Lockdown

Chapter Seven

Chapter Seven

24/06/2019. 22:30 hours. St Mary's Hospital, California.

The stretcher crashed through the emergency room doors, sending JJ sprawling. She managed to catch herself on the rail before she landed heavily on top of Spencer. They were rapidly swarmed by a doctor and several nurses who ran after the stretcher.

"This is Dr. Spencer Reid. He has been held captive at San Quentin and dosed with sodium thiopental with intent to execute via lethal injection. Four milligrams have been injected intravenously before agents intercepted. Dr Reid went into respiratory arrest and was intubated on scene. One milligram of epinephrine was given as severely bradycardic at thirty-two. Dr Reid has facial injuries consistent with a beating and bruising to his left knee and his abdomen from blunt force trauma. He also has bruising to his neck from suspected strangulation." A tense silence befell the swarm of health professionals as the stretcher came to a stop. A nurse flicked the switch on the ventilator and unfurled the tubing. The nurse rested her hand gently on the back of JJ's to encourage her to release the bag. JJ let go, not realising how much her hand cramped.

JJ clambered down from the stretcher to allow the staff to work. The bag was disconnected, and the ventilator tubing was clipped in place to continue with the mechanical breaths. The starched sheet that he lay on was used to slide him across onto a gurney. Spencer's shirt was cut away, revealing more bruising to his upper arms, and a hospital gown was draped over his chest. Another nurse cut away Spencer's trousers and unbuckled his belt, whilst a third removed his converse shoes and mismatched socks. A fourth nurse peeled back his eyelids and shone the light from their pen torch into his eyes. JJ turned her face away as the remains of his clothing was removed in order to offer her best friend some dignity. She cringed as a nurse pushed a silicone catheter into Spencer's urethra, though she was more horrified by the blood that had dried to his inner thighs and genitals. The gown was pulled down over his thighs, followed by a scratchy blue blanket over his legs. The cannula that the EMTs had inserted into the back of his right hand was connected to a bag of saline hanging on a metal stand beside the gurney. JJ gazed up with red-ringed eyes at the older man in dark green scrubs.

"How long will he be like this?" she asked, her voice trembling.

"Sodium thiopental has a half life of anywhere between five and a half hours and twenty six hours. Given the dose he received, it's likely to be closer to the latter. We'll take him for a CT scan to rule out any internal injuries, then move him to the ICU so we can closely monitor his heart and his breathing. Once we have passed the twenty six hour mark, we'd expect to see signs of him waking and trying to breathe on his own. Are there any allergies and medical history I need to know about?" JJ swallowed hard and averted her attention back to the doctor, not realising that she had been staring numbly at Spencer.

"Oh, uh... He has a severe allergy to beta lactams. He has weakened lungs from exposure to an experimental strain of anthrax and suffers from seizures after a traumatic brain injury last year. Also, he's strictly against narcotics." The doctor's mouth formed a grim line. "Doctor? Spence was raped whilst he was in there. My unit chief will be here any minute now, and she holds power of attorney for his health and welfare."

"Good. As Dr. Reid is unconscious, I'll need to seek consent from her to run a rape kit. We'll get you once Dr. Reid is settled in ICU." JJ nodded stiffly. She glanced over her shoulder at the clicking sound of a bedrail being pulled up. Her best friend appeared lost beneath tangles of wires and tubes as the machinery was placed on either side of his legs. JJ folded her arms over her waist as though trying to hold herself together and chewed her bottom lip as she watched the staff guide the gurney past her towards the double doors leading to radiology.