CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Tess was terrified.
But it wouldn’t do anyone, especially Colin, any good if she hid like a coward in the bathroom. She wasn’t a coward.
She’d had no idea the scope of what The Gravediggers did. For Deacon to live that kind of life for fifteen years was an unbelievable feat—the constant surges of adrenaline and danger, the skill, focus, and brilliance it took not only to be able to fight and win, but to strategize yourself and others out of complex situations when plans changed.
Waiting on the submarine had been the longest eight hours of her life, waiting to see if Deacon would appear back at the sub like he’d planned. When the doors had unlatched, she burst through, searching for him. She’d probably looked deranged, but the relief she’d felt when she’d seen him, looking like the devil’s own nightmare, was the exact moment she realized she loved him.
The other realization was that this was only the first of many times she’d have to watch him risk his life. She wasn’t sure she had the strength to take that kind of punishment over and over again.
She went through the cabinets, pulling bandages and instruments, setting them out on a tray. The IV was ready to go in, and all that remained was for her to find her courage.
Axel wheeled a cart into the room. “We’ve got about fifteen units of blood and at least a three-hour journey back to the States.”
“I can only think of one option,” Tess said. “And it’s going to depend on whether his femoral was severed or nicked. I’d actually prefer it to be severed. I don’t have the skills to go in and repair a nicked artery. It’s delicate work and requires a graph from another vein.”
Tess put on a pair of gloves and turned on the bright overhead light so she could get a better look. And then she took a pair of scissors and cut off Colin’s pant leg at the thigh. She handed the scissors over to Deacon.
“Go ahead and remove the rest of his clothing and let’s get some warming blankets on him.”
She was fortunate that the scientific part of mortuary work dealt with the veins. Femoral arteries were how the blood was removed from the body and the embalming solution inputted. She wasn’t used to working with the smaller veins, but the principle was basically the same—the needle had to go inside for the solution to be delivered.
She slid the needle beneath the skin and felt the slight resistance as the vein was located. And then she hooked up the tubing to start the saline solution flow. When she looked back up Deacon and Axel had gotten the rest of Colin’s clothes off and wrapped the warming blankets around him, leaving his leg exposed.
“You said you could only think of one option,” Deacon said.
“Yes, and it’s risky,” she said. “But I can’t think of another way. Or at least another way that I’m capable of being successful at. I once had to embalm a man who’d gotten caught under his tractor. He came to me in five pieces. Both legs, his head, and an arm had all been severed. I still had to embalm him and put all the pieces back together, but the embalming fluid travels through the veins, and theoretically, there should be one point of entry and one exit. With severed limbs and arteries, there are obviously multiple entry and exit points for the embalming solution to go in. So you have to somehow build a bridge and connect the pieces of the vein again, and still have it be functional so the solution can go through.”
“So what does that mean?” Deacon asked.
“It means the only thing I can think of to do is build a bridge from the vein in the top part of his thigh to the vein in his calf with catheter tubing. We start the blood transfusion and get circulation going again, and that should buy us the time we need until we can get him to a hospital and someone who knows what the hell they’re doing can take over.”
“No time like the present,” Axel said, putting on a pair of gloves for himself.
She’d seen the catheter tubing in a package on one of the shelves and ripped open the paper, setting the thin coil of tubing on the tray with the bandages.
“What’s the risk?” Deacon asked.
“I might not be able to get the catheter inserted in time. When the artery is severed the vein retreats into the body. It’s going to take me a little time to hunt for it and pull it back out. He’ll be bleeding the whole time, and it’s a little different working on someone whose blood is still flowing.”
Colin stirred on the table, and she looked up to see his dark eyes on her. His upper lip was beaded with sweat and he was pale.
He licked his lips once before speaking. “Je besoin de medicaments,” he said in his native tongue, asking for painkillers.
“Pussy,” said Elias. “Put a stick between your teeth like a real man.”
Tess could see the worry in the other men’s faces, but she thought Colin’s lips twitched at the comment.
“There’s a syringe of propofol in the cabinet,” she said. “There’s a good stock of drugs. Someone shoot him up.”
“Je t’aime,” Colin said.
“Hey now,” Deacon said, injecting the propofol. “Don’t poach.”
“I’m not a damned rabbit,” Tess said.
“No, you’re an enchantress who bewitched me. But you’re mine,” Deacon whispered against her ear, then checked Colin’s pulse. Colin’s eyes closed almost immediately and his breathing was steady.
“He’s out,” she said. “Let’s do this.”
She hunted for the vein in his other arm to start the blood transfusion, and once she was finished she stood over the wicked-looking knife sticking out of his leg. Her hands wanted to shake, but she wouldn’t let them. Once she took the knife out, things would have to happen very quickly.
“On three,” she said. “One, two, three.” She pulled the knife free and bandages were put in her hand to press against the wound. They were soaked through before she could grab her scalpel to cut him open.
“Keep them changed out and keep pressing down,” she ordered Deacon. He grabbed a new set of bandages and took her place compressing the wound. She made a long, quick slice with the scalpel and went hunting for the femoral artery that had retracted into the upper thigh.
She found it with little hassle. Deacon exchanged bandages again, and Axel exchanged the empty pint of blood for a new one, and she very carefully inserted the thin tube of the catheter into the artery, clamping it off for the time being. She wasn’t sure how far down the artery had retracted into the lower part of the leg, so she made a cut in his calf a couple of inches down from the knee.
She winced when she saw that it had traveled down a little farther, and she increased the size of the incision and dug around for the other end. Once she had it she connected the two ends of the catheter, and then she released the clamp.
Blood filled the tube and began to flow, and tiny black spots danced in front of her eyes as she let out a shaky breath.
“We’ve got six pints of blood left to get us to shore,” Axel said. “Well done, mate,” he said to Tess appreciatively.
Tess tried to respond, but found that her mouth had gone completely dry. She was covered in blood, and she looked down at her hands as if they belonged to a stranger. She looked at the incisions and the crude rig she’d made of Colin’s leg. It was a messy job, but he was alive. Deacon had the forethought to clean him up a bit and give him a new compress at each incision. The blood was much slower to seep through.
“I’ll take watch and call you if something happens,” Elias said. “You look like you could use a stiff drink and a week’s worth of sleep.”
“And a shower,” she said. “That’s a must. I don’t know how y’all deal with the constant back-and-forth of an extreme adrenaline rush, to the crash that comes after, and then back again for another rush. I’m exhausted.” And she really was, a sort of bone-deep exhaustion that left her knees shaking and her head aching for a pillow.
Or for Deacon’s strong warmth.
“Your body will adjust,” Axel said.
“And there are ways to ride it out and get your body back on track,” Elias said, smiling.
“What kind of ways?” she asked.
Elias and Axel chuckled and Deacon took her by the arm.
“I feel like I’m missing something, but I’m too tired to care. Show me the nearest shower and a bed.”