Page 38 of Doc

“Fucking finally!” Doc shouts triumphantly.

Whatever he was doing, De Luca’s body didnotlike it and the monitors wail at us, but as Doc and Rose start prepping to close him up, he stabilizes.

“Kail, switch places with Rose, you’re better at sutures,” Doc orders.

The maneuvering is awkward as there’s really not enough space for the four of us, but they manage to make it work so Kail is assisting Doc and Rose is making sure he’s not going to flatline on us.

Meanwhile, I go for the third and last bag of blood in the storage fridge.

“This is the last unit,” I say to the room at large.

“Murry should be putting together an emergency kit for us,” Doc responds. “I’ll give him a call and ask for an update before I head over to the clinic to check on who survived.”

If I didn’t already know how this worked, I would ask why Doc didn’t send one of us to help the other doctors and nurses at the clinic, but Idoknow better. As Carter Amato’s father, De Luca takes precedence, which means special treatment from Doc and those Doc trusts.

My admiration for Doc goes up a notch as I understand and appreciate the pressure he’s under. Yet even as we stand on the edge, praying the man on the table in front of us doesn’t crash, he keeps his cool.

“Soren,” Doc’s voice breaks through my reprieve and I snap my attention to him. “I’m finishing up here so go on out and update the Boss; let him know that we’ll be taking turns to keep an eye on this fucker. I’m worried about his lung collapsing, so we’ll keep him here for a while to make sure he doesn’t die on us.”

Doc looks up at me, and for a moment, I see the exhaustion in his cognac eyes, but as quickly as it appeared, his calm demeanor returns. “Carter will probably want to come sit with him—not because he cares, but to make sure the fuckface doesn’t die. Kail will get the PPE gear together for anyone not us. Rose is going with me to the clinic.”

“Yes, sir.”

“Check my phone before you go out there, see if there are any updates from the clinic.”

I toss my gloves and wash my hands. Doc cocks a hip and I pull the phone from his pocket. Before I can ask for the passcode, Kail rattles it off. Apparently this is a common enough occurrence, and with anyone else, I’d be worried that other people can get into their phone, but with Doc it tracks.

Going through his texts, I read off the updates sent in from one of the clinic assistants while Doc finishes closing De Luca up.

I return the phone where I found it and double check all of De Luca’s vitals, making sure they’re all in normal range before going to meet the Boss.

Stepping outside the office, I take a quick, quiet breath, sucking in air that’s not tinged with blood and the brush with death.

Straightening my spine, I focus on the people waiting in the hallway, covering my nervousness with a confidence that’s only half faked. Taking a moment to survey everyone who’s waiting in the hall allows my racing heart to slow and my nerves to steady further. Cristian’s here, of course, along with a blond man I don’t know but can only assume is Carter Amato, Roman, and surprisingly, the guy who Hollis stabbed earlier in the week, Jude.

“Boss.” I respectfully bow my head and silently applaud myself for not squirming under his black gaze. “He’s stable. Doc has just finished closing him up and we’ll continue to monitor him overnight. He was lucky in that a bullet only nicked one lung. He lost a lot of blood and we ran through our supply of O-Negative trying to keep him alive, so we’ll have to replenish that sooner than later, in case he needs another transfusion.

“Doc believes he’ll recover, but it’s early yet, and the chances of having his lung collapse are high right now, so we’ll probably keep him here for a few days to watch for that, and make sure no other complications pop up.”

I meet Carter Amato’s dark blue eyes and try not to let the intenseness of them intimidate me. “If you want to see him, one person at a time, and you’ll have to put on PPE. We need to be extra cautious about infections for the next few days, if you want him to live. Other than that, we also received updates fromthe clinic; the few survivors are expected to be back on their feet within the next few weeks, or months in some cases, if they make it through the night. One died on arrival at the clinic, but that was to be expected. According to Rose, he was far too gone already when she arrived on the scene. Doc will call in to the clinic in a few hours, once De Luca is a bit more stable.”

“Thank you, Soren,” Cristian says. “Is there anything else?”

I shake my head, not letting the relief show on my face. “No, sir. Would you like to see the patient?”

Cristian looks to his husband and a silent conversation passes between them before Carter finally shakes his head. “Keep us informed on his progress, and call immediately if anything changes,” Cristian finally says.

“Yes, sir.” I slowly let out a breath and head back into the office.

“How’d it go?” Doc asks.

I shrug. “I relayed the information and neither seemed particularly interested in seeing him tonight.”

“Not surprised. If Carter allowed it, I would have let the bastard die on the table,” Doc replies mildly as he goes to wash up at the sink.

Some surprise must show on my face as Kail says, “Calling Carter estranged from his father is an understatement. De Luca’s only alive still because Carter wants him to see how successful he is, despite everything he was put through. One day, he’ll kill him, until then, we gotta keep this fucker alive,” Kail sneers, even as he gently wipes blood off the skin around De Luca’s bandages that Rose is affixing to his wound.

I can empathize. Not about wanting to kill my father, but wanting him to see me succeed without him. It's definitely one of the main reasons I jumped on the opportunity to come work for Cristian.

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