22. Soren
W aiting for Doc and Rose to show up with Carter Amato’s father is stressful. Kail walked me through how they prepare for an emergency, making sure everything Doc could possibly need is within reach, and shoving equipment out of the way so there’s room to work.
The tension between Kail and I is thick, the other man practically vibrates with nerves. I can only imagine what’s going through his head, considering the last time something big happened in the Family, Kail essentially lost his job to me and ended up a full-time caregiver.
Before I can go any further down that rabbit hole, the door to the office opens and everything happens quickly after that. Kail and I help transfer the bloody mess that is Georgio De Luca onto the table we’ve moved into the middle of the room.
Doc begins barking orders as Kail and I get the remaining clothes off the body, getting lines started as Doc and Rose suit up.
“Shouldn’t you have taken him to the hospital?” Kail asks as he administers a sedative in order to make sure the fucker doesn’t wake up as Doc works on him.
“I can handle this,” Doc replies, nudging me out of the way to survey the damage to De Luca’s chest. “I need more light.”
Rose and I maneuver one of the lights closer to the table, while trying to keep it out of the way enough so no one runs into it. The office isn’t really equipped for this type of medical emergency, even if Doc has all the tools on hand. I’m honestly not sure why Doc didn’t go straight to the hospital.
“Get some blood, Rose,” Doc orders, even as he opens up De Luca’s chest cavity. “The chart is on the storage fridge.”
She doesn’t question him, leaving Kail to monitor De Luca’s vitals while I grab suction tubing off the tray Kail prepped, ready to assist Doc as he goes digging around in De Luca’s chest.
I’m elbow deep in his chest cavity with Doc, trying to keep the blood from obscuring his view, when I hear Rose mutter to herself.
“Fucking hell,” Rose says, and I look up long enough to see her trying to get the IV started.
“Switch places with her,” Doc barks, pushing my hands away gently.
Quickly swiping the blood from my hands onto the bottom of my shirt, I take over for Rose and have the IV going within minutes.
“Uhh,” Kail says from where he’s monitoring De Luca’s breathing and other vitals. “Can you teach me how to do that so fast?”
I laugh a little, enjoying the small moment of normalcy inside the tense situation. “I can give you some tips, but it comes mostly from practice,” I reply.
“Fair enough. Rosie, Imma stick you one day, soon!” Kail says, and then curses as the machines monitoring De Luca begin to go off as his vitals plummet. “Doc!” Kail exclaims, slightly distressed.
“I’m almost done,” Doc replies, voice calm despite the chaos around us.
I’m not sure how true that is, but I know this bag of blood is almost done, so I race across the room to grab another. I curse myself for not paying attention to the blood type when I was hooking it up, so I have to waste precious seconds checking the chart before grabbing the bag of O-Neg.
“Fucking hurry , Soren,” Kail barks as I slam the storage fridge closed and run back to the operating table.
“Everything is under control,” Doc says, still using that calm tone.
I don’t know who he’s trying to convince, but as I discard the previous blood bag and set up the next, I glance over at the monitors and wince at the numbers.
“Fucking finally!” Doc shouts triumphantly.
Whatever he was doing, De Luca’s body did not like it and the monitors wail at us, but as Doc and Rose start prepping to close him up, he stabilizes.
“Kail, switch places with Rose, you’re better at sutures,” Doc orders.
The maneuvering is awkward as there’s really not enough space for the four of us, but they manage to make it work so Kail is assisting Doc and Rose is making sure he’s not going to flatline on us.
Meanwhile, I go for the third and last bag of blood in the storage fridge.
“This is the last unit,” I say to the room at large.
“Murry should be putting together an emergency kit for us,” Doc responds. “I’ll give him a call and ask for an update before I head over to the clinic to check on who survived.”
If I didn’t already know how this worked, I would ask why Doc didn’t send one of us to help the other doctors and nurses at the clinic, but I do know better. As Carter Amato’s father, De Luca takes precedence, which means special treatment from Doc and those Doc trusts.
My admiration for Doc goes up a notch as I understand and appreciate the pressure he’s under. Yet even as we stand on the edge, praying the man on the table in front of us doesn’t crash, he keeps his cool.
“Soren,” Doc’s voice breaks through my reprieve and I snap my attention to him. “I’m finishing up here so go on out and update the Boss; let him know that we’ll be taking turns to keep an eye on this fucker. I’m worried about his lung collapsing, so we’ll keep him here for a while to make sure he doesn’t die on us.”
Doc looks up at me, and for a moment, I see the exhaustion in his cognac eyes, but as quickly as it appeared, his calm demeanor returns. “Carter will probably want to come sit with him—not because he cares, but to make sure the fuckface doesn’t die. Kail will get the PPE gear together for anyone not us. Rose is going with me to the clinic.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Check my phone before you go out there, see if there are any updates from the clinic.”
I toss my gloves and wash my hands. Doc cocks a hip and I pull the phone from his pocket. Before I can ask for the passcode, Kail rattles it off. Apparently this is a common enough occurrence, and with anyone else, I’d be worried that other people can get into their phone, but with Doc it tracks.
Going through his texts, I read off the updates sent in from one of the clinic assistants while Doc finishes closing De Luca up.
I return the phone where I found it and double check all of De Luca’s vitals, making sure they’re all in normal range before going to meet the Boss.
Stepping outside the office, I take a quick, quiet breath, sucking in air that’s not tinged with blood and the brush with death.
Straightening my spine, I focus on the people waiting in the hallway, covering my nervousness with a confidence that’s only half faked. Taking a moment to survey everyone who’s waiting in the hall allows my racing heart to slow and my nerves to steady further. Cristian’s here, of course, along with a blond man I don’t know but can only assume is Carter Amato, Roman, and surprisingly, the guy who Hollis stabbed earlier in the week, Jude.
“Boss.” I respectfully bow my head and silently applaud myself for not squirming under his black gaze. “He’s stable. Doc has just finished closing him up and we’ll continue to monitor him overnight. He was lucky in that a bullet only nicked one lung. He lost a lot of blood and we ran through our supply of O-Negative trying to keep him alive, so we’ll have to replenish that sooner than later, in case he needs another transfusion.
“Doc believes he’ll recover, but it’s early yet, and the chances of having his lung collapse are high right now, so we’ll probably keep him here for a few days to watch for that, and make sure no other complications pop up.”
I meet Carter Amato’s dark blue eyes and try not to let the intenseness of them intimidate me. “If you want to see him, one person at a time, and you’ll have to put on PPE. We need to be extra cautious about infections for the next few days, if you want him to live. Other than that, we also received updates from the clinic; the few survivors are expected to be back on their feet within the next few weeks, or months in some cases, if they make it through the night. One died on arrival at the clinic, but that was to be expected. According to Rose, he was far too gone already when she arrived on the scene. Doc will call in to the clinic in a few hours, once De Luca is a bit more stable.”
“Thank you, Soren,” Cristian says. “Is there anything else?”
I shake my head, not letting the relief show on my face. “No, sir. Would you like to see the patient?”
Cristian looks to his husband and a silent conversation passes between them before Carter finally shakes his head. “Keep us informed on his progress, and call immediately if anything changes,” Cristian finally says.
“Yes, sir.” I slowly let out a breath and head back into the office.
“How’d it go?” Doc asks.
I shrug. “I relayed the information and neither seemed particularly interested in seeing him tonight.”
“Not surprised. If Carter allowed it, I would have let the bastard die on the table,” Doc replies mildly as he goes to wash up at the sink.
Some surprise must show on my face as Kail says, “Calling Carter estranged from his father is an understatement. De Luca’s only alive still because Carter wants him to see how successful he is, despite everything he was put through. One day, he’ll kill him, until then, we gotta keep this fucker alive,” Kail sneers, even as he gently wipes blood off the skin around De Luca’s bandages that Rose is affixing to his wound.
I can empathize. Not about wanting to kill my father, but wanting him to see me succeed without him. It's definitely one of the main reasons I jumped on the opportunity to come work for Cristian.
I can see why Carter would do what he is though, if even half the stories I’ve heard over the last few years are true. And if I’m being honest, I’m not sure if I would be as generous, making my doctors waste their time trying to save my abuser’s life if given the opportunity.
“Soren, daydream in your own time. Come help us move this fucker to a bed.”
Snapping to attention, I sidle up to the table and help with the transfer. “I’ll take the first shift,” Kail says as we adjust the bed and get De Luca comfortable. “You look like you need sleep more than I do.”
I want to protest, but I can feel the exhaustion weighing on me. I know better than to argue, in a matter of life and death such as this. Any fuck-up on my part can have dire consequences, I’m not stupid enough to risk it.
“Thanks.” I give Kail a small smile.
“We’ll make sure you’re set here before we head out,” Doc says, setting a hand on my shoulder and squeezing.
I lean into the touch, uncaring if Rose and Kail see more into the gesture than just innocent comfort; I’m too tired to worry about how our interactions will be perceived by others. After everything we’ve done tonight, showing a little affection is the least of my worries.