This chapter kind of links in with Cal and Ricky's wedding day. Some of this will be the same as the chapter.

LindaAndrewsfan: Thank you for the review, I do love writing Ricky scenes and that was probably one of my favourites to write.

Sweet - as - honey: Thank you for the review, Ethan's death wasn't supposed to happen, the scene kind of wrote itself, but I'm glad you were surprised by it.

Thank you to FrankElza, who looked this over, it really is appreciated.


The Secret Life Of Casualty.

Chapter 224.

Ricky's POV.

The water was cold and every breath I take I feel the air being sucked out of my lungs. It most probably is. I try to fight the deep water, trying to find Casey, but it doesn't work. My brain has one sentence in it. "It's ok, mate, mummy's here"

Cal's POV.

The water was cold and my car lays abandoned, with no sign of Rick or Casey. Casey's blanket is floating in the air, Ricky had wrapped him in it.

"Cal!" Ethan screamed, but I don't hear, my head is consumed under the water, trying to find my wife. I go up for air. "Ricky... Casey"

"We'll find them" Says Ethan.

Taking a deep breath, I go back down, frantically searching for my tiny step son.

"Take him" I gasp, and Ethan wraps Casey in his jacket, before putting him on a stretcher. I go back down, gulping air, while searching through the murky water for my wife.

I find Ricky, still in her dress, as cold as anything. I drag her to the surface and Ethan is waiting for us.

"She's cold " I say, "Her pulse is weak "

Ethan nods, wrapping tinfoil around my wife, it's supposed to help warm hypothermic patients up, we get her on a stretcher and load her in to the ambulance. I tap my foot, anxious to get to the hospital. When we do, I find: Tess, Charlie and Zoe waiting for us.

"Cal, take a break" Zoe says.

"No. " I shake my head as I prepare to say: "Er, she was submerged in icy water for several minutes, her temperature unrecordable, she may also have sustained a head injury, GSC of 9, resps of 8 and she may have inhaled some water as well "

"This is Casey Braxton, 8 months old, submerged in water for a few minutes, he's hypothermic and suffering breathing difficulties "

She's rushed in to RESUS and I head in, ignoring Ethan's protests that I shouldn't be there and I watch as Zoe performs a capillary blood gas on Casey. I head over to the bed my unconscious wife is on.

"The head injury is of secondary concern. We have to warm her up before anything else. "

"Nasal gastric lavage?" Suggested a nurse.

"Can I have an NG tube and 500 mills of normal saline. "

I head over to Casey's bed. "His temperature is at 1 degree. " A doctor tells me.

Rick always did tell me Case was a fighter.

"Yeah, but his BP'S. "

"So?" I snapped. "It's low, but it'll come back up. "

Ethan is looking anxious. "28. 3 degrees. She's not warming quickly enough. "

"Right, let's set up for warm peritoneal lavage. We have to try everything. Get me a DPL kit and a number 7 scalpel please " I order.

Casey's monitor beeps.

"Resps are at 15, SAT'S are dropping, I think he's going in to respitory arrest. "

Casey has gone in to respitory arrest. He'd need to be intubated. I intubated him, my hands shaking.

"I'm done. " I tell a nurse, and she puts her stethoscope on.

"The tube is in the right place. SAT'S are up, temperature is up. He can go for his CT scan shortly"

"Temp is still down at 28. 9. " Charlie says.

"I know it hasn't come up much, but it's still come up, right?" I questioned.

"It's increased much, but it's just too slow. The peritoneal lavage just isn't working, it's soon going to affect her heart. "

"Well, let's go for pleural lavage. Let's do that shall we?"

"No, no, no, Cal, she's suffered too much trauma, there's no point messing around with tubes in her chest for the sake of 1 degree an hour " Ethan said.

"She's at serious risk of arrest from VF " Charlie added.

My head was in a spin. "This isn't happening. "

"Cal?" Ethan spoke.

"Leave me alone!" I roared. "I am trying to help my wife. "

My brother pushed me outside in to a cubicle.

"I know this is hard, but you have to try to stay calm, Cal " He tells me.

Calm? My wife was in RESUS, I had no clue if she was going to pull through.

Tess and Mr Jordan enter the cubicle, talking quietly to each other.

"She keeps having arrhythmia's and with her temperature under 30 degrees, if she goes in to VF " Tess says.

Defibrillators almost certainly won't work. " Mr J replies.

"Think. " I mutter to myself.

"There is one thing we could do. We could put her on cardiac bypass, it's the only way to raise her core temperature in time. " Mr Jordan says.

Mr Jordan and Ethan enter RESUS.

Ethan made the incision in her chest, with Nick observing him, but because he has recently had surgery himself, he can't operate. He got the protractor ready, and put it in the cut. He opened up her ribcage with the saw and placed the spreaders in the incision.

"3. O prolene and a snugger "

Ethan made a pear string stitch around the ascending aorta, he then cut, and put the snugger on, then he did the same for the right atrium appendage. He cut again, he then gave a heparin injection, he gave it to the right atrium, he made a cut in the aorta. He picked up the scalpel, and located the aorta, making the cut. He inserted the aortic cannula, tightened the pear - strings, then he attached on to bypass.

He looked at the monitor and saw that it was at 84. 4. "

Cal

I had been sent to the on - call room, by my brother to try to get some sleep, but it doesn't work.

While Ricky is being oparated on by my own brother, I have visons of her screaming as our car lands on ice and Case begins to cry.

I hear a knock at the door. Quickly, I pull myself up and take a deep breath, unlocking the door. It is Ethan.

"Her temperature is almost back to normal, her heart rate is 60 and she's clearly in sinus rhythm. We'll be taken her off soon and sending her for a head CT. " He tells me.

"Thanks bro, " I whisper, overcome with gratitude, I don't know what I'd have done if I'd lost her.

Ethan pats me on the back. "It's OK, Cal. "

"Where's Casey?" I asked.

"He's in paeds" My brother informs me as we walk out, and head to the lifts.

Casey is in a cot when Ethan and I get there, a nurse is sitting by him, she lets me hold him.

We pass ITU and in one of the rooms, my wife is lying on the bed, in an induced coma, a ventilator is in her mouth.

"Hey, Rick. " I whisper, taking her hand, the one with her ring on.

Casey gurgles, reaching for the tube.

"No, mate. " I take him away as Ethan glances at the monitor, her BP and SATS are stable.


I know I should go home, shower and get something to eat, as Ethan keeps telling me I have to look after myself as well as Ricky and Casey, but I don't want to leave.

I'm standing outside, chatting to Ethan when Zoe comes out, smoking her ciggie. She crushes her ciggie under her heel.

"Cal?" She says.

I turn to face her "Ricky is awak- "

I run up to her room, leaving Ethan to thank Zoe.

Ricky wakes from the coma, in which she has been in for, for 3 weeks. An NG tube is under her nose, an IV in her wrist, an oxygen mask on her face. I'm excited, but as I reach her room, I begin to slow down. Taking a deep breath, I press down on the door handle and step inside, a look upon the bed tells me she is awake.

"Casey?" She asks quietly.

"He's fine, " I say, just as a nurse brings him in.

"Hello little man" She says as the nurse places him in to her arms.

Casey gurgles. "Mamma?"

I watch as her face lights up.

"Did you hear that?" She asks. "He said mamma "

I grinned. "Yeah, babe, I did. "

Leaning in for a kiss, I realise how lucky I am to have her and Case in my life.


Thank you for reading.

Despite Ricky leaving "Home And Away" on Tuesday, I will continue to write for her and Cal.