Page 23 of Tracing Her Stolen Identity
“My brother was a waif,” Skylar said. “Reece was bigger in height and weight, even six years younger. After Silas got out of the ER, my parents put him into therapy, where he was eventually diagnosed through a psychiatrist. Mom and Dad tried to help him, but—”
“You can’t help someone who doesn’t want help,” Mina finished, and Sky pointed at her as if to say,Exactly. “All that said, I’m still following him as a lead, but I’m also looking closely at Miles Bradshaw. His past tells me he’s an angry man. What I don’t know yet is if he’s capable of such a sophisticated wipe of someone’s life.”
Skylar braced her elbow on the table and rested her head on her hand as Mina and Reece tossed ideas back and forth. She couldn’t pretend she hadn’t noticed the hurt in Reece’s eyes when he learned of Silas’s diagnosis, but it also hadn’t been her choice not to tell him. She’d wantedto, but her mom said if she told Reece, he’d tell his parents. For a reason she wasn’t privy to, they didn’t want anyone else to know of Silas’s problems. Maybe it was time to let that ghost out of the closet and bury it once and for all.
Mina and Reece were deep in conversation, but she needed to use the restroom. “I’ll be right back,” she said, pointing out the door. “I just need the facilities.”
“Need help?” Reece asked, pausing their conversation, but she shook her head.
“I’m fine. Thanks, though.”
Before he could say more, she wheeled out of the room and down the hallway toward the cafeteria. She had noticed a restroom on their way to the conference room. Once locked inside, she pulled her shirt up and uncoiled her catheter. She wondered if her bladder was full, which would explain her pain. Once she had it uncoiled and over the bowl, she uncapped it, but nothing happened.
There was a knock on the door. “Sky, are you okay?” Reece asked.
“No. I think I need help,” she said without thinking, her head pounding as she tried to recap the catheter. Before she could coil it, the lock popped and Reece held the door open for a woman she didn’t know, then followed her into the small space.
“My name is Selina. I’m the crew nurse,” she explained, kneeling in front of her chair.
“I didn’t think you looked right when you left,” Reece explained.
Selina was already checking her pulse before Reece finished speaking. “Does your head hurt?”
“Yes. I can’t even remember how to get the catheter to flow, but my stomach hurts,” Skylar admitted.
“Med bay, now,” Selina said to Reece, who scooped her from the chair and ran down the hallway. “I’m worried it’s autonomic dysreflexia.”
“That’s bad, right?” Reece asked as he laid her on a stretcher in a room that could have been an emergency room cubicle. “I remember that was a worry when you first were injured.”
“It’s always a worry,” Selina explained, hooking her to the blood pressure machine by the bed. “There are many reasons someone with a spinal cord injury can develop autonomic dysreflexia, but when it happens, it’s hazardous to the heart.”
Snapping on gloves, Selina checked around her catheter and palpated her abdomen. “Your bladder is very full, so now we know the culprit,” she said, grabbing a urinal. “You don’t free drain?”
“Only at night. Intermittent draining is normally not a problem, but I’m worried the positioning in the truck last night damaged something.”
“She was bent over for quite a while,” Reece explained, taking hold of her hand. She was too scared to pull away from him. The warmth of his skin grounded her and made her feel like she would be okay.
Selina glanced up at the monitor when the blood pressure cuff deflated. “Blood pressure is high, but not in the immediate danger zone. I vote to change the catheter rather than try to make this one drain. Are you okay with that?”
“You can do that here?”
Reece chuckled, though she could tell it was forced. “She could do open-heart surgery here if she had to.”
“I wouldn’t go that far,” Selina said, snapping on gloves. “As for a catheter, that’s a piece of cake. I need to lay youflat, so tell me if your headache worsens when I do that. We will change it fast, drain your bladder and then reassess your blood pressure.”
“Will that fix it?” Reece asked as she gathered supplies.
“If we can’t keep the urine flowing, then we’ll need to do something else with the catheter or get her to a hospital. If we’re lucky, it’s just sediment blocking this one and a new tube will solve the issue. I want you at her head to call out the blood pressure numbers each time it deflates. Keep an eye on her skin. Tell me if she starts sweating or her face gets red and blotchy.”
“It’s just a headache right now,” Skylar assured them. “And I’m a little warm.”
Selina paused and offered her a smile as she pulled the gloves off and squeezed her hand. “I’ve got you. Where’s your level of injury?”
“T5,” Reece answered before she could.
“I can’t feel my bladder at all,” Skylar added. Selina nodded as she lowered the bed and immediately snapped on new gloves.
Reece held her face in his hands and her gaze with his. “You’ll be okay. Selina is the best there is,” he promised, dropping a kiss on her forehead. “She’s right. She’s warm.”
