Aleisha's Story - Chapter Two - Aftermath
Aleisha's Story
Chapter Two - Aftermath
© Cederwyn Whitefurr (aka: Anthony Wain)
May, 2010
All Rights Reserved
Aleisha tried to scream, as she felt fingers touched to her severed throat, but only a fickle gurgle reached her ears...then there was an explosion of sound, pain and fear, that smashed down on her fragile mind like a hammer. She slashed out with her bloodied paws, violently convulsing, and as her claws raked across a human arm, her unseen assailant gasped and snatched his hands away.
"Fuck!" He shouted, then quickly pressed a gauze to the deep slashes.
His driver sat up front, then weaved his way through the traffic, sirens atop the ambulance wailing and flashing, before he glanced back over his shoulder at his colleague.
"For christ's sake - get that mask on her, or put her under!" Snarled the driver.
Biting back pain, the paramedic hurriedly strapped the gauze over his wound, then forcibly held down the hysterical doe, who kept trying to scream, but only choking gurgles come from her throat. Aleisha was wild with fear and pain, her rational mind unable to process the information that flooded in, and then there came the sharp sting in her forearm - before the nerves went cold and she rolled her eyes back and lapsed into a drugged unconsciousness.
With a sigh, the paramedic tightened the restraints, then placed another thick pad over the already blood soaked one on her severed throat and winced.
"Blood pressure is crashing, she's going into shock - "
Swearing, the driver slammed his hand onto the horn and a torrent of abuse rang forth, as he swerved around the car and flattened the accelerator to the floorboard.
"Five minutes!" He screamed back to his friend, who stroked the unconscious doe's head with a bloodied gloved hand.
"Hell, I don't think she's got five minutes - " Muttered the paramedic, as he watched her heart rate falling like a rock off a cliff.
*
Rushed into emergency surgery, Aleisha woke then looked up at the white hot lights that seemed to burn into her very soul, and she gurgled - her eyes instinctively squeezing shut. Someone pulled a mask onto her muzzle, and she opened her eyes, to look into a gowned form looking down at her, the deep brown eyes sympathetic and compassionate, before she weakly turned her head and looked at another human, who peeled back the soaked padding and winced.
"Put her under...quickly now!"
There came the soft hiss, and Aleisha tried to breathe - barely managing enough to put her back into a half conscious, half awake state. She heard the rattling of instruments and muttered voices, that seemed to come from the other end of a long, black tunnel.
"Will she live Doctor?" Asked a nurse, as she wheeled over a tray.
"Gods know - " Replied the doctor. "She's lost a lot of blood, all we can do is pray she makes it...start the transfusion."
"Doctor - but her family - "
"The hells with her family - she is my patient, and without it - she is going to die...Gods damn it - I said put her under...now!"
Aleisha twitched as she felt the needles sting in her arm, then mercifully, she vanished back into the black void.
*
Hours passed, and her mother had nearly exhausted herself with crying for her offspring, and her father had just held her, as they sat in the private office, him stroking his wife's back comfortingly as they waited for news. He had answered the door, and his ice blue eyes had widened and his slender, triangular ears flattened as he saw the two police standing there, then they swept their caps off and held them respectfully.
"Sir, is your daughter Aleisha..."
A crash come from behind the artic fox, and he twisted around, to see his kangaroo wife standing in the archway between kitchen and hall, as her paws flew to her muzzle and she shrieked in a terrifying, ear piercing scream, and he'd instinctively gone to her and tried to quieten her, as the police exchanged glances and gave their short, concise report - only telling them she was in hospital, and was undergoing emergency surgery - the hospital needed them there immediately..
*
Finally, the doctor came, six hours after her emergency admittance and he led them to a quiet ward, where he paused and rested his hand on the door.
"She lives - " He spoke, trying to remain calm and disconnected, hearing the choking sobs of the kangaroo behind him. "We've got her on a ventilator machine - and she's unconscious at the moment - we - we thought it better, to keep her under. The wounds were horrific, but she will live, we're sure of that."
With shaking paws, the fox growled and his dewlaps curled backwards. "Just...just tell me, they got the bastard who..."
"Sir, please - I can not answer that." Sighed the Doctor patiently. "You can go in, but please - do not be long, she is still very critical, and we'll do all we can to help."
He stood aside and opened the door, allowing Aleisha's parents to enter, before he closed the door and sighed quietly to himself. Nobody should have to witness their child laying like this innocent doe was - hooked up to machines so she could breathe, her throat bandaged and other machines keeping a regular check on her heart rate and blood pressure. No...nobody should be forced to endure that....
*
Aleisha spent six weeks in hospital, two of those in intensive care. Her parents never left her side for nearly three weeks, one always with her, sitting beside her bed and holding their daughters paw. Due to the serious injuries, it was discussed amongst her treating physician and others, to keep the doe unconscious as long as they could, and at the fourth week, she was carefully brought out of the induced coma.
Her eyelids slowly opened, and the doctor quickly checked the pupil responses and snapped his fingers near her ears. Aleisha drew a ragged breath, then winced and reached up to touch the bandages on her throat, but her father gently took her paws and held them, making her carefully turn her head to look at him.
"Hello sweety - " He smiled, blinking away the salty tears that burned at the corner of his eyes.
Aleisha croaked, then trembled and her father looked at the doctor and nodded. Carefully, he held a straw to her furred lips and she weakly took a sip of water, then winced and squeezed her fathers paws as pain lanced through her head like an icepick. Frowning, the doctor laid a gloved hand to her forehead, then turned to the IV, and injected a mild sedative into the drip, carefully adjusting the dosage. Aleisha groaned and her eyelids fluttered, as she struggled to focus, then looked at her father, who lost his self control and buried his head against her stomach, then began sobbing heart-brokenly, as Aleisha blinked and rested her trembling paws lightly on the back of her fathers neck.
"Dad..." Aleisha rasped, then touched her throat and swallowed weakly. "Please...don't - don't cry..."
He stared into her ice blue eyes, his own swimming with un-shed tears, as he cradled her paws in his own; memories of her as a newborn joey, born in this very hospital, her first bumbling steps - her first day at school, her beautiful eyes wide and the tears sliding down her cheeks as the teacher took her by the paw and led her to the classroom; the night at the fair - when she'd accidentally gotten lost, then the emotions that flooded him when they had been reunited, the beautiful young joey hysterical and screaming, then running to him and burying her head against his stomach, her tears of relief and sobbing mumbles, as she clung possessively to him...thoughts and feelings, many he had no name for, washed through his mind, and he just held his daughter tight, stroking her back and giving himself to the grief he had felt - fearing he would never look into her beautiful, ice-blue eyes ever again.
To Be Continued...