Page 37 of Doc

Kail and I both jump from our seats. “Got it, sir,” Kail says. He looks at Enzo and the other man smiles.

“I have my crutches, I’ll be fine,” Enzo reassures him. “Go.”

“Keep your phone close and call the emergency number I gave you if you need someone, got it?”

“Promise.”

Kail nods and shifts his attention to me. “Give me three minutes to change, meet at the front door.”

I nod in agreement and he runs out of the kitchen.

“Rose,” Doc says into his phone. “Meet me at Georgio De Luca’s, and hurry.”

My heart pounds in my chest as I rush out of the kitchen to the front door. I knew this life was dangerous, but this is my first real taste outside the safety of my uncle, and it’s a little bit terrifying. But I knew what I was signing up for. It’s not always check-ups and restocking medical supplies. Sometimes it’s life and death.

Taking a breath, I settle my nerves, knowing the next few hours are more important than anything I’ve done so far, and I refuse to let Doc down.

Waiting 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.

“Fuckinghurry, 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.

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