NOTE: Those with a weak stomach for blood, ect, should proceed with caution
CHAPTER 8
.:Buckshot:.
"Awaken the power within."
"Huh?" Helena raised an eyebrow. "I said, 'Wakey, wakey!'"
Dinah opened her eyes slowly. Helena was trying to be cheerful, and that was a bad sign. Besides the dream...
"May! I have to see her!"
"One track mind, huh." Lily said. She was about as cheerful as a satellite dish in a lightning storm, and trying not to show it. A definite contrast to Helena's feigned good mood.
"Here, you might want this." Lily put a can of Pepsi Twist on the bedside table.
"We were out of the regular stuff, and if I know Babs we're going to be out for a long time." Helena explained, and grinned in a pathetic attempt to be reassuring.
Dinah leapt off the bed and grabbed the pop on her way out the door. She dashed down the hall to the medical room, which she knew so well as where her cuts and scrapes were treated and where Helena continually found out that her newest outfit had just been torn. Once outside the closed door, though, she stopped and waited for the others to catch up. She opened the can of pop, which fizzled and foamed over from her mad dash. As Helena and Lily stopped beside her the teenager lifted the can to her lips, tilted her head back, and took a long gulp, emptying half the can. When she finally stopped to breath there were tears in her eyes, though from the strong carbon dioxide gases or the weight of recent events even she couldn't tell.
"Okay... I'm ready." Dinah said, wiping her eyes with her sleeve.
They opened the door and walked into the room, all together.
May lay on a bed attached to medical equipment, which partially blocked her from view. Her head was turned to one side, a blood-soaked bandage lying on a nearby medical tray. Barbara was systematically using tweezers to search out the bullet still lodged in May's head and wiping blood away from the hole.
"Barbara."
The woman turned around and motioned for Dinah to come closer. "I need your help. But only if you feel you can..."
"I'm fine, Barbara. What do you need me to do?"
"Look in the hole and tell me if you can see the bullet. Maybe your eyes are better than mine. Here," Barbara said, and handed the tweezers the Dinah.
Dinah was very much aware that everyone was unintentionally watching her- they feared for a young girl's safety, just as she did.
Maybe even more, she thought as she glanced at Lily. For her sake… I'll do this. I won't fail. I won't!
She wiped the blood from the hole and looked into it. Wet, slimy, blood-coated. Even more blood was flooding from a severed blood vessel already. Dinah gently lifted the skin a bit, trying to see into the deep darkness of the bullet wound. Stopping for a second to wipe more blood away, she asked her mentor, "Do you have a flashlight?"
"Yes, let me go get it." Barbara strode off to a medical chest at the other end of the room. A few seconds later she returned with the flashlight and what looked like some sort of water pump.
"Use this to wash the blood out of the wound as you look- it might help."
Dinah turned back to her patient and found that even more blood was dripping down the depression behind her jaw.
"There's so much blood! It's hopeless." Dinah dropped the tools on the silver tray.
Barbara glared at her charge. "It's not over until I say it's over! Besides, all that blood may be a nuisance, but it means her heart's still beating. She's still alive, Dinah. Are you going to let the lead seep into her brain and kill her?" the redhead's eyes were glistening with unshed tears, and her stare had softened to a pleading gaze.
"You're right. I... just wasn't thinking." Dinah picked the cloth and the water pump up and leaned over May's inert head.
Barbara turned to Lily and Helena. "I think it's best you guys leave. Go raid the cupboards for some snacks, watch a bit of TV."
Helena snorted, "What snacks?" but it was half-hearted.
Lily and Helena left, and Barbara now tapped Dinah on the arm. "Do you want me to go, or stay."
"You were actually thinking of leaving me on my own to do this?"
"No... if you wanted me to leave, I would have gone into the viewing room and watched to make sure you weren't just being noble." Barbara said with the faintest hint of a smile. "But of course solo would be more Helena's style, wouldn't it."
"No. Helena wouldn't do this in the first place." Dinah whispered.
Barbara moved to the other side of the bed and looked Dinah full in the face. She spoke firmly and without hesitation. "You'd be surprised what that girl would do."
*******
"Crackers, soup, coffee, fig bars... fig bars? What're fig bars?" Lily shouted to Helena.
"They're bars made of fig. Why, what'd you think they were?" Helena shouted back from the living room.
"Mouldy."
Helena walked into the kitchen and inspected the infamous fig bars. "They are mouldy, can't you see the bluish colour on the bottom?"
Lily's face crumpled up in an expression of extreme disgust. "You actually keep stuff that's that old?"
"It's not me, Barbara never goes to the store and I'm always on sweeps." Helena complained. "Unless... well, we're not doing anything right now, and if we don't go then everyone here'll probably starve. Besides, I just checked the TV guide. Unless you're in the mood for old Smallville episodes, there's absolutely nothing on."
"I hate summer TV. It's all reruns. Okay, let's go to the store. Who knows? Maybe we'll end up saving the world while we're at it."
"It'd be something to do."
They were nearly out the door before Lily remembered something. "Who's got the money?"
"Do you really think I'm that stupid?" Helena said. I grabbed Barbara's wallet- and her car keys. I mean, how else are you going to get to the store this century? Walking?"
Lily pressed the ground floor button, ignoring the jibe. "You do know how to drive, right?"
"As well as the next person."
*******
Dinah put down the surgical tools for a second to take a sip of her Pepsi. Then, placing the nearly empty can on a nearby counter, she continued with her task. Less blood now seeped out of the hole in May's head. Dinah gingerly nudged the hole wider, alternately flushing it with water and digging around inside with another pair of tweezers.
Just a sec... what's that?
She put the nozzle down on the table and grabbed the flashlight, trying to see the small, hard, rounded object she had felt with the tweezers.
"Barbara! I think I found it!" Dinah called out, not taking shifting her gaze from the bullet lest it be lost from sight.
A minute later Barbara was instructing her young charge in the removing of the bullet. Dinah carefully positioned the dual tip of the tweezers on either side of the slick, round pellet and shimmied it out, bit by agonizing bit. Dinah slid the tweezers a fraction of an inch further up the bullet to get a better grip, and felt them run into something squishy.
Suddenly the world started spinning, around and around, as if it was being flushed down a giant toilet. Then blackness pervaded over Dinah's sight, and she fell through a whirlwind of nothing.
CHAPTER 8
.:Buckshot:.
"Awaken the power within."
"Huh?" Helena raised an eyebrow. "I said, 'Wakey, wakey!'"
Dinah opened her eyes slowly. Helena was trying to be cheerful, and that was a bad sign. Besides the dream...
"May! I have to see her!"
"One track mind, huh." Lily said. She was about as cheerful as a satellite dish in a lightning storm, and trying not to show it. A definite contrast to Helena's feigned good mood.
"Here, you might want this." Lily put a can of Pepsi Twist on the bedside table.
"We were out of the regular stuff, and if I know Babs we're going to be out for a long time." Helena explained, and grinned in a pathetic attempt to be reassuring.
Dinah leapt off the bed and grabbed the pop on her way out the door. She dashed down the hall to the medical room, which she knew so well as where her cuts and scrapes were treated and where Helena continually found out that her newest outfit had just been torn. Once outside the closed door, though, she stopped and waited for the others to catch up. She opened the can of pop, which fizzled and foamed over from her mad dash. As Helena and Lily stopped beside her the teenager lifted the can to her lips, tilted her head back, and took a long gulp, emptying half the can. When she finally stopped to breath there were tears in her eyes, though from the strong carbon dioxide gases or the weight of recent events even she couldn't tell.
"Okay... I'm ready." Dinah said, wiping her eyes with her sleeve.
They opened the door and walked into the room, all together.
May lay on a bed attached to medical equipment, which partially blocked her from view. Her head was turned to one side, a blood-soaked bandage lying on a nearby medical tray. Barbara was systematically using tweezers to search out the bullet still lodged in May's head and wiping blood away from the hole.
"Barbara."
The woman turned around and motioned for Dinah to come closer. "I need your help. But only if you feel you can..."
"I'm fine, Barbara. What do you need me to do?"
"Look in the hole and tell me if you can see the bullet. Maybe your eyes are better than mine. Here," Barbara said, and handed the tweezers the Dinah.
Dinah was very much aware that everyone was unintentionally watching her- they feared for a young girl's safety, just as she did.
Maybe even more, she thought as she glanced at Lily. For her sake… I'll do this. I won't fail. I won't!
She wiped the blood from the hole and looked into it. Wet, slimy, blood-coated. Even more blood was flooding from a severed blood vessel already. Dinah gently lifted the skin a bit, trying to see into the deep darkness of the bullet wound. Stopping for a second to wipe more blood away, she asked her mentor, "Do you have a flashlight?"
"Yes, let me go get it." Barbara strode off to a medical chest at the other end of the room. A few seconds later she returned with the flashlight and what looked like some sort of water pump.
"Use this to wash the blood out of the wound as you look- it might help."
Dinah turned back to her patient and found that even more blood was dripping down the depression behind her jaw.
"There's so much blood! It's hopeless." Dinah dropped the tools on the silver tray.
Barbara glared at her charge. "It's not over until I say it's over! Besides, all that blood may be a nuisance, but it means her heart's still beating. She's still alive, Dinah. Are you going to let the lead seep into her brain and kill her?" the redhead's eyes were glistening with unshed tears, and her stare had softened to a pleading gaze.
"You're right. I... just wasn't thinking." Dinah picked the cloth and the water pump up and leaned over May's inert head.
Barbara turned to Lily and Helena. "I think it's best you guys leave. Go raid the cupboards for some snacks, watch a bit of TV."
Helena snorted, "What snacks?" but it was half-hearted.
Lily and Helena left, and Barbara now tapped Dinah on the arm. "Do you want me to go, or stay."
"You were actually thinking of leaving me on my own to do this?"
"No... if you wanted me to leave, I would have gone into the viewing room and watched to make sure you weren't just being noble." Barbara said with the faintest hint of a smile. "But of course solo would be more Helena's style, wouldn't it."
"No. Helena wouldn't do this in the first place." Dinah whispered.
Barbara moved to the other side of the bed and looked Dinah full in the face. She spoke firmly and without hesitation. "You'd be surprised what that girl would do."
*******
"Crackers, soup, coffee, fig bars... fig bars? What're fig bars?" Lily shouted to Helena.
"They're bars made of fig. Why, what'd you think they were?" Helena shouted back from the living room.
"Mouldy."
Helena walked into the kitchen and inspected the infamous fig bars. "They are mouldy, can't you see the bluish colour on the bottom?"
Lily's face crumpled up in an expression of extreme disgust. "You actually keep stuff that's that old?"
"It's not me, Barbara never goes to the store and I'm always on sweeps." Helena complained. "Unless... well, we're not doing anything right now, and if we don't go then everyone here'll probably starve. Besides, I just checked the TV guide. Unless you're in the mood for old Smallville episodes, there's absolutely nothing on."
"I hate summer TV. It's all reruns. Okay, let's go to the store. Who knows? Maybe we'll end up saving the world while we're at it."
"It'd be something to do."
They were nearly out the door before Lily remembered something. "Who's got the money?"
"Do you really think I'm that stupid?" Helena said. I grabbed Barbara's wallet- and her car keys. I mean, how else are you going to get to the store this century? Walking?"
Lily pressed the ground floor button, ignoring the jibe. "You do know how to drive, right?"
"As well as the next person."
*******
Dinah put down the surgical tools for a second to take a sip of her Pepsi. Then, placing the nearly empty can on a nearby counter, she continued with her task. Less blood now seeped out of the hole in May's head. Dinah gingerly nudged the hole wider, alternately flushing it with water and digging around inside with another pair of tweezers.
Just a sec... what's that?
She put the nozzle down on the table and grabbed the flashlight, trying to see the small, hard, rounded object she had felt with the tweezers.
"Barbara! I think I found it!" Dinah called out, not taking shifting her gaze from the bullet lest it be lost from sight.
A minute later Barbara was instructing her young charge in the removing of the bullet. Dinah carefully positioned the dual tip of the tweezers on either side of the slick, round pellet and shimmied it out, bit by agonizing bit. Dinah slid the tweezers a fraction of an inch further up the bullet to get a better grip, and felt them run into something squishy.
Suddenly the world started spinning, around and around, as if it was being flushed down a giant toilet. Then blackness pervaded over Dinah's sight, and she fell through a whirlwind of nothing.