Deep Blue Ch. 06

"Hold on!" Trish screamed through clenched teeth. Her face was pale and a ribbon of blood was coming from her hairline across her face. "Don't let go! Pull yourself up and grab something! Hurry!"

It wasn't going to work. My left shoulder was on fire and I couldn't make it reach up to grab anything. My fingers were oozing out of Trish's desperate grip despite my best efforts.

Then the railing jarred again as the young black man in the dark shorts slammed against it at a run and heaved his arm between the rails to grab my wrist below Trish's hands. While Trish's grip had seemed strong, his was a vice of steel around my wrist. Even when I slipped out of Trish's grasp, I was able to wrap my fingers around his wrist and it was like we were bonded together with super-glue. His eyes were wide against his dark face and I realized he'd lost his glasses.

Inch by inch, grunting with the strain, the man pulled me back up enough for the bleeding Trish to get her arms around me and get me back over the railing. All three of us collapsed on the deck in a bleeding, sweaty, screaming pile of flesh. He was sweaty, Trish was bleeding and I was screaming. My left shoulder wouldn't move properly, and it hurt worse than I could believe.

The man extracted himself from under the pile and laid me out on my back while Trish held my head in her lap. In an oddly focused moment, I felt the blood dripping off her nose and onto my face. Her bodice had been totally ripped open and only the tremendous effort of her bra kept the tide of her breasts from washing me away. I noted there were little red scratches all over the tops of them. God, they looked magnificent.

I could hear other people running from further down the observation deck, but I felt so detached from the events that were taking place. Detached and receding.

The man looked down into my face with worry. "Are you okay?"

No, I was screaming because I felt fine.

I tried to speak and was finally able to whimper something. "My arm..."

"Let me get a doctor. Don't move," he said, trying to smile reassuringly. "You're going to be fine."

"Clear the way!" a familiar voice shouted. "Doctor coming through!"

Sandy's face replaced the man's as she bumped him clear and hovered over me. "Where do you hurt?" she asked, the calm voice of a doctor asked me.

"She said her arm hurt," Trish said, almost crying. "And she wasn't moving her left arm at all. Is she okay?"

"I think so," Sandy said. "Gretchen, tell me where you hurt."

While I tried to make my mouth work, the rest of the group slid around me, and Hawk finally arrived, kneeling beside me, her face a mask of emotion I'd never seen on her face before. Terror.

Her fear triggered something inside me, and I started wailing. I tried to grab her but my left arm wouldn't cooperate and Lisa had my right hand in a grip of iron.

"Hawk, calm her down," Sandy commanded, trying to hold me down. "She might hurt herself worse. She's going into shock. I need a blanket and someone to call for help. Use one of the ship's phones. Now!"

"Got it," the black man said running back into the ship.

As suddenly as it had arrived, the terror flowed out of me and the world seemed to be slipping into a kind of tunnel vision. "Shauna..."

"I'm right here, Baby," she murmured in my ear. "Don't move. Don't talk. It's going to be okay. "

"I love you," I whispered.

With her eyes bright with tears, she kissed my cold face. "I love you, too, and..." she slipped into her Ricky Ricardo imitation, "Lucy, you got some 'splainin' to do."

I wanted to laugh but I couldn't seem to get the coordination to do so.

Sandy gently touched my left shoulder in a couple of places and I tried to slug her but Lisa wouldn't let go of my right hand. "Hurts..."

Sandy nodded absently at me and looked at Hawk. "Her left shoulder is dislocated. The longer we let it stay out of the socket, the more chance of permanent injury. I want to put it back into the socket right now."

Hawk nodded. "Do it."

"I need everyone to help me hold Gretchen down," Sandy said as she stood up. "Don't let her move." She sat down on the deck at my left side, took my limp, pain-filled arm into her lap, and planted her feet against my side before leaning over and looking me in the face.

"Gretchen, listen to me," she said, catching my wandering attention. "This is going to hurt like fifteen motherfuckers but it has to be done. You arm is out of your socket and I'm going to pop it back in on three. Are you ready?"

"Three," I mumbled. If this was being in shock, it sucked.

"Hold her firmly, everyone," Sandy said as hands grabbed me everywhere but my left shoulder and held me to the deck.

"One... Two."

As soon as the word "two" started to form on her lips she pulled my left arm straight out from my body and it moved in a way I couldn't describe, as unimaginable pain lanced through me and I screamed at the top of my very healthy lungs. Then I started cussing her. Or trying to. The pain was subsiding into a dull ache.

Her smile as she leaned over me was a mixture of satisfaction and an evil glint. "I know, I went on two. Sue me. At least you didn't tense up."

"I'll get even later," I mumbled as the sound of more running feet announced the arrival of some ships officers. In a jiffy, they had a blanket around me and were asking me questions. I didn't even try to answer them. All I had eyes for was my wife beside me. "I love you," I repeated.

That was how it stayed until a paramedic arrived with a gurney, and everyone helped move me onto it. The fiery pain in my shoulder had damped down and I could move it a little. That was better. I needed both arms to hold my wife and, soon, both of our babies.

With my hand in hers, Hawk walked beside me all the way to the medical center.