For some reason, Damon always felt a great sense of relief when he got Mimi out of pain. He didn't know why or how, and he couldn't say why or how. He tried to be careful not to cause further bleeding all the time, but if his blood started to help and Mimi started to heal, it would be good to have the bones roughly in place.
When he got the vacuum splints in and got the legs aligned he still put the arms in—kept Mimi covered up as best he could. He stroked her head. He was still so furious and felt that nothing was enough to get revenge, not even that Magnum thing. He tied her back to the stretcher and pushed her into the car.
Mimi was alarmingly thin again. Damon knew exactly what he would have done to Bran. He'd had Mimi's glandular secretions left over. He would have had Bran make a feeding liquid for Mimi. But Adam said it wouldn't help. Bran would just get back at Mimi at some point. He got the stretcher locked, closed the doors, cannulated Mimi, and put on the blood transfusion.
He told Magnum, " You can drive."
The car started moving slowly, and Damon let his blood drain into his wife's veins. He had promised his own blood to Mimi at their vampire wedding. Mimi's breathing was a little better, and her worst allergies began to recede. Mimi's face wasn't quite so swollen, and her breathing was better. Damon thought that was something.
They were five minutes from the airfield when Damon took the cannula out of his body. Mimi's condition was more stable now; her bones weren't healing yet, but she wasn't as white and deathly ill as before.
They arrived at the airport, and Charles was there to meet them. Magnum jumped out of the car and helped Charles set up the ramps to the plane so that Mimi's stretcher could be pushed in.
Magnum and Charles had a heated discussion, and Damon stroked Mimi. He had packed some more supplies in his bag and knew that during the four-hour flight. Perhaps he could always help a little. Keep Mimi's situation stable.
Eventually, they got Mimi loaded onto the plane, and Damon carried the bag onto the plane. Charles got the stretcher onto the plane and then went to his seat and started the plane, ready to fly to Atlanta. It would be a 45-minute drive from the airport, and there was only one car, so the stretcher would be left at the airport. But that wouldn't matter.
Once it was safe to do the work, once the plane was airborne, Damon got into action. He took a portable ultrasound and ultrasound Mimi. The image went straight to Atlanta, so Samuel could see it, too. At least he knew something about what was inside the Mimi.
He had just finished taking the scan when his phone rang again. He covered up Mimi, made sure she was asleep and went to talk to the other end of the plane when another vampire from Europe called with some fucking crisis.
Damon had done a couple of jobs for the elders again and felt it was no use as he'd become a fucking savior to everyone. He couldn't be bothered solving other people's problems when Mimi needed him.
He got the crisis over the phone and didn't have much time to plan anything for Mimi when Charles said, "We'll be there in half an hour, so you can settle down and sit down soon."
Damon cursed mentally. He would have had time to do something for his wife, but not when he had to talk on the phone for hours. Now, he had made it clear that he wasn't available. Heaven could fall on the ground for him, and he didn't care. He caressed her.
The plane started to land, so Damon once again packed his things and his meds. When the plane landed, Damon picked her up in his arms and walked out of the plane. He walked over to the gold-colored sturdy SUV.
Charles went to talk to someone in the hangar, and Damon got the car door open and then put Mimi in the back seat. Then he got in the driver's seat himself, calling from the airfield before leaving.
"Damon here. We're just about to leave for the drive. All I got done was the ultrasound when the vampire crises called me again, but I made it clear I'm not available for anything right now. I guess I'll have to put my fangs pretty straight in and see what happens after that."
Adam grunted.
Samuel heard this and sighed. When it wasn't quite time to give a straight dental, he'd read a bit about tooth vampires and knew that their emotions affected the stuff they did, and Damon would be cranky, pissed off, worried, and distressed. This one's emotions could be directly affecting the substances, and that wouldn't help Mimi at all.
Samuel was trying to calm him down and said, "Let me look through Mimi and take some blood tests before you put your teeth in her neck. Let's see and prioritize a little bit what we're going to do. Make sure your teeth are up to date, and don't do anything because you're pretty nervous."
Damon replied, "Fine, but I won't wait long. If my teeth want to work, then I'll work."
Samuel grunted and hung up. He understood Damon's need to do something. He himself had the same need, but he had to keep his cool and look at the situation calmly.
Samuel was a healer, it had always been his driving force, and the centuries had taught him so many bitter lessons, sometimes it seemed that all the losses, the failures, crushed his soul. Even though he had probably healed and saved tens of thousands over the centuries, the losses almost weighed too much now and then.
He had to be calm, in control once again, and make Damon do what was best. Oh, that Samuel wished sometimes that he too could give vent to his feelings and be concerned and distressed and not have to be so cold and clinical, but then again, it was for Mimi's own good that he restrained himself.
Samuel sighed and looked through the ultrasound again. Not a good start either. Mimi had extensive visceral damage and would probably need surgery, and if she had been poisoned so badly with tomatoes and coriander, then not a good thing, not a good start either.
Adam watched as Samuel rubbed between his eyes, ran his hand through his hair, and sighed. He had watched through the ultrasound, and Adam still didn't understand any of it. He could see that Samuel was also just as stressed about Mimi's condition as the rest of them, but Samuel never showed it.
Adam hoped Samuel would decompress in some way, but he never even saw that the fuckfest would help Samuel decompress. Adam was furious with Bran, and he knew what he was going to do. Now, he had a good reason, and Bran couldn't argue with that.
Why did Mimi always have to pay? Adam didn't know what fucking evil Mimi had done to make the universe punish her so severely and how stupid they'd been with the whole fucking party at the Pennsylvania mansion.
He watched as Samuel wandered from cabinet to cabinet, picking up some supplies and making sure the equipment was on already. They were waiting for Mimi and Damon. Adam sighed. This wouldn't be easy if Damon's defensive instincts kicked in, and he didn't let anyone go at Mimi. You'd just have to hope Salvatore was in doctor mode enough.
Damon was nervous, enraged. It was like the vampires of the world had gotten his phone number and decided he could solve any problem. And he did, but it was time he'd rather have spent with Mimi. Soon, they'd arrive, and he'd be able to help her, and he actually wondered why his teeth hadn't done anything yet.
But they'd have time to help her. Now, he wouldn't leave her, not for anything. The house lights were already on the bend, flickering out of sight, and it was evening when they arrived.
Headlights swept the dark road as they rounded the last bend before he could stop the car, punch in the code, and wait for the gates to open.
The car crawled as the gates opened, and Damon very deftly and expertly backed this large car into place. He drove the car into the driveway and got out. The lights outside came on, and Damon saw Adam and Samuel already standing at the door.
It was early October, a cold evening, and Damon had kept the car very warm. He would try to move Mimi inside quickly to conserve what little warmth he had gotten into her frail, thin body. He went into the back seat only to find that Mimi was awake.
I woke up in the car. I didn't know how long I had been unconscious. I could still feel the drugs in my head, but the pain was tearing me awake once again. My limbs were splinted and somehow it almost made me panic. I was trapped.
My head was still a mess from the drugs, and I felt like my face was on fire. The motion of the car made my stomach turn upside down, and I was warm in the car. I wasn't as frozen as I had been, but then I realized how cold had numbed me; now I wasn't numb, but the pain was ripping me apart again, and I didn't know what to do next. I tried to be still, but the nausea hit me, and I threw up blood.
It's no fun trying to vomit with several broken ribs. I tasted blood in my mouth. The burning, wrenching agony in my stomach didn't ease even when I threw up; I was dizzy. The racking, stabbing pain from the broken ribs made my eyes black with pain.
I felt my diaphragm and ribs convulsing with something. I threw up I mean sheer blood, finally dripping out of my mouth again. My teeth had not yet grown, and the sockets in them ached. My face was still on fire, and I still couldn't move my jaws.
My broken ankle was somehow out of position, and I tried to cope with it. The splint was relentless, and I couldn't move my leg at all. The car stopped for a moment and then slowly moved forward. We arrived in Atlanta. I could feel Damon backing the car into place.
Finally, the car stopped, and the door opened.
Then the back door opened, and Damon said, " Ah well, a lady like that doesn't want to sleep."
I spoke in my mind, trying to communicate through the bond.
I wasn't even sure if Damon could hear me." I'm in too much pain, my ankle, my ribs. I don't have vampire teeth anymore, my entire face is on fire, I can't move my jaw and I just threw up blood. "
Damon said, "It's okay. Let me take a look at your mouth. I'll try to be gentle. I gave you a blood transfusion on the way over, so you're not so anemic anymore. It's okay. "
Damon frowned and came over to me and gently opened my mouth just a little, just enough to stick one finger in and feel. He pulled it out and sniffed.
"Baby, Bran has been poisoning you with tomatoes. I can smell the tomato extract. Now I'm going to carry you inside, and then I'll get you a little stronger cocktail again. That's why you're hurting and your face is broken. My blood helped some with that coleus reaction. You'll be fine. "
He gathered me in his arms and began to walk briskly inside. I was frozen still when the pain erupted again in so many places at once. Adam came to open the door, and Damon nodded.
Damon said, "Now hurry up; this one is in agony, and she is frozen by pain in my arms."
Damon carried me briskly to the medbay and laid me down on the bed. Samuel was already ready with the syringe, and all I could feel was the needle going into my vein and the pain fading far away. I was almost conscious and felt another injection as everything disappeared. I drifted off into a dreamless sleep.
The men gasped with relief as Mimi sighed and relaxed. Samuel had booked a good dose and gave her a shot of black velvet, which put Mimi into a good deep sleep, so they could help and see what to do first. The pain had to be controlled, and tomato and coriander poisoning was also a priority.