pain, Ira had gently squeezed her hand which made Rosie gently caress the back of his hand with her thumb gently. It looked like he was going to tell her what had happened when she heard slightly raised voices outside of her room. Rosie wondered who it was.

Then the woman was in the room speaking to her, and completely ignoring Ira. She thought it strange that she was speaking directly to her. She was dressed in some sort of uniform, a SWAT uniform no less. Then images began flashing through her head and she remembered what happened. There had been a heist at the bank and she'd got shot.

The woman's voice cut into her thoughts again, and Rosie opened her eyes and decided to answer the woman who had kindly come to see how she was doing.

"I've been better" Rosie said slowly, "but I think I'll live" she added, as she looked back to Ira and tried to squeeze his hand, "most of thanks to you" she said looking at him, remembering how he had frozen her gun shot wound, if he hadn't done that, she may have died there and then.

"But I believe you did a good job too, so thank you" Rosie said looking at the woman again, but only long enough to speak to her and give her a small smile before her gaze fell back to Ira. He was her life, she was pretty much living for him now.

[Ira Grey]

The SWAT woman had only stayed for a few minutes, and soon Ira and Rosie were alone again. He glanced over at Rosie, smiling slightly, a bit bewildered at the brisk, blunt visit. "Okay..." he said. "That was...different." He laughed slightly. And then--not surprisingly--he didn't know what to say next.

Ira had to admit, over the past month or so, he had slowly found himself becoming slightly less awkward around Rosie. He still was most definitely not an expert in social situations--still pretty much the opposite--but he could almost always get through an entire conversation without blushing. Usually.

He leaned forward again. "So...how are you feeling?" he asked, and immediately mentally slapped himself in the face. Great question to ask, Ira, he said to himself. Great question to ask right after someone gets shot.

[rosie]

The lady from what Rosie had assumed was the SWAT team didn't exactly hang around. She came in to ask how she was and as soon as Rosie said she was doing fine, she made her exit again. Rosie had thought it was rather strange but didn't exactly have much energy or voice to say as much. She just smiled weakly as she watched her walk out the room and turned her attention back to Ira.

Of course Ira remarked about the quick entrance and exit of the SWAT woman and laughed a little, which made Rosie laugh, and then she winced again. Why couldn't she have some sort of self heal ability instead she thought. Taking in a slow deep breath, "I was just thinking that myself" she replied, as she once again laughed a little and winced again.

There was another awkward silence between them as there usually was, but Rosie was so used to it by now, she never let it bother her. She just continued to smile weakly at him, and then he spoke again asking her how she was feeling. She knew what he would be thinking, that it was a dumb question, but it was also an instinctive question.

"Sore, but better than I probably was a few hours ago, and you're here, so that automatically makes me feel better" Rosie said giving him a warm smile and trying to squeeze his hand. Then she remembered when he woke up he was clutching at his side.

"Hey, what's wrong with you?" she said softly, as she motioned with her hand as best she could, pointing to his side. "When you woke up, you were holding your side?" she continued softly, still smiling at him best she could.

[Ira Grey]

“Sorry,” Ira said quickly when Rosie winced after he had made her laugh, mentally berating himself for making her laugh. In times like this, laughter was definitely not what you’d call the best medicine. When he was shot, he had cracked a few ribs and laughing—and breathing, for that matter—was like someone smashing a sledgehammer into his ribcage.

Ira hadn’t realized that Rosie had noticed when he woke up, how he slightly freaked out, holding his ribcage. But apparently she had, as she asked him about it. Well, it’s as good a time as any, Ira said to himself. He looked down briefly, then back up at Rosie.

“It was about two years ago; a gunman somehow got into the FBI building and went on a rampage. I was just coming out of a meeting, and before I could go for cover, I got shot right here.” He indicated where he had been shot, pausing slightly before he went on. “It was almost twenty minutes before they took down the gunman and the ambulance got there…I thought I was gonna die. Even after I recovered enough to go back to work, it was another two weeks before I could even make myself go into the building again.” He paused again. “Anyways, the…the hostage situation at the bank just brought me back to that day. When I was asleep, I just kept having flashbacks, and…” he trailed off. “I’m okay.”

[rosie]

When Ira apologised for making her laugh, Rosie just gave him a soft smile, and shook her head slightly, "It's okay, you don't have to apologise" she said, after all she was just laughing at Ira's expression of the quick entrance and exit of the SWAT woman, so really it wasn't Ira's fault she had to wince in pain when she'd laughed.

When Rosie had asked what was wrong with him when he had been clutching at his side when he woke up, she wasn't sure if he was going to tell her as he seemed to take a minute before beginning to speak, but when he did, and she listened to his explanation, she was glad he had told her, and she was glad she had asked. Rosie felt terrible, not that the hostage situation today was Rosie's fault by any means, but just the fact that Ira had been there and then had to relive his own trauma in a dream because he'd been in another situation similar today tugged at Rosie's heart.

"But Ira, that is truly terrible" Rosie said to him softly, as she gently squeezed his hand, "I am so sorry about your ordeal even if it did happen a couple of years ago, this couldn't have been easy for you today" Rosie said, as she continued to look at him with a soft but slightly sad smile.

Rosie had known from the moment she had met Ira she loved him, okay some people said love at first sight didn't happen, but it did, because Rosie had. She just knew that with Ira being the way he was that he would take a lot longer to admit how he felt, and even now she still wasn't sure if he loved her the way she loved him, but he had sealed her wound, and he was here with her now. Taking in a slow breath so as not to hurt herself too much she couldn't help but say the next few words, she knew he would know how she felt, but she couldn't remember saying it to him recently, if she'd actually said it at all. Rosie couldn't really remember much after the incident.

Still holding his hand she smiled at him, "I don't want to make you feel awkward, but right now with everything that has happened, I feel I have to say it, I love you Ira Grey, I have for some time, and I probably always will" she said slowly, taking small slow breaths between every other word, "I don't care if you can't say it back, I just needed you to know and how much you mean to me" she finished as she gently squeezed his hand once more.

[Ira Grey]

Ira was surprised to find how much calmer and more relaxed he felt after telling Rosie about what had happened two years ago. It wasn't like he had never told anyone about it--he had, plus there were all the people that had been in the situation with him, but now, after having flashbacks to that day, just talking about it made him feel a lot more relaxed.

Which was probably a good thing because the next thing that Rosie said made probably made his heart rate go up again. She had said it briefly while they were in the bank, but now she said it again. She loves me... Ira kept thinking, feeling himself blush--surprise, surprise--and grinned, squeezing her hand back. Trying not to over-analyze what he wanted to say, he looked at Rosie. "I, um, I...love you too."