It's Over When It's Over

The old man was Hershel, the young lady was his daughter Maggie, and his nurse was Patricia. We sat Rick down and took an IV. Thank goodness Rick and Carl had the same blood type otherwise Carl wouldn’t make it. After Rick was done giving the blood, I took out the IV and patted Rick’s vain. Rick and Lori talked about how Carl wanted to do the same when Rick had been shot. Lori put her hand on my shoulder.
“Thank you so much sweetie for being her to help my boy.” Lori sadly smiled, “And to you Hershel.” I nodded with a smile.
“How long have you been a doctor?” Hershel asked. “You still look young.”
“Well I’m not a doctor. I had one more year of college though, and I would have been.”
“Well at least you know your stuff.” We both stood up and walked out the room as Lori and Rick followed.
“Okay, so I understand, when Shane gets back with this other man—“
“Otis.” Hershel said.
“Otis.” Lori repeated. “The idiot who shot my son.”
“Ma’am, it was an accident.” Hershel said.
“I’ll take that under advisement later. For now he’s the idiot who shot our son.” I tried not to laugh. Wasn’t the time for that.
“Lori, they’re doing everything they can to make it right.” Rick said.
“Okay, as soon as they get back you can perform this surgery?” Lori asked Hershel and I.
“We can do our best.” I said.
“Okay. You’ve both done this procedure before?” Lori asked.
“We’ll I’ve done it on animals.” I said. “For class projects and stuff like that. Twice before on a person.” Lori looked at me and nodded then looked at Hershel.
“Yes, in a sense.” Hershel said. Lori asked what he meant by that. “I’m a vet.”
“A veteran? A combat medic?” I asked with surprise.
Hershel looked at us three. “A veterinarian.”
“You’re completely over your heads aren’t you?” Lori asked looking at Hershel and I.
“Ma’am, aren’t we all?” Hershel said. I chuckled lightly and walked into the living room to talk to Hershel’s kids.
“Thank goodness for you guys. Carl’s not my kid, but I don’t know where to begin to thank you.” I said. Maggie smiled.
“When do you think your group is going to get here?” Hershels other daughter Beth asked.
“I’m not sure. Soon I hope. This place. It’s so untouched. I’d rather my nephew, brother, and boyfriend be up here.”
“Boyfriend?” Beth smiled.
“Yeah.” I smiled back.
“Jimmy, (the boy who was on the other horse) is my boyfriend.” Beth said. I looked at him standing in the kitchen and smiled.
___
Hours passed and Rick had told me Shane and the man Otis went to go get supplies for the surgery hours ago, and it's taking to long for them to return. We all went to go check on Carl to make sure he was still fine. Hershel checked his pressure.
“Pressure’s dropping again. We can’t wait much longer.” He explained.
“Take some more. Whatever he needs.” Rick said putting out his arm. “Then I’ll go back for them.”
“Rick you can’t go.” Lori said.
“They should be back. If they got into trouble—“
“You’re in no condition to do anything about it.” I said. “You’ve given too much blood, Rick.”
“If something happened, I have to go.” Rick said.
“If anything I should go!” I said. “You have Hershel. If they get here after I leave he can have control.”
“No, the both of you!” Lori raised her voice. Lori went on to yell at Rick telling him to stay and how he can’t leave.
After Lori was done yelling I told Rick to drink more water to help get his body more stable, then he could give more blood. After Rick was done I left the family alone and went outside to wait for Shane and our group to get here. I would have liked to get back to the highway to see how everyone is and bring them back here, but I had to stay.
A few minutes later I saw a car driving up the road. I stood up as they parked in front of the house. It was Glenn, T-Dog, Jack, and Daniel. I ran down the steps to hug Jack and Daniel.
“You guys alright?” I asked them.
“Yeah we’re fine.” Jack said. “How’s Carl?”
“He’s knocked out. We can’t do the surgery until Shane gets back.” I explained. I then remembered that Hershel has supplies to help out T-Dog though. We all walked inside and I asked Patricia to get the stuff. We took them to see Carl first, then to the kitchen. Glenn put a bag of medication on the table.
“It’s Merle’s meds and stuff.”
“Where’d you guys find this?” I asked.
“Daryl had it.” Glenn said. I don’t know why Daryl would have kept Merle’s clap medication but it came into use.
“Alright.” I said, unwrapping the tape and the towel. Patricia, cleaned the wound for me as I got the needle ready. “You need to take a deep breathe, okay?” T-Dog nodded clinching his teeth. I started sowing him up. He was taking it pretty well but not well enough. “I know it hurts, but the more you flex the more it’ll hurt. I need you to stay relaxed.”
T-Dog breathed heavily through the pain, “I am relaxed.”
“It’s alright just a few more to go.” I said.
“Merle Dixon?” Patricia asked. “Is that your friend with the antibiotics?”
“No, ma’am. Merle’s no longer with us.” Glenn said. I looked up at the two of them, wanting to ignore the conversation. I haven’t thought about Merle in a while. “Daryl gave us those—his brother.”
“Not sure I’d call him a friend.” T-Dog cried with pain.
“He is today. This doxycycline might have just saved your life.” I said, with Patricia agreeing with me.
“Do you know what Merle was talking it for?” Patricia asked.
“The clap. Um, venereal disease.” Glenn said looking at me. Daniel walked up to me and whispered "what is the clap?".
“Um, Jack explain to him what the-“ I cleared my throat, “The clap is.” Jack looked at me with wide eyes and shock his head, and I did the same back at him. “Um it’s something Uncle Merle had, and it wasn’t good.”
“You guys are stupid.” Daniel said walking away and sitting on the couch, knowing we didn’t want him to know what it was. I wasn’t really sure what to tell him. I for one needed to focus on T-Dog and I didn’t want to explain the clap.
“I’d say Merle Dixon’s clap was the best thing to happen to you.” Patricia said to T-Dog.
“Patricia, can you take over for me?” I asked her. She nodded, so I handed her the thread and needle, and went to go check on Carl. When I walked in Hershel was checking his heart rate. “How is he?” I asked.
“He’s losing blood faster than we can replace it.” Hershel explained, “And with the swelling in his abdomen we can’t wait any longer or he’s just going to slip away. Now I need to know right now if you want us to do this, because I think your boy is out of time.” Rick and Lori stood thinking. This was a hard decision . Either way Carl may not make it. “You have to make a choice.” A choice Lori questioned. Lori and Rick looked at each other thinking of what to do. Lori then gave us the approval.