TAKING OVER TROFIM (Dominion of Brothers series Book 4) (39 page)

“Okay I think we’re done here. Shay?”

Shay inched in with the scope once more to take a look at the repaired tissue before Pavle closed him up. Then checked the rest of Trofim’ heart just to be sure.

Another fifteen minutes passed and they found nothing.

“Okay, it’s clear. Shay, get that out of there.” Pavle ran his finger along the ventricle wall to scoop the scope out from his brother’s chest cavity, “I’m ready to close him up.” But just then Shay thought he saw something on the monitor and he snapped back around to stare at the monitor.

“Let’s go, Shay.”

“No wait.” Shay reinserted the videoendoscopic tube to look again.

“What? I need to close him up. We’re running out of time.”

“There’s another.”

“What?”

“I saw it. On the screen, just when you touched the right ventricle.”

“You’re mistaken. We’ve already examined the area. There was only the one and it’s fixed. We have to start his heart up again before we risk blood deterioration.”

“He dies if you do and there’s still another rupture in there.”

“There’s no time.”

“Please.” Shay begged. He knew what he saw and he wasn’t about to let Pavle dismiss it. “Do you really think I would risk Trofim’s life?”

“I think your feelings for him can easily cloud your judgment as a surgeon right now.”

“Please, I know I saw something. You have to trust me on this.”

“You have five minutes and then I’m closing him up.”

Shay re-angled the scope and gently eased it past the valve angling it in the direction he had seen the stream of dye escape the side wall. Nothing, no visible bleeders or noticeable broken tissue. He’d seen it when Pavle touched the wall tissue, so Shay reached in with his other hand and gently squeezed his lover’s heart as tenderly as he could allow himself to do. Emotions threatened to invade his thoughts just as Pavle had accused him of. He sucked in a hard breath and shoved them aside while he kept his eyes glued to the monitor.

Shay released Trofim’s heart and wiped his brow with the back of his arm.

“Sandra!” Pavle snapped at one of the nurses, “Get in here and take care of him.”

The nurse stepped in and swiped over Shay’s forehead with a square of gauze, while he resumed the gentle pumping of Trofim’s heart, and still moving the scope wand around, adjusting the angle in search of the phantom bleeder.

“Time’s up.”

“No.”

“Shay move aside or I’ll have you removed!”

“Just another minute!”

“Nurse get security.”

Shay flinched aside to prevent the nurse from taking his arm and that’s when Shay saw it. A small cloud of blood spat out from behind Trofim’s heart like a sprite coming out of the coronary sinus. “THERE!” Shay nearly shouted. “There it is.” His eyes glued to the monitor.

Pavle looked, “Let me see that.” Pavle reached into the chest cavity and took Trofim’s heart in his hands, moving it at a particular angle then squeezed. “I’ll be damned, it’s there.”

Pavle and Shay met each other’s eyes and a silent understanding was shared between them. It was a good thing Shay had pushed on and Pavle was thanking him in a thousand silent words. For had they closed Trofim up and left it unattended, the hemorrhage to the vein would have been enough to kill Trofim the next time he went rowing or did any other physical exertion in the form of a heart attack.

“Quick, move aside!” Pavle shot a glance at the clock and they all realized they really were out of time.

“Damn it, I’m not leaving.”

“Shay, I need to get where you’re standing in order to fix it. Now move!”

Shay backed off as ordered. Trofim only had a few minutes left before he was considered in the red zone for complications due to having his heart shut down. Though he was on a heart and lung machine, the artificial pump was no substitute for the human body’s own natural design.

Pavle knew what to do and could do it far faster with everyone out of the way. He watched as the master surgeon went to work, even his staff knew what he needed and had it in his hand before he had to call for it. It was almost calming knowing that Pavle would not slow down or quit until he’d saved his brother’s life, losing him wasn’t an option— for either of them.

“Get the paddles ready.”

“Charging.”

“Forty seconds.”

“Just a few more stitches.”

“Thirty seconds.”

Charge ready.”

“One more.”

“Doctor?”

“Almost there.”

“Twenty seconds.”

“Get those paddles in there now.”

Shay was ready to come apart, the only thing stopping him was he knew Pavle would have him removed if he did.  His hands curled in fists until his knuckles turned white.
Fear threatened taking away his medical training and ceased to be the doctor and became a lover within those walls.

He had to fight back the tears. So close he couldn’t bear to live without him, it would be far worse than what he’d gone through living without him the last five years. At least back then, he knew Trofim was alive and Shay got to see him in the magazine ads. But for Trofim to die in his hands because he didn’t find the other rupture in time was not acceptable. And tears were not going to help him see any better.

“Ten seconds, doctor.”

Pavle completed the last stitch—

“Five seconds”

His hands raced to get out, “Clear!”

The tech sent the circuit.

Trofim’s heart swelled and then fell still. The anesthesiologist checked for a pulse, his eyes reading the monitor but he shook his head to Pavle.

“Again.”

Again another surge of electricity was sent to Trofim’s heart. Pavle’s eyes went to the monitor— still nothing, “Again, damn it!”

Another surge—

Still nothing.

“Oh God, don’t do this to us!” Shay let out a cry, a plea to the heavens and lunged for the operating table.
By god he’d jump the man off by hand if he had to
. “Damn it, Trofim, you come back to me!”

~  *  ~

“Again!” Pavle ordered.

Silence.

“Get me 10ml of atropine!” Pavle stood with his hands out, stiffly waiting for the syringe to be passed into his fingers, the rest of him was rigid, unlife like, if he allowed that then he too would likely buckle as Shay was on the edge of doing himself.

A moment that was far too long for his liking and a small syringe of clear fluid was pushed into his waiting hands and he injected it into the intravenous line in Trofim’s hand. “Time it!” Pavle sent out the order and they all watched the second hand click by on the large clock on the wall. Thirty seconds ticked by like a century and Pavle no sooner took the breath to call it and the tech had the long tong-like paddles buried in the chest cavity to each side of Trofim’s heart.

“CHARGED!”

“CLEAR!”

—
Thump
— Trofim’s heart twitched and they all held their breaths and waited while the anesthesiologist held a stethoscope to Trofim’s neck but once more, he shook his head. Eyes reverted back to the monitor as if it would declare the technician a liar. But it remained flatlined.

“100ml epinephrine.” Pavle ordered the next solution to be injected.

Again the assistant set the paddles in place only to fail.

“Damn it. Give him 100cc bicarbonate.”

Pavle took the paddles from his assistant and inserted them to either side of Trofim’s heart himself then nodded for the charge to be sent.

Still nothing showed on the monitor.

“Trofim!” Shay cried out.

“AGAIN!” Pavle commanded.

~  *  ~

The heart spasmed, and someone reached out and caught Shay, stopping him from touching his lover while the current of electricity went through his body.

“NO!!!” Shay screamed when the monitor screen remained void of his lover’s lifeline. He closed in over Trofim’s body. The tears streaming freely and dripped on Trofim’s face while shaky hands touched it. “I endured the darkness, because I knew your heart was with me. I knew that even in such pain and fear that darkened our world, when we are together we have a moment of peace. Please—” Shay was now reduced to pure sobs. He couldn’t bear the thought of losing Trofim, not now, not when all he had suffered was finally to come to an end. All the suffering was for nothing without Trofim in his life. He glanced to the heart that wasn’t beating, to the lips taped around the apparatus turning pale. The cold grey color of skin usually tan and glowing. “Don’t leave me.” Shay whispered and leaned in further and kissed Trofim’s eyelids. While his fingers absently traced out a heart shape on Trofim’s arm followed with the letter T. “How do you think I ever got through all that shit but for you. I love you. And I won’t live without you.”

Blip
.

The room fell deafening silent. Shay’s head snapped up and all eyes went to the monitor screen.

Blip, blip
.

A red line jumped up in double beat. Eyes moved to the heart still exposed in the open chest, the sight of it pumping on its own brought relief to strained emotions.

A round of skyward murmurs of gratitude moved around the room and Pavle immediately stepped up and began the task of closing up his brother’s chest. Shay took his place across from him, relieving the surgical nurse to help.

~  *  ~  *  ~  *  ~  *  ~  *  ~

CHAPTER FORTY-TWO

~  *  ~  *  ~  *  ~  *  ~  *  ~

Trofim didn’t wake right away, but his heart was going strong, with no more inconsistencies to its beat, it was just a matter of time before he finally woke up. But by the next day, Shay noticed something in the bruises on Trofim’s face. Black and blue contusions had faded to
bloodish
-brown and yellow. And in them was a mark—

Three identical marks. Two on Trofim’s left cheek, the other just above his left brow.
A mark bearing a similar resemblance to a particular insignia ring
. One Shay had seen all his life.

He pushed up and went into the bathroom and leaned into the mirror, running his fingers across his cheek bone where it was still tender. There wasn’t a bruise anymore but he recalled seeing the very same mark on his cheek the day he told his father he had called it off with Sarah and planned to spend the rest of his life with Trofim.

Shay went back to his lover’s bed and knelt down next it, taking Trofim’s hand in his.
He knew what he had to do. He had wanted to be here when Trofim woke, but this was more important
. He kissed and rubbed his cheek against Trofim’s hand a moment, just wishing Trofim was awake now and touching him like he always did.
He was such a sucker for that touch. It was Trofim’s special touch, their own connection. Trofim wasn’t much for holding hands, instead he was always touching Shay’s cheek.
He always said it took more energy to touch ones cheek rather then hold hands which could be done absently without any deeper connection.
You couldn’t do that when raising your hand up to touch their face. It told the other person they were worth the extra effort.

“Remember when I told you I was never going to let anything come between us?” Shay kissed Trofim’s hand again.
Trofim might be a sleep but he’d hear him. One way or another Trofim would know it was him talking to him
. “Well I meant it. Nothing ever will— not even my father.”

Shay sat back and pulled out his cell phone and he called the detectives, “UH, yeah this is Shay Wilks down at Queens medical. Some new evidence has surfaced. You better get down here.”

~  *  ~  *  ~  *  ~  *  ~  *  ~

CHAPTER FORTY-THREE

~  *  ~  *  ~  *  ~  *  ~  *  ~

Shay sat on the bench in the examining room.

The detective and an assistant looking at him waiting. Shay had only allowed one other to be in the room with him, Trenton Leos, and Shay wasn’t exactly sure why he had called and asked him. But he was here now and the time was now. He began unbuttoning his shirt one then another, mechanically keeping his eyes forward and away from the two watching and waiting. His shirt hung open and he sucked in a deep breath then with the small amount of resolve he had, he shrugged his shirt off and revealed his back to them.

There was a slight gasp, but quickly drawn under control.

Shay sat stiffly, as the officer snapped off shots of his body and the detective circled around him shining an ultraviolet light wand over Shay’s skin. The light made faded bruises and abrasions noticeable for the camera.

They both stopped behind him. He felt their eyes staring at him, heard their unspoken questions and he swallowed hard. But it was not pride he swallowed. He had none. It was humility. He was not a man, not for letting this happen to him, but for letting the same man harm Trofim. But that too was coming to an end.

~  *  ~  *  ~  *  ~  *  ~  *  ~

CHAPTER FORTY-FOUR

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Pyotr watched over his little brother diligently. He’d been there every day since the attack, coming in every afternoon after he’d had practice and then checked in with his office to make sure his fill-in was doing okay and there were no urgencies the doctor could not handle for Pyotr in his absence.

What he wasn’t sure of was if Shay ever left the room at all. But when Pyotr got the call from Shay this morning asking him to stay in his place while he went to take care of something, Pyotr dropped everything to get here and he hadn’t left since.

He didn’t question the man’s purpose, it obviously was important or Shay would not have left Trofim’s side.

“I think I’m gonna head down to the cafeteria and get something to drink.” Cliff, who had followed him in intending to stay until it was time for him to head in for work, sat up and stretched.