Lea was standing outside the emergency room when the others arrived. She had not been able to weasel her way any closer and no one would tell her anything. But she had a pretty good idea what was going on and what would happen next.
She hugged Tam as they got closer and only managed to smile weakly at the others. Seb looked a bit of a sight dressed only in his suit jacket now he was t shirtless and she could tell every one of them had been crying. Dear, brave David spoke for them all. “How is he Lea? What happens next?”
Lea tried hard to put on her official nurse’s voice. “Well, they’ll more likely give him more blood, start more IV’s with antibiotics check to see if the bullet is still in there and then he will be off to surgery.”
Just then a doctor came through the door with a very serious look on his face. “Is Mr Buhler’s next of kin available?”
The room was silent, no one knowing what to do when Lea pushed Tam forward and announced that she was Urs’ wife. “She doesn’t talk doc. Well not to strangers. We kinda do that for her so if you want to ask her any questions one of us will be able to help her.”
The doctor smiled but really only told them what Lea had just told them.
“Can Tam see him Doc?”
“May be after the surgery but not now.”

So they all waited while Urs underwent emergency surgery to remove a bullet and repair his damaged lung. What they did not know was they had almost lost Urs on the table twice because of his blood pressure and oxygen levels. He may have had to deal with the trauma of possibly loosing his sight a little while ago but serious oxygen loss can lead to brain damage. Urs would never be the same again. But he did pull through the surgery and was taken to ICU for recovery.

The same doctor came to see them all again to let them know that Urs was out of surgery and Tam could see him for a short time.
Tam stood to leave with the doctor but she did not want to go alone so went over and pulled Lea from her seat. Lea could see the look in the doctor’s eyes and decided to sort the problem out before it became a problem. “Look doctor I know the procedures better than anyone but I also know this lady, she needs to see her husband but she wont go without support and I am not about to stand here and let you tell her she can’t see Urs” Lea pointed to Sebastien. “See him. That’s what happened last time some one said no to me. Do I make my self very, very clear doctor?”
The doctor had seen Sebastien up close before and wondered how he had got so messed up. Now he knew and did not want to suffer the same fate so he allowed both Tam and Lea it to the ICU.
Tam gripped Lea’s hand as she saw all the leads and tubes coming from Urs. There were a few machines in the room making beeping noises. Urs had a small tube running into his nose and Lea told Tam this was for his oxygen. He looked so peaceful, like an angel sleeping.
The doctor explained a few things to Tam. “You can only stay fifteen minutes.”
Tam nodded her head and Lea gave him one of her don’t mess with me looks.
They were alone with Urs. “Lea, Is he okay?”
“In a way he’s been lucky, these kind of wounds are non fatal. He’s going to be in a lot of pain when he wakes and for a while after but he’ll pull through. I know he will. He has got you to get back to doesn't he?”
All her medical and Navy experience told Lea that Urs would pull through, she had seen similar but worse gun shots wounds and they were all up and walking around. But her heart still hurt for him. He was going to need time to recover physically, how he did mentally and emotionally was another thing. Not many people thought about the emotional scars of being shot.
Tam bent over and kissed him sweetly, one of her tears dropping onto his cheek. “I love you.”
The nurse came back in and said it was time to leave. “I know this is hard. I promise I will take very good care of him.” She smiled. “I’m an Uber myself and I know a few other Divas around that will make sure he gets very well taken care of.” The nurse handed Lea a piece of paper. “My pager. Call anytime.”
Lea smiled at her. “Thank the other sisters for us will you.”
As they left Lea saw the nurse look over Urs vital signs and adjust his morphine drip.
Aaron Vaga was sitting back at his usual table in the café; Suzzie was on duty and not looking forward to serving him. She had seen him abuse someone just outside and he was in a foul mood.
From his position behind the counter Tony kept an eye on him. The last thing he needed was trouble from Vaga. News of the shooting had already made its way to the café via several of their regular customers who had been in the day that Urs had helped Tony with the unruly customer. It seemed that every other customer wanted to tell him about it. Tony was upset that someone as nice as Urs had been shot. And for the life of him he could not understand why anyone would want to. Looking over at Vaga he wished someone had shot him instead.
Suzzie did a commendable job of taking Vaga’s order without ramming her pen into his eye. Which is what she wanted to do after he had changed his mind three times and settled for the first thing he ordered?
Walking back to the counter she gave Tony the order. “I swear Tony, if I could get away with it I’d run him through with one of chef’s knives.”
Tony smiled; he’d had similar thoughts of his own. Suzzie watched as he prepared Vaga’s order and added a little something to help him on his way.
“Tony. You’ll get arrested if you get caught with that. You know that don’t you.”
“Naaa, Just tell the coppas that I took it off a customer. It’s under the counter here in plain sight so to speak.” He had the most devilish grin on his face. “Let’s see what he thinks of this order. Guaranteed not to come back.”
Suzzie took the order. “You’re a bad boy Tony. Knew there was a reason I liked working for you.”
Tony’s special order mellowed Vaga somewhat and it would be the first time Suzzie could remember him never sending anything back. Not even his coffee, no tip, no thank you but at least he was gone.

Vaga walked down the street to his apartment feeling a little unusual, thinking it was something to do with the adrenalin rush of shooting someone. It had felt good to fire the gun but he was so angry that he had missed his target, Tam. He smiled to himself; well he had shot that jerk she was always with. Then he frowned, thinking about the fan that had knocked him and tried to get the gun. As he got to the door of his apartment he rummaged in his pockets producing the gun. Well there was always next time. He stumbled up the steps and people passing thought he was drunk. It took him several goes to get his key into the lock and when he finally did he fell into his place. He only managed to shut the door before he passed out. Several hours later he would wake up with a powerful headache and a dangerous lust for more blood, Tam’s blood.

Simon was pacing back and forth in the Hospital administrators office after not being allowed to see Urs and just about demolishing the reception areas. Brian Patterson had been in his job for many years and had dealt with a great many people in many traumatic and emotional situations. He had found it best to just let people vent and get what ever it was off their chests then they were much easier to deal with. So while Simon ranted and raved Brian took mental notes for use later.
After about 7 minutes Brian could see that Simon was getting to the end of his little temper tantrum and indeed the energy to keep going. He smiled, now it was his turn.
“Mr Cowell, you may not think that I understand but I do completely, and I have a proposition for you.”
Simon remained silent waiting.
“This is obviously going to be a high profile case and you know a lot more about this young man that I do. I would appreciate if you would handle the press on behalf of the hospital.”
There it was, exactly what Simon was waiting for. “In exchange for what?”
Brian smiled, that had been easier than he had expected. Dangle the right carrot and the horse bites every time. “I’ll allow you the same privileges as his wife. Which at the moment means a 15 minute visit every few hours no more?”
Simon raised his eye brows at the mention of Urs’ wife but said nothing. This had Nurse Lea written all over it. She was good, damn good.
Simon stood in front of Brian, shook his hand and agreed to the terms. “You said you sent the others back home.”
“I’m afraid the security risk at the hospital is too great until you get something sorted. They need to be protected until this person is found. I don’t particularly want a shoot out in my hospital. I have our own security guards stationed on Urs’ floor and no one gets into his room without the right permission. But…”
Simon raised his hands. “No more need to be said. It was on the top of my list. So if you will organise the press conference for later.” Simon handed Brian his card. “Call me. I’ll be happy to have a nice little chat to them.”
Little did Simon know but protection was on the top of Lea’s list as well and she was a few steps ahead of Simon by the time they were all back at the apartments.