Bloodlust | lrh

26. All bark no bite

Calum stands with Jenson in Luke's bedroom, the two watching as he lays lifeless on the bed. He stayed awake for longer than Jenson thought he would, usually people pass out from the pain well before he did. Luke was conscious until Jenson realized a bullet tore right through his appendix.

Luckily for Luke he doesn't need one of those to live, but that unfortunately meant having to feel the first few slices of getting it taken out. That's when he passed out, right before the useless organ was removed from his body completely.

In over twelve hours Jenson was able to pull two of the three bullets out, preform an emergency appendectomy, and stitch him up completely. He's more exhausted than any of them, and now he's explaining to Calum how to take care of Luke while he goes to get some much needed sleep.

"Keep an eye on the IV, if it gets close to empty just switch the bags out before there's nothing left. I'll be back tonight with some things to spend the next few days here. Biggest concern is infection, so maybe you can talk to Amelia and tell her to bring over a few meds. I already left that for the pain in case he wakes up before I'm back." Jenson points to a bottle on the nightstand. He doesn't realize how much the idea of calling Amelia makes Calum want to shoot himself in the stomach. Calum just nods, letting Jenson go off and finally get sleep.

He doesn't know what to do, but he'd rather get the medication than let Luke die of infection. He runs downstairs to go into Luke's office, carefully squeezing by the girl who's still asleep on the stairs. Amelia finally gets back to him after trying for almost an hour, and she's digging through her medical shipments before he can even tell her exactly what he needs.

Soka jolts awake, a feeling of panic making her search the foyer for anyone. It's bright outside again and she knows she fell asleep, so she runs around the house looking for someone to tell her what's going on. She finds Calum right as he's leaving the office.

"Is he done in there? Is he okay?" She bombards the poor kid with questions. It's his turn to get sleep though, so he nods and motions for her to follow him upstairs. She can take over watching the blond, for he's already spent almost 24 hours keeping everything together.

"Jenson doesn't know when he's going to wake up so just watch him and make sure nothing weird is going on. If the IV bag gets close to empty just switch it out before there's nothing left. Pain meds are on the nightstand." Calum regurgitates all of Jenson's instructions, walking the girl up to Luke's bedroom.

She's itching to see him, to have proof that he's actually still alive. When the door opens the world melts away, her eyes landing on his tall figure laying perfectly still in the center of his bed. She thought she would run to him, but she steps slowly as she takes it in.

He looks like he could be dead if she couldn't tell his chest was rising and falling, his face sunken in and his under eyes darker than she's ever seen before. Calum watches the girl hesitantly approach him, his heart breaking ever so slightly at the scene. She's heartbroken and terrified and not even seeing him alive is making her feel better.

"I'll wake Ash up to be with you." Calum goes to turn around but Soka comes back and grabs his arm.

"No. Or just have him stay out there. I just want to be alone with him." She sends him pleading eyes, but he doesn't have a problem with it. He nods and heads out to let Ashton know he's on standby for the time being.

Soka grabs the chair from the small desk Luke has in the corner and wheels it to the side of his bed. The closer she gets to him the faster her heart races, the fear that he's barely alive in there creeping in. She isn't expecting him to wake up any time soon, but she's still disappointed when his eyes don't flutter open as soon as she sits down.