I want Bull to survive. I love the man, I want him to be okay and I know he is in scary ass shape. That said, right now in this moment, I want him to get better so I can kill him.
I look over at Dragon and he’s pretty much being poked at like me. We look at each other for a second and nod. Shoving the masks back, we head over to Bull with the paramedics yelling behind us.
We make it to the wagon where they have Bull inside working on him. Shit, it looks like someone bashed his head with a baseball bat. That’s the only thought I can form before it hits me that they are performing CPR on my brother. What the fuck? I knew he was bad, I had no idea he wasn’t fucking breathing.
One paramedic is applying chest compressions, while another is squeezing a balloon like thing with a mask attached over his face. There’s still another one holding up paddles.
“CLEAR!”
One of them hollers and the others back away while the paddles are put over the heart and he’s hit with electricity. His body jerks. We all look at a monitor willing it to move. There’s just a green line and it’s barely moving. They assume their first positions again and you can hear the electricity surging from the paddles, as the other paramedic turns the knob increasing the charge.
“CLEAR!” She calls again.
I feel Carrie curl into my side and I hold her close. We wait while Bull is hit again. The beep of the machine is faint as a heartbeat is found, but it seems like thunder and the line on the screen appears steadier.
“Let’s get him to the main road. Medi-vac is waiting for transport to send him down to UT,” one of the paramedics orders.
“You’re flying him out?” Dragon asks and my heart stops in my throat.
“Sir, your friend has major head trauma and went into respiratory failure. UT is the closest trauma center around equipped to deal with head trauma like his.”
“I’m going with him,” Dragon says starting to get in the ambulance.
“Sorry sir, I can’t allow that. You can drive down to Knoxville,” she pulls out a card from her pocket and hands it to Dragon. “You can call that number, give them your friend’s info and they can give you updates. Now we’ve got to go.”
She bangs on the ambulance doors with a strong thud and slams them shut. We watch the ambulance take off, each one of us in shock. I don’t think any of us thought we could lose Bull until we watched the paramedics struggle to keep a heartbeat.
Carrie looks up at me with soot and dirt marring her face. You can see streaks left behind by the tracks of her tears.
“Will he make it?” She asks her voice weak.
“Damn straight he’ll make it,” Dragon growls, running towards his SUV. I see Frog and Gunner pile in with him. Crusher was taken to the hospital earlier. I need to check on him too. I need to get to Tennessee…. Fuck.
“Let’s go to the club, get cleaned up and go check on Bull.”
“Okay, Jacob.”
We walk towards the group hand in hand. Even with all the shit that has gone down, I can almost smile at the feeling that settles inside of me. My hand tightens over hers as we move forward…together.
Chapter 28
Carrie
I’m exhausted and I don’t even know how Jacob is functioning. He couldn’t have slept much the night before and it’s midnight now. We’re all piled in the waiting room for trauma surgery. We had gone to the club. Jacob and I quickly showered (and by that I mean we showered together and since I had never done that before, I wished we had more time, but we didn’t). We got dressed and headed out just in time to load up in the SUV with Dragon and Nicole. Crusher was still in the local hospital and in no shape to travel, though he was raising the roof because no one would let him. Dani was watching over him closely and again I thought I saw something between them.
We got here around three in the afternoon and we’ve been here ever since. Dr. Lyn, who is apparently the chief resident and director of the trauma-care floor, directed us to this small waiting room. We got to see Bull once, but he didn’t know we were around. He went in for surgery about an hour ago. They’re putting a gage in to help relieve pressure on his brain. There’s swelling, bruising and several spots bleeding. With each minute that passes by, the pit in my stomach seems to grow. The old adage about no news being good news, I am totally not buying it. Anything would be better than the not knowing. The door opens and we all look up expectantly.
“Kane family?” Dr. Lyn asks as she comes into the waiting area. All four of us stand up.
“I assisted in Dorian’s surgery. We successfully put in the gage to monitor the swelling and pressure on his brain. Considering everything, the bleeding we found was not substantial.”