“God, it felt good to climb with you again.”
François had shown up in the Valley when he’d gotten the news of her fall. He’d paid her medical and hotel bills and had taken her to see a specialist for her arm, apologizing profusely since it was his hex she’d been testing. He’d looked into it and found out that the contractor manufacturing the hexes for him had used a cheaper metal alloy. But the greater mistake had been hers—climbing more than twenty feet with no protection apart from a new, unproven device.
“People wonder why I’m so uptight about safety.” Megs knew that Team members thought she was a pain in the ass when it came to safety protocols. “I learned the hard way that when you cut corners, you cut your chances for coming out alive.”
But her focus on safety hadn’t saved Mitch, not this time.
God, she wished she’d decided against Painted Wall when they’d read the beta for that route. It warned climbers that the rock was chossy and loose. If only they had decided to climb somewhere else…
Regret gains you nothing.
Mitch looked up at her, a confused and pleading look in his eyes, his fingers tightening around hers without Megs having to ask.
“I’m here, love. Are you in pain?” Megs hit the call button.
He tried to push the vent away.
“Don’t do that. You need that for now.” Megs caught his other hand, restraining him just as Debby came in. “He just tried to pull the ventilator out.”
“Time for more sedative.” Debby injected the meds into his subclavian line.
Almost immediately, Mitch relaxed, his eyes drifting shut.
“What about pain meds?”
“I think we can give him another two mgs of morphine. I’ll be right back.”
Megs stroked Mitch’s cheek, his eyes opening to look up at her once again. “You’re fighting so hard to get out of there, aren’t you? I can’t imagine what it must be like. Do you even know who and where you are? My poor love.”
Debby returned promptly with the morphine. “The doctor has him scheduled for another breathing trial in about a half-hour. So I don’t want to give him too much morphine because that can suppress his breathing.”
“I understand.” Megs explained to Mitch what was about to happen. “They’re trying hard to get this vent out of you and get you breathing on your own again. I know that’s what you want, too.”
Megs found herself growing tense as the time for the next SBT approached.
He’ll do fine. He did just fine before.
Debby came back almost exactly a half-hour later, programmed the monitor, and the second SBT began.
Megs watched Mitch’s chest rise and fall, her gaze darting now and again to the timer on the monitor. Once again, Mitch completed the trial with no problems.
Debby was pleased with the data on the monitor. “I think he’ll be extubated sometime in the next several days. He’s come such a long way in such a short time. That’s probably because he’s so healthy and strong.”
“Did you hear that? You might get that vent out in the next few days.” Megs watched Debby leave the room, then took Mitch’s hand again and lowered her voice to a whisper. “I’ll make you a deal. You get that vent out, and I’ll read you the X-rated parts of your journal.”
Chapter 15
The next fewdays were too busy for Megs to read to Mitch. According to Dr. Schwartz, he was progressing rapidly and was now in a confusional state. He was conscious enough to know that something was wrong, but he couldn’t yet understand what was happening. This made him a handful.
Megs had stayed overnight two nights in a row because the nurses said Mitch was calmer when she was there. He hated the ventilator, and more than once, she’d been forced to hold him down while the nurses sedated him so that he couldn’t interfere. It broke her heart to see him so distressed.
They’d reached the point this morning where Dr. Schwartz decided they either needed to give him a paralytic and morphine to restrain him—or they should try to extubate him. Given that he met most of the criteria for ending intubation and that the paralytic would surely be traumatic for him, Megs had pushed for the latter.
Now she sat in the ICU waiting area, watching the clock, while Mitch’s medical team did one last trial, which would hopefully end with them removing that damned vent. She tried to distract herself by checking email and sending a few text messages, one to Rain to update everyone in Scarlet and one to Gridwall. Then she noticed the date on her calendar app.
October 2.
October already? Her birthday month.
