Whumptober Day Seventeen: Haemorrhage

I am totally blaming Gumnut for this one…she 'gifted' me a Scott, stabbed with a fork, which led to a discussion with Tsari as to whether we had done that yet…Nutty immediately regretted her words…

Characters: Scott, John, Grandpa Tracy

Rating: Teen

Warnings: Blood, Accidental Impaling

Scott, John and Virgil loved helping Grandpa Grant around the farm. And as they grew older they got more and more important and interesting work. By the time Scott was 10, John 9 and Virgil 8, Scott was trusted with helping distribute the animal feed, John helped with the horses and Virgil the chickens.

Scott loved his job because it meant that he got to ride on the back of the tractor-pulled trailer. Sometimes Grandpa would drive quite fast…but Scott promised he'd never tell Grandma. Or Mom.

But Scott loved it.

He had a special pitchfork to distribute the hay, loosening the material as he threw the hay onto the ground while Grandpa trundled them through the fields. While their farm was mostly wheat, they did have a herd of cows and several horses as well as a couple of pigs and some chickens. Grant had lopped the handle down to make it easier for his grandson to use.

Today was a special day.

Today John was going to join them, the next Tracy grandson to step up the rung of farm chores.

Grant watched fondly as Scott taught John the right technique for pitching the hay. It wasn't an easy technique for small boys, but Scott was good with his siblings, a patience he didn't show anywhere else, and John was a quick learner.

By the end of the morning John had got the technique down to pat and they stopped for lunch, the three of them sitting on the trailer, legs dangling while eating huge cheese and ham sandwiches and drinking bottles of soda.

That afternoon they set off for the last field. John was excited to do this field himself, and Scott sat and watched with unconcealed pride that he was doing so well.

That was until the trailer went over a hole in the ground just as John turned to spear the next forkful of hay…

…and tripped and dug the fork into Scott's leg.

Scott screamed, causing Grant to throw on the emergency break. Unfortunately that threw the boys forward. That motion, coupled by the fact that John had moved, helped the child to pull the fork out. By the time he'd ran around to the trailer it was John who was screaming while Scott was tearfully trying to reassure his brother that he was fine.

Grant jumped up onto the trailer. His eldest grandson was bleeding profusely. His second eldest was sitting in the hay trying to help his brother. Pulling John into a brief hug, he set him to put pressure on Scott's wound using his own shirt as a pad while he drove them home as fast as possible, calling ahead to let Ruth know that there had been an accident.

John's small hands clasped the shirt around Scott's thigh tightly, and he pushed with all his worth, but as the tractor shot forward the pain soon got too much and his big brother passed out. It didn't stop John repeating his mantra of 'I'm sorry, Scotty. I'm sorry' over and over again. Even with the tight hold his hands slipped a couple of times as they went over bumps and ruts in the ground they were speeding over.

Ruth got straight on to the emergency line, and an ambulance was dispatched immediately and would probably arrive the same time as the tractor. It wouldn't take long, although they were rural, they were still reasonably near the town.

Grant beat the ambulance by minutes, enough time for Ruth to jump onto the trailer and take over for John. She was horrified at the amount of blood Scott had lost, and the medic in her snapped into action, pressing much harder onto the wound than John had been able to. The fact that the pain didn't rouse Scott was worrying her.

As that thought entered her mind the ambulance pulled up, and they wasted no time getting Scott onto a stretcher and whisking him and Ruth off to the hospital, leaving Grant to clean up John and contact Lucy.

The noises the EMT's were making were not comforting Ruth, especially since she knew medicalese. Murmurs of haemorrhaging and severe blood loss. Fortunately the ambulance was equipped for all kinds of injuries caused by farm equipment, and they didn't take long to get the leg stabilised and the bleeding stopped.

Surgery on Scott's thigh happened as soon as they arrived. By the time Lucy had arrived with Gordon and baby Alan with John and Grant, he was out and in recovery, hooked up with drips and pain relief.

It was a very tearful reunion that evening when Scott finally woke up, but the surgeon had done a beautiful job of Scott's thigh, two small scars the only physical reminder of the day his immediately younger brother stabbed him with a pitchfork.

Sadly, it wasn't the last time a member of his family managed to stab Scott with a fork…