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The Triumph Of AJ Quartermaine
Chapter Seventy Four
Emergency.
AJ takes a deep breath, calming himself down to go upstairs to Carly. All that could be done tonight was done. Carly didn't want the details of Ferncliffe to come out and he'd done all he could to make it so. If she was satisfied with her revenge on Evans then he would have to be too. Never in such a long time had he wanted a drink so badly. Banking the fire for the night, he sets the fireplace screen in place and walks upstairs. AJ knocks softly on Carly's door not wanting to wake her if she had gone to sleep. Opening the door when there is no reply he looks in, checking on her. The bed is still made and there is a light in the bathroom. "Carly?"
"AJ? I think I really messed up this time." A shaky voice comes from the bathroom. AJ rushes to the bathroom where Carly is sitting on the floor. Blood streams down her arm. She holds her arm tightly with her right hand. "The first two just popped out easy but the other one was more stubborn. I think I cut too deep. Do you think I cut too deep?" Carly's face is pasty and her voice rambles.
"Jesus Carly!" AJ grabs a towel and rips it in half. grabbing her arm he wraps and wraps it tighter than tight. "It wasn't spurting; it wasn't spurting." AJ mumbles to himself. "What am I suppose to do? Baby, keep the pressure on. I'm going to call for an ambulance."
"NO...NO hospital. They'll think I did it on purpose; they'll send me back." Carly pleads beginning to cry.
"Baby, you're losing blood. I think you're going into shock. I know you need stitches."
"No. I won't go. I'm fine." Carly tries to stand up but can't get her balance and slides down the wall again.
"Stay right there, Carly. I'm going to call my dad. Don't move. Whatever he says goes, okay?"
"Sure," Carly slurs. "As long as he tells me what I want to hear."
"Oh God, Baby. Just hang on." AJ races to the bedroom and grabs the phone from Carly's bedside table and calls his father's cell phone. "Dad? I need you. Bring your bag; Carly cut herself. I think it's bad...she's not making sense. I think that she's going into shock.... She won't go to the DAMN hospital.... thanks Dad. And Dad-- I'll pay any speeding tickets." AJ hangs up the phone and grabbing a blanket from the foot of the bed rushes back to the bathroom. "Okay Baby. Dad is on his way. He says you're suppose to lay out flat but keep your arm elevated okay?" AJ slides Carly all the way to the floor stuffing a towel under her feet to raise them slightly and covers her with the blanket. He takes over putting the pressure on her arm raising it over her body. He brushes Carly's hair back from her face. "Why Carly? Why now? Why like this?"
"They're disgusting. I just wanted them out. IF they were out then it would all be over... Ferncliffe would be over. I'd have my life back. Just wanted Ferncliffe to be over." Carly starts rambling. "Don't let them send me back, AJ." Carly pleads. "I wasn't trying to hurt myself; I wouldn't do that. Don't tell Mama, okay AJ?"
"Shh Baby, it'll be okay. I won't let them take you anywhere. You'll be fine." AJ seeks to reassure Carly even while muttering under his breath. "Hurry up, Dad." After what seems like an eternity, he hears the front door slam.
"AJ?!" Alan calls out from the entryway.
"Thank goodness. DAD-- WE'RE UP HERE!" AJ calls out. Alan follows the voice upstairs.
"OH JESUS!" Alan exclaims taking in the scene-- all the blood, Carly on the floor, AJ applying the pressure to the wound that was even now soaking through the towel.
"My thoughts exactly." AJ says relieved that a pro has arrived.
"We have to get her to the hospital." Alan demands.
"NO. I won't go; I won't go; I won't go." Carly becomes agitated. "They'll lock me up. It was an accident. Tell him it was an accident, AJ."
"It was an accident, Dad. She wasn't really trying to amputate her arm with a pocket knife." AJ snarls.
"AJ, step away." Alan declares kneeling next to Carly dropping his bag by her side. Alan quickly gloves up. AJ steps away reluctantly, withdrawing only as far as the doorway. Alan starts unwrapping the makeshift bandage.
"It wasn't spurting." AJ says nervously "There is an artery there, right?"
"Brachial." Alan confirms. "But that's deep, deeper than these cuts. That it wasn't spurting is good news. Course that still leaves veins and just nasty old cuts." Alan takes in the three cuts in a fan shape all of them need stitches but only one of them appears troublesome. Alan looks around him and sees two matchstick sized bloody rods on the floor.
"I got two of them out." Carly rambles "but the third one wouldn't come out and then there was so much blood."
"Shh Honey. That's because it's encapsulated. It's one of the possible side effects that's why you're suppose to have a doctor take them out."
"Nobody told me 'bout that. Nobody asked me if I wanted them. Hate doctors." Carly realizes who she is talking to and reassuringly pats Alan on the arm. "But you're okay. I like you. You take the other one out."
Alan looks up at AJ. "What does she mean nobody asked her?"
"Ferncliffe. Evans did that to her." AJ says flatly. Alan looks horrified.
"Carly, I'll take it out if you want but you should go to the hospital for stitches; we can take it out there." Alan says kindly.
"No. Do it now." Carly demands. "It didn't happen-- none of it happened. As soon as it's gone then it's all gone. If you won't, then I will." Carly reaches for Alan's medical bag. "Just like Tony's bag. You have all the stuff in there."
"Damn it, Carly!" AJ hollars.
"Don't yell at me. Don't be mad at me. I didn't mean to." Carly starts to cry again. "I didn't mean to..."
"Shh Honey. Don't talk for a minute. Let me see what I'm doing okay?" Alan says soothingly. "Now this may sting a bit..." Alan sets to cleaning the wound with sure strokes. He assesses the cuts examining the deepest cut closely. As he daubs away the blood he can see the encapsulated rod. Biting his lip he makes a decision that seems to come out of nowhere and goes against his training. "I'm going to give you a shot, it's a local just so that your arm won't hurt. You trust me, don't you?" Alan asks.
"AJ trusts you." Carly affirms not quite answering the question.
"Do you want to watch me stitch you up?" Alan inquires as he draws the vial and needle and deadens the area.
"That's gross." Carly recoils, turning her head away.
"And you wanted to be a nurse." Alan teases even as he surely excises the final norplant rod. He keeps Carly distracted as he continues to stitch her up.
"Never wanted to be a nurse. Wanted to know Bobbie. Blood's not too bad but I really hate pus. Pus is disgusting." Carly rambles.
"Pus happens. I once contemplated getting that on a bumper sticker." Alan teases again then grows serious. "Especially when the body meets unsanitary objects like pocket knives and bathroom floors. You're going to have to be very careful about taking care of this and taking your antibiotics so that you don't get infected. If it gets infected you WILL have to go to the hospital." Alan threatens. Alan quickly finishes up the stitches. "Well you're going to have some scars there but not too bad all in all if I say so myself." Alan dresses the wound with sterile gauze. "There all done. Now how about we get you into bed?"
"kay. I'm tired." Carly agrees. She starts to sit up. Alan wraps an arm around her shoulders and uses her good arm to assist her in standing. Carly is a little unsteady on her feet. "Wow. I haven't felt this loopy since Michael was conceived." She winks at AJ.
"Gees Carly." AJ flushes at his father hearing about their drunken sex.
"Well we'll have to talk birth control measures when you aren't feeling so... loopy. Carly, it's going to take your body awhile to get used to having the norplants out...." Alan realizes that Carly isn't listening and leaves the lecture for later. AJ finds a nightgown tucked under Carly's pillow. After leaving her sitting on the bed, Alan goes to clean up his gear in the bathroom while AJ gets Carly out of her clothes, into the nightgown and tucked into bed. Carly's eyes close as her head hits the pillow but AJ is reassured by the return of color to her features. He breathes a little easier. Alan comes out of the bathroom with another syringe.
"What's that?" AJ asks suspiciously.
"It's a broad spectrum antibiotic. I wasn't kidding about infection, son." Alan sits on the bed next to Carly and cleaning an area injects the shot. Carly whimpers in her sleep but doesn't wake. "Where can we talk?"
"Can we leave her?"
"You need to check on her throughout the night. I don't think that she actually went into shock she just scared herself with all the blood. Sleep is the best thing for her. Keep her warm and push fluids and nourishment for the next few days to get her blood back up. She didn't lose anymore that she would have if she had given blood but..."
"Yeah but. That comes up a lot with Carly."
"Lets go downstairs. I need to give you some directions and prescriptions to be filled in the morning. And I want to know what in the hell is going on." Alan and AJ go down to the kitchen. AJ pours them both a juice and sits down across from his father.
"Dad, anything I tell you has to be confidential. I could lose Carly if you tell anyone-- even Mom-- especially Mom."
"Carly's my patient now. I need to know what is going on in order to treat her. AJ, normal people don't cut on themselves."
"You think I don't know that? This is all my fault." AJ says morosely.
"Unless you were holding the blade I don't see how." Alan says kindly.
"I might as well have. I told Carly that Grandfather had an affadavit from Evans recommending that she be returned to Ferncliffe. I didn't know what a can of worms I was opening."
"I saw the news."
"Yeah, well the anonymous source is upstairs. She saw it all." AJ shakes his head. "Damn it. Carly seemed fine. She was focused on destroying Evans, destroying the affadavit. Hey everyone should have goals right? I thought that she was just being... Carly. But I didn't know what she'd seen, what had been done to her. I found out on the news too. And I made her tell me what had been done to her. I found out about those THINGS tonight. She hadn't said a word to anyone. Carly even wondered if Jason or Bobbie had approved of what had been done to her. So she didn't talk to them either-- she didn't want to know. I get her to talk about it and what happens... she carves the damn things out of her arm."
"AJ, you and I are both way out of our league on this one. She needs professional help."
"How can I ask her to see a shrink, when a shrink did it to her?" AJ wonders. "To put it mildly, Carly has some serious trust issues. Dad, she wouldn't be honest with a shrink. She'd tell them what they wanted to hear until they called her cured. And if the poor sucker mentioned the word *evaluation* or hinted around hospitalization, Carly would probably carve HIM up."
"What a mess." Alan understates. "Okay, your priority is her. I'll check with a someone I know and run a hypothetical by them. See if we can get some general advice until Carly is ready to make the next step."
"You think that this might be it? Any chance that now that Evans is destroyed and those things are out of her that it might all be over?" AJ asks wistfully
"AJ, whenever she sees those scars it's going to be a reminder of Ferncliffe and what she did to herself tonight. Now that it's out in the open... I don't know-- I just don't know. I have to think that it'll be better but I just have this gut feeling that it's going to be a rocky road... very rocky."