A Spanktacular Fourth

by Tymber Dalton

  Cali couldn’t help it, she started to cry as she sat there. No way she was going to be home before the guys got home from work.

  Shit.

  Essie walked over and gave her a one-armed hug, which Eddie tried to help with. “Honey, if this is what has to happen, let them do it. Better that than it gets worse and you need massive surgery.”

  Fuckballs. “Don’t call the guys, please?”

  “You sure?”

  “I’ll call them in a little bit. Let them get the IV going first.”

  “They’re going to be upset you kept them out of the loop.”

  “Not yet,” Cali insisted. This day was shitty enough. “Let them get through most of Monday. I’ll call them before they’re supposed to head home. Then they can stop by home first and get my cell charger and stuff for me if I’m going to be here for more than a few hours.”

  “Okay, stubborn. But if my guys call and ask where I am, I’m not lying to them, and they will call your guys.”

  First of all, they needed to draw bloodwork. A tech came in and filled what Cali thought was about a gallon’s worth of test tubes. All the while, Cali tried not to wonder how many dollars each one of those, and the tests they represented, was going to cost her.

  It didn’t hit her as ironic that she had no trouble paying for any vet care Baxter needed without batting an eye, but she didn’t want to spend the money on herself.

  They had Cali change from her shirt and don a hospital gown and gave her a chance to use the bathroom before a nurse who was too damn cheery for Cali’s liking came in to start the IV in her left arm.

  Essie sat on Cali’s other side, a hand on her shoulder for comfort, as Cali closed her eyes and didn’t watch. She usually wasn’t squeamish about stuff, although she hadn’t had to go through anything like this before.

  Except this was happening to her.

  Once the IV was started, the nurse hung a bag of fluids, and she’d added the medicine to it via an IV pump, she typed something into the computer. “I’ll be back to check on you in a little bit. Hit the call button if you need anything.”

  “Thanks.”

  Essie had taken control of the bag they gave Cali to hold her belongings, and had tucked her phone and purse into it, too, to get them out of the way.

  Cali laid her head back against the bed. They’d put the TV on Nickelodeon for Eddie to watch, but she wasn’t in the mood to watch anything at that point. She closed her eyes and wondered about the ration of shit her men were going to give to her for not fessing up sooner about her hand.

  She knew all too damn well that if the shoe was on the other foot, she’d be chewing them out if they were hurt and didn’t get it taken care of right away.

  After a few minutes, Cali wasn’t…feeling good.

  At all.

  She tried to fumble for the button to raise the head of the bed a little higher.

  Essie straightened. “What’s wrong?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Are you going to puke?”

  “No, I…” Her throat felt tight. “I can’t breathe.” Her pulse raced as she realized yeah, it was definitely getting hard to draw in air, and she wasn’t just short of breath but uncomfortably unable to fill her lungs.

  “Shit!” Essie grabbed the call button and punched it.

  “Can I help you?” a woman said over the intercom.

  “She can’t breathe!” Essie yelled. “I think she’s having a reaction to the medicine!”

  She scooped up Eddie and moved out of the way as several nurses and doctors came running into the cubicle holding Cali’s bed and surrounded her. All the while, Cali wondered if this was going to be the last thing she ever remembered happening.

  Chapter Eleven

  Maybe Rusty was right that Mercury has gone assholegrade.

  Max sat at his desk and stared at his computer monitor. That Monday had been the Mondayest Monday of Mondays at work. Three different projects they were working on had hit critical snags, none of them the fault of the work he and Sean had done, but now it was partly their problem to help the rest of their team come up with solutions.

  I am going to pour myself a damn drink tonight.

  He’d fucking earned it, that was for sure.

  Even Cali had been unusually quiet today. Usually they exchanged at least a few text messages with her throughout the course of the day.

  Maybe she’s having a Mondayish Monday, too.

  It was nearly four when his cell phone rang, but it was Essie calling him. He was trying to finish up an e-mail to one of their other engineers, so he sent it to voice mail and would check it in a minute.

  Except…it didn’t go to voice mail. It rang again, stopped when voice mail picked up, and started again almost immediately, like she’d hung up and dialed again.

  Now annoyed at his friend, he answered. “Es, I’m sorry, but I’m in the middle of something, and—”

  “You have to come now.” She sounded like she was crying. “You and Sean. We’re at Proctor-Collins, in the ER.”

  “What?”

  “She’s had a bad reaction to the IV meds.”

  “What?” Fear coalesced in his gut, sinking to his balls and shriveling them. “What are you talking about? Who?” Although he knew.

  In his gut, he knew.

  “I made Cali get her hand looked at. It’s infected.” She choked back tears. “They put her on IV antibiotics, but apparently she’s allergic to whatever they gave her, and she had a really bad reaction. You guys need to come now.”

  He didn’t realize he was already up and moving and pulling his keys out of his pocket until he had them in his hand. “Is she going to be okay?”

  “They intubated her and are treating her for that now. They made me leave the room. I’m out in the waiting room.” Now she was definitely crying, and it sounded like Eddie was with her and also crying. “She wouldn’t let me call you guys earlier, said she was going to wait until you were almost ready to leave work. I’m sorry I didn’t call you.”

  “We’re on the way.” He hung up with her. Sean was on the phone, facing away from his open doorway. Max slapped his hand on Sean’s door to get his attention, making him jump. “We have to leave. Now. Cali’s in the ER and it’s bad.”

  Sean wheeled around, startled. “What?”

  “Now! Let’s go!” He bolted for the front door, yelled family emergency at their receptionist, and was already getting into the car when Sean caught up with him.

  “What the hell’s going on?”

  He tossed his phone to Sean. “Call Essie back. Last call. Get the deets. Proctor-Collins.” He barely took time to fasten his seat belt before backing out of their parking space and pulling onto the road. They were nearly twenty minutes away, and Sean got Essie back on the phone in speaker mode to learn the whole story.

  When they finally roared into the parking lot outside the ER, Max grabbed the first vacant parking spot they came to instead of wasting time looking around for a closer one. He was already running for the entrance with Sean on his heels when he held the keyfob up to lock the car behind them as they pounded across the hot asphalt pavement.

  He felt…sick. Numb.

  Desperate.

  Essie stood, struggling with Eddie on her hip, and waved at them when they ran in.

  “Where is she? How is she?”

  “They’re still trying to stabilize her. They said they’ll come give us more info in a little while.” She took them over to the desk, explained who they were, and got them visitor’s passes like the one currently stuck to the front of her shirt.

  “I called Mark,” Essie said. “Josh and Ted are at a job site in Arcadia today, and they’re filming. And I called Marcia and Eliza. They’re on their way. They’re going to call Ross and Loren and everyone.” She started crying again. “I should have called you guys sooner, I’m sorry, but you know how stubborn she is!”

  “What’s wrong with her hand?” Sean asked. “I thought it was getting
better?”

  “No, it’s infected.” Essie gave them the synopsis of their day, finishing at the allergic reaction. “I’m so sorry I didn’t text you or something earlier.” Sean took Eddie from her.

  Numb, Max pulled her in for a hug. “It’s okay. Thank you for being here for her.”

  “On top of everything else,” Essie sniffled, “what a crappy day.”

  “What do you mean, on top of everything else?”

  “That’s right, she hadn’t had time to tell you guys yet.” They sat and she glanced around, dropping her voice. “The woman who was hit and killed Saturday night in front of Venture? She was the woman who got kicked out and banned.”

  Just when Max thought the day couldn’t get much worse…it did. “What?”

  Essie nodded and, keeping her voice down, told them what Cali had learned.

  Sean looked as shell-shocked as Max felt. “Holy cra—um, holy crud.” He tried to be mindful of his language around Eddie but didn’t always remember.

  Essie tearfully laughed. “Don’t worry. He’s probably going to be swearing anyway just from me and the guys.”

  They were still waiting for word from inside the ER. Max was about to start ripping the place apart with his bare hands when Ross and Loren arrived.

  “Ed’s on his way, too,” Ross said. “Hopefully they won’t give you guys any hassles, though. This place is pretty good.”

  Then a doctor stepped out and called for them. Sean handed Eddie off to Loren, then spotted the bag next to Essie. “Is that Cali’s stuff?”

  “Yeah.”

  He picked it up and held it in his arms.

  “I’ll go in with you,” Ross said.

  The doctor led them back to a consult room. “Can we go see her?” Max said.

  “In a minute. She had a pretty severe reaction. We’ve got her intubated and sedated because we still need to treat the bacterial infection, and now that she’s had a reaction to one medication, we don’t know if she’ll react to others.”

  “She never said she had any allergies,” Sean said, sounding as numb as Max felt. “None that she knew of. She’s always been healthy. She’s never had to deal with something like this before.”

  “Is she going to be okay?” Max asked.

  The doctor kindly smiled. “She scared us there for a minute, but she’s stable. We were lucky we were able to intubate her as quickly as we did and didn’t have to resort to an emergency tracheotomy. But it was close, which is why we’re not rushing this. Unfortunately, we have to proceed with an abundance of caution from this point forward while we treat the infection…”

  Max tuned out and hoped Sean or Ross was paying attention. When Ross asked questions, Max realized their friend was, fortunately for them.

  “We’re going to keep her in the ICU, at least until tomorrow. And I want to keep her intubated for now. Until we have an idea where we’re at with her hand, the infection, her body’s reaction to the medication, all of that. If she has another bad reaction, we want to be ready to reverse it. Did you have any questions for me?”

  “Can we see her? Please?” Max asked.

  “Of course.”

  “She’s not going to die, is she?” Sean asked, his voice choked. He hugged the bag of her things against him.

  “I can never guarantee any outcome, but as long as she doesn’t have any other reactions to the medication, and if we can knock back the infection, I think she’s got a good prognosis.”

  “If?” Ross asked.

  Max almost wished Ross hadn’t asked it.

  “There’s always a risk of sepsis in a case like this. Or that the infection is deeper than we realize. But she’s young, she’s otherwise healthy, she doesn’t have any other health conditions that we’re aware of. I wouldn’t go planning a funeral for her yet, that’s for sure.”

  “How long will she need to stay in the hospital?” Sean asked.

  “Several days, probably, depending on how she responds to treatment. Best case, at least three days. I’m not going to risk moving her from ICU until we know what we can safely treat her with. If the infection responds well to what we can use, and we don’t need to operate—”

  “Operate?” both men echoed.

  “If the infection is resistant to medications, we’ll need to open the wounds up and clean them out. I’m not saying we’ll have to. I’m saying that’s a possibility, but it’s too soon to tell. Her hand’s infected, but it’s not at that stage yet. We’ll keep an eye on her bloodwork and vital signs and, unfortunately, play it by ear.”

  “She’s not coming home tomorrow,” Max said.

  “No. Definitely not. She might still be in the ICU tomorrow night.”

  * * * *

  Sean finally gave up trying to sniffle back his tears and reached for the box of tissues in the middle of the table. “Can we see her now? Please?”

  “Yes, but you’re not going to be able to stay with her right now. Not until we’re sure we’ve got her stabilized. And she’s sedated to keep her comfortable. I’ll get someone to take you over. If you want to wait out there with her friend, I’ll have them come get you.”

  “Thanks, doctor,” Ross said. Ross got them up and moving and back out to the waiting room, where he quickly gave everyone the rundown. Everyone now being Eliza, Ted, Marcia, Derrick, Scrye, June, and Ed.

  A nursing aid came out, corralled Max and Sean, and with Ross in tow led them down a twisting maze of halls Sean wasn’t sure he’d remember how to navigate to even find their car later. Everyone else was told to move to the ICU waiting room. Ed stayed behind to catch a few other people who were en route and direct them to the right waiting room.

  Sean realized Max had an arm draped around his waist as they walked. Sean also refused to relinquish her bag of stuff.

  We should call her parents.

  He wasn’t looking forward to that call. While they’d met her parents, and her parents knew she was involved with both of them, it was obvious to the men that her mom and dad weren’t exactly thrilled with the idea of their daughter having two men instead of one.

  They let Ross go back with them to see her, and it felt like a punch to the nuts when they stepped into the room and Sean saw her lying there in the bed.

  This isn’t happening.

  Ross and Max talked to the nurse in charge of her care while Sean stared at Cali. He brushed his tears away with the back of his hand. He wasn’t processing, he knew it, but couldn’t even begin to…focus.

  They walked around to her right side, where her hand lay on top of the covers, and someone had taken purple surgical marker and drawn outlines around the red sections around the bite marks on her thumb and finger.

  Sean leaned in and pressed his lips to her forehead. “I love you, baby,” he whispered. “You fight this and come back to us, okay? You can’t leave us. We’d accidentally kill each other if we didn’t have you.”

  He stepped back so Max could lean in, kiss her, whisper to her.

  Ross gently shepherded them out of the room when the nurse said their time was up. It was in the entry to the ICU that Sean finally lost it. He slumped against the wall and started crying, sliding down it as his knees gave way.

  Max knelt, pulling him close and holding him. “It’s okay, buddy,” he said, his voice choked and eyes red from his own tears. “She’s tough. Our girl is a fighter. She’s going to be yelling at us by tomorrow night for not letting her come home, I know it.”

  Sean sobbed against Max’s shoulder as Ross knelt and helped Max get him back to his feet and out of the unit.

  Chapter Twelve

  Cali felt like she was stuck in a nightmare, like she couldn’t breathe, like she was choking, coughing—

  “Take a deep breath for us, Cali,” a woman said.

  She did, another coughing fit hitting her while it felt like something had been yanked out of her throat.

  “That’s good,” the woman said. “There you go.”

  She tried to sit up, but hands
held her down. “Just relax,” the woman said. “You’re in the ICU. You’re safe.”

  She forced her eyes open and fear filled her for a moment. Not a single damn familiar face anywhere, and—

  Another round of coughing hit her, and this time, with help, they let her sit up.

  “What happened?” she gasped.

  “You had a reaction to the antibiotics,” a female doctor said. “We found the right cocktail to give you, though, I think. We needed to keep you intubated until we were sure, in case you had another reaction. We almost couldn’t get you intubated and nearly had to do a tracheotomy. Fortunately, we got you intubated in time.”

  “Huh?” She had another coughing attack, and that seemed to finally dislodge the tickle in the back of her throat. “Can I have some water, please?”

  “Just a little sip,” the doctor told one of the nurses.

  They gave it to her, and that helped a lot.

  Oh, shit. Sean and Max.

  She must have had a look on her face, because the nurse smiled. “Your two guys almost had to be tied to chairs.”

  “They might have liked that.”

  The doctor snorted. “I don’t think so. They didn’t want to leave you in here. They’re outside waiting to come see you. We made them leave while we did this.”

  “What time is it.”

  “A little after five.”

  “Monday night?” That wasn’t too bad.

  “Tuesday morning.”

  Cali froze. “Holy crap.” They helped her lean back again. Her brain was starting to clear up a little, but not much. Then, from somewhere, Max and Sean were suddenly crowding in around her, kissing her, telling her they loved her, and she started crying.

  “I’m sorry.” She realized they were still in the clothes they’d worn to work that morning.

  Yesterday morning.

  “Hey, what are you apologizing for?” Max asked.

  “I should have told you my hand was hurting.”

  Sean gave her a smile she could tell was forced. “Yeah, well, we’ll take care of that once you’re home.”