Expendables- Devil's Ax

Chapter 8

"We were able to patch up the holes in her left lung and the outside of her skin. The wound on her abdomen is in better shape than before and the stitches should come out within another day or so." The doctor said to Barney as the two stood in the hallway outside of Rose's hospital room. "I can't tell much longer she'll be out. With the amount of blood that she lost, I have a feeling she may be out for at least another week. Maybe two weeks." The military doctor looked into the room through the window at the young girl laying in the bed. Having lost as much blood as she had, a normal person would be dead.

Barney scratched the back of his head and leaned against the wall. Rose had already been out for three weeks. Barney had flown Lee, Caesar, and Gunner back to the states, then flew back to stay with Rose.

How much longer? He thought to himself. "Thanks Doc." Barney said as he walked back into the small room and looked back at Rose. Even though she was in the hospital, she looked even worse than before. Her cheekbones were more visible and her arms and legs were boney as well. He watched as the oxygen tube that had been pushed down her throat into her windpipe pushed air into her body to keep her breathing. No matter how hard Barney tried, he could never stay in the room for too long. Only after a few seconds, he walked out and walked outside of the hospital only to light a cigar. Suddenly, his phone began to ring.

"Hello?" Barney asked.

"How is she?" Came Lee's tired voice.

"The doctor said she might wake up within a week or two. I'll be here for a little while longer. Have any jobs popped up while I was gone?" Barney asked.

"A few. But they've been taken care of." His voice seemed to be a little weaker than usual and harder to understand.

"You sound like shit." Barney said. "Have you been sleeping?"

"Sorta." Lee replied with with a chuckle.

"Don't let it get to you." Barney said. Lee was thinking about Rose and what had happened.

"You can't just tell me that." Lee said. "It doesn't work."

"It was her choice. She knew what was going to happen." Barney said. "Now get the hell to sleep. It's gotta be 2 in the morning over there."

"Yeah. Whatever." Lee said a second before hanging up.

Barney shook his head and put his phone back into his pocket.

Lee held his phone tightly in his hand a few minutes more before throwing it onto the table in front of him in an angry furry.

"Fuck!" He yelled, with words echoing in his small apartment. The only thing he could see was the look of fear in Rose's eyes after she had been shot. "Why the hell would she do that?" He asked himself." He stood up from his couch and walked to the door. "Why?"

The sound of loud beeping came into Rose's mind as she was surrounded by darkness. Though she couldn't see a thing, she could feel something in her throat as she tried to breath. Her coughs were muffled by the thing blocking her windpipe. Suddenly, what was in her throat was being tugged out, and a warm liquid with a metallic taste ran up into her mouth and she coughed even more. The beeping that surrounded her grew quicker and even louder till finally she was surrounded by warm light.

Rose's breathing wheezed as she tried to take in a full breath, but her lungs began to burn and caused her to cough even more. Small dots of red covered the white blanket that had been draped over she. Three shadows loomed over her as her eyesight began to focus in on the dots of red.

"R...se......Ro....s.........Ros...Rose." Someone said and she tried to look in that direction. "Rose." They said again. Rose watched as the shadow began to change into the familiar face of Barney. "Welcome back." He said in a low voice as Rose focused on his eyes.

"B..." She tried to talk, but her throat was so dry and the only thing that came out was a strange crackling sound. Barney, she thought. Where are we? What's going on? Barney! Uncle Barney I'm scared! Please! Help me!

As the thoughts raced through her mind, the beeping in the room grew faster and faster. Suddenly, the only thing she could hear was her heartbeat as it raced.

"Rose!" Barney yelled as he grabbed her shoulders and pushed her down in the bed. "Rose! Calm down!" He yelled as the doctors began to rush in and out of the room. "Rose, listen to me." He said. Rose opened her eyes again and stared at him. Fear dug into her eyes as she tried to figure out what was going. "You're alright." Barney said as he threw the tube in his hands to the floor and held down her body to keep her from hurting herself. Tears swelled out from her eyes as she tried to calm herself down.

"Un..le.. Ba..n...y." Rose managed to say as she looked up at him. He gave a little grin and cocked his head to the side.

"It's alright. I'm right here." He said as a hand brushed over her hair. The doctors stopped rushing around with needles and more tubes when the beeping from the monitor slowed down back to it's normal pace. "Good morning sleepyhead." He said with a chuckle. "You had me worried there for a moment.

"So everyone made it out?" Rose asked as she sat up in her bed, feeling much better than a few days before when she first woke up.

"Yeah. Thanks to you." Barney said as he watched the small grin spread across Rose's face.

"I'm glad." Her eyes watered a little bit but there were no tears willing to fall.

"Once they let you out, we'll head back to the states and get you situated at the parlor." Barney said as he watched Rose."

"Parlor?" Rose asked looking over at Barney confused.

"The tattoo parlor. My place." He said in response. "You have no where else to go and there's no way in hell I'm gonna let you go back to America with nowhere to go or live." He said. Rose only looked at him then down at the sheets in front of her.

"You don't have to do that." She said in a low voice.

"Like I hell I do." Barney replied. He stood up from his chair walked over to her bed and sat down next to her. "After what you did for Gunner and Lee, I'm not letting it go." Barney wrapped an arm around Rose and pulled her in. "I finally get to see my favorite niece after god knows how many years, and she doesn't want to live with her favorite Uncle? Unheard of." Barney teased as he squeezed her a little more. Rose let out a giggle and smiled more. "You're going to live with me and that's final. I have plenty of room. Besides, I own the whole apartment building above me anyway. You can have a room all to yourself." He exaggerated while throwing his hand up in the air. Barney rested the side of his on the top of her's and the smile began to fade away from his face. "I'm not letting you go again."