Hemothorax

The midget reached down and groped a bloody breast.

“Oh, now that’s just enough.” Jamie growled, hauling the midget off his feet and drop kicking him over the table. Eve screamed and backed off, pulling her clothes around her to gain as much modesty back as she could after getting jiggy with it in public. There was a roar of pleasure? Pain? Surprise? From Jaxx and a squeal of delight from the midget and the noises and grunting increased in tempo. Everyone looked for something else to focus on. With difficulty.

“I… I’m going to go help White Wolf.” Jay said, grabbing the ‘Kill Phil’ kit. Jamie grimaced as he moved, but Cass was unconscious now so the crippling chest pains were gone.

“Yeah. Me too.” He winced as they had to move near the table to assist.

“You.” Jade pointed at the person that had appeared from the rift and was looking both bewildered and terrified. “Come here. Hold this.” She ordered and gestured at the large needle that was draining fluids from Cass’s chest cavity.

“I… Ah…” He floundered. “She’s going to die. Hold this or I drop kick you over the table.” He paled and knelt down in a pool of blood taking hold of the needle. “What’s your name?” She asked, softer now she had an extra pair of hands.

“Ransom. Doctor Ransom MacIntyre.” He said, proudly.

“Excellent, another doctor. You’ll love it here. Now I’m pretty sure that the hemothora…” Jade began then looked up “What?”

“No… A scientist…” Jade deflated slightly, then sighed. “Well, you’ve dissected a frog, I’ll bet, so it’ll do. Just, hold that still for me.” Jade then began to unpack a surprisingly large number of items from her bag.

“Doctor Black, I am amazed you packed all of this to a holiday.” Artemis queried, looking over the array of field trauma gear Jade had unpacked.

“You remember the beach holiday?” Jade said, “You know, the one that killed Phi.” She looked grimly down at Cass. “No way am I letting anyone else die on my watch. Plus, it’s good to stretch old muscles.” She began to cut larger sections of Cass’s top away and swap down the area, injecting a local anaesthetic into the chest wall.

“Old muscles?” Artie questioned.

“Yeah, I was a field medic for the Space Corps during the Hymenopterra war.”

“Hymenopterra?” Ransom looked up with an obvious question on his lips. “Can it wait? I guess you aren’t from around here, wibbly-wobbly-timey-wimey rift and all that. Artie, what was it? Actually, never mind, tell me later.”

She was nervous, and she chattered when she was nervous. She took a deep breath and cleaned off her hands as best as possible with the alcohol spray and disinfectant wipes.

“Can I… Can I let go yet?” Ransom asked. Jade put a stethoscope to her ears and pressed the pad against the wounded side of Cass’s chest. Everyone held their breath. Everyone looked nervous and worried. Jade would later wonder if they were so intent on the operation to avoid the piscifilea behind the buffet table, or because they were too terrified to go kill Satan. Still Jade listened. “Well?” Ransom asked again.

“Ssshh! It’s hard enough to hear with the grunting farmyard in the background.” She growled, and listened more.

There was the slow hiss of air in, and out.

Jade moved the pad, and checked the other lung to compare.

Again, air hissed slowly in an out, steady, rhythmic, soft and life giving.

“No.” Jade said. “Although the lung has inflated, I want to make sure that the bleeding has stopped first.” She took a scalpel and made an incision, muttering to herself about the location. “Lateral border of pectoralis major....horizontal line inferior to the axilla... border of latissimus dorsi... horizontal line superior to the nipple..." From the field kit she plucked a chest drain and sutured it into the new hole into the lung. Then she proceeded to poke around in the knife wound, checking for torn blood vessels. From the field trauma kit she pulled out a little scanner.

“What the heck is that?” Artie said, his science brain instantly wanting to dissect the new device.

“Not sure, we pulled it from the medical centre on that ship we salvaged. Sovereign I think it was called.”

“What does it do?” Ransom asked, also curious about the device.

“Near as I’ve been able to work out, it’s a type of ultrasonic scanner. I think it uses a combination of ultrasound, infa-red and some other dubious science. Damnit, I’m a doctor not a scientist.” She pressed a few buttons and ran the scanner over the wound. The little display began to feedback information, “I think the bleeding has stopped, we just need to wait for her to come around.” Jade fetched a bag out of the field kit and hooked it up to Cass's arm. Then tidied up the knife wound as best she could, it needed a fair few stitches. "The fluids will help, but really we now need to get her to the medical centre here for more blood."

As she sat back and sighed, Mini-Phil, no longer imbued with the power of evil, came out from around the buffet table wearing a black dreadlocked wig and zipping up his pants. He pulled out a cigarette and lit up, puffing on it and offering it to Jaxx, who emerged in a sticky mess.

"Like, what did I miss dudes?" He asked, scratching his head in confusion.

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