It had been 5 days since Mariella moved in, and she was not happy, as this was not what she expected, but then again, she could not find any flaws or mistakes in this. Older girls, hers and Mimi's, were caring for babies and her toddlers who were already pretty much healed but not her.
Ever since she was moved, well, she had undergone three operations, each of which made her more and more immobile, and since Adam and Charles were physical therapists, they told her she was not yet ready to move. But be on bedrest, which is, again, utterly understandable, as Mariella too had her medical knowledge, and they had shown her scans as well as some of her results.
Mimi was still sedated; she was not allowed to wake up, and she was wrapped up in different supportive bandages almost all over her body. Mariella groaned, and fetuses in her womb once again woke up and started to move, kick, and writhe as another flood of nutritional liquid was deposited into her stomach. Via the feeding button.
She was allowed to eat, but only small amounts and pureed or liquid food, and her oral hygiene was monitored, as she had been a carrier of that nasty bacteria quite a time ago. Mimi was not in a coma but asleep, and she sometimes moved, more or less, trying to wake up. And since Mariella had heard facts about her state and health as well, she usually alerted someone to check on Mimi. No need for her to break something when wiggling.
Number one, well, he had been at first just a husband, worried about her and trying to appease her, but when he had seen what other Salvatores did, it had been way too much fun, so he had now truly snapped his clinical mode on, looking at Mariella like Dr. Damon looks at an unruly patient. No more listening to her whining about needing some time in bed or making sure Salvatores worship her.
Mariella glanced at the clock on the wall. It was 7:45 am, meaning rounds would start at 8. This would then be followed by morning blood tests, changing cannulas, refreshing drug and fluid orders, a possible bed bath, and a weight check. If those "damn arrogant bastards" would let her, she might even get breakfast—no coffee, but at least smoothies and maybe some ice cream. Mariella groaned, trying to adjust her own position. She, too, was wrapped in various dressings, and her arms were bruised from constant blood draws.
Well, she had again gotten a bit of blood pressure issues, meaning threatening preeclampsia, and it was a reason in itself for bed rest, but her injuries added more to it. So her diet was monitored, as well as her blood pressure, and they did not let her get too upset.
The medbay didn't smell quite like a typical medbay. There was a citrusy undertone, heavily layered with the soothing, calming security pheromones from Salvatore, Charles, and Adam. In short, it was designed to make Mimi feel as safe as possible.
Mariella looked at the children, five little ones asleep, not allowed to wake. Their tiny bodies were covered, yet she had heard daily accounts of how severe their condition had been.
"Why the hell hadn't I thrown my force field over everyone, not just my three?" she thought. "I could have prevented this. Fucking shit. Or at least made this way less traumatic."
It wasn't long before she heard a familiar army of footsteps approaching. Ah, morning rounds. This meant ten Salvatores in doctor's coats and scrubs, Adam and Charles usually in scrubs, holding tablets for recording new orders, along with trays of fluids and injections. They would then write down in notepads what was in each bed, what was planned for the day, and nutrition orders.
"Morning, darling. Slept well, I assume?" the first one said calmly as he entered the room.
Mariella didn't bother to answer. She noticed Mimi stirring more, her hand moving toward her neck. Oh, she was that awake. Number Two glanced at Mimi, raised an eyebrow, and stepped closer. He adjusted an IV slightly, keeping his hand on her wrist to stop her from trying to pull out the lines.
"Oh, I see," Number One said. "We'll get to that soon. Now, Mariella, let's see. Today is scan day, the bone density scan, as you know. You, as well as Mimi, still have quite porous bones, which is one reason you heal so poorly. We'll take the scans a bit later this afternoon, as we have an operation for Sabrina in the morning. What the scan reveals will determine our next steps. We'll see if our little packing has helped your shoulder. If not, then it's operation time. This time, we've planned to create a kind of thick paste from Charles's bone tissue and three different dentals, and we'll wrap it with Mac burners. Your shoulder is still in at least seven pieces. Since we cannot use metals, or there aren't suitable ones for you, we have to go biological."
His voice was utterly clinical. He was Dr. Damon, and there was no chance of Mariella trying to even get him to worship her. She realized her situation clearly enough, as Adam had explained it to her. If her shoulder hadn't been operated on, with her brittle bones, she would shatter it sooner rather than later.
Given that it included two-thirds of her collarbone, extended 15 percent of her humerus, and 20 percent of her scapula, the original injury that had not yet healed would have been one colossal mess. Her shoulder would have more or less exploded, and healing such an injury would be slow.
Her shoulder would have remained sore, its function very limited for a long time, and her muscles would have been affected as well. Adam had been very detailed and had shown her in an anatomy book what was involved.
Right now, her right arm was in a tight sling, with support tapes and an almost hard casing encircling her upper body because her ribs were still cracked. This had been explained by Number Eight, who had told Mariella stories of several humans.
One woman, for instance, lost a major part of her limbs simply because she had cracked some ribs and then developed erysipelas at the same time. Those two issues had been too much for her frail human body, and she had almost not pulled through. When she woke up, her limbs had been more or less amputated.
For Mariella, who was pregnant, her immune system was compromised. Although she would regrow new limbs, such a severe infection would lead to her tiny fetuses being cut out from her. She would most likely be on life support, and her recovery would be brutal. Therefore, now was not the time to adopt Mimi's "I'm fine" attitude and brush this all off.
Despite her energy shield, the forces tossing her around had been quite strong, and she had borne the brunt of them. The Salvatores and the others were utterly clinical and explanatory, with no malice in their actions.
They were acting as doctors, and Wulfe, despite his desire to focus on Mimi, proved to be a very good student. As the protector of toddlers, he was in high demand and usually knew what they needed, even if he lacked medical understanding.
For instance, as the doctors examined Seraphina's situation—her legs broken and her right arm fractured in four places—the Salvatores were contemplating the best position for her arm when they applied the plaster.
Wulfe suggested, "It needs to be elevated, something like this," lifting his own arm and letting his wrist hang down, fingers straight and wrist slightly turned left. He had no medical background for this instinct, but his protector's intuition guided him. Damon, number one as well as number ten, came closer; number one grunted and grasped Wulfe's wrist, feeling around to understand the alignment of his wrist bones and tendons.
He then told Wulfe, "Now, let me adjust the position slightly, and let me feel your protector's instinct. This way, we can achieve the most perfect position possible."
Wulfe nodded. Damon grunted as he twisted and turned, feeling around before rattling off a list of jargon that the boys noted: "We need 35 degrees of palmar flexion, as well as 18.5 degrees of radial deviation. It's also noted that the radiocarpal joint should not be in a loose position, as it is quite unstable yet. Additionally, ensure that the fixed position will keep the capitate and hamate intact and prevent their breaks from worsening."
The men grunted, and Damon released Wulfe's hand. Seraphina's tiny hand, already in a plaster and brace, was not moved at this moment. However, they planned to adjust it after their rounds, under a scanner, to ensure that her shattered palm bones, which had already undergone surgery, would remain intact. Because she was so young, her bones were still growing, making it difficult to keep them fixed in place.
As doctors moved to Mariella, Damon looked at her last days' lab tests and ordered a bunch of new ones. A comprehensive list, everything from nutritional status to her hormones, stress markers, vitamins, and mineral levels; of course, infection was also kept an eye on.
Damon said, "Well, she can have liquid food today, no more than 400 ml, including juice, divided into at least three meals, and three bags of nutritional mix number 7, infused via central line, and after that, the line can be removed. Until further notice, let's try to wake her digestion a bit. Scans, well, let's take our three-hour-long scan and see what it logs. The last one was two days ago, so we have a comparison then."
His voice was calm as ever.
Mariella understood well enough her own situation, but she asked, "I am in a bit of a poor position; my hip is aching, and my babies have too much fun with my liver, and my tits are about to leak; they seem so damn sore and tender and full."
Number two grunted, and Adam, as well as Charles, came to her, lifted her, and made sure her hip was no longer pressed too badly. Mariella felt dizziness hit her as Number One gave her a few puffs from her sedative organ, which he had remote; it would calm babies, but it would also make her take a nap as well.
Number one said, "We give you something to stop milk; you are fit but have no need to make milk. Take a nap and then get your meal in sometime."
The doctors moved on with their rounds, and Mariella felt groggy and tired and let her eyes close; sleep would do good, and maybe once she woke up, a meal would be waiting for her. And then it might be actually something yummy, or at least something she could taste, having even the illusion of actually eating something.
Being a patient was not so glamorous as she had envisioned, and she understood Mimi on a whole new level. She had the patience to take care and let others care for her, but a leader like Mimi, well, this would be the ultimate weakness for her; maybe it was one reason why she was so damn hard to be patient with.
Mariella smiled slightly just before nodding off as she envisioned a time when Mimi would be awake and being as impossible as usual. And she had no idea what kind of patients Mimi's five would be—five more little Mimis trying to move and tell everyone, "I am fine," or would they actually listen to men and stay nicely in beds?
Mariella was not so keen on physiotherapy; even she knew it would come to her in time. Whereas Mimi might welcome in her time some exercises and movement, they were different in that way, and Mariella finally fell asleep, a smile on her face, now resting once again and healing as she should have.
Doctors continued to do their rounds; number one had gotten his mind on proper gear, and since there was a lot to be done, almost daily operations or minor procedures were needed, actually properly needed, and now things would progress on their own.
So far Mariella had been decent with the Mimi alarm system. As they had lightened up Mimi's meds from time to time, causing her to almost wake up. Since certain medication messed her thermoregulation up too much. Meaning she cooled down; they were trying to find the perfect balance, but she was who she was, meaning sedation and anesthesia were something that she fought against, no matter what.
She was facing a long and hard recovery, and Damon was not sure when the optimal time to do a C-section was, as this trauma made everything a bit iffy. Meaning her healing was slow, and trauma from a C-section would add all this, which might be too much for her, at least in this state. Babies were fine; pregnancy was not too much for either of the women, for now, and it was just time to try to heal something and get a bit of progress.
Now, one thing that had recently been discovered was everything that Colin had left as well, those tanks of bump. One part of Number One's time was taken as he studied all of Bumps what Colin had left, meaning his, Magnum's, and some older ones from Adam and Charles.
As Colin had used his expertise, he had gotten temporarily all of the men in their pack to make Bump, including Wulfe, so he now had over 23 tanks of Bump; each tank held 15 liters of unrefined, and for Bump, about 60 percent of it was liquid, so there was a lot for him to study and classify where each one would go. There was also blood, 8 liters from each male, whole blood, a big case of leprechaun drops as well, and quite an extensive book on their usage.
It was obvious that Colin too had realized that if something were to happen to him, it would benefit the whole pack if he could share his knowledge. He had given leprechaun drops to number four; he could study those. Number two was focused on bloods, and he took a bump, or officially, as it was called, intra-abdominal nutritional fluid.
Everything would help, and they were studying as much as possible so they would be able sooner rather than later to use all of these resources for their females and children. And of course there was also a nice wide collection dug up from somewhere—Miss Mimi's dental substances; those were put in a safe place to be analyzed later.
Mariella was forbidden to use her savior radar as her minerals and vitamins were low, and only when a certain threshold would be overcome and five consecutive blood tests would show those levels would stay high enough, maybe then, but it was just maybe.
Men had truly embraced their doctor side, and in this case, it was exactly what was needed. Time for love, and healing would soon come, and then it would be less clinical and more supportive and caring.