Chicago Medical Center, Chicago Illinois
Connor, Jay, and Will sat in the waiting room for the past 3 hours waiting for Dr. Abrams to give any word on how Sierra was doing and if they managed to ease the swelling. The three were quiet the entire time until Connor broke the silence. "Sierra told me you served with her while she was in the Rangers," he said causing Jay and Will to look at him.
Jay nodded, "I was," he replied not saying much else. "Thank you, for looking out for her," Connor said "Of course," Jay replied with a nod as Dr. Abrams appeared in the waiting room. "Sierra Rhodes," he said more than asked as Connor, Will, and Jay stood up and walked over to him. "Is she okay?" Connor asked as Dr. Abrams nodded, "I managed to get the swelling under control. You're lucky you caught that when you did, if she'd waited any longer she would've had a massive brain hemorrhage, the Craniectomy was successful" Dr. Abrahs added.
"Can I see her?" Connor asked, Dr. Abrams nodded. "I had her moved to the ICU while the swelling in her brain continues to go down. We've put her in a medically induced coma to allow her body and brain to heal and when the swelling goes down I'll go in for a follow up procedure a cranioplasty. After if all goes well we can wake her up," Dr. Abrams replied.
Connor was trying to process what Dr. Abram's said giving the surgeon a nod before he turned and started making his way toward the ICU to see Sierra. It didn't take him long to get to the ICU floor and find Sierra's room. Connor paused in the doorway looking at his sister. Her head was wrapped in gauze from the surgery, she had IVs and a tube down her throat to help her breath.
"Connor," Will said pulling his attention to him and Dr. Abrams. "Has your sister had any head injuries? concussions?" he asked. Connor shook his head looking at Sierra, "No, I don't know..." he replied honestly as both Will and Dr. Abrams got quiet. Jay was standing in the doorway to the room, he followed Connor to the ICU wanting to check on Sierra.
"Her injuries, remind me of many boxers, wrestlers, football players that I end up working on," Dr. Abrams adds. "What do you mean?" Connor asked confused, "She's had multiple concussions and head injuries. To produce this level of swelling this isn't her first head injury," Dr. Abrams said. "How many head injuries are we talking about? ballpark guess?" Will asked wanting his guess. "A few and brutal ones, is there anything on her file?" he asked Will shook his head no.
"Did you check her medical records with the Rangers?" Jay asked not taking his focus off Sierra. "Was she medically discharged?" Will asked causing Jay to look at his older brother. "When you call to request the medical information Connor's gonna have to be there and give authorization to access the file, since Sierra can't he's her medical advocate on file" Jay replied as he searched the number and texted it to Will.
Dr. Abrams left to check in on his other patients, Will and Connor stepped away to call about Sierra's medical file and Jay took a deep breath and made his way into Sierra's room taking a seat in a chair next to her bed. She was in rough shape but Jay would never forget the state she was in when they finally found her. She was barely hanging on by the time they got her out of there and medically evacuated her to a nearby base where they stabilized her to fly back to the States. He never fully knew how bad her injuries were.
After a lot of transfers and being put on hold for almost an hour Connor and Dr. Halstead were able to get Sierra's medical files faxed over to Med. The two weren't prepared for what the files contained. Dr. Halstead started reading through the medical reports and all the X-rays they took. What the hell happened to her? "Can I..." Connor asked holding out his hand wanting to look over the file for himself. "Are you sure? it's... it's bad," Will replied as Connor nodded.
Dr. Halstead handed him the file and Connor's heart sank at what he read. 7 broken fingers, 5 fractured ribs, knee, pelvis, and left eye socket were fractured, her jaw was dislocated, and a severe concussion not to mention the deep cuts and burns across her body. Sierra spent months in the hospital recovering and he had no idea, Connor handed the file back to Will and made his way back to Sierra's room.
Jay was sitting next to her bed when Connor walked in along with Will. "I'll give you a minute," Jay said getting up from his seat. "What happened?" Connor asked looking at Jay who paused in the doorway. He let out a shaky breath, our convoy got ambushed while we were on an op and... Rhodes ended up getting captured and taken prisoner by some of the Taliban," Jay said looking at Sierra as he spoke. "We tracked them for 32 hours straight when we found her, she was beaten, tortured, barely hanging on when we got her out of there. They flew her to a nearby base to stabilize her and flew her back here to the States," Jay replied not taking his eye off her.
"What happened to the guys that kidnapped her?" Connor asked looking at his sister, "They didn't walk away from it," Jay replied coldly before he left the room to take a walk and get some air. Connor took the seat next to Sierra's bed holding her hand in his. "I'm gonna go check on some patients, and I'll be back in a bit. Are you gonna be okay?" Will asked as Connor nodded.
"I'm so sorry Si, I should've been there for you..." Connor said as he tried not to cry knowing what she went through. Jay returned from his walk with a bouquet of flowers. He set them on one of the small hospital tables before taking a seat on the window sill.
Jay ended up staying with Sierra and Connor in the ICU until the day after Christmas when he got called into work on a case. Connor stayed with Sierra hoping the swelling on her brain had gone down enough over the last few days in order to perform the cranioplasty, if all went well they'd be able to wake her up from her coma and see the extent of the damage caused by the swelling.
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Again I know I said I was gonna drop this chapter tomorrow, but I got lost in the sauce writing today. ( I'm not always able to) I ended up finishing a few chapters and here's an update even though it's still kinda of a cliffhanger.
As for chapter 11, I'll post it first thing in the morning when I get up. Thank you again for all the love and support I hope you like the extra chapter <3
-Muskokagirl204
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No Mercy (One Chicago/ Criminal Minds Fanfic)
FanfictionCo-Writer: @BrooklynDaniels32 At 17 Sierra Rhodes ran away from home and joined the Army Rangers. By 23 she was on her 5th tour in Afghanistan and her last after ending up captured and tortured by the enemy. Luckily she was rescued, brought home and...
