Damon watched, his brow furrowed in concentration, as numbers nine and ten held out a sturdy plate, and numbers four and two were very carefully sliding Mimi into it. As they were trying to move her in bed. And then number one could go through her blood better and see if his blood would fuse her bones even a bit.
Her pelvis was first, and then her shoulder, back, neck, and arm, as they had all more or less crashed, and right now, there was a complex support system keeping them immobile. But Damon suspected that position was not perfect, as his shoulder ached slightly, and he realized that their bond allowed some of Mimi's sensations to seep into him. Useful, but then again, he could feel so many sore places when he opened the bond even a bit more that he just could not keep it that open.
"I can feel something stemming from her; her shoulder aches, and her pelvis is on fire. I can't open our bond too much or else I can't function, but we can use it to map the best possible position and adequate medication. Do we have any ideas on that?" Number one said it out loud.
No one had any big ideas except making sure her position was as painless as possible using the connection map it out. So it took time as they finally got Mimi into bed and tucked her warmly, adjusting her position as number one told them.
She was hooked into various monitors and lines, and those were neatly arranged and made sure the drip rate was just what it needed to be, and also Mimi had permanent collectors in her fangs, and they seeped something, well, so far different poisons for humans.
She had been aware on some level that humans had caused this; then they were calming agents for salvatores, meant to ease their worry; painkillers and boosters for toddlers; and a lot of other stuff, telling number one that she was aware of something. Damon has shut down her fangs for now, and they were just waiting for the last substances to drip out.
Scans had been taken from kids, and Damon had decided that everyone would come out of incubators and they would keep them warm with other methods. As useful as an incubator sometimes was, it was not now the best possible option.
Besides, having to do many procedures each day meant that they would be disturbed even more in incubators, as environmental variables would be harsher. Meaning in the incubator, temperature was 104°F; moist, oxygen-rich air circulated calmly; and their pheromones saturated incubators, making them almost cocoons.
Once someone would have to take a blood sample, there would be opening the lid and cooler air getting in, as those holes on the sides of the incubator were not always useful for every procedure. So it might stress them actually more, having been disturbed in their perfection. There were many reasons why incubators were not the choice of treatment, but just normal room temperature and warm blankets were.
They were not yet going to bring Mariella in here, not until they could get these ones a little bit stable. Now, Mariella was in her savior mode, and this might make her spew way too many substances, and she was too pregnant and still recovering; her breaks had not yet been ossified fully.
And since she was immunocompromised, as was Mimi, infection was a real chance if she continued to rampage and drop on the floor and crawl there, no matter how often floors were cleaned and with what; there were always germs around.
They had to balance everything from up keeping the shops to maintaining the house, caring for babies, and making sure there was food available. Now, since this pregnancy had been challenging for Mimi at that point, her bloodlust was almost shut down.
They dripped Salvatore's blood in her stomach as well as her veins; her pheromone glands were exposed, and men smelled them regularly, trying to teach number one at the same time what scent meant what. Her position was not easy to optimize, as it shifted when they had tested her and adjusted this and that.
After two days since she was taken out of the incubator, she was now on her side; her back had a long row of neat stitches, as did her spine, and her scapula and shoulder were operated on. It had been a 19-hour operation, rough for her and rough for men, so there were only three men monitoring the situation: Charles, number five, and number ten.
Number one had gone to check on Mariella after surgery and had not returned; maybe they had made up, and now he was once again focusing on Mariella. Frankly, Charles did not care. He made sure toddlers were covered, and they would have an operation tomorrow once a few salvatores had rested enough.
Charles sat down in a soft chair near Mimi's bed, took out his tablet, and started to review tests and scans, talking out loud. "Did you know, honey, that tomorrow we have to operate on Darien, Sabrina, and Sadie? Well, Sadie needs a bit of liver; her own is too crushed and healing too slowly, her enzymes are suffering, and Wulfe's liver has been tested as most suitable. But she will be fine. I will be there; make sure of it. Nothing will happen to our precious little gem."
His voice was calm and loving, and he talked to Mimi despite her being deep asleep and as painless as could be, as numbers two and five had gotten too connected to her state, so they, too, felt her pain. Wulfe was sleeping by power of velvet; being the protector of five sick kids was overwhelming even for him, and he, too, felt for them.
Charles hummed as he continued to read and plan. "Now, Dash, he has still broken bones in his legs, and they are lazy to fuse, and since he has also a bit of enzyme trouble, he has some digestion issues; he might need a bit of an operation, as he has blunt force trauma in his abdomen, and it is just not healing so fast. But we will get him fixed up, my love; don't you worry about a thing."
He gazed at Mimi from time to time. He was there to assure her that everything would be just fine. The medbay was dimly lit, monitors flashing their numbers, and Charles was not sure if it had been the best decision to move these out of incubators, but Damon seemed to have a problem with incubators and especially Mimi being there.
He grunted as he realized, "Yeah, of course."
Damon had not been overly concerned over Mimi; it had all been again for Mariella. God damn it. Fine, if he wants to, let him see what this is all about. But first, they needed to do actual medicine here and get everything ready. Charles has sent his realization to other Salvatores, who were not too impressed.
They were not too keen for number one to butt in here anymore, but if he wanted Mariella to be taken care of and wanted to see her more frail than Mimi, sure, Mariella would be the perfect victim for that. But she would not be easy, patient, or even loving towards number one.
Since Damon wanted her to see Mimi, Charles suspected that he might try to wrangle pack leadership to himself and take over upstairs for him and Mariella; it's not gonna happen. Oh yeah, Damon would soon learn a few more lessons about being honest and upfront and not masking what Mariella whines to his so-called concern over Mimi and her kids.
It had been obvious what number one's motives had been as he had arrived and started to dictate things; Mimi's cortisol, which had been almost null, had begun to rise. Number one had not commented on it even if he had noticed it, and then he had just walked away. Busted, so to speak.
Meaning Mimi could still sense her surroundings and Number One's pheromones. And they had told her clearly enough what Damon was actually doing. But fine, they were now ready to cook up a pretty diabolical plan that would hopefully teach Damon that lying did not get him anywhere; only honesty and openness would.
If he had just admitted that it bugged him since Mariella had recovered more and she was not an ideal patient for him. Then seeing Mimi in such an awful state meant she would be frail and needing help much longer than Mariella. And he was once again still attached to Mariella and her kids, not his own but those three.
No one would have attacked him. They would just send him back to Mariella and tell him not to bother coming back. They would take care of Mimi and their children. their family. But one part of this was Mariella, who was once again in princess mode, having braces on her legs and pelvis and being pregnant; moving was hard, tiresome, and awkward, and it would be much nicer just to lie on the bed, being served by all of Salvatores.
Being the worst of the injured of all and getting all of the worship that she wanted. But Mimi and her kids were actually in more dire straits. She had sent Damon to put some speed on Mimi's recovery, even though she had no fucking clue what shape she was in.
Three days later, men were huddled around a table in the kitchen as others were watching over patients, and they were planning.
Number two said, "First, Mariella will come in bed one; Mimi is in bed five, and we have Dash, Darien, and Sadie between them, and then we have Sabrina and Serafina after Mimi. Now, we do rounds each morning, and, for example, we have urinary catheters here and no moving yet. Adam and Charles will be physical therapists, and they will then decide who moves and who does not."
Number four smirked. He added, "I am chief pharmaceutical, meaning I decide drugs, medications, dressings, and dosages. We treat number one as if he were Mariella's husband, as he cannot be clinical, so he is excluded. Let's see how long it takes to shake him to his senses."
Others nodded.
Number three then added. "I am nutrition manager, meaning, oh my god, when I get to decide Mariella's meals, study her nutritional profile, and decide what she eats and how much, it's just perfect. And since we are fully clinical, this is not out of malice or revenge but just pure medical decisions. And as energy creatures, we need to take account of Mimi as well, our children's energy status, them being creatures of love, so they need love, and we can make true love energy. And according to the books we read, lust is not categorized as healing energy, so we are not using it but love. As Mariella is part of the pack and love is equal to lust, now it is time for love, not lust or worship. She will soon learn that she is not the one who makes any decisions here. But if she wants to be patient, who are we to stop her? It is not just what she imagines. For her, she does not need an ultra-soft bed but rather a firm one, and since she is pregnant, nice compression stockings will prevent blood clots from forming."
Number two added, "And of course side rails will be up all the time, and there are schedules as well—time for naps and meal times and hospital clothes. Oh yeah, this will be perfect, and for her, no need to cuddle, meaning hide cannulas or drip bags; we can use her hands for the cannula site since she has no problems with medical matters. And for number one, well, he is just the patient's husband unless he proves himself to be able to be just a clinician and not give to Mariella." His voice was firm.
For him, it was almost a promise, as he had once said to Mariella that there was very little in the world that he would not do for his baby, meaning Mimi. He was truly devoted to her, as were numbers five, nine, and ten and a few others as well. It was better for the soul to love a creature of love than to be a pussy slave for a creature of lust. Sure, Lust had its moments; none of them were monks, but ever since they had learned to make true love energy, it had changed everything.
And for Mariella, well, once her AlphaPower would be merged with Pack's powers, it would help her as well and bring balance to Pack, at least somewhat. Salvatore was taking one day at a time, one problem at a time, and it might be that Mariella might need some operations on her as well; it all would depend just on how well she was actually healed.
Furthermore, they had a nice collection of dental substances, as they had analyzed all of Mimi's reserves after that little interrogation, meaning number four could now do a nice strong substance that caused very severe dizziness, so much so that even getting up to sit was unlikely, so a dose of that made in a long-lasting formulation would keep Mariella nicely in her bed and not let her try to be Mimi.
And sure, if and when Mimi woke up, there was not going to be a crawling option for her either, but this substance or something similar would keep her in bed nice and firm. Now all they had to do was start to implement all of the necessary changes and make this medbay into a proper medical ward for Mariella. If she wanted to be patient, sure, they could do it with no problems whatsoever.