Aisling Chapter 5

When I surfaced, I had no idea how much later it was, but I knew something was wrong. My head was still pounding, I felt so hot, and my side was throbbing like a deep, persistent pain. I hissed as I opened my eyes and pressed my hand to my incision. I moaned as my pain increased. I heard a rustling sound then Christian, the other Aegis employee, was bending over me. He appeared worried.

“Ms. O’Sheeran, what’s wrong?”

“I don’t know. Something’s not right. I feel terrible and my side hurts so much,” I moaned.

“May I?” he asked, raising his hand. I nodded, having no idea what he was about to do, but I didn’t care. First, he pressed gently on my side, and I cried out, then the back of his hand pressed to my forehead. He swore.

“Christ, you’re burning up. I’m calling the nurse and your family. You lie there and rest.”

I did as he said as I heard him at the door talking. I assumed it was to Drake or whoever might’ve relieved him. I wasn’t sure how long it was before the door opened, and a nurse rushed in. On her heels were half my family and Alistair. Anxiety was coming off them in waves.

“I need you all to step outside and let me examine her. You can come in when I’m done,” my nurse ordered. To my amazement, they did it.

“I’m going to lift your gown and look at your incision, and then we’ll check your temperature,” she said calmly.

“Okay.”

Moments later, the bandage on my side was peeled back, and she pressed around it with a gloved hand. I hissed. She frowned. When she was done, she didn’t bother to cover the wound with the dressing; she just pulled down my gown and took my temperature. When she finished, I had to ask, “So?”

“It looks like you have an infection in your incision. Your temp is one hundred and two. I need to call your doctor. He put you on prophylactic antibiotics after surgery and it should’ve kept you from developing an infection. He may need to change your antibiotic. Hang tight. I’ll be back.” She patted my hand before hurrying out.

As she left, my family came in. They were asking me what was wrong. I told them what my nurse said. They continued to fuss and talk but I remained quiet. I was too miserable to speak or care about much of anything. In fact, the longer I lay there the more nauseous I became. I grabbed my mam’s hand.

“I need something to throw up in,” I whispered to her.

She barely grabbed the small trash can beside the bed and gave it to me before I was throwing up. Talk about humiliating. Who wanted anyone to see them puke? No one, that was who. The chatter became more anxious. When I was done, I fell back against the pillows. My mouth tasted foul. The trash can was taken from me then a cool cloth was pressed to my forehead. I sighed in relief.

“ Mil , here, rinse your mouth out,” Mam’s soft voice had me opening my eyes. She was holding a cup up for me and had the trash can in the other hand. Taking the cup I took a mouthful and the fresh mint taste was wonderful. I swished it around and spit then did it a couple more times until my mouth felt fresh and clean again. She took them away. The others were all quietly watching me.

“Will you stop looking at me like that? I feel like a lab experiment. Can’t a girl puke without an audience?” I grumbled.

“Maybe, but we want to know what caused it. Christian told Drake you have a fever and your side is hurting more. The nurse confirmed it. They better get their asses in here and do something about it,” Aidan muttered.

“Big brother, give them time. Jeez, I’m not their only patient. They need to talk to Dr. Case and see if he wants to change my antibiotic.”

“Dr. Case my ass, Dr. K is here. He just got in. He’ll tell us what’s up,” Darragh said confidently.

“Why is Dr. K here? There was no reason for him to come all this way,” I protested.

“Really? You were seriously injured. You think we wouldn’t have him consulting? He tried to get here yesterday but he couldn’t,” Daid added.

“You’re unbelievable,” I muttered.

They smiled like it was a compliment. I stopped arguing with them and let Mam fuss over me. I wasn’t too proud to say when I felt this badly, I wanted my mam like I did when I was a little kid. It was about ten minutes later when my nurse was back.

“Excuse me, but we’re taking her for an ultrasound. I’ll bring her back when she’s done.” As she said it, there was a knock, and then a man strolled in. The guys all straightened. I noted that when he got to me, his name badge identified him as an orderly.

“She can’t go alone. Drake, you and Alistair go with her,” Daid ordered.

“Alistair? Why him?” I asked.

“Just to give Christian a break. That’s all. See you when you get back,” he told me with a smile.

He kissed my forehead, Mam my cheek. Then I was pushed in my bed out of the room and to another room on a different floor. It was a whirl of activity, and the ultrasound, though not too lengthy, hurt significantly when the wand thingy they used was pressed close to my incision. By the time they were done, I was drained. Back in my room, I found it was a smidge less crowded, although my parents, brothers, Darragh, and Karizma were there.

“I can’t believe you had her fly her pregnant butt out here for this,” I chided Aidan.

“I didn’t make her do anything. She wanted to come. Do you think I could keep her away?” he asked.

I wanted to say yes. I knew if he was truly worried she’d be locked down tight. It would be with every comfort and luxury but she would’ve stayed in Florida. Dr. K and her baby doctor must’ve given them the green light.

“Ashlynn and Alexis would be here, except I didn’t want her to fly or travel this close to her due date. Carmen and Bax are keeping an eye on her for me,” Darragh explained.

Guilt assailed me. He should be at home with his pregnant wife, not hovering over me. “Dar, you should go home. Ash needs you. I have plenty of people here. Promise me, as soon as the doctor changes my medicine, you’ll go home. In fact, as much as I love you all for caring so much, you don’t need to be taking time off to come sit here doing nothing. I’ll be fine and as soon as they let me out of this place, I’ll be even better.”

“You let us worry about what we’re taking time off for. We’ll see what the doctor has to say,” Cathal informed me.

I was still very hot and sweaty. The cool cloth kept being changed out which eased it a tiny bit. They talked quietly and I let their voices wash over and through me. I had my eyes closed until a slightly rough, large hand engulfed mine. I opened them to find myself staring up into Alistair’s light blue eyes. They always fascinated me. They reminded me of denim after it had been washed a thousand times.

His square jaw had a faint shadow to it. He hadn’t shaved today. His goatee was trimmed. I was always fascinated by how it was slightly more reddish in color than the hair on his head. His hair was shaved close on the sides and the top was ever so slightly spiked in an artfully messy way. It begged you to run your hands through it and mess it up more and it had a slight reddish cast to it but it was really a dark natural brown color. His masculine face combined with his tall and muscular build, tattoos and his whole physique made him so handsome and irresistible. I could get lost in him if I wasn’t careful.

“Can I get you anything, my love?” he whispered.

I wanted to cry. When he called me my love or my vision, I wanted it to be because he loved me and he believed those words. I had to swallow twice before I was able to answer him. “I’m fine. I don’t need anything.”

“Are you sure?”

I nodded.

A hard swift knock at the door silenced everyone. It cracked open and Drake peeked his head inside. “There’s a doctor here who says he needs to speak to you.”

“Let him in. Thank you,” Shane said. He was the closest to him. When the door widened, I saw it was Dr. Keim, or Dr. K, as we called him. He was greeted and returned their handshakes and smiles. Eventually, he got to me.

“Hello young lady, I hear you’ve been having a hard time the past few days. Don’t worry, we’ll have you right as rain in no time,” he informed me with a wink.

“Do you know what the ultrasound showed, Dr. K?” Daid asked.

“I do. It seems an abscess has formed where the penetrating wound was which they surgically repaired along with the injury to your liver.”

“So just change up the antibiotics and she should be good to go?” Tiernan asked.

Dr. K shook his head. “Regrettably no it won’t be that simple. I’m afraid we need to take you back into surgery, Aisling. I need to drain the abscess and see if there’s anything else going on in there. I hate to do it, but it’s necessary. I’d like to do it as soon as possible. You’ll only get sicker and we don’t want it to run rampant and cause sepsis throughout your body. Right now, it appears to be walled off. When was the last time you ate or drank anything other than a few sips of water?”

I wanted to cry. Another surgery? Jesus, I had no luck it seemed. I had to think back. “I threw up not long ago. I haven’t drank anything significant in six hours at least and as for food, nothing since breakfast, so eight hours.”

“Good. That means we can do it soon. I’m going to get the OR set up and then we’ll be taking you in. There should be nothing to worry about. Once it’s drained and I’m sure it’s good to go, we’ll change up the antibiotics and make it a cocktail. We’ll hit it hard and with different types of antibiotics. Now, let me listen to your heart and lungs,” he said. I did as he asked. When he was done, the questions began to fly from my family.

“What caused the abscess?”

“How long do you think surgery will take?”

“Is she at risk?”

“How far back will this set her recovery and ability to get out of the ICU and the hospital overall?”

“Why didn’t the antibiotic she’s on now help?”

He was at ease answering them despite them coming at him like bullets. The poor man deserved a raise for putting up with us. I let them do all the asking. I was too tired and depressed.

“She was punctured by a dirty piece of metal. Even the minutest speck of dirt from it could’ve caused the infection. Not every antibiotic works on every organism that can infect your body. This appears to be the case with Aisling. Surgery, if all goes as planned, should be an hour, but add on getting her sedated and then fully awake, say three hours, to be safe. There are always risks in surgery, but I swear she’ll be in good hands. Once I drain the exudate and assume it doesn’t reform, and she has no more complications, plus the new antibiotic starts to clear up anything left, she should only be in the ICU a couple of extra days, and her stay won’t be extended more than a few days. I’ll do everything I can to have her healed and back to her old self ASAP.”

“Thank you, doctor. You have no idea how much we appreciate you coming and for taking over her care,” Daid told him.

“Yes, thank you, Dr. K,” I told him.

“You’re more than welcome, Cormac, Aisling. Okay, I’m off to get us on the schedule. Hang here and someone will come get you when we’re ready. When we go in, the rest of you can hang out in the waiting area outside the OR. I need to confer with Dr. Case.”

“Will he be in there too?” Cathal asked.

“He will be assisting, yes, but I’ll do the surgery.”

“Good.”

As he left I tried to act normal and talk to my family but deep down I was wondering if more was yet to come. Who knew a simple night out for dinner would end in such a mess. Although, if the surgery got rid of the aching, sweating, nausea, and pain, or at least the pain in my side, which was growing by the minute, I’d gladly do it. I already hated feeling weak, helpless, and useless.