TRIXIE CHAPTER 17

Day 6

Don was awakened by a scream.

It was almost four am when Trixie screamed out in her dreams. The nurse sitting on the chair jerked up quickly and went to Trixie.

"Shh shh, it's alright missy, shh...come on wake up."

"What's the matter with her, having a bad dream?" Don called out from his bed.

"It seems so, Come on girl wake up. Come on."

"Trixie, her name is Trixie."

"Trixie, Trixie." The nurse tried shaking her to get her to wake up but Trixie was jerking in her sleep, like she did earlier when the man had caught hold of her arm. This time she was screaming, "No,! No! Let go! No!"

Don saw that the nurse was alarmed and had not been able to wake her up. He was getting alarmed too; he raised himself slowly from the bed, put his legs down and reached for his bedroom slippers. He still had the IV in his hand. He called out to the nurse and pointed the IV line to her.

The nurse came round to Don's bed and saw that he was having a slow IV drip. She took the clamp and cut off the flow, then pulled the tiny tube from Don's hand.
Don was shirtless except for a big square bandage on his left shoulder, she looked around for something to put on his shoulders, saw his jacket on the back of the chair. She took it and put across Don's shoulders.

Don muttered his thanks and she helped him over to Trixie's bed.

He went to the other side and with his good hand, he gently patted Trixie's face and said, "Pixie, come on wake up. It's a dream, only a dream, everything's alright now. Come on; open your eyes for Don. Come on Pixie."

Trixie heard Don calling her, her eyes opened , she saw the nurse one side and she turned and saw Don her eyes grew big and her mouth turned down.
"Don! Don!" She got up, clung to Don's neck, and started sobbing.

She clung tightly to Don's neck, almost pulling him onto the bed.
Don sat straight and put his free hand on her back and whispered assuring words to her.

'There, there, I'm here, it's just a dream come on no more crying. Pixie, you hear me, no more crying."

"But…..but I saw them take you out, all covered with blood… Don"

"See I'm good, come on don't be a cry baby. Be a good girl. There, OK now?"

"Um hm..." Trixie let of Don's neck which was a relief to Don. Trixie had crushed his bad shoulder and it was screaming with pain. Don nearly wanted to scream out. The nurse opposite the bed saw the beads of sweat on Don's forehead and wanted to go to get Trixie off him but Don gave her a sign to tell her to wait.

"OK, let' get you back under the covers. Go back to sleep." Don said. Trixie asked,
"You'll be here and not go away again?"

"I'll be here, see the next bed. I'll sleep there very near to you." Don assured her.

"OK."

Don used his hand to wipe away the drying tears from her face.

The nurse silently went to her with a towel and bent down and said,
"Sleep now, it's still early. Don needs his sleep too. He's not too well, you see."

"Yes, sorry Don." Trixie whispered.

"OK, Pixie, you sleep." Don bent down and gave her a kiss on her forehead.

Don stood up and wobbled a bit, biting back a grimace against the surge of pain in his shoulder. Telling the nurse that he wanted the bathroom and would she please help him.

The nurse after tucking Trixie in quickly went to Don's side and helped him to the bathroom, asking if he needed help inside.

Don was a bit embarrassed, said no thank you and that he could see himself to bed.

The nurse smiled but she noticed that his shoulder's patch bandage was a bit red at the corner. She said nothing but told Don that she needed to go out a bit.

Don went to the bathroom and quickly closed the door. Before he could do anything, he felt the familiar nauseous feeling from the chest to the throat creeping up on him.
He turned on the tap full blast and before he knew it, the lava just spewed out from his mouth, the acidic taste and the smell of it made him throw up more into the sink. There was nothing for him to throw up. He hadn't had dinner, so it was an empty stomach spewing out bile. After some dry heaves, he felt better but his shoulder was killing him.

He rested a while, gargled with water and finally drank some. He cleaned his face and waited to see if his stomach had settled down. It did and he completed his toilet chores. He sat on the plastic chair placed inside the toilet for this purpose.

As he was about to get up, there was a knock on the door and a soft voice called out, "Don?"

"Coming." Don quickly wiped his face again and went slowly to the door,

Jenny was waiting on the other side and she quickly helped him over to his bed.

"Sit down and let me check your bandage. Kassie said your shoulder dressing was bleeding after Trixie let go of you. She must have disturbed the stitches."

Jenny carried on the conversation while getting Don to lie back on the bed while she slowly peeled off the bandage.

"She's a junior staff nurse, very diligent and good with kids too.
She noticed your bandage and came to tell me. I've sent her off to get the doctor on call, a Dr. Chandra; he can check your torn stitches.

You threw up didn't you?" Jenny looked at Don's flushed face.

"Yes and it caught me unaware, was feeling alright when I went to Trixie. Poor mite was having a very bad dream. Your Kassie was unable to get her to wake up. I thought she would listen to my voice.
She woke up and clung to my neck thus squeezing the shoulder. How is it? It was really quite painful." Don winced when Jenny finally tugged the bandage off.

"Sorry, um let the doctor have a look and see what he says, OK?"

Jenny covered the injured shoulder and waited for the doctor.

Soon Kassie came in with a Doctor, "Hello, good morning, Mr. Eppes?
Yes? I'm Dr.Chandra, er..Kassie clued me in about your injury. Something happened to it?
Let's have a look, shall we?"

Jenny smiled at Don and stood one side while Dr.Chandra took off the square bandage and put it in the tray that Kassie was holding.

Don suffered in silence while Dr. Chandra rambled on, poking and probing.
"Um…um..OK, there's two umm no three recalcitrant stitches which were torn loose. Hmm that's not too bad, the rest are holding together well.
We'll leave it alone and see how the rest are doing.
You are not supposed to do anything with this hand, make it still and the shoulder shouldn't be disturbed. OK?"

Kassie suddenly spluttered and it turned into a cough.
Don just nodded but was looking at Kassie whose face was turning a bit pink.

"Well, Mr. Eppes, Jenny will get your shoulder clean and washed with a solution and we will bandage it again.
You will continue with your antibiotics and swallow your pills to kill the pain in your shoulder.
If the pain is still bothering you, let Jenny know and I give you an injection which will be fast and good."

"Thanks, Dr. Chandra." Don said and waited for the Doc to leave.

"What a funny doctor, recalcitrant stitches? Does he use those funny expressions on his patients?" Don commented.

Both Jenny and Kassie started giggling.

"You don't know how many times I have to make an excuse to go out while he did those funny running commentary on the patient, I can't control myself.
Kassie is worst, she used to laugh right out."

"Hey both of you can laugh, but be careful, I'm supposed to make my hand still."
Jenny and Kassie giggled and worked side by side cleaning and bandaging Don's shoulder.
Jenny handed Don his pain pills and set up the IV again.
"Let me know if the killer pills are not doing their job." Jenny said and both of them started giggling again.

Jenny told Kassie, "You can go off now Kassie, thanks for staying past your shift."

Don looked at Jenny and then he said to Kassie, "Thank you Kassie for looking after Trixie. Nice of you to stay past your shift."

"It's alright Mr. Eppes, I have two sisters quite a bit younger than I and I always look after them when my parents are not around. I can stay again if you want me to. Good morning, Jenny, see you this evening, Mr. Eppes." Kassie went off taking the tray

'OK Don, do you still feel nauseous? I can get you a pill for it."

"No, it's OK now. Thanks."

"OK then, get back to sleep, you have another four hours if you want to wake up at nine thirty. I suggest you get as much sleep as you can. It will help the body to heal faster."

"I will try certainly to sleep as much as I can, I can't move my shoulder and I have to keep my hand still as the good doctor instructed."

Jenny smiled at Don, she was on the way out when Don thanked her and then asked, "Can someone take care of Trixie?"

"No problem, we have received instructions from Mr. Cameron via our CEO regarding Trixie."

"Did you? Is he not coming back?" Don was curious as to why the father was not anxious to get home to his family.

"I don't know, it seemed he called up the CEO regarding his family. He gave a very large donation to the hospital fund.
I don't know anything Don. The CEO just gave us specific instructions regarding the daughter and mother. "

Don thought it curious and he aimed to find out.

Jenny dimmed the light and left.

Tbc

A/N: Thanks to my beta- Mikiss