Chapter Six
Hawkeye
Hawkeye was glad Cooper had signaled to him that there was a problem before he met Petra’s gaze, or his reaction wouldn’t have looked the same.
Oddly when he saw that her pupil was blown, his first thought was, “Shit, no, I just met her. We haven’t had time.” He immediately set that thought aside to examine later. Right now, he had to focus on figuring out what had happened to her from the time they were discussing brain wiring until this moment.
Hawkeye had seen blown pupils before. But they had always been in conjunction with a blast trauma or trauma to the head. And it was always treated as a life-or-death emergency, with evacuations by the PJs if necessary.
She’d mentioned a TBI, but it sounded like it had been back in the past, not something that she was healing from right now.
Since those soldiers had always had bilaterally blown pupils, what he saw in Petra didn’t align with his lived experience. But he’d never been around anyone who might be having a stroke. That not one but both attendants came to the same immediate conclusion, told Hawkeye that it wasn’t unreasonable to suspect a stroke even when everything else about Petra seemed fine.
“Would you mind if I took your pulse?” he asked as he pulled his arm around to see the face of his watch with its stopwatch capability.
“Thank you.” She held her hand out to him, but what he wanted was her in his arms. She looked so scared and confused. He just wanted to hold her to his heart and tell her that everything was going to be fine.
But he couldn’t say that truthfully.
Cooper leaned forward and sniffed her hand over before giving Hawkeye the go-ahead. The interesting thing about that exchange was that Reaper, the Cerberus trainer that they were meeting in St. Croix, had been expanding the Cerberus kennels’ scent training to include medical issues. Flu, Covid, and pregnancy were the three that they had focused on first. Pregnancy because that would change the way they treated an injured person during a natural disaster; Covid and flu so they could steer their protectees away from a contagion, or if the dog detected the illness—sometimes days before symptoms showed up—the team could get the client to a doctor in time to get prophylactics on board.
With Cooper’s all-clear, Hawkeye knew that Petra had none of those conditions. That Cooper checked without Hawkeye’s signal meant that Cooper believed this was a medical event.
“I’m drawing a blank,” Petra said.
Her voice was calm but from her racing pulse, Hawkeye knew she was feeling anxious. Who wouldn’t be?
“I know if you’re having a heart attack, you have to inhale as deeply as you can and cough out strongly and keep doing that violent coughing routine as a kind of self-applied CPR until you get to a hospital. But this?” She shook her head. “I’m racking my brain. Beyond checking FAST, What is the newest protocol? I’m thinking baby aspirin. But then I also seem to remember not to do baby aspirin.”
“If this is a stroke, all you can really do is get to the hospital as fast as possible. There’s a golden hour for getting the medications in. But no to the baby aspirin. You’re right, they used to advise that, but not all strokes are caused by blood clots. Ruptured blood vessels can do it, too. Since aspirin thins the blood, it would make any bleeds more severe.”
She rolled her lips in, bobbling her head, indicating that she understood.
Hawkeye hated this for her. Hated every second that she was in danger. He wanted the wheels down and Petra in an ambulance. He had no idea how far it would be to get help from here.
As if reading Hawkeye’s mind, Halo leaned forward. “Seven miles, brother. Ten minutes if they go lights and sirens once she’s loaded up. I can manage Cooper and your baggage if you want to go, mate.”
Hawkeye glanced over his shoulder, giving Halo a nod before turning back to Petra to ask what she wanted. “Would you like my support once we’re down? I can get to the hospital and make phone calls for you, keep people informed.”
For the first time, he saw a reaction from her other than bewilderment. Her eyes got glassy as tears dampened her lashes. “Would you? I was trying to figure out what to do on my own. And since we’re family.”
“Family…” he left that open-ended because he couldn’t guess what she meant.
“Not family. I must have been thinking of home when I said that, wishing my family were here or someone I knew better. But we do have people in common. Rowan Kennedy and his wife, Avery Goodyear, are dear friends of mine. So, I’m grateful for your kindness. I won’t feel like a complete stranger in a strange land.”
He looked back at Halo. “I’ll take you up on that offer. I’ll get to the hospital with Petra.” Now that they could hear the piercing scream of sirens, her anxiety was rising. He hoped to distract her. “Interesting that you put Rowan, Avery, and me together in your mind.”
“Not really. The counter staffer told me I’d be sitting next to the working dogs. And when I looked out the window, I recognized the uniform. I was on the phone with Avery and sent her a picture of you all when you were on the ground by the luggage handlers. You were below my window. She told me who you were. Well, since I was above you, she couldn’t see your faces. But she was able to recognize Max and Cooper, and she was able to tell me that their handlers were Halo and Hawkeye.”
That explained their first exchange when he’d said his name, and she’d said “yes” like she already knew him. “Friends of Rowan and Avery, yes, that makes us family of sorts. You aren’t alone. Okay?” It felt good to have the connection and to have a stronger reason to stay with her and offer his support. It also felt good that she was speaking cogently about a timeline.
“Ladies and gentlemen,” the pilot announced, “we are coordinating with the paramedics to safely disembark the passenger who is experiencing a medical emergency. The responders are moving stairs into place, and the emergency crews will come on board. Please, keep hands and feet out of the aisles. We have no time frame for this event. Our passenger’s health and well-being are paramount. Hopefully, this is your final destination, and this delay will be a minor inconvenience. I’m leaving the seat belt light on. Please remain seated at all times. Imagine if this event took you by surprise, and let’s follow the golden rule. Yes?”
Petra’s eyes held wide as her lips sank into a frown.
She had to be listening to that, knowing that she was the problem. The surprise was happening to her.
“Hawkeye,” she whispered. “I should feel badly, right? Headache? Something? This feels kind of silly.”
He got it. From when she kept things contained during the dog and cat scramble earlier in the day, she did not like attention or disruption. Like anyone would, Petra would want to deny that anything serious was wrong with her.
She was a smart woman, capable of dealing with facts. So, he’d just lay it out. “Petra, I’m seeing a blown pupil that’s non-reactive. We aren’t playing with that. There’s a window to get the proper meds in. We need to exercise every caution and get you in front of medical staff so they can determine what’s happening.” Hawkeye wanted to add that every second she wasn’t in the hospital with help focused on her was a second too long for him.
This wasn’t about him. Not at all.
This was about Petra’s safety.
As the door opened, Halo swung out of his seat to stand in the aisle.
“Cooper,” Hawkeye pulled his dog’s attention away from Petra. “Go with Halo.” Cooper wasn’t down with that, and Hawkeye completely understood. If someone were to ask him to step away, there would be pushback. But this was not the time to argue with his dog. “ Cooper , go sit with Halo.” He curled his fingers through Cooper’s collar to help guide him over.
Halo moved Cooper into the bulkhead space with the other dogs, then sat in the end seat, scooting down until his knees were against the bulkhead wall, blocking the K9s in and the rescue team out.
Cooper rested his head on Halo’s leg, watching intently as the paramedics came on.
“There’s a good boy, Coop,” Halo crooned. “Your new friend is getting some help. She’ll be right, mate.”
Hawkeye made to get out of the paramedics’ way, but Petra reached out and gripped his arm with both her hands to anchor him in place.
The paramedic watched it happen. “You’re fine there. Who are you?”
Hawkeye knew he was asking for a role, not a name. He went to the first thing he could think of to make sure he could stay with Petra. “First responder. I noticed the change in her pupillary response.”
“How long ago?”
“Undetermined. She was fine at the beginning of the flight but slept the whole way here.” Hawkeye handed out his notebook with respiration and pulse rates that he had taken every five minutes. The numbers had held steady.
“Instead of a gurney, since you’re conscious, we can bring up a wheelchair, then carry you down that way. Do you feel like you can’t hold yourself upright for that long?”
“I could carry her in my arms,” Hawkeye offered. He turned to Petra, “If you’d be comfortable with that. It might be safer than risking an event happening while you’re in the chair.”
“Event happening…” Petra’s voice wobbled. “Like I go unconscious?”
“In the unlikely event that you have trouble staying upright while you’re on the stairs.” He pronounced his words clearly and spoke just a bit slower to make himself as understood as possible.
“The stairs are steep,” the paramedic cautioned Hawkeye.
“We train on them. One of my team could go in front in case of a missed foot.” He turned to Petra. “Would that be all right with you? Do you want to make decisions here or would you prefer I make them?” For his sister, Cora, especially under stress, decision-making was mentally and therefore physically exhausting. Cora’s brain was constantly going, going, going. Not to say Petra was exactly like Cora—as Cora liked to say, “Once you’ve met someone who is neurodivergent, you’ve met one person who is neurodivergent.” But Hawkeye did have the advantage of knowing and loving Cora, and maybe his lived experience could be helpful here. “Or we can make the decisions together.”
Petra squeezed his arm and said with relief, “You, please. Down the stairs and decision making.” She sniffed. “Please.”
He hated the fear in her eyes. “All right, you just let me know if you change your mind.”
Having listened to them, the paramedic asked Hawkeye, “Do you want to go with her in the ambulance then, in order to provide continuity of care?”
“If I’m able. I can give the emergency department staff the available information.”
The paramedic gathered his equipment and made his way to the door, where he called the plan down to his crew.
“Do you have a bag with you?” Hawkeye asked.
“Black backpack.” She pointed up.
“Is there anything in there that you need now?” He was careful to ask one direct and simple question at a time.
“No.”
“Halo will bring it to you later. Come and slide over into my seat.” Before he could stand up, Levi slipped out of his seat and toward the door.
Levi had been on a rescue in Namibia where he had to carry his fiancée down a hillside with a teammate in front ready to break a fall should Levi trip. Levi brought that experience back to the team, where they talked through the different issues, like the areas that had been too tight to get through with someone in his arms; what it felt like to race downward on uneven terrain without being able to see ground hazards.
So, they trained an exfil where the person was carried in the operator’s arms when it was counterproductive to do a fireman’s carry.
It was one of the ways that Team Charlie knew Petra’s friend Avery Goodyear.
Avery, a romance editor, was contracted with Iniquus so when a scenario was presented by an operator, she could think of dozens of ways that the scene could go wrong. “After all,” she’d said, “that’s what authors do all day long to make a living.”
The teams would then test their skill under the circumstances she imagined.
A medical event on a plane was one of those scenarios that Avery had listed.
Hawkeye was grateful that she’d imagined this one.
Hawkeye stood as Petra scooted over to him, then he stooped to scoop her into his arms. The passage being as small as it was, Levi reached under her knees while Hawkeye held her under the arms, her head resting on his shoulder. Levi backed up until they reached the door, where Levi helped shift Petra back into Hawkeye’s arms.
It was seamless, and Hawkeye hoped that they had kept Petra comfortable. She didn’t need a racing heart right now.
Slow and steady.
Calm and professional.
That’s how he’d work to keep her safe.
As she came into his arms, Petra turned to lean her head on his shoulder, clasping her hands behind his neck. And with Levi ahead of them, sliding his hands down the guardrail, ready to grip and block at any moment to prevent a fall, they made their way efficiently down to the ground and the gurney.
“You’ve got this,” Levi said, patting Petra’s shoulder, then he climbed the stairs again, getting out of the way.
With flashing lights and blaring sirens, the first responders roared down the street toward the emergency room.
But for Hawkeye, they couldn’t get there fast enough.