Blackjack

Chapter 11

Chapter 11

I pull up to the gate and give the man my name, he quickly opens it and I drive in. As I put the car in park there is already a man waiting. I look over to him, he is very tall and stalky, he is covered in tattoos and is kind of scary looking. I open my door and get out.

“Miss Michaels my name is Ray I spoke to you on the phone.”

“Hello” I sheepishly reply

“Do you have any medical supplies with you? If not we can try and find anything you may need.”

“I have my medic bag in my trunk”

“Great” he says opening my trunk and grabbing my big red medic bag. He quickly ushered me inside the clubhouse. I have never been in here before, I take a quick look around and see lots of panicked men and women a pool table some couches to my right and to my left a big bar.

“Please right this way Miss Michaels” Ray says

“Hayley is fine” I say with a small smile which he returns

He takes me down the hall and opens the last door on the left. I see Alex laying on a bed, blood everywhere, he’s groaning in pain and people are rushing around trying to help.

I quickly rush to his side and grab his hand, putting my other hand on his face to let him know I was here with him. This seemed to comfort him some.

“What happened!” I say loudly over all the bustling around the room.

Everyone stopped what they were doing and look at me. I feel a hand on my shoulder, startling me I turn around to see Alex’s father Greg.

“Alex was shot in the shoulder, our transaction was ambushed” Greg say’s vaguely.

I stand there stunned by the whole situation unable to move, unable to process anything.

“Hayley….Hayley!”

Greg shouting my name snaps me out of it. I look at him a scared expression on my face. He places a hand on each of my shoulder’s, looking me straight in the eyes.

“I need you to help him Hayley, he’s lost a lot of blood and is in so much pain. Can you help him?”

“I’ll do my best sir” I take a deep breath and focus on the task at hand. Helping Alex, my daughter’s father’s life is on the line I need to do everything I can.

“Ray bring my bag here please.”

“You two roll him on his side please, I need to see if there is an exit wound.” I say as I’m putting some gloves on. The two big men roll him on his side as I ask. Ray sets down a bowl of warm water with a wash cloth in it.

“Thanks Ray” I clean up the area and see an exit. I breath a sigh of relief.

“Ray there is some pain killers in my bag can you give him 3 of them please” He says nothing just does as I ask and I get to work cleaning him up. Once I have cleaned the area I get ready to flush the wound. I walk around the table and kneel down to look into Alex’s eye. “This is going to hurt…a lot, and I’m sorry but it has to be done.” He nods slightly letting me know he has heard me.

“Greg, Ray can u come here please” I say quietly. They follow me over to the edge of the room.

“He’s going to scream and flail it’s going to be ruff…but it has to be done. I have to flush the wound. I need you guys to hold him down as best you can please.” They nod in understanding, scared looks on their faces. We walk back over to Alex, Greg puts his hands on Alex’s ribs ready to hold him down and Ray on his legs. Greg nods a couple more guys over just incase and I get ready with my saline flush. I fill my syringe up with flush and force it through the wound. Alex screams in pain, the guys struggle to hold him down. I get my syringe ready again and force the saline through again. His screams kill me, I want to scream with him, take away all his pain but I can’t. Tears are streaming down my face as I get ready to flush the wound one more time. I think to myself he is so strong, most would have passed out from the pain by now but he’s still with us. I finish cleaning the wound and his body relaxes, grateful for the decrease in pain.

“Alex, I have to suture the bullet holes now. I’m going to apply some local anesthetic, but you will still feel it some.” He nods to me in understanding. I inject the anesthetic, giving it some time to kick in I decide I will clean up a bit and change my gloves. I walk into the adjoined bathroom and throw my bloody gloves in the trash. I wash the blood off my arms and splash some cold water on my face. I take a few breaths before heading back into the room. I grab the supplies I’ll need from my bag before heading back over to the bed. I suture up the exit wound before having the guys lay him back down on his back to suture the entrance wound. I finish up and throw my gloves away. I grab some antibiotics from my bag handing them to Greg.

“He needs to take two of these every twelve hours and hopefully he wont get an infection.”

“Thank you” Greg says, with tear filled eyes wrapping me in a hug. We pull away and I give him a small smile.

“I have to get home now sorry, but if something happens call me.”

“Of course get home to Addie and get some rest” Greg says smiling at me

“I’ll come by later after I get her off to school and get some sleep, if you need me before then please call.”