A SMALL SERVICE

By Jo

The bullet had, indeed, nicked the main artery of Maximus' left arm where it curved up into his shoulder. And though he'd been bleeding a lot, the pressure Joimus had been putting on the wound as he lay in the back seat of the station wagon, had slowed it considerably. It was when he'd been thrown from the rolling car and landed heavily on his left shoulder in the dirt, that the small tear in the artery had increased in size and with
every beat of his heart, more of his blood pooled under him in the rain-soaked field.

By the time the medics got to him, he was suffering from a massive blood loss and was rapidly going into hypovolemic shock with organ failure imminent. All Joimus had known as she sat miserably watching him in the back of the speeding ambulance, was how white he looked despite his deep tan. She'd never seen him that color and it profoundly affected her.

Now she sat even more miserably on the side of an exam table, her legs dangling, all alone as she waited for the results of her facial x-ray. Outside the pulled, blue curtain, two doctors paused, discussing a case. Lost in her thoughts and worries, she wasn't paying attention until the name 'Meridius' pierced through her consciousness. "...and with 45% of his circulating blood volume lost and the way his BP was plummeting, no wonder we lost him there on the table...."

She ripped the curtain open, staring at the two doctors with a ghastly expression.
"He died? Maximus DIED??"

Her voice, loud and shrill with horror, came around the corner into the waiting room. Robin, hearing, made a dash for it, arriving just as she began toppling forward, almost taking down the blue curtain with her. He managed just barely to get his arm behind her head before it would have hit the tiles.

On one knee, he looked up at the startled doctors. "General Meridius? He is dead?"

"Who is that?" the older of the two doctors asked, squatting.

"The General's wife. You did not answer me, sir. Is he dead?"

"For a moment during surgery, but only a moment." He realized what he'd been saying earlier. "I didn't know his wife was right here."  He took her pulse, noting how the side of her face was swelling and turning purple. "What happened to her?"

"She was in the car when it rolled. She, too, was thrown out."

They got her back up on the exam table. "Has this been x-rayed?" the doctor asked.

"I don't know," Robin replied. "I think they planned to."

She moaned and started to come around, clamping her hands to her face. "Oh God, no!"

The doctor gently pulled her hands away. "You'll only hurt that more, Mrs. Meridius."

She didn't care. Her entire world was spinning off its axis and she didn't care about her face at all.

"He's not dead, Joimus," Robin said, leaning close. "The General still lives."

"But...but...I heard...."

The doctor spoke up. "I'm sorry, Mrs. Meridius, I didn't know you were in here. What you heard was me discussing how his heart stopped for a moment during surgery. But I assure you he's quite alive and we are engaged in restoring his blood volume."

She tried to sit up but a great weakness seemed to wash over her and unable to help herself, huge tears began sliding down her face. "Here, here," Robin said, smoothing back her hair. "You have him still."

But she couldn't seem to stop crying, couldn't quite get her world to continue on its way. The sheer enormity of that moment she'd thought she'd lost him enveloped her, smothering her with its dreadful loss. The doctor whispered to his younger companion and soon he was giving her a shot. In a moment her tears stopped and her eyes closed. "Let her rest here a while," he said.

"May I be permitted to remain with her?" Robin asked.

The doctor, studying him, thought how remarkably he resembled his patient and figured he must be Meridius' older brother. "That will be fine," he nodded.

The doctors left and Robin pulled a chair near where Joimus lay. Keeping guard over his wife…it was a small service he could perform for the General.