Ty ripped open the iodine swab and wiped it over the skin just above the kid’s collarbone. He scrubbed his hands and then the blade of the knife and then carefully cut an incision deep enough to reach the trachea and used his finger to open a hole.
He sensed more than heard Henry arrive next to him with the thick plastic straw. Ty cut it down, swabbed that too, for whatever good it would do, and carefully inserted the straw into the hole.
Pete’s chest inflated as his starved lungs got access to oxygen at last. The panic left his eyes. He raised both hands for the thumbs-up this time.
Thank God. “That’s good, Pete, nice job. Don’t try to move, okay? The EMTs are on their way.” He stood up and gestured. “Danny!”
Danny was pale and shaky, but he trotted over obediently, his gaze flicking back and forth between Ty and Pete. “He’ll be all right,” Ty said gently. “Can you—” He was about to reach for the phone, but then he realized he had Pete’s blood all over his hands. “Put it on Speaker?” He waited while Danny held the phone near his face. “Sixteen-year-old male with a tracheobronchial blunt force trauma, trachea is crushed above the C6 vertebra, possible spinal trauma but patient is presenting with no loss of movement. Currently stable after a tracheotomy.”
Danny pulled the phone back, took it off Speaker, and listened for a reply. “They say they’re ten minutes out.”
Ty felt sick. Ten minutes. Would he have made it?
“Great job, Danny. Uh.” Ty looked around. Pete’s dad wasn’t here today. Well, of course he wasn’t; he was at his makeshift courthouse, preparing his case against Ty’s continued existence in his life. “Is Pete’s mom here? Or grandparents or something?”
“No, Coach. Um, I think Coach Tate is calling them, though.”
Right, well, in that case they could meet him at the hospital, but—“Do you want to stay with him?”
Danny brightened. “Can I?”
“It’ll depend on the EMTs. Henry—uh, Coach Tate—probably has to go in the ambulance. You can see if there’s room for you too.”
For a second, Ty wondered if he’d guessed wrong. Danny looked back toward Pete with his mouth set and his brow furrowed. Then he glanced back at Ty, knelt next to Pete, and took his hand.
Yeah, that tracked.
Ty stayed with them, monitoring his patient until the paramedics arrived. Eliana looked from Pete to Ty and back again and said, “Jesus, Morris, what the hell happened?”
“Line drive to the throat.”
She whistled under her breath as her coworkers got Pete on a backboard. “Lucky you were here, then.” She clapped his shoulder. “We got it from here. Good luck today, yeah?” She paused and looked him over. “Uh, maybe change before you go.”
Was this thing still going to go forward? Chiu’s kid was going to be in the hospital.
But—yeah, he definitely needed to wash up. He was going to traumatize Theo if he kept getting covered in other people’s blood.
He tried to ignore the sounds of retching while he was washing his hands in the fieldhouse bathroom, staining the porcelain pink with Pete’s blood. It seemed only polite.
Then the umpire emerged from one of the stalls, skin green and waxy. He blanched further when he saw Ty was still cleaning up, and for a second, Ty thought he was going to barf again, but he rallied. “Uh.” He didn’t get any closer, though. “Think we’re gonna call the game.”
Oh, do you fucking think?Ty bit his tongue on that comment. “Good idea,” he said instead.
He couldn’t do much about the shirt. He really would have to go home and change. First, though, he needed to check on Theo and make sure he was all right. He jogged back to the dugout just in time to see the ambulance leave the parking lot.
Ty barely had time to thank Riley before Theo launched himself into his stomach and wrapped his arms around him. “Oof!” Oh jeez. “Careful, buddy, I’m kind of—dirty.” If Ollie saw Theo covered in blood he would have an aneurysm. This day had been traumatic enough.
“That was scary,” Theo said into Ty’s navel. “Is Pete gonna be okay?”
Fuck it. Ty needed a hug too. He wrapped his arms around Theo’s shoulders and gave him a squeeze. “He might have a little bit of trouble talking for a while, but he’ll be okay.”
Theo looked up without loosening his grip. “I’m glad you were here, Ty.”
Eyes stinging, Ty ruffled his hair. “Me too.”
A throat clearing interrupted their moment. “Uh, Coach.” Riley held up Ty’s phone, which he’d left on the bench. “This thing has been going like crazy.”
He unlocked it to six text messages and four missed calls from Ollie.
