CHAPTER 14

"CLEAR" Kiza shouted.

Stinger was already running over to Caine to kneel beside him with Jupiter. He was still now, curled on his side, blood pooling around him like a crimson blanket. He was quiet now too, no roaring, no screaming just still and growing cold.

"KIZA!" Stinger yelled over to her.

She didn't need calling twice, she dove over to Caine, making a messy landing in her haste.

"Oh no..." Her voice was low, she tried to take in the whole picture. So much blood.

"Kiza?" Stinger called but she couldn't really hear him. So much blood, where to start. She'd never had to deal with anything like this.

"KIZA?" Stinger shook her from her daze.

"Sorry Dad, uh..." Her forehead creased, her eyes welled up and she shook her head glancing down at the bloody stump and the discarded limb.

"Kiza, sweetheart," Stinger's voice was low and calm now too. His grown-up daughter had just reverted back to a child before his eyes but he needed Kiza the Medic right now. "You can do this. He's dying. If you don't get it together he's gone. What can we do?"

Kiza struggled to pull herself back into herself. "I...err.."

"Kiza, please save him," Jupiter this time, her voice small, pleading and near hopeless. It seemed to get through.

"Uh Ok,.. we need to get him back to the house. Dad, help me with him. Jupiter I need you to make sure Lexi is still asleep. When you're done meet us in the spare room at the back." Kiza kicked off her gravity boots and gave them to Jupiter. "These will be quicker." Kiza then tugged off Caine's boots and put them on to help Stinger tow him back to the house. Stinger picked up Caine's severed Hand and took it with them.

Back at the house, the light in the spare room made the entire mess of Caine clear. Kiza had to take several deep breaths before she continued to exam him. He was still breathing, barely. She had to stabilise him before she did anything else. Stinger had put Caine's severed hand on ice for the time being.

Kiza took a syringe and a vial from a case and gave Caine a shot. "This will make him more comfortable and more manageable. I need him out for this."

Stinger nodded. Jupiter entered the room at that moment, her face drawn with worry, her clothes still caked in Caine's blood.

"How's little'un?" Stinger asked.

"Asleep," Jupiter gave a weak smile, "Just keep an ear out for her will you? You guys hear better than me. If she wakes up I need to stop her coming down the stairs."

Stinger nodded. "Of course."

"How is he?" Jupiter asked Kiza, trying not to put all her hopes into that one sentence.

Kiza was cutting off his shirt. "A mess. The shot he took to the stomach went through his gut. I'm going to have to clean that out and seal his intestines before I can close him up."

"Can't you use the spray?" Jupiter felt like she already knew the answer.

Kiza shook her head genuinely sorry, "Not for this hun, he's too far gone." Kiza revealed the gaping wound to his stomach and several more thankfully comparatively minor wounds to his torso, some would respond to the spray, some would need stitching.

Jupiter's throat grew tight but she forced herself to keep it together. "And his hand?"

Kiza glanced at Stinger and stopped her ministrations with a heavy sigh. I'm sorry. I can't save it."

Jupiter felt like the wind had been knocked from her. She lowered to her knees on the floor beside the bed protectively and instinctively cupping her stomach with one hand. "There must be something... you guys have all this tech?"

Kiza shook her head again, her shoulders slumped. Her voice filling with grief, "The blade he used. It was heated Kulmin silver, it's super toxic. When it slices it simultaneously burns and infects damaging the tissue around it I could try and cut away the burned flesh and re-attach the hand but his mobility, dexterity would be that of an infant, if he retained anything at all and there's no guarantees the limb wouldn't get rejected eventually. I'm so sorry Jupe, I just can't.

Jupiter nodded in silence through heavy eyes. "But he'll live?"

"We'll have to keep an eye on him. But I swear to you I won't stop until he's through the worst."

Jupiter nodded exhausted. Stinger glanced over at Jupiter. "You should get some rest Majesty, there's nothing much either of us can do here. I'll stay with Kiza and help patch our boy up but you and the little ones need some sleep."

Jupiter was suddenly more exhausted than she'd ever been. She nodded again and stood up. Aches and pains she didn't know she had were coming up to say hello. She wanted to be there for Caine, but Stinger was right there was nothing she could do but sit there distressed and worried and she had a toddler asleep upstairs that didn't need to see the horror show that was lying in the spare room and looked like her Father. "Call me if anything changes?"

"Promise" Stinger replied.

After Jupiter left Stinger and Kiza looked at each other.

"Dad..." Kiza's lip was trembling, her hands shaking. She'd been keeping it together for Jupiter but now she was gone the little girl was resurfacing.

Stinger stilled one of her small hands with both of his. "I know kiddo. I'm scared too. You can do this ok?"

Kiza took a deep breath and nodded, "Yes."

And then she sat about piecing the fallen soldier back together. There wasn't enough bandage, or gauze or trays. They had to improvise until Caine's blood coated every inch of the bed he lay on. The smell from a perforated gut is not pleasant to say the least but neither Stinger nor Kiza noticed. The only thing that was important was keeping Caine alive. And then there was the hand. Kiza's eyes rested on that bloody stump for too long. Stinger had to give her a nudge again. She took a deep breath and went about searing away the damaged flesh with a lazer knife. The smell, the sound, it was sickening. It took what seemed like hours but when she was done the wound was clean, the flesh a healthy pink and she went about sewing him up.

The spray wouldn't heal him but it made her treatments more effective so she used it where she could. Caine was a sickly grey when they were done lying there like a slab of meat. Stinger and Kiza were covered in sweat, their faces plastered with fear and hope. Kiza sat back just staring at his still form and Stinger did something so uncharacteristic she could barely take it in. He stood up, went over to Caine's lifeless body and lay a tender kiss on the younger man's forehead.

"Be well son."

Stinger then turned to Kiza who looked in danger of coming apart and pulled her into his arms. "You are the greatest thing I have ever done with my life. I love the bones of ya kid."

Kiza squeezed him back. What could she say to come back at that? Nothing.

Jupiter was upstairs fresh from the shower. Still only half present but enough that she could watch over her daughter. Little Lexi was asleep in a little cot bed in a box room upstairs. It used to be an office and then became her play den and Stinger said it was now her room permanently. Lexi loved it. Jupiter went into the room and stroked her hair a while. The child didn't stir straight away but eventually her eyes fluttered open but Jupiter was miles away not realising she'd woken Lexi up with her ministrations. Jupiter's eyes were on the far wall staring at nothing in particular. Lexi was yawning, her little face scrunched up from sleep as she turned under her mother's hand.

"Mamam?"

Jupiter glanced down surprised. "Sorry baby I didn't mean to wake you up."

"Hearded noises" she rubbed at her eyes attempting to wake herself up but Jupiter soothed her down again.

"shhh, I know baby, it was nothing."

"Mamam?"

"hmm?"

"You smells like pennies." The child yawned again and rolled back on to her side to go back to sleep.

Jupiter looked confused at first but her daughter's nose was like her fathers, never wrong. She glanced down at herself. She'd showered. Maybe she could smell the blood all the way from downstairs?

And then it dawned on her. An ache in her gut, her lower back and she stopped breathing for a couple of moments.

"Baby you go back to sleep and Mommy will find the pennies ok?"

Lexi nodded,

"But you have to sleep for reals ok all night?"

Lexi nodded again and shut her eyes rolling over to face the window.

"Good girl." Jupiter managed to keep her voice even as she left the room, with a slow terror spilling around her heart. Back in her own room, she reached a hand down between her legs and it came back wet with her blood. She wanted to scream out for help but she couldn't. Lexi had just gone back down so she slowly crept down the stairs, the ache in her back turning into a searing pain, her eyes filling with tears and her legs threatening to buckle under her.

She rounded a corner and made her way gingerly down the hall way back to the spare room when a twisting pain tore through her. She gasped but clamped a hand over her mouth so not to cry out. She used the wall to keep upright and just as she got to the room she fell into Stinger.

"JUPITER!"

Kiza ran to her. "What's..." Then her eyes fell to Jupiters legs, and the blood that trailed down them.

"SHIT! Dad I need to get this baby out now!"

Stinger nodded and lay Jupiter down on the floor of the room. Kiza still needed to keep an eye on Caine after all.

"What's happening?" Jupiter searched their faces for hidden answers.

"I need to stop the bleeding but I need to get this boy out first."

"No!" Jupiter said trying to get up but being held down by Stinger. "I can't be in labour, it's too soon!"

"I know," Kiza said "You're not in full labour and you're not going to be. I need to do a caesarean."

"Have you done this before?"

"Only in simulators."

Jupiter tried to get up again.

"Jupe you need to trust me, this needs to happen now or both of you could die."

Jupiter tried to force herself calm, focus on the things that mattered. Caine safe and alive, Lexi, their son. She took another calming breath.

"Jupe...?" Caine's groggy voice came from the bed beside her. His head was moving slowly back and forth as he tried to see through the mist of drugs in his system. He turned his head sideways to look down at her but could barely focus. "Wha...?"

Stinger replied to him, "Be still Caine. It's the baby, Jupiter needs to birth that boy right now but we gotta cut her."

"Jupe...?" his eyes searched for hers.

Jupiter craned her head to look up at him, fear in those big brown orbs. "I'm here. They gotta get our boy out." Her voice faltered then, and Caine heard it crack.

"Jupiter?" Kiza called with a seriousness. "I need you to listen to me." Jupiter looked up at her from the floor. "I can't give you the kind of drugs I gave Caine, not for something like this. I need you to understand that I can give you something to dull your senses but you're still going to feel much of it. I'm sorry I don't have supplies to make this more comfortable for you and we need to move now. Do you understand?"

Jupiter's eyes were wide, but she nodded. "Jupiter reached out for some discarded sheets that had been cut up and dumped on the floor. She wadded up the cotton and put it in her mouth. She nodded at Kiza, her eyes glazing over again. Kiza nodded back and prepared her knife while Stinger bought in clean sheets and other instruments.

Caine lay there feeling helpless while a fear crept up on both he and Jupiter. What could he do? Nothing.

So when Kiza asked if Jupiter was ready and she nodded before turning her gaze to Caine, he did the only thing he could muster. He stretched his lead heavy good arm out to his side and reached his fingers for Jupiter's hand and he let her hold on to it while she writhed and screamed into her gag.