Hey everyone! I'm really sorry for going completely MIA I been having some major technical difficulties, and am just barely able to get this done from my phone. So it might be a while till I can get another chapter to actually post. Though with the little bit of extra time I have ok my hands it might be sooner rather than later.
I hope you enjoys this chapter, i had a little bit of trouble trying to figure out the best way for people to understand that wounds don't magically heal.
And don't forget this if ypu have any criticism please tell me, it helps me to understand what i need to do better. And if you have an idea please tell me i am open to many ideas.
Disclaimer: I do not own Carmen Sandiego.
Graham filled with worry, quickly grabbed his phone and punched in a number; he hesitated for a second before hitting the call button.
As he listened to the ringing of the phone he wiped a strand of hair off of Carmen's face, peering at the damage once more to get a better evaluation.
He jumped when he heard a strong 'hello?' from the other line.
He took a deep breath before answering.
"Hi Claire it's me, Graham, you know that favor you owe me, well I need to take you up on that now." Graham with a steady voice.
"Oh, Graham… alright where do you need me at?" She said after a few moments of silence.
Graham quickly gave her the address.
"Alright, I've got it written down. It will take me roughly 20 minutes to get all my gear and get down there, what kind of condition is the patient in?" Claire asked, he could hear her rushing around whatever room she was in.
"Lets say she's in critical condition, I can feel her pulse… but it's weak." He said keeping his hand on her neck trying to make sure he could still feel her pulse.
"Ok, I'll try to be there as fast as I can. Don't try and move her I have to get there and see what kind of condition she's in before you move her; it could do a lot of damage, so what ever you do DO NOT MOVE HER!" She yelled the last part so loud that Graham had to remove the phone from his ears.
"Alight, and one more thing…" Graham said
"What?" Claire asked though the phone stopping what she was currently doing.
"Do not tell anyone where you are going, and do not bring anyone with you." Graham said with a serious tone.
"Well duh, from the sound of your voice when I first heard you sounded like you got yourself into trouble. Again." Claire said before hanging up.
Graham sighed and shoved his phone into his back pocket. He didn't think she could wait 20 minutes; Carmen's skin was paling drastically, she looked almost dead. He didn't know what happened to her but whatever happened it was not pretty.
He put his hand underneath her head so that he could lift her head up onto his lap, and almost immediately drew his hand back, feeling a warm sticky wetness; his hand was covered in thick red blood.
Graham quickly moved her head to the side; there, on the back of her head was a cut that was oozing blood. How did he not notice this sooner?
"Cricky" Graham cursed before making a quick decision and ripping the bottom of his shirt.
Using the piece of cloth, he rapped it around her head to try and stop the bleeding. He noticed that the blood flow in her shoulder and leg were still not slowing down, he quickly started applying pressure to the shoulder wound first, he didn't know how much pressure he could put on her leg without disrupting the shard in her leg.
He didn't know if she could survive long enough until Claire was able to reach her and help her. She was loosing so much blood, it was puddling around her almost dead looking body. Her face was becoming paler by the minute. He would have thought her dead were it not for his hand on her pulse, constantly making sure it as still there.
He felt so hopeless, he didn't know if she could survive this, with the amount of blood she was loosing, at the rate she was loosing it at, he didn't think Claire could make it in time. Because somewhere deep, deep down inside of him, he cared for this girl deeply, and he didn't have the tinniest clue as to why.
9 minutes later a white SUV pulled up next to him, and a small brunet got out as quickly as she could.
"Finally." Graham grumbled
"I tried to get here as quickly as I could! Wh- holy smokes! You were not kidding when you said it was bad." Claire said in a rush, grabbing a few tools from the back of the car.
Claire ran up to Carmen and quickly checked for a pulse.
"Fudder cakes." she breathed out.
"What? What's wrong now?" Graham asked worried.
"Her pulse is weak" She mumbled digging through her bag for a stethoscope, and quickly went to listen to her breathing.
"Her breath is a little ragged, there might be a small amount of fluid in her lunges." She said.
It took Claire all of 30 seconds to assess the situation, and decide what would be best for Carmen.
"I'm going to need you to pick her up." Claire said "Very carefully, or you could end up killing her with one wrong move."
"That sure makes me feel good." Graham said sarcastically, bending down and carefully sliding his arms underneath her, making sure to not touch any of her wounds.
"Wait…" Claire said before he was able to stand. She grabbed Carmen's arm that was dangling just off the other side of him. And repositioned her so he would be able to carry her up many flights of stairs. Carmen's shoulder wound had mostly stopped bleeding, her leg wound had slowed exponentially, it was only a small trickle now.
"Be careful we don't want that shoulder to be opened up again." She said
"Right" he mumbled and gently stood up, Claire helping to keep him steady.
Graham carefully headed to the stairs that lead to his small apartment.
Claire went back to her car, grabbed multiple bags full of different medical supplies, and headed up the first flight of stairs after Graham.
Graham did not know why he wanted to live on the top floor; he was dying by the time he had gotten to his door. He told Claire his key was under a small kangaroo statue that had a small compartment on the bottom, before finally getting through his door. He quickly led Claire to his bedroom and gently set Carmen on his bed.
Claire immediately got to work.
"Alright I'm going to have to give her an IV, can you please get me a damp rag so that I can clean up the area that I'm going to be feeding it through." Claire said rushing around gathering supplies and setting things up properly.
"Alright, do you want it warm or cool?" Graham asked.
"Warm would be preferred." She muttered
Graham rushed into his kitchen looking for a rag of some sort, searching through his cabinets before finally finding one, he quickly ran it under warm water and rung it out before taking off back towards his room, when he got there he was taken aback, there was equipment everywhere, an IV with a stand on one side, trays of things for extracting, and many, many bandages. Claire must have found and used every single towel from his bathroom, setting them all around and under Carmen's bloody figure.
"Here, bring it here." She said to him holding her hand out.
He handed her the rag and she quickly got to work on cleaning the inside of Carmen's forearm, and grabbing a needle that was attached to the bag on the stand, she expertly slipped it right under her skin, then taped it down as to keep it from falling out. Claire gabbed a large syringe with an odd looking needle and proceeded to place that into the top of the bag and squirt the contents into the IV bag.
"That was just some electrolytes, it should help make sure she has at least some fluids in her." She said turn to a tray and messing with some of her equipment.
"We need to get that shard out of her leg before it becomes infected, but I am worried, she has already lost a lot of blood, I'm not sure how much more she can loose before she goes into shock and dies, I think it's already at a critical amount, but again not sure." She said
"What about a blood transfusion, couldn't we do that" Graham said
"I would but I have no clue what her blood type is, and that is a risk I can not take." Claire said carefully wiping at the wound around Carmen's leg wound.
"O-positive" Graham said quickly, not knowing where it came from, but knowing it was correct.
"What?" Claire asked shocked.
"Her blood type, it's O-positive."
"Alright, but there is still a problem, I didn't bring any blood bags with me."
"I'm an A-positive, I can give her some of my blood." He said fully confident.
"That could defiantly work. How 'bout I get this shard out and stich her up first, and the we'll hook you up for a transfusion."
"That sounds like a plan." He said
Claire immediately got to work, swabbing her leg with an anesthetic, preparing the needle and thread, and then she pulled out a large set of tweezers.
"This should help get this shard out without accidentally cutting her anymore.
I'm also going to need you to hold this rag on her leg and when I get this thing out, you're going to have to immediately apply pressure to the wound. "
Claire placed the giant tweezers at the base of the shard and slowly pulled the shard out Carmen's leg, the squelching sound it made when it was finally pulled out, would forever haunt Grahams memories.
He quickly applied the pressure, trying to slow down the blood flow, that was now oozing blood at a very alarming rate.
Claire dropped the piece of metal in a tray and tried to make sure there were no fragments still in her flesh. When she was sure there were no other pieces she grabbed the needle and string, tying a small knot at the end, and started to sew Carmen's flesh back together, starting from the inside of the wound it's self.
Claire was almost done when Carmen started shaking and thrashing, her legs and arms flailing all around her. Graham grabbed her leg and was trying hold it down but she was shaking so much he worried she would shake herself off of the table.
"She's going into cardiac arrest! Try to hold her down!" Claire yelled grabbing two different machines. She hooked one up to Carmen's middle finger, hooking the little box on the IV stand, and seconds latter a loud beeping sounded around the room. Claire grabbed the other machine and knocked the things off of Grahams nightstand, planting the box on it instead, she grabbed two patches and ripped Carmen's shirt strait down the middle, exposing her bra, and numerous scars around her torso.
Claire placed the patches on either side of the burn mark. Grabbing two AED's, she got ready to place them over the patches on Carmen's chest.
"I'm going to shout 'clear' and I'm going to need you to try and keep her as still as you can." She shouted.
"Graham?" She asked looking over at his pale face. His eyes were filled with worry as he watched the little thing hooked onto the IV stand beeping loudly, all the color drained from his face.
He glanced at Claire realizing she was talking to him.
"Listen I know this is really scary, but right now I need your help to keep her alive." She said
Graham straitened his back and clenched his jaw determination filling him. "What do you need me to do?"
Claire repeated her orders to Graham. He nodded solemnly grabbing onto Carmen.
Claire shouted "Clear!" and then presses the two pieces together, Carmen jolted up, but the beeping did not stop, instead it got even more erratic.
Claire tried it two more times, Carmen jolting each time, before the beeping stopped and the line went flat.
A/N
Mhuaha, there is a cliffhanger! Never done one of those before, and i dont think i'm going to be doing them all of the time, because personally it makes my so anxious when there is one. So i will try to update within the next two weeks, but you never know.
I hope you guys liked it sorry it was a little bit short. please dont forget to comment, if it was not for all of the comments i would not have had the motivation to do this. So thank you.
~SmokeyJae
4-29-2020
just realized this was the first time i have updated in 2020!