Fixing Ash
Once Oliver pulled up at the hospital, Micah manoeuvred himself and Ashlyn out of the back seat. He nodded his thanks silently to Oliver and darted into the hospital. They may be hours away from the city but the rain seemed to have followed them, Micah wanted to get Ashlyn inside quickly.
“Doc?!…Jenkins!…. I need you!” he called out, there was no one in the reception area, but it was 7pm so anyone on duty may very easily be taking a break to get something to eat. He headed straight for the largest of the private side rooms, the one that was always reserved for any of the Alpha or beta family who need medical assistance.
It was painted a typical hospital pale blue, there was a window in the wall, currently covered with a curtain on the outside, for observation, and 3 large outside windows, the blinds were pulled shut over these too. Micah sat on the couch with Ashlyn on his lap, slowly unwrapping the blanket from around her shoulders and starting to peel off her shoes and coat.
As Micah was struggling with her shirt, she seemed to have a vest under it and her shirt and jeans were soaking wet through and covered in blood, one of the nurses came in, Jessy, he had recently joined the pack after loosing his mate, and Micah hadn’t had chance to get to know him very well yet. Micah growled lightly, not convinced about letting a male near Ashlyn.
Jessy held up his hands “I’ve called the others to see who can get here but it might be a while. We should try and get her into a gown between us, scissors will help though Alpha” he said, bowing his head respectfully before slowly inching into the room.
He took a pair of gowns out of the cupboard, setting them on the other end of the sofa. Micah watched him like he was a venomous snake about to strike, holding Ashlyn close to his chest protectively.
“I’m not going to ask you to put her down, and you can use the blanket to cover her decency, I’ll cut the clothes and help you pull them off, then I’ll wait just outside while you put the gown on her. We can get her in bed and I’ll take some bloods and set up an IV, doc sent a message ahead that we should go forward as if she were human. So I’ll be setting up some pain killers to make sure she isn’t hurting and some fluids” Jessy explained cautiously, inching in with the scissors.
Micah nodded silently. He pulled the blanket loosely over Ashlyn’s body as Jessy began cutting the shirt away, it fell open and the sleeves fell away, Micah pulled it out from under her. They worked silently together to pull the wet clothes off Ashlyn’s body. They left her underwear, Micah didn’t want her to feel totally violated when she woke, because she would wake up, and Jessy agreed that it wouldn’t do any harm to leave it on.
Jessy left the room while Micah just about managed to redress Ashlyn in the hospital gown. He came back in as Micah stood, Jessy pulled the covers back so that Micah could lay Ashlyn down in the bed. After that Jessy took a set of observations, scribbling the numbers down in a chart. He left them after taking the bloods and setting up the IV like he said, with instructions to shout if anything happens.
Micah paced the room for a while before dragging a chair over to the side of the bed and holding onto Ashlyn’s hand. Zander was howling in distress that she was still not awake. Micah was still wet through and covered in mud and Ashlyn’s blood as he sat there, but he couldn’t bare to leave the room, to leave his mate when she needed him. He had been there about half an hour when there was a knock on the door.
The doctor was here. Micah jumped to his feet as he saw the doctor, looking over anxiously, not letting go of Ashlyn’s hand “Doc… is there anything wrong?” He asked quickly.
Doctor Jenkins shook his head and smiled softly “no, no son, not at all. Well apart from the fact that your Miss Faye isn’t awake yet, from her bloods, I can see nothing just yet. Im here right now to examine her and make a decision on wether we need to take her to the bigger clinic we work with for a scan or if we just give her some time.”
The doctor picked up the file, which now contained 2 sets of observations, pulse, blood pressure, oxygen saturation, temperature, respiration rate, an assessment of her pupils, attempts to get a response from her, and he completed another set, noting them down too. He then checked her head wound and her hands “Her obs do look pretty good, Im just going to slow this fluid down.”
Suiting action to words he fiddled with the fluids on the stand “The head wound seems to be healing pretty well. Can you stay with her? She will heal faster with you here, and obviously the more contact the better. Jessy said he checked her reflexes and everything seems to be fine so your clear to get on the bed with her, just watch the IV. I need to examine her ribs now Micah, can you watch me do that without removing my head?”
The doc had turned to face Micah now, clearly aware how much this would be affecting him too. Micah didn’t know how to respond to this. He gritted his teeth as he considered, on the one hand, logic told him that Ashlyn needed to have her ribs checked, but emotions and Zander were appalled at the thought of letting another male touch his mate.
Eventually he let go of Ashlyn’s hand and backed into a corner, making sure he had a clear view of the doctors examination “ok…. Do what you need to doc” Micah grunted, like it was physically painful to be separated from his mate.
The doctor preformed a perfectly proper, but thorough examination. From shoulders to knees. Turning back to Micah he smiled and stepped back away from the bed, Ashlyn was presentable and covered up once more. Micah perched on the edge of the bed, an arm around Ashlyn and pulling her into his lap gently. Once they were settled he looked up at the doctor, an eyebrow raised, clearly waiting.
Dr Jenkins chucked taking a couple of steps closer to the end of the bed now that Micah had hold of his mate again and it was safe once more, “ok, so I need to do a couple of x-rays, that wrist, her ribs and her knee, just to be safe. We will need to keep an eye on the head wound, if it isn’t healing enough I’ll have to put some stitches in, but so far it looks like we can avoid that.
Hopefully Miss Faye will wake soon enough to wash her hair out. From what I can tell, there is no medical reason for her to still be unconscious. I suspect that this is down to shock primarily, and perhaps her body healing at an increased rate, we don’t know if shes healed any faster than a human before now. That can be a shock when you get your first major injuries, remember Rafe after he got run over that time? His injuries were healed in 3 days but he was out for nearly 2 weeks”.
Micah nodded softly, holding onto Ashlyn tightly. “So we just wait? That’s it?” He asks. The doctor nods “I’ll go and arrange those x-rays. I’ll be back soon, hopefully with the mobile x-ray machine.” And with that the doctor leaves. “Please baby….please don’t do that to me…. I need you to wake up soon…. I need you” Micah whispered to Ashlyn once he was sure the doctor was out of earshot, kissing the side of her head, the nearest uninjured spot he could find.
The next visitors were Rowan and Xavier. Xavier was carrying a stack of clothes and some toiletries, Rowan had a bottle of water and a sandwich. While Rowan sat the food down on the table at the food of Ashlyn’s bed, Xavier brought his gifts to Micah and pushed them into his free arm “mate, you need to shower and change, if she wakes to see you like this, your going to terrify her. Use the bathroom, I’ll guard her with my life, then we can talk to your dad”
Micah glared at the men in the room, he couldn’t fathom leaving Ashlyn’s side, until he looked down at his chest. He was covered in blood, and while he enjoyed smelling like his mate, this wasn’t the way to do it. Plus, now he could feel how wet he was, and it was making him feel irrationally cold, odd because lycanthropes, especially Alphas, don’t as a rule do cold, even in their human form.
“Go on son, you stink of more than blood and your mate. She’s safe here with us. Shower and change”