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Chapter 9
Kate
The helicopter ride back to base had been hellish. Kate was exhausted, dehydrated, hungry, and too nauseated with worry to even consider drinking water or eating. Maloy had been on the crew to retrieve them, and he was hovering in the background watching the paramedic who worked on Alexis like a hawk. TSgt Howel was a tall, striking black man with a soft face rimmed with a serious, set mouth drawn downward in a frown.
When Kate looked at him, she thoughtman, this dude’s seen some shit. A medic she hadn’t noticed before began working on her, flashing a light in her eyes to check her pupils’ response, looking for any obvious signs of injury. The medic pulled out all the supplies for an IV and had Kate hooked up to a bag of fluids in minutes. It felt as if time stretched, and Kate wasn’t sure if the trip took twenty minutes or two hours. She watched TSgt Howel work over Alexis, hooking her up to a blood infusion, taking vital signs, and trying to staunch the bleeding coming from her shoulder.
Alexis’s eyes didn’t open, and she didn’t flinch in pain as Howel worked. Kate had the hand on Alexis’s good side claspedin her own and she squeezed it, wishing she’d open her eyes or speak. The bloody bandages were strewn along the floor of their helo, and the medic tried to gather it all up at lightning speed as Howel opened gauze dressings and tossed their wrappings away haphazardly. The cabin was silent as they worked to keep Alexis alive.
All the time she’d spent keeping people away, and when she was finally ready to let someone in, a twist of cruel fate was going to kill Alexis. They hadn’t had any time together, and Kate’s heart throbbed in her chest as she lay there, clutching onto Alexis’ hand, waiting for her to show some sign of life.
Abruptly, the helicopter landed. The men carried Alexis out on a stretcher, and Kate tried to turn her head so she could watch as Alexis was led off into the hospital. With a jolt, the stretcher she was on raised off the floor of the helo, and two people carried her in after Alexis.
Kate watched them take Alexis directly into surgery as they took her into an emergency triage area. As Alexis was taken out of sight, Kate bolted up into a seated position.
“Okay, that’s far enough. Let me off. I’m fine.”
The medics looked at her as if she’d grown a second head.
“Lieutenant Cross, you’re seriously dehydrated and have just spent several days in the desert without a water source. At minimum you need more fluids pushed and a decent meal.”
“Fine, but I want you to administer the fluids to me while I sit outside the surgical area. Bring me food if you want, but right now I feel too nauseated to eat.”
“We can give you some IV medication for the nausea.”
“Great. Then I’ll just sit here,” Kate indicated to an old plastic chair that sat next to two others outside the doors leading into the operating room. They weren’t meant for patients, but she didn’t care. She sank down into the chair, leaned her head backagainst the wall and kept her eyes trained on the doorway to the O.R.
The medics looked at each other and left, realizing they weren’t going to get her to move on her own. Kate watched them walk to a desk with a nurse and a field doc and waited for them to decide what they wanted to do with her. She glanced back at the O.R. doors. They could try to get her to move, but short of knocking her out with drugs in her IV and moving her themselves, she wasn’t leaving until Alexis came out or until they let her go in.
After a few minutes, one of the medics came over with an IV pole with a few different bags hanging from it. One was for hydration, one for nausea, and one was an antibiotic, standard downrange procedure when one comes into contact with blood. Kate had been swimming in her patients’s blood, including Alexis’s since they’d arrived in the damned desert.
The nausea medication started to kick in, and Kate finally felt the gnawing nausea fade away. A bit later, the other medic brought her a tray from their kitchen. It wasn’t an MRE—it was real, hot food.
“How are you feeling? Think you can eat this now, Lieutenant Cross?”
Kate looked at the plate and realized it must be early morning and the breakfast crew had probably just started their day. There was eggs, toast, sausage patties, plain pancakes without syrup, and orange juice. Her mouth watered, and Kate nodded her head.
The medic smiled at her. “Good. The kitchen crew just came on thirty minutes ago. It’s fresh, and I have to admit, it’s not bad for army food.”
Kate didn’t have the energy to talk about how most military food sucked, but occasionally there was a dining facility at an obscure base that had the best food she’d ever tasted.
Instead, she took the tray and picked away slowly at the food. It smelled amazing, and tasted better, but Kate was worried if she ate too quickly she’d throw it up. After twenty minutes, her plate was empty, and so was her IV bag of fluids. The nice medic who’d brought her breakfast appeared out of nowhere with a fresh IV bag and a small paper cup in her hand. She held it out, and Kate got a whiff of strong, bitter coffee and perked up slightly.
“Is that coffee?”
The medic chuckled at her. “Yep, I brought it just for you. As long as you promise me you’ll drink your orange juice, I’ll give it to you. I also brought you cream and sugar.”
“I will do whatever you want me to do if you give me that coffee.”
The medic raised her brow at Kate, and Kate huffed a laugh and accepted the warm, steaming, beautiful brown liquid. Swapping out the IV bags only took a few moments, and Kate was grateful for not having to drink down a ton of water to rehydrate herself. She wasn’t sure her stomach could handle it.
“Except move from the waiting area.”
The medic nodded and cracked a smile at her. “There’s something to be said about loyalty, Lieutenant. Call for me if you need anything, I’ll be just down the hall at the desk.”
Then she turned on her heel and left. Kate watched her return to her desk and begin tapping away at her computer, probably documenting in the chartpatient is a total pain in the ass. Kate had always wondered herself why medical personnel were the worst patients.
Thewaiting area, as she’d called it, was really a small section of hallway in an old concrete building. The lights were fluorescent and horrible, casting bright white beams down. Kate closed her eyes and pulled her hat down to cover her face.
