Chapter 75: Infectious Interim

"To have courage for whatever comes in life – everything lies in that." – Saint Teresa de Avila

"A cold and frosty morning there's not a lot to say / About the things caught in my mind
And as the day was dawning my plane flew away / With all the things caught in my mind
And I wanna be there when you're / Coming down
And I wanna be there when you hit the ground
So don't go away, say what you say
But say that you'll stay / Forever and a day…in the time of my life
Cos I need more time, yes I need more time / Just to make things right
Damn my situation and the games I have to play / With all the things caught in my mind
Damn my education I can't find the words to say / With all the things caught in my mind
And I wanna be there when you're / Coming down
And I wanna be there when you hit the ground
So don't go away, say what you say
But say that you'll stay / Forever and a day…in the time of my life
Cos I need more time, yes I need more time / Just to make things right" – "Don't Go Away" - Oasis


Thursday morning dawned and Vaughn woke up, not feeling Sydney on top of him. He moved his hand to his eyes, rubbing the sleep away and trying to figure out where Sydney had gone.

"Syd?" he called out sleepily.

"Mmm…right here sweetie," he heard her say and then felt her hand on his chest, "You ok?" she asked, sleep still evident in her voice.

"Yeah," he started, "Just didn't know where you went."

She moved over, covering half of his body with hers, "I'm never far," she stated smiling.

"I know…thank God for that…" he said smiling in return, "Last night was…" he stopped, not knowing what to add.

She nodded, "I know…" she said as she laid her head on his chest.

"You hungry?" she asked yawning.

"Yeah…after all that exercise last night…"

She chuckled, "Mmm…speaking of exercise – we gotta start that again today, we've been rather lax in that department."

"Great…" he paused, "Lax? Don'tcha think I can get my exercise in other ways? Like say…like last night's exercise?"

"Actually Vaughn, I'm sure it does help…" she admitted smiling again.

"So, then we can just scratch off all that other exercising?" he asked hopefully.

"Mmm…nice try," she said moving off of him and the bed.

She grabbed her robe and moved back to the bed to help him sit up. She took off the rib wrap and checked the bandages on the front of his chest and abdomen for any signs of soaking through. She took off the first bandage, got up and went to the bathroom, returned with a warm washcloth and carefully cleaned the wound. Once she was satisfied that it was clean, she applied some first aid cream and then placed a fresh bandage over the wound. She had noticed for the past few days that the surgical incisions were healing quite nicely. They had stitches of course, but when she removed a surgical bandage now, they didn't bleed as much. Some of the other wounds weren't so lucky. While they never bled profusely, they bled enough that the bandage required changing once a day and those were still the ones Sydney had to watch for infection. She moved onto the next bandage and started to pull the tape off. Vaughn moved away from her slightly, hissing quietly.

She looked up at him, "Are you ok?"

He smiled reassuringly, but said, "The tape on this one – it's really stuck, hurts…"

She looked at it more closely, studying the bandage area. She sat back a minute, thinking, then she picked up the washcloth and moved it over to the tape, gently prodding the edge of the tape back with the damp cloth.

He winced, but didn't move away from her again.

Once she had one side off, she checked the wound itself. It wasn't a surgical incision, it seemed to be a gash from quite possibly a whip, but it seemed to be healing fine. The area where the tape had been was an entirely different matter. That area was red and obviously irritated.

"Oh Vaughn," she said gently tracing the her finger over the affected area.

He looked down at it, knowing full well what had happened, "I guess my skin decided it didn't like that much tape," he said studying it.

"We can't put more tape back on there…plus we haven't got the other side off yet," she said worriedly.

"Just pull it off…"

"That'll hurt like hell Vaughn."

"I know, but just get it over with."

She looked at him in protest, but his look was one of determination, so she sighed and gripped the side of the bandage.

"You know, I could just use the cloth again," she tried valiantly.

"Nah…just pull it already…"

She shrugged and bit her lower lip. She looked up one more time and he nodded. She pulled quickly, noting the grunt he made when she finally pulled it off.

The other side where the tape had been was just as affected as the other. She tossed the old bandage aside and picked up the cloth, laying it over the whole wound, tape marks and all.

He made a small noise when she put the cloth over the wound but then settled into the pillow as she kept gentle pressure on it through the cloth.

His head dropped back onto the pillow too and she reached out her other hand, running it through his hair.

He looked back at her, smiling, but she thought he looked tired suddenly. She smiled softly, just letting him rest.

"I hope the rest aren't like that one Vaughn," she offered after a few more seconds.

"Me too…" he said softly.

"We can't put the tape over those parts again…not for a while at least," she said.

He looked at her, echoing her look of uncertainty, "No, I suppose not."

She moved the cloth, examining the wound and putting some cream on it too. Then she grabbed another gauze pad and spent a few minutes trying to position it so if wouldn't be taped over the same spots again. She finally figured out a way that avoided the old tape marks. Once satisfied that it wouldn't irritate it more, she placed the pad over the wound and taped around it.

She looked at him, uncertainty again in her eyes, "Should I keep going or should we stop?"

"They have to be changed eventually, right?"

"Well, yeah…"

"Then just get it all over with now…"

"Ok," she said moving on to the next one. Thankfully, this one seemed to be like the first, and there was no tape irritation. She cleaned it, put the cream on and then covered it again. She moved on to all the ones on his chest, finding only one other one that was tape-irritated.

"Ok…now we gotta do the ones on your back honey…" she said.

He nodded and she helped him sit up, moving to sit behind him on the bed.

His back always took a longer amount of time because of all the small bandages on it. She started to remove a few at a time, and it seemed to lessen the time he had to sit up. She came to one of the larger bandages, one that covered a rather long and nasty looking whip mark. She always hated to change that bandage.

She let out a small sad sigh as she began to take the bandage off.

"What?" he asked when he heard her sigh, "Ouch," he said quietly, moving his shoulders slightly.

She didn't answer him right away; instead she tried to examine the bandage to see what had hurt him.

She peeled the tape slowly and realized that the bandage was sticking to the wound.

He hissed again in discomfort.

"I'm sorry Vaughn…I think it's stuck to the wound…"

She grimaced along with him as she tried to be as gentle as possible when removing the bandage. Once she got about half of it off, she stopped, examining the wound.

"Well…you want the good news or the bad news?" she asked.

"Mmm…good first…"

"Well…the good news it that I think I can get it off…the bad news is that it's going to hurt and I think it's infected…and you have the tape marks on this one too…"

"Well, none of that's really good news Sydney."

"I know baby," she said softly.

She started again and got the rest of the bandage off through his grunts of agony. The bandage was soiled and there were traces of puss on both the wound and the bandage itself. That confirmed any lingering doubts she had about infection.

She traced the outline of the wound, which was swollen, and a rosy red color, and warm to the touch, and he moved away, grunting again.

"Vaughn…I think this has been getting infected for awhile…did it feel sore?"

"Well, my back's always sore, how I am supposed to know the difference?" he asked seriously.
"If I'd known it was infected, I would have told you…"

"I know…" she sat back just looking at the horrid wound, trying to think of what to do, "Well…I mean I can clean it…but…I'm not sure…" she trailed off thinking.

"Syd?"

"Yeah…I think I'm gonna call Tom…"

Vaughn didn't say anything, but he didn't protest either.

"Why don't you lay back and rest while I call – that way you don't have to stay sitting up."

"Syd…how am I supposed to lay back with an infected wound there?"

"Oh! Oh…uh…" she reached for the washcloth, "tell me if this hurts you," she said watching his profile as she moved the washcloth over to the wound. She placed it gently on a small corner of the wound.

"You ok?" she asked.

"Yeah…"

"Does it hurt with it on there?"

"A little, but only when you first did it, but then it felt ok."

"Ok, then I'm going to try to put it over the whole thing, ok?"

"Yeah."

She moved the cloth over as much of the wound as the folded cloth would cover and tried to get it on the wound with as much ease as she could muster. He grunted when she made first contact, but then he was quiet.

"Ok?" she asked.

"Yeah, it's ok."

She moved then to set him back on the pillow, carefully holding onto the washcloth as he lay back, so it wouldn't move and then made sure it was trapped between the pillow and Vaughn.

Taking one more glance at him to make sure he was ok, she grabbed the phone and hit the speed dial for Tom.

It rang three times, "This is Dr. Barker…"

"Dr. Barker?" Sydney said trying to withhold a laugh.

"I'm in a public place, and I am a professional sometimes Sydney, or at least I try to be…" he said with a chuckle, "what's up?"

"Well…"

"Oh no…what happened this time?" he said sighing like a parent who was going to have to go bail their kid out of jail or something.

"Nothing happened, it's just, well…we were changing Vaughn's bandages this morning and the tape is irritating his skin on a few of them," she started and was going to continue but Tom cut her off.

"That's to be expected Sydney. He's gonna have them for a while, and unfortunately that's the downside of tape…"

"That's not the problem…"

"Oh, I'm sorry…what is then?"

"I just changed the position of the tape for the other ones, so they're ok…"

"Excellent…"

"Thanks, anyway…we moved onto the ones on his back and one of the larger ones…I'm pretty sure it's infected."

"Which one?"

"Um…one of the bigger ones…from the whip," she said softly.

"Shit. The deep one?"

"Yeah…that's the one…"

"What does it look like – the wound?"

"Uh…well, it's red, in and around the wound, it's swollen and it's kinda warm, there's puss too, and well…it hurts obviously."

"Does he have a fever?"

"Um, let me check," she said moving over to the bed and placing her hand on Vaughn's forehead. He looked up at her, but didn't say anything.

"No, I don't think so, he seems cool enough."

"Does he have any flu-like symptoms?"

"Vaughn, do you feel like you have the flu?"

"No," he said shaking his head.

"He says no," Sydney related.

"Well, that's good, that means that the infection hasn't gone systemic yet…"

"Systemic?"

"It's not in his blood stream."

"Good," Sydney said sighing, "so what do you we do now? Do I clean it? Peroxide or something?"

Vaughn groaned when she said that, "That would sting like hell Sydney."

"I know sweetie," she said looking at him sympathetically.

"Are you calling me sweetie now?" Tom asked.

"No, and that's very professional, Dr. Barker," Sydney said sarcastically.

He chuckled, "No, don't put any peroxide on it…or any iodine or stuff like that, that won't really help with a wound like this…what are you doing with it right now? Does it have a dressing on it?"

"No, I was changing it, and the gauze sticks to the wound, so I didn't put another one on…right now, we've just got a washcloth on it."

"You're very good, you know that?" Tom asked, a smile evident in his voice, "Cold compresses and baths, believe it or not are quite effective…" he paused, "Tell you what, I'm not that far away from you right now, I'll stop over and take a look, just to make sure, ok?"

"That sounds great Tom, thanks…as always."

"My pleasure, I'll see you in a bit."

"Ok, bye Tom."

She hung up and smiled at Vaughn, "Well, turns out I'm a genius…"

He smiled.

"It was good not to clean it and cold compresses are good too, so I'm awesome," she said proudly.

"Good job honey," he said resting his head on the headboard.

She smiled and moved over to the bed, resting a hand on his chest, "Are you having any problems breathing? Cause we've had that rib wrap off for quite a while."

"I'm ok," he said quietly.

She smiled and kissed him, careful not to press on his ribs, "Tom's gonna stop by and check it out."

"Ok," he said tiredly. He waited a few moments and than said, "You must be getting tired of all of this…"

"What do you mean?" she asked concerned.

He shrugged his shoulders, "Bandages, infections, exercises, fevers, nightmares…"

She smiled, "Nope," she said quickly and sweetly.

He smiled back, "You're sure?"

"Yup!" she said in the same tone of voice. "You know…I just realized, we need to get some boxers on you…"

"Why? I'm sure Tom's familiar with male anatomy."

"Yes, I'm sure he is, but let's not give him a show, ok?"

She ran off and came back with a pair of boxers for him and helped him get them on, "There," she said smiling satisfactorily.

"Can we take them off again after he leaves?" he asked with a raised eyebrow.

"We'll see…" she said.

The doorbell rang then and she kissed him quickly before going to answer the door.