CHAPTER 20

Sammi Jo looked up as Bernie rushed into the nursery, "Sam's...." Bernie 
was too out of breath to speak.
"What's wrong Bernie?" Sammi Jo looked round at Matt, "What about Sam?"

Bernie gasped for breath, "He's unconscious," she took a deep breath in, 
"Rosie's attacked him."

"Why would she do that?" Matt questioned, he flinched back as Leone hit 
him with a stacking brick in his eye.

"She's gone berserk, it took five men to stop her."

"Sit down and relax a minute, you're not making any sense."

"There's no time, Beth need you in Sam's bedroom, there's blood, lots 
and lots of blood."

Sammi Jo jumped to her feet, ran down the corridor into Sam's bedroom.

"I can't stop the bleeding Sammi," Beth was clearly distressed. The 
stain now nearly covering the pillow, it had seeped through onto the 
sheets and was spreading. "It was okay last night, a straightforward 
clean cut." Beth's hands were red from Sam's blood.

"Last night? What happened last night?" Sammi rummaged through the 
medical bag for the coagulating powder.

"That's right, you don't know about last night."

Sammi sprinkled the powder over Sam's wound and placed a gauze pad over 
it. "I know they were going out to follow Rosie. Did this happen last 
night?"

"Yes, sort of. It's hard to explain. They were jostled about in the 
truck. Rosie's reopened it when she attacked him, less than fifteen 
minutes ago."

Al entered Sam's bedroom, "Where is he?" He looked at Sam and saw the 
stained pillow. "Argh!" He felt ill. He'd seen plenty of blood before, 
but this was different, this was so red, so vibrant, so.... shocking. He 
left for the bathroom and was physically sick.

Bernie followed him, "What wrong Al?"

"God, I've never done this before! He looks so waxy, I could see the 
life drainin' away from him, I've seen it before Bernie. Too many 
times."

"I'm not sure what you mean Al."

"Vietnam."

"You were in Vietnam? I didn't know that, I'm sorry Al."

"I saw too much over there, to damn much. The blood the filthy mud, all 
mixed together in the stinkin' rat-holes. Never thought I'd see any more 
horrors like that, but this.... it's worse. Sam's like family to me, a 
son." Al looked at Bernie, she saw the fear in his eyes, and the tears, 
"It's always worse when it's family."

Bernie saw a side of Al that no-one had probably seen before, perhaps 
not even Beth. She could understand his fear though. She sat beside him 
on the cold bathroom floor, "I'm so sorry Al." Bernie wept too, she 
cried with him, she remembered his feelings all too well. She had lost 
her only son, she still grieved for him, but now she couldn't hold her 
grief, this was for Sam. He had bought lost feelings back into her life, 
she felt alive, even in her despair. Sam was her family now, her 
lifeline. She loved him with all of her heart, she couldn't lose him, 
not now. Not now she'd found love, found her Sam. "Please don't leave 
me," she whispered, sobbing, "never leave me."

"We've stopped the bleeding." Beth stood at the doorway to the bathroom

Al and Bernie turned to Beth, "Is he gonna die?" Bernie's voice was 
shaking.

"No, I don't think so, but that plane sure had better hurry up." Beth 
looked anxiously towards the door.

Sammi Jo was in the background, she was talking to Beth, "He's lost a 
lot of blood, we should get some fluids into him soon, but we don't have 
an IV pack."

"I'll go and ask Verbena," Beth was already half way out of the door, 
"but I doubt she'll be much help, she lost it last night, and there 
wasn't half as...." Her voice fading as she ran up the corridor.

Bernie stood and sniffed, Al stood with her. Slowly they both moved back 
into Sam's bedroom. Sam looked like the waxwork replica she'd once seen 
in Madam Tussaud's, long ago when she was younger. He was older now, but 
the flaxen colour bought back a memory she'd long forgotten. She looked 
away burying her face into Al's chest.

Al placed his arms around her and looked at Sam, he led her out of the 
room. "Come on, we'll go and wait for the plane. I think we both need 
some air."

Sammi Jo felt at Sam's brow, he felt cold and clammy. She felt at his 
pulse, it was too faint and too fast for her liking. "Please let Verbena 
have an IV." She bent over Sam and whispered in his ear, "C'mon dad, 
you've got to pull through, you've got everything now. Someone to love, 
you won't be alone anymore. Bernie loves you dad, we all love you." It 
was Sammi Jo's turn for tears.

Beth returned with an armful of packages, "Verbena's doesn't have one, 
but we found these." She lay them out one by one. "Sterile field, 
there's tubing in this one, syringe, needle, gloves and the most 
important, a bag of saline. I'm sure we can improvise with these."

"Brilliant, I'll put them together. We'll need some sort of clamp to 
regulate the flow."

"I know just the thing, there's some sprung clothes pegs in the laundry, 
I saw some last night." Beth left Sammi Jo to rig up the saline drip.

Sammi Jo ripped open the bag containing the sterile sheet and slid it 
onto the dresser top, with the forceps she carefully opened up the 
sheet. Inside were pots, more forceps, surgical tape and cotton wool. 
She opened the pack of tubing, sliding this onto the sheet. She opened 
the syringe. Slapping on a pair of the latex gloves, she took hold of 
one end of the tubing and placed it inside the syringe. Using surgical 
tape she bound the two together. She fixed the needle to the syringe, 
leaving the cover in place.

Beth arrived with several of the sprung clothes pegs, Sammi Jo folded 
the tubing in half where Beth placed a securing peg. The two women 
worked silently, both knowing what had to be done. Holding the bag of 
saline, Sammi Jo pushed the other end of the tubing in to the valve of 
the bag. It fitted perfectly. Beth removed a picture hanging above Sam's 
bed and hung the bag from the hook.

"Perfect teamwork." Sammi Jo said, "now to test for the flow."

Beth removed the clothes peg from the tubing and unfolded it, replacing 
a peg depressing the tubing just a little, whilst Sammi Jo removed the 
casing from the needle. Immediately the saline began to flow. Both 
counted the drops that fell from the needle point into one of the little 
pots, adding and removing the pegs until they had regulated the flow. 
Beth now donned a pair of gloves and held the pot containing saline. 
With a pair of forceps she picked up the cotton, dipped it into the 
solution and cleaned Sam's arm while Sammi Jo gripped the top of Sam's 
arm to inflate the vein.

"It's a good thing Sam has good veins." Sammi Jo remarked as she 
inserted the needle into his vein, she held it steady whilst Beth taped 
the syringe to his arm. Beth found a ruler in Sam's top drawer, she 
taped this to Sam's arm, hoping it would stop Sam bending it, when he 
came to.

"Phew. That's a good job done." Beth let out a sigh of relief.

"Let's hope the flow doesn't stop, we can't check it now it's in." Sammi 
Jo felt Sam's pulse again. Her mouth tensed. "There's no change yet, 
it'll take a while to replace the blood he's lost, but at least it's a 
start, until the doctor gets here."

"How did you learn all this Sammi?" Beth asked. "I didn't know you'd 
done medicine."

"I didn't Beth." Sammi Jo revealed, "I read Sam's books."


* * * * *
Al and Bernie were heading for the hanger when Dirk emerged, waving his 
hands to distract them, "How's Sam?" he asked.

"Dunno, last time I saw him he looked like death." Al rubbed hid 
forehead, "Couldn't stand it in there so I bought Bernie out here for 
some air. It's pretty cold though, though we might hang out with you 
chaps awhile."

Dirk about turned, following Al back into the hanger.

"Harry phoned, the plane will be landing in about, er," Dirk looked at 
his watch, "one and a half hours, They're waiting for the Doc, he's 
flying in from DC. A Dr. Mikowski, I think. Said he's seen Sam before."

They sat down at a table near to the phone, Dirk carried on with the 
repairs to the truck that had taken Sam and Al out into the desert the 
previous evening.

"Weasel Mikowski, ha-ha," Al laughed, the old devil, he turned to 
Bernie, "He's the one that operated on Sam before." He looked into the 
sky, "Good choice Harry, shame you can't hear me."

"Before, what do you mean?"

"You've heard of Yen Hsuieh-lung, that's who Rosie's working for. He's 
in the slammer for murder and espionage, I think they called it, any way 
he obtained some of Sam's document, classified 'Top Secret', he arranged 
to get Sam killed, not once but three times. Someone's looking out for 
him," Al pointed upward, "up there, cuz they failed."

"First time they nearly smashed his scull in, he was in the hospital for 
months, set Sam back quite a way with this project. We didn't know if 
Yen Hsuieh-lung, was involved with that attack, but we're pretty damned 
sure he was. Especially after the second, he'd got a man in here acting 
as a caretaker. He planted a bomb in Sam's lab and then got word to Sam 
that there was something wrong there, it back fired. The bomb blew up 
early and Riizliard, yuck," Al remembered Sam's lab, "you can imaging 
the state Sam's lab was in."

"I'm pleased you didn't describe it Al, I'm feeling a little queasy 
myself."

"Oh and the third one, this is the best one of all, not only did he have 
a caretaker infiltrating the project, he had an engineer too, Weyland, 
he kidnapped Jessie at gun point.

"Ah, let me get the facts straight here. We got some new stuff this 
morning from Rosie."

"Can you trust what she says? I mean after all she's done, I don't think 
a few lies would hurt her reputation."

"Oh this was the truth, believe you me, I know truth when I hear it." Al 
felt about in his pocket for his cigar. "Aw shucks, I was on my way to 
get my cigars, when I heard about Sam, hang on while I fetch them, this 
lot is drivin' me crazy."

"Where's Rosie now? She can't escape, can she?"

Al was half way out of the hanger, he shouted, "Oh no, she's in there," 
Al pointed to the store room at the far end of the hanger. "She can't 
get out."

"I can hear you Al, you quacksalver, I'll get you for this." Rosie 
started banging on the metal walls of the storage container. "You 
bas...." the sound drowning out her words.

Bernie rose quickly out of the chair and ran to join Al. She couldn't 
stand the noise their prisoner was making, it reminded her too much of 
her past, too much of when her ex had locked her in the bunker. In a way 
she felt sorry for Rosie, but then again Rosie had a different 
disposition to herself, Rosie had done wrong, she had not. She had been 
punished for marrying a brutal cruel man. The pounding thundered in her 
ears as she fled the hanger.