Note: thank you all so much for the reviews. Two weeks off work now and both my boys will be at school from wed so plenty of time to write more stories. Trouble is which to pick off my list of story ideas.
Chapter Two
It was slow going, climbing back up the hill. Danny had initially started off well, but after twenty minutes they had only made it up a third of the slope, and Danny was tiring.
"Keep going Danny, almost there." Kono encouraged.
Danny looked up assessing the slope. "Almost there, are you kidding? I feel like we are climbing Mount Kilimanjaro. Is it me, or is the air getting thinner?"
"It's you Danny." Kono replied with a smile but she was actually trying to hide her concern. The higher they climbed, the more Danny had started to shake. He was obviously exhausted, and the shock was deepening.
Danny took another step forward and yelped as he put more weight on his heel than he had planned. He wobbled over to one side. Kono caught him before he toppled over. "Easy, Danny, easy. Why don't we just take a second to rest?"
"No, I'm good." Danny insisted and kept going, but five minutes later he faltered again, and this time Kono insisted they stop so she could check his wounds. From what she could see the head wound had stopped bleeding Danny's hair, a matted mess under her makeshift bandage. His t-shirt was stained with blood as the cut to his back had begun to weep. Checking Danny's heel she worried that the sand and dirt was becoming embedded into the wound. "Maybe I should re-wrap this." She said concerned.
"It's fine. It will hold 'til we get out of here."
"But Danny, it looks dirty, it could get infected?" Kono worried.
"Kono, stop mithering. You did a good job with what we had. Now help me up so we can get off this mountain." Danny said holding his hand out so she could help him up.
"Mithering?" Kono asked.
"Yeah, mithering, you know. To fuss." At Kono's blank expression Danny added. "Rachel used to say it to me all the time, when she was pregnant with Grace, must be an English thing."
"Yeah," Kono replied easing Danny up and trying to position him so that she could support more of his weight.
The nearer the top they got, the more Danny struggled. He felt like every bit of energy had been sapped from him, and the pain was a constant ache, eating away at his body. Finally they reached the top and Kono ran to the trunk of her car and pulled out a blanket. Throwing it around Danny, who was cold to the touch, despite the heat of the afternoon and the climb, she eased him into the car. Danny seemed spent and let his head fall back onto the head rest. Kono checked her phone, but finding she still had no signal, ran to the driver's side and started the engine, making her own way towards the hospital.
She drove along the coast road nervously glancing at Danny, checking to make sure he was still with her. The shaking had increased even more now he didn't have to focus on getting to the car, and he was deathly pale. His eyes were scrunched shut, and he was obviously in pain.
Looking at her phone again, her spirits rose when she saw two bars appear on the screen. Hitting the speed dial she quickly rang Steve. His phone going to voicemail, she tried Chin.
"Howz'it cousin?"
"Not good Chin. Danny took a spill and he's cut up pretty bad." Kono replied.
"Where are you?" Chin asked.
"I'm driving him to the hospital. I've only just got a signal so I couldn't call for help, had to climb out of the cove. Danny's lost a lot of blood." She said quickly.
"How's he doing?" Chin enquired sensing the scared tone to Kono's voice.
"Not good, he's shocky and I don't even think he's conscious anymore."
"Mm...k." Danny replied. "Just resting."
"Hang in there brah, Kono is getting you to help. Kono have you called Steve?"
"I tried, but it went straight to voicemail." she replied as they left the coast road and neared the hospital.
"I'll find him and we'll meet you there. Just take it steady cuz." Chin said and hung up.
"Nearly there now Danny," Kono said reaching over and taking hold of Danny's wrist to check his pulse, which was racing.
"Mithering." Danny whispered, and a small smile appeared on his lips. Kono dropped his wrist and focused on driving the rest of the way to the hospital.
5-0-5-0-5-0-5-0
Kono realised, as she pulled up at the hospital, that Chin had had the fore thinking to ring and alert them to their impending arrival. Dr. Pearce was already waiting outside with a gurney, nurse and orderly. As soon as the car stopped, Danny's door was opened and Dr. Pearce appeared. "Danny, can you hear me? It's Dr. Pearce."
Danny turned his head and opened his eyes. He was still shaking violently from the shock. "Yeah, I'm just tired and kind of beat up." He sighed.
"And a bit shocky, I see." She said checking his pulse. "Ok Danny, Gus here is gonna help you out of the car and on to the gurney. We'll be in exam two once you've parked the car." She said to Kono as Gus the orderly, who was a large Hawaiian native, practically lifted Danny from the car, eliciting a yell of surprise from Danny.
Once in the exam room, the nurse immediately took Danny's vitals, and Dr. Pearce frowned. "Danny, before I examine you, I need to get a line in and run some fluids to combat the shock. We can give you some pain killers too then."
"K." Danny whispered.
The nurse placed a nasal cannula and started Danny on some oxygen to also help with the shock, and Dr. Pearce set about inserting a cannula, which was rather difficult due to Danny's shaking. Once in, she drew off some blood work for the labs, then starting the fluids. She then moved on to examine Danny's pupils. "Well looking at the new head gear I'm guessing you took a blow to the head?"
"Yeah, board hit me." Danny confirmed.
"Were you knocked out?" She asked removing Kono's towel bandage.
"No, just stunned." Danny said smiling his thanks at the nurse who had just placed a heat reflective blanket on him to try and warm him up.
"Well your pupils are equal and reactive. I think you got away without a concussion but you do have a nasty scalp lac." She said examining the wound to the back of Danny's head. "We can clean it up and glue it, no problem, but it looks like it bled a lot. Head wounds tend to do that. Can we get Danny 5mg morphine so I can examine these wounds better?" She asked the nurse who quickly carried out her request.
Doctor Pearce then moved down to examine Danny's foot, cutting off the bandage. "Ouch." She stated.
"You can say that again." Danny said eyes half open, but he was shaking less now. Kono arrived at that minute and quickly moved to Danny's side. "How's he doing?"
"He's definitely in shock, but we're giving him fluids to deal with that. He escaped a concussion, but the head lac will need gluing. I was just going to examine his foot. What did he cut it on?"
"Coral, I think. There was a piece still stuck in, which I had to pull out so we could walk out." Kono explained.
"Did it bleed a lot? He looks like he has lost a fair amount of blood." Dr. Pearce questioned.
"It bled quiet a bit, but most of the blood loss came from his back." Kono explained.
"Back?" Dr. Pearce questioned.
"Yeah Doc, he's a mess under that t-shirt."
Taking a pair of scissors, Dr. Pearce cut Danny's t-shirt away to save him the pain of removing it. She saw the scrapes all over his chest and stomach, but none were too serious apart from the infection risk. While Danny's chest was exposed the nurse quickly connected him to a cardiac monitor. "Danny I need to see your back. Do you think you could roll on to your side?" Dr. Pearce requested.
Danny nodded and slowly eased himself over, he was feeling much better now he was laid down, and the pain killers were kicking in. As he rolled over Dr. Pearce was able to see the full extent of the cut across Danny's back. "Oh my, Danny, no wonder you're in shock. Well that obviously needs stitches, a lot of them. Danny, I think we need to take you to surgery to clean and stitch this wound, and the one on your foot."
Danny groaned, "Really? Can't you just numb it up and do it here, so I can go home."
"Danny, those are nasty cuts. I'm pretty sure I can see one of your vertebrae through the cut on your back. They need to be cleaned properly, and stitched, which will be extremely painful. On top of that, you are in shock and probably anaemic. Once I get your bloods back I'll decide if I need to transfuse you. But you are going to need IV antibiotics for several days because of the severity of these cuts. Was it coral that cut his back? It looks extremely straight."
Kono was the first to recover from the doctor's harsh words, "it was the fin from the board."
"That fits." Dr. Pearce replied taping some gauze over the wound then replacing the heat reflective blanket, before taking a piece of paper from the nurse.
"Danny your bloods are back. Your blood levels are on the low side, and your infection markers are already raised. Given the shock signs you're showing, I'd like to transfuse you and get you started on the antibiotics right away. Once you're a bit more stable we'll take you to surgery. Okay?"
Danny sighed. "Yeah, ok. Don't really have a choice, do I?"
"Not really, no." Dr. Pearce replied.
TBC
Edited to add: This chapter contains wenwalke's story prompt word Mither. Managed to fit it in ok I think.