*** EDITING *** The Only Half I Need - {Synyster Gates - Book 3}

It’s been two hours now that the doctors hurried the bleeding girl into surgery. The chief resident operating was groaning in frustration as he looked down at the open wound on the girl’s chest. They had made sure that the wound in her tummy wasn’t as severe and had decided to take care of her chest at first. The girl’s left lung was damaged but they managed to fix it. The problem now was getting the bullet out.
“This is an absolute nightmare.” He put his head back for a minute before looking back down at the severe damage. “Would you please keep suctioning?” He glared at the nurse next to him.
“I’m sorry, Dr Stevens.” She mumbled as she adjusted the tube to aspirate the blood that was pouring out of the injured flesh.
“The bullet went deeper as suspected.” The resident, who received the patient from the medics, said from the other side of the table.
“Not just that. It has ripped open too many veins. If we go any further we risk that she is bleeding out.” Dr Stevens said.
“What do you suggest?”
“I’m still thinking about that, Dr Knowles.” He growled and tried to come up with a decent solution when suddenly the heart monitor went crazy. “What’s happening?”
“Her blood pressure is decreasing rapidly!” The anesthetist called out in panic.
“She is losing blood!”
“But where?!”
“It must be internal bleedings. I don’t see any more open wounds.” Dr Knowles said, slightly drifting into panic. This was not how he wanted his third surgery to end. He couldn’t lose that girl.
“The wound in her stomach …” Dr Stevens said. “Quickly, open her up. You have to find the bullet and pull it out. It’s obviously traveling. I will try and stop the bleeding over here.”
“What if I can’t find it?” The young doctor asked.
“You better get it out, son, or we will lose her.” Dr Stevens pressed out and looked at his colleague with burning eyes.
The adrenaline shot into Dr Knowles veins. He felt the rush and prayed to God for steady hands. Two nurses prepared the wound for him. With one last glance to his mentor he took a deep breath and then looked down to the nasty looking hole.
“Scalpel.” He demanded in a strong voice. His gloved fingers closed around the cool metal and he did the first cut. The noises of the heart monitor that were still going crazy and the urging voice of the anesthetist faded away from him. But, when he did the second and third, cut a huge amount of blood shot out of the wound.
“Fuck!” He called out and pressed his hands onto the wound. His scrub was covered in in red liquid as well as parts of his face.
“Shit! Get blood bags with the right type! I need aspirators and pledgets. NOW!”
The young nurse assisting him quickly ran out of the room. She quickly pulled off the scrub and gloves and pushed open the huge doors. She ran down the hallway, through several doors, towards the cold room where the hospital stores their blood bag supplies.
When Jeremy saw the nurse storming out of the restricted area he felt his heart take up speed. Somehow he knew that this was bad news.
“What’s going on? What’s happening?” He asked concerned when the nurse came back, a number of blood bags in her arms.
“Please, sir, wait here until a doctor comes to inform you.” She said, not really paying attention and left through the door into the unknown. He nearly pulled out his hair as the uncertainty nagged on his insides.
Back in the surgery room the nurse had delivered the blood bags and while she prepared herself for surgery again another nurse attached the first blood bag to a chord and needle which she put into the girl’s arm.
Meanwhile Dr Stevens felt sweat on his forehead. He was almost done; he had pulled out the bullet from her chest and was now stitching up the most important veins before closing the wound completely. He had to do it now or the situation would get worse.
“Can you handle it?” He pressed through gritted teeth, his eyes never leaving the wound in front of him.
“I’m trying. Aspirators here and here.” Dr Knowles instructed. “How is the blood pressure?”
“It’s getting worse. Heart rate now decreasing rapidly.”
“I can’t wait any longer. I have to go in.” He looked at his mentor with big, unsure eyes. He didn’t want to make a mistake. Not now. Dr Stevens looked up from his stitches and nodded once.
“You can do it, Knowles. I know you can.” He nodded again and watched his young colleague taking his hands off the wound. Luckily the aspirators were working phenomenally and he had a chance to find the reason for the sudden and huge blood loss.
The bullet had been indeed wandering and had injured the girl’s liver even more. No one had noticed the blood pouring into her stomach up until the point where she was losing a lot of blood from the wound in her chest as well. With some difficulties he eventually managed to find the shot and carefully pulled it out to avoid more damage.
“Congratulations, Dr Knowles.” Dr Stevens smiled at his colleague. He surely was proud of him. It was a very difficult and nerve racking situation but his pupil had made the right decisions.
“Thank you, sir.” He took a few steady breaths to calm his racing heart.
“Alright, son, stitch her up and-“
“Oh my god, Dr Stevens!” The anesthetist called out and pointed at the monitor. The heart monitor was going off, scaring everyone in the room.
“Ventricular fibrillation! Her heart …” the chief resident called out. “The defibrillator. Quickly!” A nurse pushed the trey with the surgical instruments aside and pulled in the machine that had saved so many lives before. Another nurse prepared an injection with a vasodilating drug but Dr Knowles pushed her aside.
“No! If we inject that we risk more internal bleedings. It could kill her.”
“He is right.” Dr Stevens said. “We try it without it.” He grabbed the paddles and pressed them onto the patient’s chest.
“Clear!” He called and then sent the electro shockwave through her body, making it her body rear up before falling back down onto the table. Everyone looked at the heart monitor but nothing changed.
“Ok, one more.” They increased the voltage before he placed the paddles back on the girl’s chest.
“Clear!” He shot another shockwave through her but this time her heart line went straight, one single tone echoing through the silent room.

Jeremy was now pacing for an hour straight now. After the nurse had rushed passed him, her arms full of blood bags, he couldn’t help but fear for the worst. The girl that had stolen his heart was in there and no one was telling him about her condition. What kind of heartless people would do that? Jeremy was so close to pull out his hair in frustration when he ran into someone.
“Dude, would you please chill?” Ivan said, his shirt strained with coffee that he had spilled from a brown plastic cup. It should have been the fourth cup in the last three hours.
“I’m sorry, man, but … I can’t.” He rubbed the back of his neck, looking apologetically down at the coffee that was running down Ivan’s jersey.
“What happened? Are there any news?” His friend said with a frown on his face as he threw the empty cup into the small metal bin next to the seats.
“Not really. Just … about an hour ago a nurse ran out of there only to rush back with several blood bags in her arms. Ivan … something is wrong. I can feel it.” Jeremy looked at his best friend with pleading eyes, as if Ivan was able to do something. The muscly man sighed and wiped his hand down his face as he plopped down on one of the seats. He could see the pain his best friend was going through, the sorrow that was written all over him. It made him sad that Jeremy had to suffer through this. Although, Ivan didn’t understand when it happened that he fell in love with the girlfriend of one of their closest friends. A part of him was a bit crept out and angry but then again he was happy that Jeremy had finally found someone to love again.
“I’m sure she will be alright. Come here, sit down. You make me fucking nervous with your endless pacing.” Ivan chuckled a bit and motioned for Jeremy to sit down next to him.
With a small scoff the worried drummer obliged and let his weight drop sadly onto the wooden seat of the chair. They sat there for another long while. No one said a word. Each of them was deep in their own thoughts.
Suddenly the heavy double doors were pushed open and a group of nurses and doctors came out. Just at the sound of the doors swinging open Jeremy jumped up as if he had been sitting on live coals. He watched with lost and panicking eyes as the nurses glanced at him sadly and hurrying past him.
“What’s going on?” Jeremy asked. “Where is she?”
“Jer, please …” Ivan tried to calm him but his friend shook the broad hand off his shoulder. He felt like a lost boy who wanted someone to pull him into a tight and safe embrace.
“No. Where is she? Where is she?” He was saying over and over again. Then a deep voice pulled him somewhat back into reality.
“Mr Spencer?” Jeremy’s head jerked up and into the direction of that voice.
“Yes?” He saw an elderly man wearing a white lab coat over his blue scrub and a paper file in his hands approaching him. A young good-looking guy also in a blue scrub was joining him.
“I’m Dr Stevens and this is Dr Knowles. We have been operating Ms …” He had to check the file, “Reynolds. She is your girlfriend?”
“Yes …” Jeremy ignored Ivan clearing his throat, “Yes, that’s true. What happened, doctor? I saw a nurse with blood bags and …” He noticed both residents exchanging looks.
“Mr Spencer, we can tell you that the surgery went well in so far as we have pulled out both bullets.” Jeremy sighed in relief but his heart was tested once again, “However, we experienced some difficulties with the second shot that had hit her belly.”
“What difficulties? What are you talking about?” He looked at them with big eyes, clenching his fists.
“Jer, calm down.” Ivan said and pulled him back. “Please excuse my friend. He is very emotional when it comes to … his girlfriend.” He had serious problems saying it out loud.
“That’s quite alright. It’s hard for us too. Everything was fine until her blood pressure sank rapidly. The bullet in her stomach had traveled and had damaged a bigger area than expected, especially her liver. She had major internal bleedings but we could stop them.” Dr Knowles explained.
“But that wasn’t everything…” Jeremy said seeing the looks on both doctors faces.
“Unfortunately not.” He said with a sad sigh.
“What is it? Just say it.”
“After we were able to stop the bleeding her heart started to stumble. It was probably due to the huge amount of blood that she had lost. We tried to stabilize her heartbeat but we lost her for a minute…”
“What?!” Jeremy interrupted Dr Knowles explanations while his face turned from angry red to pale as if he had seen a ghost.
“… We managed to bring her back. But to make sure that her brain didn’t receive any damage from the short lack of oxygen we had to put her in an artificial coma. This is nothing uncommon, Mr Spencer, your girlfriend will be fine. We just want to make sure her body gets the rest it needs to fully recover.” Dr Stevens said putting a strong hand onto Jeremy’s shoulder. “I know it is a shock but I can assure you, everything will be fine.”
It took a while for the information to sink in. Jeremy was in absolute shock. He had never expected anything like this to happen. He knew Katie’s wounds had been severe but that suddenly her heart was giving up on her. That was a nightmare.
“C-can I … can we see her?” He asked in a shaky voice.
“Of course.” Dr Stevens nodded. “Please follow me.”
He guided them through a corridor to an elevator which they took to reach the sixth floor. They walked down the hallway which was leading past several open rooms with walls made of glass. Nurses and doctors were watching over the patients hooked up to machines; it sent shivers down Jeremy’s back. After they had turned another corner Dr Stevens finally stopped and nodded towards a room with a single bed in it. The body covered under a cooling blanket was hardly visible, only her red hair was indicating that it was indeed her. Jeremy fought against the tears forming in his eyes as he looked at Katie. She was intubated, a, for his liking too big, tube that was hooked to a respirator went down her throat. A heart monitor showed her low but steady heartbeat and both her arms were punctured by needles. One was infusing some kind of transparent liquid, the other one blood.
“It looks much worse than it is.” Dr Stevens said softly, “She is basically just sleeping, only that she can’t feel anything at the moment.”
“When will she wake up again?” Ivan asked gently.
“That depends on the healing progress. I will of course inform you as soon as we are about to initiate the recovery phase.”
“Thank you, doctor. I … she is one of my best friends and … he loves her a lot.” He tried to apologize.
“I can see that.” The resident smiled. “We will do everything that’s in our power to make her feel better. You can go inside and talk to her. But not for too long. You can come back tomorrow.”
“Thank you, sir.” Ivan said and with a smile Dr Stevens gave the two men some space.
Jeremy slowly walked inside the room. He felt numb, like a zombie as he walked up to the bed. The steady sound of the heart monitor and the respirator pierced marrow and bone. His shaking hand reached out to touch her pale skin. With trembling fingertips he lightly touched her forearm and when he felt how cold her skin was Jeremy couldn’t hold himself back any longer.
Tears streamed down his face as he fell to his knees, still lightly touching Katie’s arm. He knew she was alive, the doctor had reassured it. But seeing her like this, so helpless, hurt and trapped was too much for him to bear. He wanted her back, he wanted to see her beautiful smile, hear her contagious laughter, but most of all he wanted to hold her in his arms. Keeping her safe forever.

Notes

Wow, that was probably the hardest chapter I have ever written. I had to look up every second word. No kidding xD

I hope you like it. Please let me know in the comments below!