A week of constant work after the funeral was all that kept me going. I wasn’t sure what would happen if I stopped working. I might just fall apart. When I wasn’t eating or sleeping, I was getting ready for work and working. I was devoted to the endless cycle because it allowed no time for the pain I was feeling. I knew how bad this looked. But I didn’t want to face the pain right now. I had spent the entire day after the funeral suffering.
Dad had it the worst when I finally had enough of everyone. I had flipped my lid on him and everyone else. It hadn’t been fair to any of them. I was sick of hearing ‘I’m sorry for your loss’ and things of that nature.
I knew dad didn’t take it to heart, neither did any of the others, but it was hard not to feel guilty about it. Tonight was the first time since before I left we were going to have a family dinner again. The whole family.
I wasn’t sure if I was completely on board with the idea, but Alexi hadn’t given me the option to back out when he filled me in about the dinner.
“Alessio, did you hear me?”
“Huh?” I blinked, turning to look back at Sasha’s right hand, Demitri.
“I asked if there was anything else I could lend a hand with?”
“Oh, Hm. Nothing I can think of. I appreciate the help.”
“Of course, no worries.”
Sasha had let me borrow Demitri to help move some newer supplies and medical equipment down into the wing.
“I’m going to head out, then. If you need anything, just give me a shout. Don’t overwork yourself.”
“Thanks again.” I waved him off.
I had a lot of supplies to tuck away and deal with. Things had been pretty relaxed this week. The worst I had dealt with was some stitches and a pretty nasty burn. But otherwise just some regular things. It was nice to see all the supplies restocked again. When we ran low on things, I got a little antsy about it. I had a budget to stick to just like everyone else, and I wasn’t by any means safe from Alexi’s anger about his budgets. He didn’t go easier on me because we were family, if anything he was rougher about it because of the family ties.
Hands deep in the tall box of medical supplies, my phone started blaring an alert. I knew the alert. I had been around long enough to know that this was an emergency. Dropping the stuff in my hand, I kicked some boxes out of the way to make space. I had no clue what was about to come through the doors.
Snagging a pair of gloves, I pulled them on after applying hand sanitizer. I didn’t have time to wash them, much like I would have rather done. Maddox didn’t sound the alarm for nothing. Walking to the door, I override the lock and propped open the door. I could hear whoever it was coming down the hall with a few voices. Looking down, I checked my gloves again. Looking up, Maddox and Ryer had Lev, of all people, propped up on them both. He was paler than he was normally, and his t-shirt was soaked through.
“What happened? Take him to bed one!”
Maddox looked just as confused as me, and Lev really wasn’t coherent as he babbled about something. Lev was actively bleeding out. Peeling up his blood-soaked t-shirt, he hollered when I checked his wound. It was a deep stab wound. I didn’t want to chance putting him out and losing him.
Lev muttered things, as I held his wound shut and directed Maddox and Ryer to both glove up and lend a hand. I could give Lev pain medication, but I was worried about it. I would rather have him constantly hollering in pain. Sadly.
Lev was going in shock and I instructed Maddox to bed his knees and place his feet flat on the bed. Ryer took over, holding pressure for me while I quickly set to finding all the things I was going to need to fix that wound. I needed to have a damn good look and make sure that nothing was damaged. I was worried about the amount of blood Lev had lost, too. But I could fix that. I knew his blood type. I just hoped that we had some on hand.
Returning, I told Maddox and Ryer the plan before having them hold Lev down.
He passed out as soon as I poked around in the wound, which was a good thing and a bad thing. Ryer was monitoring his vitals, Maddox was holding him down and I was repairing the wound. This was how it was for the next couple of hours.
Lev needed blood, and after checking through the supply of it, like the inventory sheets said. We had none of the blood that Lev needed. It was a good thing we kept everyone’s blood types, because I was going to need someone to roll up a sleeve and donate to Lev or we might look at losing him. His body could only function for so long on so little blood.
“Watch him. I need to check the computer for blood types. We don’t have any blood I can give Lev safely.”
“What kind are you looking for?” Ryer piped up quickly, as I searched for O negative blood types in the laptop. Ryer was one of a couple people in the complex who had O negative blood.
“Ryer!” I yelled from the office. I turned and rushed back to the bed and was already pulling off and freeing his arm.
“I fucking knew it. I knew was the same blood type as me.” Ryer hissed, looking unhappy about it. I knew how much didn’t care for Lev, but he was willing to donate the blood, regardless.
Maddox leaned down and said something in his ear that made him less upset, but he was still annoyed. I didn’t care who the blood came from as long as it helped. Stabbing Ryer with the needle was the fun part. The waiting game was not.
Ryer left the moment he could, and Maddox not long after that. With Ryer’s blood, Lev was better off, and now it was up to him to wake up on his own. His vitals were slowly returning to a normal range, and that was a significant sign. Peeling off the gloves on my hands, I sanitized them again and cleaned up the mess around.
All three of us had moved Lev to a clean bed after we got him stabilized enough to do so. Maddox had only told me the bare minimum of what happened. Lev had called him asking for a favor and Maddox had agreed. He wanted to see the doctors here. He had told Maddox he had a slight wound, nothing super large. That was a lie. This was not just a minor wound.
Lev had showed up here in a rental car and was holding his side, blood seeping from between his fingers. That was all Maddox had seen before he rushed Lev inside, Ryer helping too.
The white sweater I had been wearing was ruined. I should have known better than to wear white inside the medical wing, but nothing interesting had happened all week that I had been overworking myself after Caleb’s funeral. I was sure even my shirt underneath had some of Lev’s blood on it. It felt pretty sticky on my skin.
Thank god for the showers in the medical wing for that reason.
I barely had time to get into a pair of spare scrubs in my size, in the comforting color of black. The alarm on the machine hooked up to Lev’s finger alarmed. Bolting from the room that held the showers, I nearly slipped, but I made it into the room.
Lev was sitting there, looking confused, and holding the clip that was supposed to be on his finger in his hand as the alarm blared. He wouldn’t be in pain now because after his blood transfusion, I dosed him with pain medication and that was probably where the confusion was coming in.
I snatched the clip out of his hand and clipped it back on his finger and the machine stopped freaking out. His vitals returned to the screen.
“Leave that on your damn finger, or that fucking thing is going to alarm.”
“Why?” He asked. Looking like he might remove it again.
“Well, because I said so, and it alarms because it thinks you’re dead or dying.”
“I fucking feel like it.”
“Are you in pain?”
“No. Just sluggish.” He groaned.
He seemed to remember his wound then and lifted the blanket to see, but he was in a gown. He seemed upset as he set the blanket back down.
“What, one of all you fuckers saw my dick?”
“No one saw your penis. You are still in the horrible boxers you chose when you got dressed.”
“Horrible boxers?”
He seemed confused again, and I was a little worried, but it was also a side effect of the medication I pumped him with. He looked at me then.
“These are not my normal boxers. I swear.”
“I would hope so. A man of your age, palm tree and coconut boxers are not appealing.”
He frowned slightly, lying back. As if he was trying to get comfortable again.
“Ask Caleb, I’m sure the man has printed boxers,”
That sentence was like a shot to the chest. And I had to hold the side of the bed to keep from falling as my knees seemed to get weak.
“Caleb passed away… Last week,”
The words were like sandpaper on my tongue. I wanted to shake away the feeling of the sadness, but it was there. But I hadn’t been the one to invite it.
“That’s why your eyes look so damn hollow.” Lev said, his voice smooth and deep, his accent twisting into all of his words, much like mine did.
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