Colin went to Mimi when he got Adam to wash up. He was an experienced doctor and knew how to control his expression. Mimi was in critical condition, and rarely, rarely, in his 867 years had he heard his leprechaun swear so loudly at what he was doing. His leprechaun took this as a challenge. Now, there was no charge, as the leprechaun wanted an excellent reputation. Ehen this was put on paper, everyone would know who had set Mimi straight.
He hadn't started treating the skin yet, but the fever and the straps. The straps bound the soul to the body. There could be up to 700 straps on a supernatural creature. A human had about a hundred, and they broke off every time something happened.
Now Colin and his leprechaun started protecting and strengthening the 13 straps that Mimi had on her body. He had said nothing about those straps to Adam, and he wouldn't. He put a nasogastric tube in Mimi, took his medical bag and started looking for all the leprechaun drugs, potions, and extracts that the bag was full of, He dropped a few drops into the tube, rinsed it with water and watched, some substances gave more straps than others.
Once he'd gotten Mimi's straps to 50 and they were holding, he changed the bandages. He used Damon's solution but put in a few leprechaun ingredients that would help more. He worked quickly, gently but effectively, and alone.
As this was a potentially contagious bacterium and a bloody nuisance, he didn't risk anyone else. He kept her fast asleep and put her on a strong antibiotic, a fever reducer, and a couple of strap-strengthening meds to drip. Then he packed her in the car, drove to the airport, and took her to the plane.
He had ordered the Chicago house decontaminated, the base cleaned, and samples taken to make sure the germ wasn't anywhere to be found. On the flight, he changed the bandages one more time. It was very important to get the germs out of these wounds and blisters.
He had put an oxygen mask on Mimi, but her oxygen saturation was all 40%. Her lips were blue, and she was not really breathing. But once he got to the clinic, he should be able to function a bit more.
He had given advance notice of what was coming, and his staff were very competent. He knew they were going to have a pretty damn tough fight, but his leprechaun was more than up for the challenge. They arrived, Mimi had been put in isolation, and Colin had restricted who could get in.
This time he put her on more effective respiratory treatment, sucked all the secretions out of her lungs, his leprechaun developed a substance to help with pneumonia, the skin was treated, a strong antibiotic was dripped, and they tried to feed her as best they could, keep the fever down.
It took three weeks before the real turning point came. Mimi's fever was no longer rising to 50 degrees Celsius and Colin had been keeping Mimi asleep until now. Her pneumonia and throat infections had been treated, and the skin infection was healing nicely.
But Mimi was left with scars on her neck, where her pheromone gland had once been. There were also scars on her skin. Mimi weighed barely 26 kilos. He had now eased her medication. She was no longer in such a coma and had come out of isolation.
He was eating when the nurse arrived. " Sir, Mimi has disappeared. Have you ordered scans or something? She's not in her bed."
Colin looked up.
He grunted, "No, I haven't. Miss has woken up then, start looking for her."
The nurse walked away to do as the doctor ordered. Colin was a strict boss. Many people thought he was kind and soft because he was so patient, but he demanded a lot, shouted loudly if someone didn't go his way, and then he had taught the vampire women in bed, too. He was very dominant when he wanted to be, and none of his staff really thought of him that way.
Colin was exhausted. He'd had minimal sleep and rest over the three weeks, and he assumed his nurses would find Mimi and help her back to bed. Colin had lost weight himself. He had a stubble, dark shadows under his eyes and although he was very pleased that the turning point had been reached, Mimi was not out of the woods yet. She was really weak, and any extra effort could make her condition worse.
He had almost finished eating when another nurse came in and said, " Sir, we have a problem. We found Mimi, but..."
Colin furrowed his brow, got up, and followed the nurse. They went into one of the patient rooms and it was empty.
Colin said, " Well, I don't see her here, do I?"
The nurse pointed to the ceiling. There was a ventilation duct hatch off, and Colin raised his eyebrows; he said, "So Mimi's in the ventilation duct?"
The nurse nodded and said, " She's asleep; she won't wake up. She's just by the heat pipes. We can't reach her; she's obviously got a fever."
Colin sighed. He went to his office and called the maintenance company. Then, they spent three hours looking at the chart. The nurses kept reporting when Mimi moved and wouldn't come out. Colin knew he had to put her to sleep.
He ordered the pipe sealed so that the anesthetic gas couldn't get into the room air, and after half an hour, when Mimi was sound asleep, the maintenance company opened half the ceiling in one room. Eventually, they got the sleeping woman out of the air duct. Colin ordered all the hatches in the air ducts closed. He had spoken to Adam daily, and Adam had told him how they had had the same problem with Mimi.
I woke up in a totally strange place. I was confused with fever and infection, and I wasn't tied down, so I started moving. I ended up on the floor because my legs wouldn't support me. Or I climbed on one shelf. I got into the air conditioning duct when I was cold. It was a nice, warm place. I noticed the nurses were trying to get me out of there, and I didn't want to come. Eventually, some weird smell came into the whole duct, and I fell asleep.
When I woke up in the patient bed, Colin was sitting next to me and said, " Miss, you are getting better, but you are not out of the woods yet, now if you keep this up, the infection could flare up again. Now, you must stay in bed."
I nodded and was all innocent. I fell asleep when Colin put some more drips on. It was night when I woke up. I disconnected all the tubes and moved. I was cold. This was a strange place. I wasn't near the pack. I had to get to safety. I went into one room. It was some kind of procedure room, and to this day, I still don't know where I always got my strength from.
I climbed onto a table. From there, onto shelves on top of one of the tall cabinets. The room was dim, and the cabinet was in the corner, in the shadows. I had taken a sheet and curled up on top of the cabinet, wrapped in the sheet to be safe. Eventually, I fell asleep.
Colin had been asleep or napping when the nurse came once again to announce that the lady had moved. It had been two weeks now. The infection had not subsided, as she couldn't stay in bed at all. Colin stood up. The nurses were already looking for where she had gone.
Finally, after five hours of searching, they found Mimi. Colin walked into the room where the lights had been turned on. At the back of the room. On top of a high cupboard near the ceiling was Mimi, wrapped in a sheet, sleeping. How she had got there, he did not know.
He climbed a ladder, picked up the feverish woman again, lifted her into his arms, and carried her back to bed. He gave her a fever medicine, an antibiotic, and a nutrient solution and sat down next to her. He had been taking other patients for weeks when there was an epidemic of stomach flu, and dehydrated werewolves abounded, so his staff were busy and didn't have time to watch Mimi. Colin sat, looked at the skeletal, skinny, pale creature in the bed, and sighed. This really was the most difficult patient in the universe.
I woke up in bed again and was tired, not really even remembering what always happened. I was still out of it from the fever and the sickness, the drugs. Colin was sitting next to me. He looked exhausted and somehow bored with my antics. Colin tried to explain to me repeatedly that it would be good to stay in that bed and not go hopping down the corridors, climbing on top of cupboards, and tying the bloody hoses.
It was my new specialty. I'd climbed on top of tall cupboards to sleep, I was told. Every time I woke up and heard the same lecture, I would always look innocent and kind and nod. When I fell asleep and then woke up again, the entire episode had been erased from my mind enough for me to do it again.
Colin tried to be patient with me but finally made Salvatore put me in a drug-induced coma until the last signs of infection had disappeared. I then woke up in bed. My fever was gone. I didn't feel sick, but I was very weak. Colin came to tell me I was now healthy, the disease was overcome, but I weighed 24 kilos. I am really weak as their food solutions are not that effective.
I said, " Was my phone here? I have an updated feeding guide made by Salvatore, and well, Adam knows the recipe for the intestinal puree."
Colin gave me my phone. I called Adam. He was very relieved and promised to tell Samuel. I then gave the phone to Colin, and he discussed my rehabilitation with Adam. I had now been in Ireland for two months.
When Colin got off the phone, he came to me and said, " You can sleep for a couple more weeks. I'll put you on a power feed and see how you are, then."
I didn't have time to comment as he pressed the syringe into my cannula, and the darkness took me away.
I woke up two weeks later, and I was okay. I probably should have been ashamed of my behavior, but I wasn't because I can't help myself when I'm ill. That's just the way I am, and that's what the doctors had to deal with. Colin swore that if he ever had to treat me for another infection like this again, I would be under anesthetic the whole time.
He tried to tell me how much drip tubes cost and how much time was wasted lifting me up off the floor instead of being a good patient and staying still. I told Colin that I was hardly a good patient, and he was left wondering how Salvatore could take care of me.
I was a muscle-less whippersnapper, and I still weighed 39 kilos, but I was very muscle-less. My first few steps were hard because I had been walking well with my fever, but now I was no longer feverish. I knew I had to get fit.
I took a shower and looked at my new body. My scarred body. There was visible scar tissue on my neck where my pheromone gland used to be. On my upper body, I had several scars. It had been terrible, the erysipelas, and it had gone very much deeper, had been almost a flesh-eating bacteria. Whether the scars would ever heal, Colin couldn't say, but I didn't mind.
I then called Adam and informed him I would stay in Ireland and Europe to put things right. Adam was happy that I was ok, but he also had work to do when Bran was partying and not doing his work, so he had to do his work while he was at it.
What this meant for my future, I didn't know; I mentioned nothing to Adam about my scars. I bought an enormous mansion in Ireland. It was fully furnished. There was a castle for sale, and I almost bought it, but the mansion was better.
What I didn't know was that that castle would one day become Damon's refuge and an actual home, and I would never be welcome there. He would have someone else he would always take there, or the entire pack, except not me.
I wandered around my mansion; it was fully furnished, and I was now making all the decisions about what to leave and what not to leave. Now, I didn't ask anybody else. I felt my rage. There was a lot, and now it was strong, but I had learned my lesson. I was supposed to do my job, flea work, rescue and help.
Because every time I had been selfish, I had paid for it. Like studying to be a dog show judge, going to university to study instead of rescuing the innocent, well I got an infection as a result that took three months to treat. Now, I had learned my lesson, and as soon as I got better, I would get to work and do what I had to do.