The Secrets of Bailey

Chapter 10

Chapter 10

Kaitie sighed as she went back inside, grabbed an afghan off the sofa, and picked up her home phone. She dialed as she walked back to the porch and covered Jake to keep him warm. Kaitie quickly went to work, taking his vital signs and examining him. She needed help to move him inside, so she called the person who lived closest to her and knew would help her.

“Hello?” Matt answered his cell phone.

“Sorry to call you Matt, but can you come out to the house and help me move this numskull professor?” Kaitie asked without explanation.

“Uh… What do you mean?” Matt cautiously questioned. “Do you mean like help you bury his body or…?”

Kaitie huffed, “No. I do not mean help me bury his body. One of our big friends just dumped him on my front porch. It looks like he had a nasty fall. He has an open wound on his head, and I can’t tell what else. He is still wearing his pack, and I can’t move him safely by myself.”

“Oh!... Yeah! Allie’s here, so I’ll bring her with me to help. We’re leaving right now,” Matt told her. “We’ll be there in a few minutes.”

“Thank you,” Kaitie breathed before hanging up.

Kaitie went back inside to retrieve her medical bag. While waiting for Matt and Allie to arrive, she examined Jake as much as possible. The biggest concern she had was that he had a brain injury that would need more care than she could provide. When she had checked his pupils, she breathed a sigh of relief. They were a little sluggish but were equal and reactive. He had a concussion, but from what she could assess, he did not have a severe brain injury that would need him to be taken to the hospital immediately. Which, with the incoming storm, would be impossible.

She pulled a stack of gauze out of her bag and applied it to the laceration on the side of his head. The bleeding seemed to have slowed dramatically since the initial injury. Kaitie looked out into the twilight and saw the first flakes of snow falling. She wondered what had happened to him, and she wished she knew how long he had been unconscious. That detail could be crucial in Jake’s care.

Kaitie was sitting beside Jake on the front porch, continuing to check his vital signs and repeat her medical assessment. As much as the man annoyed her, and she did not trust him, she was glad that his condition was stable. She was beginning to shiver rather violently by the time she heard the truck coming down her private road. Kaitie knew by the sound of it that it was Matt and Allie.

Matt parked as close to Kaitie’s home as he could and angled the truck so that the headlights illuminated the porch for added light. Allie jumped out before he had finished parking and dashed onto the porch.

“What did you do to him? I know you don’t like him, but, dang, Kaitie. It looks like you took your grandma’s cast iron skillet to him,” Allie said as she kneeled beside the unconscious man.

“I did not do this! Why does everyone think I would try to kill him?” Kaitie asked as she pulled the gauze on his head back to check the wound and allow Allie to see it. “One of the big guys dropped him on my porch. I think he fell while he was hiking.”

Matt chuckled as he stepped onto the porch. “So that’s your story, and you’re sticking to it. How bad is he, and how do you want to move him?”

“He seems to have a concussion and has been unconscious since he was dropped off. He has a gash on the side of his head. Other than that, I can’t tell much else because of his pack and all the layers of clothing he’s got on,” Kaitie answered. “As for moving him, I don’t know right off. It would be easier if we had a backboard. We could roll him onto it and take him inside with it.”

“Well, you happen to be in luck. I still have a backboard in the bed of my truck from fire training that I keep forgetting to take back to the firehouse,” Matt said with a grin. “I’ll grab it. Do you need straps, too?”

“No, we shouldn’t need straps. We just need to get him inside and to the guest room at the end of the hall. It will be a straight shot into that room. That will make it the easiest to get him situated in,” Kaitie said.

“Got it,” Matt replied before he hurried to his truck to get what was needed.

“Allie, help me get his pack off? Hopefully, we can unlace the straps from the buckles and get it off of him without needing to cut the straps,” Kaitie instructed.

The two women went to work unbuckling the pack and loosening the straps. They tried and failed to work the folded ends of the webbing through the buckles. Kaitie took her trauma shears from her bag and cut as close to the stitching at the end of the straps as possible. That allowed them to finish removing his pack so they could move Jake inside to finish his exam and treatment. It would also allow Jake to have the pack repaired. Matt patiently held the backboard until they were ready for him to help move the backpack away from Jake.

“Holy cow! What is in this thing?” Matt grumbled as he dragged Jake’s fully loaded backpack out of the way.

“My understanding is everything that he needs to live in the wilderness for a week or more without resupplying,” Kaitie replied as she put her bag strap over her head to fall across her body. “You ready to get him onto that board?”

The trio carefully rolled Jake onto the backboard to avoid aggravating any hidden injuries he might have. When he was safely positioned on the board, lying on his back, Matt took his place at the head, and Kaitie and Allie were at Jake’s feet. On the count of three, they lifted the backboard and slowly went inside, carrying him into the spare bedroom. They placed him and the board on the bed before returning to work on him.

“Matt, grab the extra shears out of the kitchen drawer beside the refrigerator,” Kaitie instructed. “He is going to be mad when he comes to, but we have to get his clothes off him so we can see what other injuries he has.”

Matt replied with a nod before jogging out of the room to get the scissors they needed. Allie and Kaitie began to remove everything they could while they waited for Matt, checking for injuries as they went. When Matt returned, and they started cutting, he had to stifle a laugh, leading Kaitie and Allie to glare at him.

“I’m sorry,” Matt said with a snicker. “I was just wondering if cutting off his clothes is your way of getting even with him for some reason. What he’s wearing is expensive, and he will probably be mad when he sees they’ve been turned into a pile of rags.”

“He is a trauma patient with an unknown mechanism of injury and an obvious head wound. He will get over it,” Kaitie grumbled.

“I know, Kaitie. I’m just saying, with the way you feel about him, that I think it's kinda funny, is all,” Matt said as he helped them roll Jake to the side so they could examine his back and pull his clothing off the bed.

“Why don’t you make yourself useful? Since we have his clothes off and can finish his exam and treatment, why don’t you find his wallet and see if he has any emergency contact information?” Allie firmly suggested. “And bring his pack inside. If there is nothing in his wallet, it might be in his pack.”

“Got it,” Matt said, and he began looking through Jake’s clothing before going outside to bring in his pack. After bringing it inside to the bedroom, he pulled out the wallet from a pouch in the backpack and looked through it. “Nothing there. I’ll take his pack into the living room, where I can go through it and be out of your way. If you need me, yell.”

“Thanks, Matt,” Kaitie said as he left, closing the door behind him. “Allie, will you check his ribs while I check his arms? I don’t think he has any fractures, but we need to make sure.”

Allie nodded before she began gently pushing on both sides of his chest, checking for differences in how they felt. When she reached the bruise on his side, she grabbed Kaitie’s stethoscope and listened to his chest as she pushed. Allie grinned when she did not hear any crackles or decreased breath sounds. It looked as if Jake had been lucky, and he had only severely bruised his ribs, not broken them.

“I think he’s good,” Allie said.

“Good. The last thing any of us needs would be for him to end up with a punctured lung with three feet of snow on the ground and no way to get him to a hospital.”

“How is his arm?”

“I think it is only bruised, too. If he is in a lot of pain when he wakes up, I will splint it for him until we can get it x-rayed. For now, we need to get some stitches in his head. Can you set it up for me?” Kaitie asked as she covered him.

“Sure,” Allie answered. She pulled out one of the disposable surgical kits from Kaitie’s bag and quickly laid it out on the top of the nightstand. “I hate to do it, but I am going to grab a couple of towels out of the bathroom.”

“That’s fine. I’ll add them to his bill,” Kaitie smirked.

Allie laughed, “I believe you will, too.”

While Allie got the towels, Kaitie rechecked Jake’s pupils. They were the same as she had expected. This time, however, Katie took note of their color even more. His eyes were beautiful and unlike any she had seen before. Hazel eyes are usually a mix of brown, green, and gold. His eyes contained all those colors and bright flecks of blue and subtle gray. She thought of a Kaleidoscope as she looked at them.

“Why are you so fascinated with his eyes? Has something changed?” Allie asked as she returned to the room and placed one of the towels under his head.

Kaitie handed her the light and said, “I was checking his pupils to make sure there were no changes, but since you are back, take a look. Have you ever seen eyes that color before?”

Allie raised an eyebrow as she took the light and looked into Jake’s eyes. “Wow. Never. You might be in trouble.”

“Why?” Kaitie asked as she began to clean Jake’s head wound.

“Let’s see…he is smart, funny, kind, helpful, has the body of a Greek God, and eyes that can stop traffic. You will be trapped with him, alone, until the snow melts enough for you to get out.”

“I will not be in trouble, but you might be if you don't come over here and help me sew him up,” Kaitie said with a roll of her eyes.

Allie smirked, “Whatever you say.”