We all need help | s a w

fourteen

When she woke up, she was groggy. The room was bright enough to make her snap her eyes shut again. When she felt ready, she opened them slowly, taking everything in. The bland white walls, the scratchy blanket fabric on her arms. There were balloons in the corner of the room, and beside her on a desk and the on the window were various vases full of flowers. She looked to her other side, and saw Mark asleep, slumped over in a chair. She looked down and saw her arm stuck with an IV needle. She tried to move, to get in a better position but she hissed in pain. Then she noticed the bulky bandage covering her shoulder, down to her armpit, covering the skin until the middle of the chest. A sling held her arm in place, close to her body. A little excessive, she thought as she remembered what had happened.

Mark stirred in the uncomfortable hospital chair, and took a sharp intake of breath as he woke up. He looked up at her, and immediately noticed she was awake. He smiled at her, and reached over and placed a hand on her leg. "Hey." He said, simply.

"Hey." She answered back. Before the two got a chance to speak, a doctor walked in with a nurse. Both were dressed in blue scrubs and the young doctor looked too perky to be working the job she had.

"Hey, you're awake." The doctor smiled brightly at her. "I'm Lynn, or Dr. Denlon. I just have to get the nurse to check your vitals, make sure everything's okay." She said as she walked over. Kailey nodded, allowing them to do what they had to. "I have to change that bandage, too." She said, and left for a second. Kailey shared a look with her boyfriend as Lynn re-entered, alone. "How's your pain?" She asked her as she removed the adhesive of the bandage.

"Could be worse, I guess." Kailey told her.

"We did have to do surgery to get the bullet out. We repaired the bone as much as we could on our own and repaired the vein. You're gonna have to keep your arm in a sling for about four to six weeks, but other than that you should be alright." Kailey swore mentally when she heard she would have to continue wearing the sling. That meant that it was going to be all office work and no field work for a while. "For now, you're not going to be able to use your arm much. The mobility will come back after a while. You had a blood transfusion while under, but that was the only extensive thing we had to do." She said and the detective nodded.

"Can I leave soon?" She hated hospitals before her brother died, and now she hated them even more.

"I can go get you your discharge papers. As long as you clean the wound a couple times a day and change the bandages, you'll be fine. Come back if you notice any extensive redness or irritation, that could mean an infection. If there's no problems, you'll have to come back in in about 14 days to get the stitches out. We'll give you a routine exam and if it looks good, we'll only have to see you once more, when the sling is ready to come off."

"Sounds good to me." She said, and the doctor left once the wound was dressed again.

"You feeling okay?" Mark asked her. She nodded, slowly.

"What happened to David? Did he catch the man?" She asked. Mark was silent.

"We uh... we haven't heard from David. We don't know where he went. The video feed on the monitors in the house were inconclusive." Mark explained. Kailey let in a small gasp. If they haven't heard from Tapp, he was most likely dead. "We got your car home, they said leave from work is optional." He told her. He was aware that she was likely to go right back. Where she was only there part time, it wasn't a big deal anyway. If she was going to be sitting at the office doing paperwork, or at home doing it, there was no difference to her. She tried to keep herself as busy as possible since Brian's death, and this wouldn't distract her.

When Lynn came back, she had packages of bandages in her hands. She set them on the bed. "I'm going to give you these, it'll be enough for the first few days, while it has to be covered. Change it twice a day, wash the incision with warm water and an antibacterial, unscented soap. Don't scrub it, don't soak it, just enough to get the crusty layer that will form off of it. Pat it dry gently, let it air dry for a few minutes, and then dress it again. Don't use peroxide or alcohol, it'll make the scarring worse." She informed. "The nurse will be in within a few minutes with the papers you have to sign."