Rescuing Baylee (Nightshade #3)

Chapter 2

CHAPTER TWO

Baylee’s anxiety was screeching at her, but she tamped it down. She had a job to do, and she would do it well.

Man, she hated full-moon nights.

When the call went out that there was a squad inbound with a 30 weeks’ pregnant gunshot victim, probably the J aina of a gang member, they all went onto high alert. They had built a pediatric emergency trauma response team for situations just like this, and Baylee was proud to see them all shift into their temporary roles as they headed downstairs to save a mother and child.

The emergency department of Dell-Seton Medical Center was bustling when they hurried in. The city was in the middle of a spike in gang activity, and all the hospitals in the area had been reeling from overcrowding, in addition to dealing with a nationwide nursing shortage. Baylee could tell as soon as she walked in that they needed help, and she sent her nurses to do what they could until the squad got there with their patients. She found the bay where they would treat them and checked the pediatric supplies herself. She wasn’t down here very often, and it was prudent to re-familiarize herself with the set-up. Dr. Mendez, the Emergency OB, was on her way in. Hopefully, she would arrive before the squad.

Baylee rearranged a few things, then stopped in the bathroom real quick. The night had already been busy, and she hadn’t yet had a minute to herself. That was good, though. She’d taken this shift deliberately tonight, because she hadn’t wanted to think about the date. It was the anniversary of the Rebellion, and the media was going crazy with coverage of all the celebrations. They’d beaten back the Taliban eleven years ago today, though it had been the greatest loss of American forces in the past twenty years.

Baylee was intimately aware of the date, and she wished she’d been able to call Rex and Olivia, but she hadn’t had a chance. She’d sent a message, promising to call in a couple of days. She had hoped that by working tonight, she would be too busy to think about the date, and mostly, she had been.

It was so hard to see the most painful, traumatic day of her life celebrated.

She washed her hands, glancing up at the mirror. It had taken her years to get used to the scars on her face. The deepest, most obvious one started at her temple, ran down through the middle of her cheek, over her jawbone and down her neck. It had silvered with time, but still immediately drew people’s attention. The second scar traced through her left eyebrow and across the bridge of her nose, nicking her right cheek. One of the plastic surgeons had told her that the angle they had cut her at had been lucky, because she could have very easily lost an eye.

Baylee had never felt lucky, in that respect, but it wasn’t worth arguing with them about.

She’d gotten used to the reactions of people meeting her for the first time. It was why she loved working with babies and kids. They didn’t care what had happened to her, only how they were treated in the moment. They took everything at face value, so to speak, and if they had questions, they asked. She had no problem answering their curiosity.

It was the people that gave her sidelong glances or whispered about her behind their hands that bothered her. In her mind, even eleven years later, Baylee just knew they were talking about her. Even after years of counseling, she still worried about what other people thought. She tried to be upbeat, but it was hard sometimes.

Maybe that was why her neighbor bothered her. She’d lived in the same apartment for years, so she knew a lot of the people in the building, by face if not by name. When the new guy had moved in down the hall, the entire building had been wondering who he was, Baylee included. Now, she could care less. She’d had enough of his dark, scowling looks. Every time he looked at her, it was like she’d crapped in his Cheerios, or something. Fuck him.

Man, he was pretty though. Tall enough for her to have to look up, he had thick, dark hair. He was muscular enough to look like he could be useful. And he had the most striking navy-blue eyes she’d ever seen, with thick dark lashes. She sighed, putting him out of her thoughts.

Tightening her ponytail, she headed out of the bathroom. If possible, the ED was in even more chaos. Within seconds, she found a team to help and lost herself in the bustle.

“Pediatric trauma team, squad arrives in thirty seconds,” the intercom said, and Baylee ducked out, heading toward the front doors. Jaylynn joined her, and they met Dr. Mendez on the sidewalk. “You guys ready,” Mendez asked, adjusting her mask on her face.

“Yes, ma’am,” Baylee said quickly.

Leona joined them, then, the big Black woman calm despite the excitement swirling around her. Baylee loved the woman’s energy, and she was so glad Leona was on their team. She’d been a pediatric nurse for more than thirty years, and it seemed like she’d literally seen everything under the sun. Baylee would trust Leona’s advice over anyone else’s in the hospital, including most of the doctors.

The Austin night was balmy, but heat lightning rippled the air. Maybe that’s what had spiked the aggression of the night. She could hear the bus coming, and she tugged at her gloves, trying to prepare for everything.

The ambulance screeched to a stop, and the medics jumped out. She recognized the team. They were a good pair, and they’d give their all for the patients. Abby started reeling off information as soon as she opened the door.

“We have Catalina Hernandez, 23, GSW to the abdomen. Caught in a crossfire. Family says she’s about thirty weeks, but they didn’t know if she’d been receiving prenatal care. BP keeps bottoming out, and we have a steady fetal heartbeat. Abdomen is distended and leaking clear fluid.”

“Jaylynn, check on the surgical suites,” Mendez said. “This is going to be an emergency C-section.”

They went to work on the mother. The woman wasn’t very old, but her belly was very pronounced. Baylee wondered if she wasn’t a little further along than thirty weeks.

Once they got her in the bay, they cut away her clothes and started hooking her up to machines. There was a lot of blood on the gurney, but it was pale, as if it was mixed with amniotic fluid. Baylee positioned the fetal heart monitor around the woman’s belly, finding the baby’s heartbeat on the first position. “There you are little man.”

Dr. Mendez called for an ultrasound. That would check for fluid in the abdomen, as well as the fluid around the baby. It might even spot the bullet, because there didn’t seem to be an exit wound.

Jaylynn rushed back in. “All three operating bays are in use, Mendez.”

“Fuck,” the woman muttered. “I don’t want to rush them, but let them know we have a gunshot victim, and we won’t know the status of the fetus until we get him out.”

Jaylynn disappeared again. Baylee doubted that it would do any good. C-sections took a while, and there were no trimming corners.

“Fetal heartbeat is steady,” she said.

Just then, the mother’s heartbeat stuttered. Another nurse, Rosalee, rushed in to offer help.

“She has something else going on,” Mendez muttered. “Look for a second wound. Rose, intubate her.”

They moved, checking every limb. Rose dropped the head of the bed and slid the tube expertly down the woman’s throat to breathe for her.

“Here,” Leona said, moving the woman’s arm. “She must have caught it when she was running.”

There was a tiny, bloody hole in the woman’s right side, up in her armpit. It crossed into her chest, and there was no exit wound. That was really, really bad. Too much vital stuff up there.

“She must be bleeding into her chest.” Mendez moved the ultrasound wand higher.

Then the mother’s heartbeat stuttered again. And stopped.

“Baylee, get that monitor off. Leona, I need the crash cart.”

Baylee quickly took the electronic fetal monitor off and watched as Mendez tried to save the woman’s life with the defibrillator. But no matter what she did, the young mother’s heart never picked up again.

“Jaylynn, call upstairs. I have three minutes to get this baby out and I would prefer to do it in an actual operating room.”

Nothing they did seemed to be right, though. There was no operating room to be had. And the other OBs were all occupied. This kid was going to have a hell of a time coming into the world.

“Go get an incubator. I think they still have one in storage B,” Baylee said to Jaylynn, and the younger woman took off running again.

Dr. Mendez did everything perfectly, even though the cards were stacked against them. Baylee retrieved the c-section kit from the storage unit, draped a sterile cloth over the operating field, and started setting out instruments. As soon as the doctor cut into the woman’s abdomen, bloody fluid gushed out. Mendez moved quickly. The mother was gone, and this baby was now their priority.

The little boy that she lifted up was good-sized, again, Baylee thought, probably more than thirty weeks. But he had a blue tinge to his skin, and he was unresponsive.

Mendez turned to place him into the incubator Jaylynn had just arrived with. Baylee stood at the mother’s side for a moment, unsure exactly what to do. Normally, the NICU team would take the baby and the surgeon would repair the mother. This had not been a normal case though.

“Baylee, where’s the bulb syringe?”

Baylee scrambled to the cart and snatched it from the drawer, handing it over. Mendez pulled a bunch of gunk from the baby’s airway, and he gave a weak cry. Almost immediately, his skin started to pinken up. There was blood leaking from somewhere, though. It was staining the blanket beneath him. Baylee grabbed a cloth and started cleaning him up, stimulating his response. She found the bullet hole in his chubby little arm, and she pointed it out to the doctor. Mendez manipulated the limb.

“Doesn’t seem to be broken. It’s just a flesh wound, I believe. This little man is incredibly lucky.”

Baylee wasn’t so sure about that. He’d been injured in a gang fight and lost his mother in the span of an hour.

Leona bandaged his little arm, and they cleaned him up the rest of the way. He would have to go to the NICU for a while to be sure he was breathing okay, but he seemed to be holding his own.

She dared to share a grin with Leona across the incubator.

That was when the gunfire started.