Page 36 of Enzo
We hit the front doors just as a car pulls up. If I didn’t have years’ of practice behind me, I probably would have eaten shit trying to run down the front steps behind Doc.
There’s little space to work in, even with the door to the car open as wide as possible, but between me, Doc, and Tennant, we get Jude transferred onto the backboard I snagged on my way out of the medical office.
Doc and I adjust our holds on the board, and carefully carry him up the steps and into the house with the help of some nearby house guards.
My heart pounds and my hands feel slick in my gloves as we carry Jude all the way into the medical office. This isn’t the first time something like this has occurred, but it doesn’t get any easier, especially not after Enzo.
Tennant may not show his emotions like every other person, but I’ve been around long enough to know he’s going to be a terror to everyone but his lovers until we can assure them Jude is okay.
My breath catches in my throat as we transfer Jude from the backboard to the table. The reality that I’m about to work on someone’s loved one is…harrowing so soon after what I’ve been through. It was easy with De Luca because Carter doesn’t care about his father. This situation, however, hits a little too close to home for my comfort.
I take a few deep breaths as I change out my gloves, centering myself so I don’t end up kicked out of the office because I’ve become more of a liability than a help.
“What are we looking at?” Doc asks.
“Wounds to his hip and shoulder are both bleeding profusely. Don’t think any of the bullets hit anything major, but between everything, he’s lost a lot of blood,” Soren replies.
“Set him up for a transfusion. I want to get some blood into him before we do anything else.”
“I’ve got the blood.” Rose rushes off to the storage fridge.
Soren gets the IV set up, and like a well-oiled machine, everyone slides into place as if we’ve all worked together for years. It might be true for me, Rose, and Doc, but Soren is still new, and this is only the second big emergency the four of us have dealt with together. Still, from checking Jude’s vitals, pumping blood, other fluids, and meds into him, and getting his tattered clothes out of the way, everyone does what they need to do, and it’s almost a beautiful dance. If only it wasn’t so fucking morbid.
Jude doesn’t regain consciousness, probably due to the immense pain he has to be in, which is a good thing. Between the blood loss and the pain, being asleep right now is the best thing for him. I take charge of administering a sedative in order to keep him under for the duration of the surgery. The last thing we need is for him to wake up in a panic and hurt himself further.
“Okay, are you guys ready?” Doc asks. “First plan of action is to get the bullet out of his hip. I clocked one in his thigh as well. Soren?”
“There’s a graze on the top of his shoulder, and the other shot was a through and through. I’ll check it for particulates, though.”
“Rose, monitor him and assist Soren as needed. Kail, help me with field of vision.”
“Jayden will kill you if you fuck him up too much,” I remark, slightly apprehensive of Doc being the one to dig around in Jude’s body. He’s a talented doctor, but…surgery isn’t his forte.
“Well, I’m not a fucking surgeon,” he snaps back, further proving my point. Still, it doesn’t stop him from digging around in Jude’s hip for the bullet.
“What happened to asking the Boss to find one?” I ask a little too firmly, not willing to let him get away with snapping at me.
“Because surgeons are just walking around on the street, waiting to be picked up as a mafia associate,” he mutters.
“You need a time out,” I grumble under my breath, even as I clear the blood out of the way so he can see what he’s doing.
Doc lets out a victory noise when he finally manages to pull the bullet out of Jude’s mangled hip, and we work on repairing the damage done to the muscles there…as best we can anyway since… no surgeons are in this room.
“I know someone,” Soren says.
Doc pauses from where he’s starting to suture Jude up after we’ve done all we can for him. “Really?”
“One of my best friends is in his second year of med school. He wants to be a surgeon. I think he said he was going to try pediatrics?—”
Doc looks back down, saying, “Tell him to expect a call from Doctor Aidan Murry to discuss his future internship.”
“Good luck with that,” Soren replies. “Vonny doesn’t take phone calls.”
Doc finishes with the sutures. “Clean and bandage this, K. I’ll get to work on his thigh.”
We switch positions and I focus on wiping down the wound site, even as I still listen in to the conversation.
“How’s it going up there, Soren?”
