The Babysitter

Blood

Black's PoV:

"No way, I am not having him go anywhere near me!" Blue hisses

"I'm afraid you don't have a choice" I sigh. "Just let me do it"

"Look, I trust Black, you should too" Lime agrees, but Blue has made up her mind and isn't changing it. She always was stubborn.

Lime helps her stagger to medbay, and sits her on the bed.

"I did tell you, I don't want there to be any more death" I remind her, Coal and Scarlet hiding behind my legs. "Red and I were forced to do it, but I can't any more. You two are safe now."

Blue doesn't trust me... I don't really expect her to, but it still hurts.

"Blue... you're going to bleed out" I mumble.

"MUM!!" Lapis exclaims, bursting into the room. "What happened? Are you going to be okay?"

"I... I'll be fine, sweetie" Blue quietly mumbles. "Go back to the others, now"

"No, I want to stay with you!" The child whimpers, grabbing tightly onto his mother's hand

After looking through almost every single drawer and cabinet in the room, Lime finally finds the bandages "It's okay, Lapis" he whispers.

"Hey, you can't just put the bandage on" I interrupt, "the knife came from the side. It had been used, the wound may be infected"

"So, what do I do?" Lime panics.

"Blue has to let me-" I offer, but she quickly snaps

"I think I've made my view on the matter clear"

Sighing, I decide that it's not worth arguing any more. Blue needs to be treated quickly if she's going to stand a chance at making it through another day. Instead, I sit Scarlet and Coal down in the corner of the room before beginning to look through the multiple bottles of various solutions on the shelves, finding an antiseptic for Lime to clean Blue's wound with.

Lime's PoV:

I had no clue whatsoever as to what I was doing. Blue really should have let Black look at her injury, however she didn't want to, quite understandably if you ask me (or if you ask anyone, really)

"Antiseptic. Clean it with this" Black said, offering a bottle containing some sort of liquid. "It will sting a bit"

"And being stabbed doesn't?" Blue sarcastically exclaimed.

"I think you, uh, have to move your hand for a second" I point out.

"Oh, yeah" she mutters, inhaling sharply whilst slowly removing her hand from the wound. As she does so, blood begins pumping out of the cut, splattering across the room in regular little spurts, matching Blue's heartbeat.

"Aaaaand that's an artery" Black groans. "Reapply pressure, quick."

"How am I supposed to do this?" I squeak, throwing a glance down at Lapis who was gazing expectantly up an my face, relying on me to save his mother's life. So much pressure.

"Forget about that, just do the bandages. She can have antibiotics, right? Do we have any antibiotics here?"

I don't know, I didn't stock the medical room!

"No idea" I reply

"They should do, or they're all idiots" Black grumbles. "Just stop the bleeding, that's our main priority. Transfusions are out of the question, it's not as if NASA provides us with spare blood for our missions"

Well I suppose there was no point in having bags of blood, because they weren't expecting anything like this to happen... were they?

I applied the bandages as carefully as I could, it looked messy but it was something. Pure white bandages. Only.... a giant red patch spreading across from the middle. "It's not working!" I yell, "it's just going straight through!"

Black quickly places himself by the side of the bed, reaching over to Blue's stomach

"Get back!" She hisses, suddenly sitting up, which only caused herself another giant wave of pain which forced her to double over in agony.

"Lime, more bandages, then apply
pressure; Blue, lie down and stay still - you've just made it like a million times worse!" He orders. We both obey without hesitation.

"It's all gone!" I exclaim, wrapping the last few centimetres around before pushing down like I'd been told to. I watched in horror as the blood of my fellow crewmate leaked out of the bandages, pooling around my hands, staining the gloves of my spacesuit bright crimson, much like Scarlet's. My hands also began to feel wet as the blood soaked straight through the thin material.

Black immediately began rummaging through the cabinets to get more. "Why are these all so thin? Where's the decent ones?!"

He passes a roll to me, and I immediately continue applying the bandages.

"Lime, do something!" Lapis exclaims, pointing to his mother, drawing my attention to the fact that her eyes were closed, face was expressionless and she wasn't moving at all, her body limp. Her chest didn't seem to be rising and falling any more.

Black places two fingers on the side of Blue's neck, and after a couple of seconds declares there's no pulse. "We need to start CPR. You know how?"

Lapis studies my face carefully, anxiously awaiting a response, filling me with dread and guilt. "Yes" I quickly respond, nodding my head.

No. I don't actually know how to do this, but I can't let Lapis down. Like I've let the others down, I couldn't save their parents. I have to at least try.

"Great" he responds, taking over applying pressure to Blue's wound, indicating me to go over to the other side.

Sooo.... how do you even start? You, uh, hands on chest? But where exactly?

My blood-soaked hands hover over Blue's chest, hesitating as I panic over what to do. Clearly, Black notices, as his face is painted with a concerned expression and he steps behind me, putting his arms around me and holding my hands with his. "What are yo-" I begin, before getting interrupted.

"Here" he says, positioning one of my hands down in the centre of Blue's chest; and the other one on top. "Push down, hard, around 5cm ish each time. In this rhythm, 1...2...3...4..."

"Okay" I shakily reply, continuing to count quietly at the same pace he had, whilst he goes back to controlling the blood loss. "I don't think it's working..." I murmur worriedly.

"You're manually pumping the blood around her body, providing her brain oxygen which is vital for her survival. Keep going, you're doing great" he assured me.

He seemed to be quietly counting as well, however I tried to stay focused on my own task. I had no idea why he was counting until he came around once again after getting to 30, telling me to pause before he did a couple of those 'rescue breath' things. I continued.