I am not lonely [Mystrade]

CHAPTER 60 : It's gonna be alright

"BANG !"
Greg heard a loud sound of a bullet then he had the feeling of becoming deaf. Everything around him was happening in slow motion and he couldn't feel his body any more. He tried to raise his own gun but his hand refused to obey him. His vision started to blur and he felt on the floor, face first. His hearing came back as soon as he touched the concrete and suddenly he heard the yelling of Donovan behind him. "Greg !"
The young woman dashed to him and kneeled beside his body. "Greg ! Do you hear me ?" she asked, worried while someone was calling paramedics and backup. The detective tried to speak but the blood filling his mouth made his word incomprehensible.
"Don't try to speak, Greg ... It's gonna be alright ... James called an ambulance, it's gonna be alright ..." Sally tried to reassure him, on the verge of tears.
Greg felt a couple of men turning him and placing him on his back and applying pressure on the wound. Unable to keep his eyes opened he wasn't able to see who was touching him but he could felt the hand of Donovan holding his own.
"Don't let yourself go Greg, stay with me..." the policewoman shushed him. "Stay with me, hold my hand ... It's gonna be alright ..."
The inspector knew that the odds of surviving to a bullet in the chest was very small if the vital organs were hit but he wasn't scared. He wasn't really understanding what was happening to him and he wasn't feeling the pain his mind only focus on the image of his husband and son dancing before his closed eyes. He couldn't let them down, he couldn't let himself go because of them and the voice of Mycroft emerged in his head, saying his name and saying that he loved him.
Donovan saw that her superior was trying to say something, muttering and chocking himself with his own blood. "Please Greg, don't talk ..." she asked him. "The ambulance is coming ...".
"Myc ..." moaned the DI, calling out for his boyfriend.
"We've called him, he is coming ..."the police woman reassured him. "Don't talk please ...".
Four paramedics rushed to the police officer and lifted him on a stretcher and started to give him first aid. They forced a tub in his throat to prevent him from chocking on his own blood and the detective felt one of the man pressing even harder on his wound. Donovan was still holding his hand, pressing it to reassure him and to let him know that he wasn't alone. He was just starting to feel the pain, the adrenaline not running through his vein any more and if it wasn't for the tube he had in the throat he would have screamed at top of his lungs.
The paramedics brought the stretcher to the vehicle, fixing an oxygen mask on his face and Sally, climbed alongside her boss before they took off. Every imperfection on the road and every turn the ambulance took provoked an unbearable pain to the inspector who was crushing Donovan's hand so hard that she was on the verge of tears.

"Sally ! Where is Greg ?" Mycroft asked, deadly worried as soon as he spotted the young woman in the hospital waiting room. Her shirt was still stained in blood and she had a bandage around the hand that the detective had squeezed in the ambulance.
"He just entered the operating room five minutes ago sir." the police woman informed him, standing up from the blue plastic bench she was sat on.
"What does the doctors say ?" wondered the auburn, collapsing onto the bench.
"They don't know yet, they hope it haven't touch any vital organs but they are quite confident the spine isn't injured ashe can still move. He fell unconscious only when he had been pulled out of the ambulance. They won't tell me more as I'm not from the family." she answered. Her voice was steady despite her state of confusion something that surprised her but that she guessed to be the result of the police training she had received.
"What happened ?Why was he in the line of sight of a gun ? Why wasn't he wearing bulletproof waistcoat ?" the official questioned, his elbows resting on his lap and his palms against his forehead
"It was supposed to be just a regular intervention against a drug smuggler and nothing in the surveillance we had established since three weeks could indicate us that the smugglers would be armed Mr Holmes." the young woman explained, gently resting a hand on the man's shoulder absentmindly in a comforting gesture, an action that if she had thought about it in any other circumstances, she would never had dared to do. "There was six officers and Greg and I were leading but neither of us would have thought for a second that we would face armed men."
"Have you arrested those men ?" nodded the auburn, anger now clear in his voice.
"No, sorry sir. They escaped and we couldn't follow them, not without waistcoat and appropriated weapons. We've taken care of Greg and called appropriated back up to pursue them but as far as I know, they still haven't been arrested."
"Thank you, Sally for staying with Greg." muttered the elder Holmes, his head still in his hands.
The policewoman didn't answered and just nodded as started a long and silent wait while the surrounding people were carrying on with their life, unaware of the pain of the pair of them. Mycroft's phone kept buzzing in his pocket but he didn't even bother checking it up and didn't even salute the Chief SuperIntendant of Scotland Yard who joined them a couple f hours after the official had arrived at the hospital. At nine in the evening, Donovan stood up and disappeared during a dozen of minutes coming back with three cups of tea that she hand out to the two men who nodded thankfully before sitting backdown beside the elder Holmes.
As night was coming the waiting room was emptying itself and when finally a surgeon appeared at two in the morning they were completely alone in the room.
"Who of you is related to the patient please ?" requested the indian-looking doctor.
"Me." stated Mycroft standing up, his voice rough of not speaking for hours.
"Come with me. Mr Lestrade is in the recovery room. He is not awoken yet but he should be in any minutes." indicated the surgeon, gesturing to the other man to follow him. The auburn did as he was suggested, letting behind him Sally and the SuperIntendant who were looking rather relieved as they understood that the detective had made it.
"He is going to pull through butI have to warn you that he have severe internal damages that will probably require other surgeries when he will have started to recover." the man continued. "We've focused on stopping the numerous internal bleeding he was suffering of and of trying to fix the broken ribs and collarbone fracture he was suffering from after his fall to prevent them from injuring another organ. Still, the vital organs remained untouched excepted for a part of the liver that we had to remove but it's nothing to be worry about as the liver repair itself easily."
They had arrived in front of the recovery room's door and the doctor introduced the official in the room before directing him to the bed where Greg was lying down, still unconscious for the moment, his chest strapped in bandages, small blood stains speckled on the white fabric. He still had a tube in his mouth and numerous perfusion and captors attached to his arms and neck but he was alive. Mycroft couldn't care less about the fact that he was missing a part of his liver or about the fact that he will need several other surgeries before being released from the hospital. All that count for him at the moment was that the man in front of him was still breathing and that he was going to make it.
"Sir." intervened the doctor as the auburn was gently touching his boyfriend's fingers. "Do you authorize me to communicate the information I just gave you to the other two people that were with you in the waiting room ?"
"Yes." the elder Holmes nodded before grabbing himself a chair and sitting down beside the bed, his fingers still closely entangled with his partner's.
Ten minutes later the detective opened his eyes, looking lost before he glanced a look on the side and saw his husband. Weakly, he moved his fingers to hold the auburn's hand. Unable to keep his eyes opened because of the room's light he closed them again and opened his mouth trying to speak.
"You can't speak darling, there is a tube in your throat." the official whispered to him, tenderly running his free hand on the inspector's cheek. "I love you so much and I've been so scared. You know I love you ? I love you so much and I'm nothing without you."
Half a minute after the policeman had awoken a nurse arrived to check that everything was alright. "We are going to take the tube off his throat and just let him with an oxygen mask to help him breath and in about half an hour he will be move to a proper room, alright ?" she informed the elder Holmes who just nodded while the nurse was join by two of her colleague who helped her taking off the tube. The yarder coughed a couple of times, his throat completely dried before the woman placed a mask over his nose and mouth and left.
As soon as the detective was moved to another room, the two men were joined by Sally who looked incredibly relieved at the sight of her boss and friend, eyes opened on his bed. The DI was stunned by the painkillers but still managed a smile to the youngwoman who took a seat beside Mycroft. After a few minutes of sitting silently, the official turned to Donovan. "You should go back home and have some rest Sally." he advised her kindly.
"You are staying here with him Mr Holmes ?" she asked, not willing to let her boss alone.
"Yes, I'm not going anywhere. Go back home, you need some sleep after all what yo have done for him today." nodded the auburn, a small smile on his face.
"Alright. I'll come back later. Good luck Mr Holmes." she finally agreed, raising up and leaning to Greg. "Don't you dare die." she whispered him before leaving and letting the two men alone in the room.
"We will catch the bastard who've done this, I swear it on my own life." the auburn muttered to his husband before the latter fall back to sleep.