The first thing Tory saw was the irregular swatch of maroon in the center of Reese's chest. She had tried to prepare for that, but the shock ran through her, leaving numbness in its wake. For one pain-filled second, her mind closed down, refusing to acknowledge what her eyes had registered. Then, with the next breath, her vision cleared. There was blood soaking Reese's shirt, but Reese was walking, running, really, with her hand on the end of the stretcher being pushed by the paramedic.
It's not Reese. It's not Reese. She focused on the lean body recognizable even beneath the mountain of resuscitation equipment. Oh no. Not again. Bri!
"What do we have?" KT asked the paramedics, reaching out with her right hand to guide the stretcher alongside the treatment table as Tory placed a stethoscope on Bri's chest.
"Lungs are clear," Tory said.
"Knife wound to the neck," the paramedic said, holding the oxygen mask against Bri's face with one hand and a pressure dressing to the left side of her neck with his other. The gauze beneath his gloved fingers was soaked with blood, and a steady trickle ran down onto the stretcher.
"Airway?" KT knew that any knife wound to the neck could injure the trachea, causing blood to seep into the windpipe, fill the lungs, and prevent oxygen exchange. Many victims of penetrating trauma to the neck died from asphyxiation, not blood loss.
"Oxygen saturation is excellent, 99% on four liters," a second paramedic noted, balancing the multiple monitoring devices on the far end of the stretcher with both hands as they moved. "No blood in the posterior pharynx either."
"Good," KT observed. The other structure at riskin addition to the many huge blood vessels in the neckwas the esophagus, and if it were perforated, blood would back up into the mouth and eventually compromise the airway as well.
"Bri?" Tory said quietly, moving the oxygen mask aside enough to look at Bri's face. Bri's eyes flickered open, dazed but aware, "Hey, sweetie. Can you hear me?"
"Yes," Bri whispered hoarsely.
"Are you hurt anywhere else? Your chest, back, belly?"
"No." Bri's eyelids flickered closed, and then she opened them again with effort. "Neck hurts,"
"I know. We'll take care of that." Tory reached across the treatment table for the sheet beneath Bri. "Let's get her over here."
Many hands grabbed the sheet from both sides of the stretcher while one of the paramedics stabilized Bri's neck.
"One, two, three," Tory counted and everyone lifted, swinging Bri in the makeshift sling onto the treatment table. Then Tory took her first look around the room and saw an ashen Nelson and shell-shocked Allie standing inside the door. She looked up at Reese. "Take them out of here."
Reese looked hesitantly from Bri to Tory, as if she might protest, but nodded grimly. "Okay." She put her hand on Bri's thigh and squeezed. With the barest hint of tremor in her voice, she repeated, "Okay. See you in a minute, Bri."
As Reese turned and shepherded Nelson and Allie out into the hall, Tory moved to the head of the table next to KT. She met KT's eyes and saw in them the steady focus and intensity she'd always found so comforting in the midst of a trauma. "Ready to take a look?"
"Let's get the suction hooked up first and load the sutures. You're going to have to be ready to clamp and tie."
Tory shook her head. "There's nothing wrong with your dominant hand." Her gaze never moving from KT's, Tory said over her shoulder to Pia. "Can you glove KT's right hand, please."
"Of course," Pia replied. She looked at KT. "Size?"
"Seven and a half." KT stepped over next to Pia, removing the immobilizer on her left hand as Pia, wearing sterile gloves herself, opened a second pack of gloves. "Glove them both."
Without a word, Pia held up the left glove, stretching open the cuff so that KT could slide her hand inside. "Careful not to extend your fingers when you push in here."
"I've got it," KT said as she eased her damaged ringers into the tight latex. "At least I won't contaminate the field with it now."
"You'll be fine."
"Thanks," KT replied sincerely. Then she turned back to the table and said briskly, "Let's get this bleeding stopped."
"Give her four milligrams of IV morphine," Tory said to the paramedic before reaching down, suction cannula in hand, and removing the pressure bandage from Bri's neck. Immediately, a heavy stream of dark blood poured out of a five-inch laceration that extended along the side of her neck, parallel to her jaw, two inches below her ear. Precisely along the line where a knife being held by someone from behind would have rested.
Immediately, KT pressed the fingers of her right hand over the wound, squeezing it closed with her fingers. "From the location, it's probably the external jugular."
"Flow is pretty brisk," Tory murmured. The external jugular vein was a relatively low-pressure vein almost 5mm wide, a quarter the size of its deeper partner, the internal jugular vein. She didn't say what they both knewthat the external jugular vein alone wouldn't produce this much bleeding.
"Might be a partial transection preventing it from constricting and closing off," KT observed. "Get the 3-0 ties ready, Vic, then take over the compression on the wound." She motioned to the second paramedic. "You're going to need to suction for us."
"Sure," he said as he moved closer to the field and took the suction from Tory.
KT picked up a hemostat in her right hand and glanced from Tory to the paramedic. "All set?" At their nods, she said, "Put the retractors in and let me have a look."
For the next two minutes the room was entirely silent except for the gurgle of the suction machine pulling a steady stream of blood from Bri's neck through the plastic tubing and into the container. Once, KT said steadily, "Suck right there. Over just a little bit. Good."
While Tory and the paramedic stared into the depths of the laceration, struggling to clear the blood and hold back the subcutaneous tissue and divided muscle edges, KT used the hemostat to dissect out the external jugular vein from the surrounding tissue, identifying the segment that had been partially divided and that gaped open, accounting for the rapid hemorrhage.
"Got it," KT muttered, clamping the proximal portion leading from the head toward the chest. Without taking her eyes from the other end of the vein that she needed to control, she held out her right hand. "Hemostat."
Pia placed the instrument into KT's hand, and KT clamped it around the distal end of the vein. The bleeding from the wound stopped.
"Scissors," KT requested, again extending her open hand, palm up. The scissors settled smartly against her palm, and she closed her fingers automatically on the instrument. She finished dividing the vein so that the two ends were now free and could be ligated. After setting the scissors aside, she held up the first hemostat. She couldn't tie with only one hand. "You'll have to tie these off, Vic."
"Vicryl okay?" Tory asked, reaching for the suture.
"Should be."
Tory looped the suture around the end of the hemostat and, using both hands, tied off the vessel. She repeated the procedure as KT lifted the second hemostat. When she was done, the wound was nearly dry. Looking into KT's dark eyes, Tory said quietly, "Beautiful."
"Thanks. Let's look around to make sure there isn't anything deeper."
With the paramedic retracting and Tory gently suctioning, KT delicately explored the wound, lifting tissue layers with her forceps until she had identified the carotid sheathundamagedand the nearby internal jugular vein, also inviolate. "Fortunately it doesn't extend to the midline, so the trachea and esophagus should be fine. Looks like it nicked the submandibular gland. I should close the capsule just to prevent delayed bleeding," She straightened and turned to Pia. "Can you load up that 3-0 Vicryl on the short needle holder for me."
"Got it." Pia opened the sterile suture package and clamped the jaws of the needle holder onto the semicircular needle. She passed it handle first into KT's right hand.
"You're pretty good at that," KT murmured.
Pia smiled and nodded toward the wound. "You too."
Twenty minutes later, Tory and KT had finished closing the laceration. Bri, only semiconscious due to a combination of shock and sedation, remained unaware of the procedure.
"We should ship her to Hyannis for observation, I guess," Tory said reluctantly. "I know she's going to hate that"
"She's stable. We can watch her here until morning," KT suggested. "She's already had antibiotics, the wound is closed, and if you're worried about blood loss, we can do a fingerstick hemoglobin. But I doubt she's going to need transfusion."
Tory hesitated.
"Why don't I talk to her father?" Pia suggested. "Then one of you can fill him in on the medical details, and you can make a decision about the next step."
"Now there's an idea," Tory said with a shaky laugh. "Thanks. Let me just check her blood count, and I'll be out."
When Pia stepped out into the hallway, Nelson, Reese, and Allie rushed forward.
"She's doing fine," Pia said immediately, aware that that was all they really needed to hear and that they probably wouldn't remember anything else from the initial explanation.
"The bleeding?" Nelson croaked. Christ, there had been so much of it. When he'd followed Reese into the kitchen and seen Bri on her knees, blood pouring from her neck, he thought he'd pass out. While he'd stood rooted to the spot in helpless fear, Reese had jumped forward and clamped her hand over the wound in his daughter's throat. "Jesus Christ."
"It's stopped. KT and Tory found the bleeder and controlled it." Pia surveyed the small group. Nelson was obviously a wreck; Allie was deathly pale, her eyes dark pools of anguish; and Reese Reese vibrated with tension so palpable Pia felt it even though their bodies did not touch. "Are any of you hurt?"
"No," Reese replied abruptly. She glanced toward the treatment room. "We were just a little too far away."
"It was my fault," Allie said. "I was behind Bri on the stairs, and I didn't see him follow us. I let that fucker get to her." Her voice was hollow with self-recrimination and pain.
"We'll talk about that when we debrief," Reese said quietly. She looked at Pia. "What's the plan?"
Tory appeared in the hallway, announcing as she approached, "She's stable. Her hemoglobin is just a bit above eleven. I'll check again in a few hours, but she's not going to need a transfusion." She walked directly to Nelson and put both hands on his shoulders, forcing him to look only at her. "She's awake. She's all right. She's going to be fine. She wants to see you."
Tears finally streaked his cheeks. "You're sureabout her being okay?"
"Yes. We need to keep an eye on her, make sure she doesn't develop an infection, but the knife didn't strike anything vital. She's going to be completely fine."
Nelson gave a shaky laugh. "Then she might be the only one of us." He rubbed his face. "Jesus. That kid..." He trailed off as his throat closed around another unanticipated swell of tears. When he finally managed to find his voice, he said, "Well. Let me go see her."
"Go ahead, but expect her to be drowsy." Tory looked from Allie to Reese. "You can both see her, as well. But just for a few minutes. I'm going to keep her here until morning. I'll check her hemoglobin again then, and if she's stable and everything else looks good, I'm going to take her home with us, Reese. There's nothing they would do in the hospital but keep an eye on her. And I can do that."
"Good," Reese said gruffly. "I'd rather have her here."
For the first time, Tory touched her lover. She took Reese's hand and squeezed. "So would I. Sweetheart, change your shirt before you go see her."
Reese glanced down and winced. "Yeah. I've got clothes in the Blazer. I'll do that now."
Tory watched Reese walk away, the relief so acute now that the crisis had passed and she knew that her lover was safe for another day that her legs felt weak. She leaned one shoulder against the wall and took a long breath.
"She's really going to be okay?" Allie asked in a small voice.
"Yes." After a second, Tory turned and put her arm around Allie's shoulders, giving her a hug. "She really is." To Tory's utter surprise, Allie pressed her face to Tory's shoulder and wept. Soothingly, Tory rocked her. "It's okay, honey. It's okay."
"That fucker," Allie sobbed into Tory's shirt. "That fucking bastard. I'm so glad she broke his goddamned arm."
"Did she?"
Allie nodded, breath hitching as she struggled to contain her tears. "Dislocated his shoulder too."
"Good," Tory said vehemently.
"Yeah," Allie said with a sigh, stepping away and brushing the tears from her cheeks with both hands. "The guys said she never even hesitated. Took him down with a shoulder throw even though he'd..." Her voice broke, "...cut her."
Tory stroked Allie's cheek. "She won't remember very much about it. She'll remember, but thankfully, the mind has a way of dealing with horrible things like that. She'll need to talk about it you all willbut you're all going to be okay." She lifted Allie's chin and smoothed away the last of her tears. "All right?"
Allie nodded, then turned at the sound of Nelson's voice.
"She wants to see you, Allie," Nelson said, his color considerably better, the torment gone from his eyes. He smiled crookedly. "She sounds like a bullfrog, but she doesn't look too bad." He glanced at Tory. "The other doc says there won't be too much of a scar."
"She should know," Tory replied with certainty. "She's the surgeon."
Chapter Twenty-Seven
T ory slumped, eyes closed, in the leather chair behind her desk. At the touch of a soft kiss on her forehead, she opened her eyes. Reese bent over her, her arms braced on either side of Tory's body. Munmrring a soft hello, Tory reached up and wrapped her arms around Reese's neck, burying her face against Reese's shoulder. "Are you sure you're all right?"
"Yes." Reese knelt, sliding her arms around Tory's waist and cradling her against her chest.
"When I got the call, driving here" Tory halted, collecting herself. "All I could think was that you'd been hurt again. I can't stand it when you're hurt."
"I know you must have thought it was me. I'm so sorry, Tor."
"Oh God," Tory whispered, her voice trembling. "It's not your fault."
"I scared you. I don't ever want that. And Bri...I put her in there. I thought I could cover her fast enough." Reese shuddered. "I promised Nelson I'd take care of her, and I almost let her get killed."
Tory leaned back, her arms still around Reese's shoulders, and fixed her with an intent stare. "That is not your fault. If Bri hadn't been as well trained as she is, who knows what could've happened. And you trained her."
"The command part of my brain knows thatI'd make the same decision again about the execution of the operation." Reese rested her forehead against Tory's wearily. "But I don't mind telling you, I was scared there for a minute."
"Me too. But she's going to be okay," Tory lifted an arm to check her watch. "I should go relieve KT. In another couple of hours, if Bri is still stable, we can take her home."
Reese kissed Tory, gently but firmly, running her hands up and down Tory's back possessively. "I love you. Thank you for taking care of Bri. Thank you...for Reggie and..." Her voice failing, Reese turned her face to Tory's neck to hide the tears that blindsided her.
Shocked, Tory stroked the back of Reese's neck, her lips pressed to Reese's temple. "Darling, what is it?"
"When I saw her down...the blood everywhere, I thought we were going to lose her. I couldn't let her dieI couldn't even fathom it." She lifted her head, her blue eyes black with stunned awareness. "Because I don't know what I would've done. All my training, all my life, I've been prepared to lose people. But you and Regina...and Bri...I couldn't handle it" Embarrassed as well as tired and stressed, Reese put her head down on Tory's shoulder again.
"It's all right, darling." Tory held her tightly. "It's all right."
Finally, Reese straightened, smiling faintly. "Why don't you get some rest? I can watch Bri as long as you tell me what to look for. Then KT and Pia can go home too."
"I'm fine for a few
more hours. I got a little sleep last night." Tory stood, bringing Reese up with her. She kissed her lover and stroked her cheek. "But you can sit with us if you don't think you can sleep."
Reese took her hand. "I don't want to be away from you right now."
Tory linked her fingers with Reese's. "Good. Then let's go take care of Bri."
It was very nearly dawn as KT and Pia walked down the path to Pia's cottage. When they reached the porch, KT stopped and took Pia's hand.
"I don't quite know how to tell you what it meant to me that you were there tonight." Struggling to put words to emotions so foreign to her, KT kissed Pia gently. "I felt youyour faith in me and your certaintyinside. I...needed that."
"I'm glad I was there, too," Pia replied, moving closer and wrapping her arms around KT's waist. She settled her head on KT's shoulder. "You would've been fine no matter what, but if I helped, I'm glad. You were wonderful."
KT laughed and kissed the top of Pia's head. "For a one-handed surgeon, I guess I did okay."
Pia lifted her head and tapped KT's chin with a ringer for emphasis. "You won't be one-handed forever."
"Somehow, I think we've had this conversation before." KT kissed Pia again, a longer, more probing kiss, before she drew away. "I know you're probably tired, but I don't want to say goodbye right now."
"No," Pia said softly, "neither do I."
Holding one another securely, they made their way inside.
"Nelson," Tory murmured, shaking the sheriff gently.
"Huh?" Nelson's eyes opened, and he shot upright, instantly looking toward his daughter, who slept a few feet away. "What?"
"She's fine. You need to go home and get some sleep." Tory tilted her chin toward the other officer curled up on a portable stretcher nearby. "And Allie needs the day off, at least. I'll take her home with me. She's only going to be hanging around the house asking after Bri anyhow."
"Yeah," Nelson said, his voice rough with sleep and worry. "The two of them are going to wear me out."
Tory laughed quietly. "I won't disagree with you."
As they talked, Reese leaned over the patient and whispered, "Hey, Bri."
Radclyffe - Safe Harbor 03 - Distant Shores, Silent Thunder Page 24
